John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
July 2nd 2010
A New Addition to the Bait Shop
Over the past year or so, Matt, our site manager, and latterly yours truly, have been feeding the fish extensively in both Lily and Lobster on rolled wheat. You might have seen us at it. We take probably twenty or thirty pounds of the stuff in buckets, wet it liberally, press it into balls and simply throw it in. The tench, carp and swans go absolutely bonkers for the stuff. In fact, it's very frequent on Lobster to see it absolutely exploding with bubbles just twenty or thirty minutes after a bait bombing has just finished.
So popular is rolled wheat with our fish here, and so used they are to it, that we are deciding shortly to sell it five pound bags for you. It's going to be cheap - just about what it costs us and I guess it could prove a fantastic bait for you. Perhaps you might want to flavour it or mix it with a more upmarket brand but it certainly worth considering as a base.
I reckon if you get two five pound bags, lace them with maggots and corn and perhaps some pellets or flavours and you'll have a real bait for the day at not much over a quid.
Final tips. Mix it quite wet and then press it into a ball. You'll find it explodes on impact and the grains drift down enticingly. You can often press some semi-dried grains onto the hook as a hook bait.
You might have to stop if you are fishing shallow and the swans move in. However, once they've gone, you can guarantee that the carp will simply flood into your swim. I think that they're looking for the rest of the rolled wheat but also seeing what the swans have dislodged in the weed.