Sweet corn, nearly every angler knows of or has used this bait but there was a time when not one angler used it or those that did kept it quiet, back in the good old days angling was a simple affair with anglers using only a small minority of the baits and methods that are available today now sweet corn comes in a variety of colours and flavours designed to target specific species of fish from natural tinned yellow to red, green, black, orange and brown all flavoured with there own specific fish targeting flavour like strawberry, tuti fruti, pellet, scopex, brazem and vanilla to name but a few, the original tinned supermarket variety is a firm favourite amongst anglers but there are many different grades of tinned corn and one has to be careful to get the right kind, natural corn is best with no added sugars or salts you may have to buy a few different kinds to find one that you are happy with, there are many ways to fish the corn, some prefer to liquidise a good amount and fish single grains upon the hook while others just feed a lower quality frozen corn in and fish a better grade of corn on the hook whichever you decide you are sure to catch your fair share of fish on this bait, fish straight on a wide gaped hook sizes 16 - 10 or multiple baits on a hair rig, if you want a bait that is a little different then flavour this bait with molasses, scopex, icing sugar or caramel and you can add many different colours as well with red and orange probably being the best alternatives.

Potato, this is a forgotten bait of years past but can still be devastating on the right day, all types of potato can be used in many combinations, powdered potato, natural raw potato, par boiled, mashed and all tinned variety's, this bait ha seen a bit of a revival of late with many commercial match anglers using it to catch carp using mashed potato as feed and punched potato or cubed potato on the hook once the fish have started to feed on this bait you can amass a huge weight with fish staying in your swim over the mashed potato for a long period without being fed much, tinned new potatoes have been a specimen fish bait ever since the great carp revolution in the early eighties they can be used straight from the tin copped, punched or whole, fish a whole new potato on a hair rig or chop and use straight on the hook using sizes 16 - 6, it is worth experimenting a bit with this bait to get it to work properly.

Peas, we have already covered the chick pea, maple pea and explained how it can be used and prepared (see seed bait section two)  but there are many other types of peas and beans that you can use straight from the supermarket and out of a tin including baked beans, butter beans, garden and other peas, haricot beans, broad beans, black eyed peas and many more, all will give you a reasonable success rate for catching big fish although some peas and beans are harder to fish than others due to their soft consistency, if you want to try a bait that is a little different then give them a go but you will usually have to feed a few in for an amount of time to maintain constant success, fish peas and beans over a mass particle bait such as hemp or wheat or feed them in slowly fishing a single bait on the hook.

Other vegetable baits, there are many other vegetable baits that the angler can use all delivering different degrees of success on their day but all will catch you fish if used correctly, baits such as carrots, parsnips, sweed, yam, sweet potato, artichoke, asparagus, mushroom, onion, and garlic can be used with a degree of confidence although they will not return amazing results at first they will catch you fish, these baits are not really a viable long term bait solution but it is always nice to find a bait or method which is a little different or to experiment with unusual things for your own satisfaction, anglers have often been in the situation where they may decide to go fishing the next morning without having purchased any bait and are a at a loss as to what is available to them at home or from the supermarket, corn is usually the bait that the majority of anglers will turn to for an immediate bait solution but all of the baits above can be used as an alternative, many of the baits in this group will have to be prepared first normally being peeled and par boiled to soften them slightly for use on the hook, you can flavour the bait or colour it depending on preference, all root vegetables should be boiled in a little sugar with good flavourings being black pepper, basil, oregano, tomato puree, garlic puree, mixed spice, curry powders, turmeric, soy sauce, red wine vinegar, Worcester sauce, meat flavours like oxo cubes and gravy powders, mashed carrot, mashed sweed, mashed parsnip, mashed potato, grated onion and garlic can all be fed using a pole pot and alternative baits such as fresh garden peas can be fished over the top, these vegetable baits are not baits that will replace any other bait such as maggot, caster, or worm but they all have their own specific quality and it is good to experiment with baits that you have not used before or baits that are a little out of the ordinary as this will teach you many things along the way.

Natural Herbs, I felt compelled to add this bit of information about different herbs primarily things that occur naturally in and around the water, weather you have realised it or not there are many naturally occurring herbs and fruits that grow in and around the water that give of a specific scent or form a vital part of the fishes natural diet during certain times of the year, it has always been a belief of mine that things occurring naturally around a specific water will influence the fishes pallet or educate the fish into taking a bait that appears to have been part of its natural diet for many years after all if nitrates and other chemicals can be transferred into water courses then why not bait scents, spillages or natural food wastages that have been left in the fields to rot such as strawberries or sugar beet giving the fish a specific leaning towards something sweet or fruity, why do fish respond effectively to strawberry in some waters and not in others ? and why will sweet flavours outscore others on some waters ? , so you can see where this train of thought began, I do not expect every angler to become a budding botanist overnight but if you spend an afternoon looking around your favourite venue I would bet that you could find several herbs or wild fruits occurring naturally like wild water mint, apple mint or water cress for instance and if you were to look around the fields surrounding the venue you may come across a field containing wheat, barley or corn !, it seems only natural to me that these substances must have some sort of bearing on the fishes natural diet , I will give you two examples, not far from where I live there is a docking area for large barges collecting and transporting mainly grain, the canal contains a good head of Chub and Roach with the odd Carp which anglers catch in large numbers on wheat, I recognise that the wheat is falling into the water from the barges most of the time when they are being loaded thus educating the fish to this bait, the second example is of a large still water where great numbers of strawberries are grown in the fields surrounding it and if you use this flavouring within your ground bait then the chances are you are on for the ton, so these examples only cement my theory that naturally occurring baits of flavours will outscore any other and should be identified by the angler where necessary.        Back To Top

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On this page vegetable baits including corn, potato, peas, natural herbs and other vegetable baits