Bread is a bait that is as old as fishing itself and it is still just as effective today as it was when your grate granddad was baiting his hooks with it. It is readily available in many different shapes sizes and colours but for the fisherman plain white bread, either sliced or un-sliced, is king and the fresher the better.
Bread can be used to target virtually any species of fish of all sizes, from small roach on punched pellets of bread to monster carp on golf ball sized lumps of crust. It can be used in a variety of ways but perhaps the three most commonly used are as flake, crust and punch.
Flake
Bread flake is the soft fluffy white interior of the loaf of bread that when hooked correctly sinks in a slow and enticing manner that attracts a number of species of fish. Choose your hook size to match the size of bait you are intending to use. To hook your flake simply tear a piece out of the middle of a slice of fresh bread, lay the hook shank on it and fold the bread over the shank ensuring the point is clear before lightly squeezing it onto the shank leaving a soft fluffy looking hook bait. Because of the fear of the bait coming off the hook a common mistake is to squeeze the bread on too firmly resulting in a doughy blob of bread on the hook that doesn’t look appealing and is too hard to strike the hook through. Flake is meant to be soft and fluffy and should come off the hook every time you strike or wind in. If it doesn’t you are squeezing it on too firmly.
Crust
The crust of a loaf is a very buoyant bait that is devastating for surface feeding fish like carp, chub and rudd. For all but very small pieces of crust an un-sliced loaf is definitely best. Again choose your hook size to match the size of crust you are using but in most cases opt for large wide gape hooks from a size 6 up to a size 2. To hook the crust simply tear off a piece of crust push the point of the hook into and thread it through the crust, being careful not to split it. Bread crust softens very quickly in water so it doesn’t matter if the point is hidden because it will easily strike through the bait.
As well as being fished on the surface bread crust can be suspended at any distance from the bottom simply by legering it with the required length hook length. This is a particularly effective technique for big river chub or carp on stillwaters.
Punch
Bread punch is simply a small compressed pellet of bread that is punched out of a slice of bread with a purpose built bread punch and is a deadly bait for winter roach. The key to producing a good punch hook bait is the tool you use. It should have a sharp brass cutting head with a slot in it to enable you to get the hook into the bait, many tackle companies make good bread punches with a range of different sized heads to produce different sized pellets of bread. To use simply place a slice of bread on a hard flat surface and push the punch into it with a twisting movement to ensure a clean cut. You will then have a pellet of bread lodged in the head of the bread punch. To transfer it onto the hook simply push the point of the hook through the slot and into the bread. Again choose your hook size to match the size of the pellet of bread you are using with sizes 22 to 18 being the most commonly used and remember the pellet will swell to at least twice its size when in the water.
Bread as Feed
The two most common ways of feeding bread into the swim are as mashed bread or liquidized bread. To make mashed bread simply put some stale bread into a bucket, add water and mash it up with your hands after it has soaked for a few minutes. It gives a milky white mush with some lumps in it that is particularly effective when chub fishing on rivers. To make liquidized bread simply add slices of bread to a liquidizer and switch it on. The longer you liquidize it the finer the crumb that is produced so for big fish leave the crusts on and just give it a quick blitz but for a super fine crumb for punch fishing for roach on a canal tear the crusts off first and give it at least a minute in the blender. Liquidized bread is particularly effective in an open end feeder when river fishing for big roach and chub as well as being an ideal partner for punch fishing for roach. You can also add little extra's to your liquidized bread such as hemp, tare, corn even small bits of meat.
