Should we use artificial baits? Are they important?

Rob Hughes

"Yellow over hemp and corn"
“I’m primarily a boilie angler but will put a bit of the old fantastic on now and again. Enterprise pop-up corn in yellow is a particular favourite of mine, especially when fishing a mix of hemp and corn. I occasionally use a pink piece as a sighter when using a standard bottom bait, and also there are Zig Aligners which are deadly at all times of year. As for flavour, a mix of a fruit flavour and also some Sticky Sweet seems to do the trick very nicely thank you very much.”

Martin Locke

"I absolutely love them"
“‘Plastic Fantastic’ is here to stay and the results show why we carry them around with us. For the majority of my fishing, that being mostly the waiting game for the big fellas, I wouldn’t use fake baits alone as a hookbait. I have MASSIVE faith in my boilies but I will often use our 8mm Everlasting (plastic) Hookbaits with them, not so much as to ‘tip’ the boilie but more often I use them close to the hook to create better hooking efficiency with my rigs.

“On runs waters and match type venues where quick takes are occurring, I have no problem fishing a single 8mm Everlasting, it works brilliantly, especially when ‘nicked’ into a PVA bag.  

“We use Enterprise Tackle to produce our ‘Everlastings’ in various colours to match our bait range and working closely with them, we now have a material that absorbs flavours and attractors brilliantly. As a result, the thing I ALWAYS do is keep them in the same pots as my pop-ups so every possible hookbait choice and combination is sending out the maximum signals, giving me the best chance possible.

"In terms of colours and flavours, in my experience the White (Dairy Cream) and Yellow (Top Banana) have produced the most action. Maybe it’s a visual thing, but flavoured as well gives you the best of both worlds.”

Mat Woods

"I prefer fake over real!"
“Most of the time I would rather put a fake bait on than a real one! I always have my fake baits soaking in West Country Baits’ Sweetalin. I keep Avid HighLites and an assortment of fake corn, maggots and casters all together in a heavy dose of this sweet liquid. My favourite is good old yellow corn; it usually matches what I’m chucking in!”

James Armstrong

"To add an extra fleck"
“I rarely use fake baits, unless I have to – and by that I mean crayfish! However, I do like the thought of tipping my baits with a grain of plastic corn, especially if I use it in my mix. That extra fleck of colour might be just enough to tempt a bite. I do keep some fake bait in the bag and they’re soaking in Talin! You never know when you might need it.”

Pete Castle

"I hardly ever use them"
“A bit of an awkward question for me this one, as I don’t really use them, but I’ll try to me explain why. I used to travel a lot a few years ago, backwards and forwards to France fishing and reviewing various holiday venues. On one particular lake they used to regularly drain the lake and take out all the nuisance fish. This venue had banned plastic hookbaits as every fish found dead with a rig still in its mouth had plastic on the rig. They argued that even if a fish gets rid of the rig another can pick it up – and it certainly made me think.

“On top of that, plastic hookbaits are banned (for the same reason) on both the syndicates I’m currently a member of so I’ve got little chance of using them. I’m not saying I haven’t or wouldn’t use plastic hookbaits, but they are not a big part of my hookbait armoury.”