Washed-out bait, straight-out-the-bag or glugged?

Washed-out baits: Steve Lilly

“With so many anglers on the bank these days and lots of frozen or shelf-life bait straight-out-of-the-bag being introduced into the water, I am always looking for an extra edge or something that is different and washed-out baits give me that. My time is limited at the moment to a couple of overnighters a week: one session is on Saturday (the busiest night) and one in the week.

“I believe the reason why fish suddenly start to show over bait a couple of days after it has been introduced is that they now feel the bait is safe to feed on. I want to replicate that scenario the moment my free offerings are introduced so I wash my baits out 24hrs before I go fishing to create this situation from the off.

“I like to add a little twist to my washed-out bait, and along with lake water I mix in some Aqua Stim from Richworth. I then have my bait taking on added attraction while washing-out and this is making the bait work for me while I am not actually fishing. I like to fish with washed-out baits as a bottom bait or I use a Richworth White Chocolate pop-up which isn’t too blatant.

“The times that I would use a glugged bait is if I was fishing singles or casting at showing fish - it’s then that they really come into their own and produce the goods.”

Straight-out-the-bag: Martin Locke

“Does the fact that bait has been washed-out prior to fishing make it more attractive? In my opinion, no! There are other reasons as to why washed-out baits become attractive. Of course, baits that have been in the water for several days are obviously in a washed-out state and in my experiences, which are mainly on Rainbow for weeklong sessions, the action starts after about three days and picks up even more towards the end of the week. Though anglers have tried starting off using baits washed-out in lake water for several days before their session begins, it doesn’t seem to do any better than using baits fresh out the bag… it still takes a few days to kick off!

“Whilst I don’t think carp are super intelligent, we all know that they are not totally stupid. The longer the area sits there undisturbed, coupled with the amount of ‘traffic’ passing over it, all adds to their confidence until greed gets the better of them and they have a feed. Yes, boilies get washed-out but what about the particles? Do tigers or brazils wash-out? No, yet they still seem more effective after time left in. For me, this reason has to be down to more where the bait has been placed and left in the water rather than actually the fact it has become washed-out in colour due to being left.”

Glugged baits: Terry Hofgartner

“To me, glugged hookbaits are just another part of my armoury as a carp angler, another trick up my sleeve when in the pursuit of carp. I’m not sure there is a worthy argument here between glugged or not. As far as I’m concerned, it’s horses for courses and along with every other little trick or edge we have up our sleeves, there is a time and a place. In my eyes to glug a hookbait is to make the hookbait stand out either amongst other freebies or as a single hookbait. An example of this would be when I’m fishing a prolific water with high stocking levels or over big beds of bait or even when I’m fishing a swim that quite possibly already has a lot of bait already in it. The glug I would use in this situation and the one I have found to be the most productive is the Haith’s Robin Red from Dynamite.

“Though having said this, when fishing low stock waters the last thing I want to do is make my hookbait stand out. In fact, I want to achieve the complete opposite and make my hookbait blend in with the surroundings and free offerings so as not to alarm a big old wary carp that’s spent its whole life on edge and on the lookout for rigs. To take this one step further, in this situation I would wash my baits out. So, as you can see, at times I think glugged baits are the way forward but then again not always so.”