pike, perch,roach and bream

massey woman

Any ideas on the best bait to use to catch the above which are supposed to be in abundance
Caught a foot long Jack Pike on Sunday with a Voblex 12
Caught a biggish perch 15ozs with a meps 4 yesterday
Really slow biting and an odd fish rising
Its been a long time since I fished have the baits changed in the last 20 years
Have the young fish different tastes to the 80's mob
Tried several silver copper and coloured spoons with no luck
I know its not a science and there a black art to it but 2 fish in 5 days is not exciting
Where am I going wrong
Lake seems clean with zero pollution
No houses,septic tanks or slatted sheds(beef units) obvious,though there is some forestry
Lake about 100 acres i am reliably informed and 120 feet deep

tracker-man

i.ve caught loads of perch using mepps spinners size 2 or 3 and i'v caught lots using worms too.

coolwings

For the roach and bream you need small particle baits, and lots of free feed.
Maggots, or maybe sweetcorn tipped with small redworms, or maggot worm cocktail, fished on 12-16 size hooks, on top of a carpet of 5 -6 handfuls of free offerings, under a small float should do the job.

adonis

red maggots will get u what u want!

Degsy

Yep,maggots and lots of ground bait for roach and bream.Maggots will take perch too.

coolwings

Maggots will undoubtedly work, and attract the fish you are looking for.
However if you are near fast water maggots will tend to produce a significant number of deep hooked salmon and trout parr.
This will not make you popular with local club members......
In such (faster, shallower, typically weirpools) places I would stick with small worm, with or without bread/sweetcorn, and be more selective.
In the more usual coarse fishing stretches, this would not be an issue of course, and the maggots might produce a faster result, with less free feeding required to "get a swim going".

Another thing that would help would be to consider using a swimfeeder, as opposed to throwing or catapulting loose maggots out. A feeder will keep the groundbait in one place nicely.
With thrown/catapulted looose feed the distance, depth and flow tends to dispersethe bait quite a lot, and thus not concentrate the fish quite so well as a feeder.

Warhammer

i pole fish for bream.
I use the 4lb strain and 1.5 hook tie,and a line attached with the bait cage filled with groundbait and maggots.
On the main line with worms.
3 or 4lb of bream caught in no time.