The choice of bait is endless but it’s important to match the size of bait with your hook and line strength. It’s no good fishing with large baits to catch a 20lb Carp on a size 20 hook and 1lb line; equally there is no point putting a maggot on a large hook with 10lb line.
If you are using maggots and catching a lot of small roach and the occasion large roach then by changing the bait on the hook to sweetcorn you will find that you get less bites but when you do get a bite it will be a larger roach.
Experiment with different baits but remember to try to hide the hook as much as possible unless hair rigging the bait.
List of Popular Baits
| Worm | Cheese | Pellet |
| Maggot | Bread | Boilie |
| Caster | Sweetcorn | Hemp |
| Pinkie | Luncheon Meat | Tare |
| Squat | Ground Bait | Paste |
Bait Application
How we apply bait to the swim is the most important aspect of angling in my opinion. If you put too much bait in at the start then you might over feed the fish; they get full and no longer want to feed. If you don’t put enough bait in to the swim then you will struggle to keep the fish in front of you.
For smaller fish it is important to adopt a little and often approach (4-6 Maggots once a minute), this will keep the fish searching longer. By introducing pellets and/or ground bait then the swim will build with bigger fish moving in as time goes on.