Sardines - yay or nay?

I've seen a few people that really rate them as a top pike bait.

Anyone agree? Anyone put them well down the list?

Where's the best place to get them cheaply and how much do you pay?

Cheers!

It's Patch's No1 bait for the pike and I've seen his 19lb+ from the river fall to it amongst others over 15lb.

I've not got much on them but then I much prefer mackerel as they last more than 1 cast!

I'll be using them this year though, I feel they may hold the secret to unlocking the 15lb door for me.

Tesco/Morrisons is my bait shop for sardines and marine deads.

Wait for them to appear in the whoops aisle and get em cheap

Morrisons on dewsbury road brassy about 2.50 a killo allways plenty in and same with sprats

love them the thing that puts people off is there soft flesh which make them difficult to hook and keep on the hook. They are a very oily fish with plenty of natural attractants. A way to overcome their poor hookability freeze them and carry them i do it like this i give them a wipe with fish oil then wrap then in clingfilm this way there not all stuck together



They will cast well like this and soften when immersed in water had 100s of fish on them

Hi


Got to agree - my favourite bait.


I will be trying a couple of other baits this year but sardine will remain my A bait ............or is it lamprey


Healdy

sardines i wont fish without them when im bait fishing

Brassy


apologies for a blatant thread hijack - hope you don't mind.

It seems that sardines are pretty popular - i know others swear by trout, i am pretty excited about lamprey - what about other baits I am thinking of stocking up with small mackerel - they are cheap and oily and what about coarse baits??

Healdy

I think smelt are the dogs knackers. The big ones you get 3 to a packet.

Its them and lamprey for me as my current favourites, but lamprey is easily number 1 on rivers for me.

I must say My No one has always been Smelt I always have a pack in the freezer they remains fairly durable and can be cast well, A good hook hold can be gained by inserting one of the trebles into the tail root. But hooked head up they can be used as wobbled dead bait and i must say there spot on for that.


Stottys No1 Smelt....

Got to agree with Mr Stott on that,smelt is a fantastic bait, can sometime produce immidiate results (literally).
The good old roach or dace have done well on the river for me too.
What works one day may be totally ignored the next...thats fishing.

I need to try smelt again - I used them whilst fishing all the wrong places last year so lost confidence.

Plus they're never in the Tesco/Morrisons whoops aisle

They're pretty durable,and as said,can take a few casts,and even one or two manglings from a pike. Bait flags are usefull with these,as are on most pike baits to be fair.
http://www.baitsdirect.com/acatalog/baits_pike_bd.html

Top 5 Baits

1) Trout (especially Golden)
2) Lamprey
3) Maks
4) Sardine
5) Smelt/Roach (its a toss up really)

Mackerel heads/tails are my first choice then Joeys or mini mackerel. I've had little if any success with Trout. Smelts are a great standby bait. Sardines are a good bait but I loose too many on the cast. lol.

i love to use them,
Also dont forget sand Eels.... a good bait aswell

NIDGE MAC wrote:i love to use them,
Also dont forget sand Eels.... a good bait aswell

Never tried Sand Eels Nidge, are they really worth a go?

longshot wrote:

NIDGE MAC wrote:i love to use them,
Also dont forget sand Eels.... a good bait aswell

Never tried Sand Eels Nidge, are they really worth a go?

Its a funny one that i have used them a few times and never had a thing on them (pike wise) now sea fishing that's a different story.

Trout a great baits, they are tuff as old boats so you can cast them miles, they are actually very oily for a freshwater fish and they are easy to pop up, top bait

longshot wrote:

NIDGE MAC wrote:i love to use them,
Also dont forget sand Eels.... a good bait aswell

Never tried Sand Eels Nidge, are they really worth a go?

It just so happens ken, i got that info off a bloke thats caught many a big pike....

i love sardines and unless they are frozen solid i don't fish too far out with them
smelt are excellent although it took a while for me to gain confidence in them
try anchovies. a really good bait imo. they are like a sardine but slightly smaller.
i did well on lamprey and even had upto 3 fish on the same bait but the price really started putting me off when other baits started to produce fish after experimenting.
pollen is another good bait. they are quite tuff and can be cast far.
i'll be getting stocked up on the sea baits from the fish market and then buy others from the tackle shop as i need em. one thing i always try n do is have a good selection as some days a certian bait will by far out fish another that was doing the buisness on the previous session

mark wrote: i love sardines and unless they are frozen solid i don't fish too far out with them
smelt are excellent although it took a while for me to gain confidence in them
try anchovies. a really good bait imo. they are like a sardine but slightly smaller.
i did well on lamprey and even had upto 3 fish on the same bait but the price really started putting me off when other baits started to produce fish after experimenting.
pollen is another good bait. they are quite tuff and can be cast far.
i'll be getting stocked up on the sea baits from the fish market and then buy others from the tackle shop as i need em. one thing i always try n do is have a good selection as some days a certian bait will by far out fish another that was doing the buisness on the previous session

I 2nd I normally take two or 3 baits with me

Woodchucker wrote:Trout a great baits, they are tuff as old boats so you can cast them miles, they are actually very oily for a freshwater fish and they are easy to pop up, top bait

agree, fished that trout all day on saturday and it was still seeping oil, back in the freezer and i'll use it again!

i also like roach but haven't done a huge amount of deadbaiting myself and the main venue i fished didn't respond to sea deads

mark wrote:
pollen is another good bait. they are quite tuff and can be cast far.
i'll be getting stocked up on the sea baits from the fish market and then buy others from the tackle shop as i need em. one thing i always try n do is have a good selection as some days a certian bait will by far out fish another that was doing the buisness on the previous session

Is Pollan the one that pops up naturally?

i have dabbled with all of the mentioned baits and would usually try some thing different on one rod, but the other 2 will usually always have trout and lampray on. like my maks aswell and usually have some sardines lying around if for no other reason than there dead cheap and easy to get hold of, not had any great success on them but its healdys fav and i've seen the damage he can do with them.

edbeef wrote:

mark wrote:
pollen is another good bait. they are quite tuff and can be cast far.
i'll be getting stocked up on the sea baits from the fish market and then buy others from the tackle shop as i need em. one thing i always try n do is have a good selection as some days a certian bait will by far out fish another that was doing the buisness on the previous session

Is Pollan the one that pops up naturally?

so they say but i've yet to find one that does