my five favourite baits
please click on the name of the fish below for a brief description and photo.
of course there are many, many more baits that you could use and all will work on any given day. i've tried to simplify it by naming the five that work best for me and that are the most consistent. many things have to be taken into account however. if a mackerel is heavily fished and producing pike after pike, you will find that mackerel suddenly isn't such a tempting meal anymore! they are not stupid, and they will associate an unpleasant experience with that particular piece of food and stay away from it for a while. natural bait (roach, perch or any other fish in your local water) usually work 99 times out of a hundred. try anything and everything you can get your hands on or afford, but never give up! if the pike are out there, the one thing you can guarantee is they WILL want to feed sooner than later and you stand more chance of catching if you offer something new to them or something not often used.