Flavouring Hemp

[Ian Murfin]

I've never tried flavouring hemp but wondered what people's thoughts are on the topic. Is it worth the effort or is there no noticeable difference in performance? If you've had success, what flavours would you suggest trying?

Thanks

 

[David Craine]

My question would be…..


Why ?

You may just as well use some flavoured groundbait I would think…. Hemp is a known attractor, you could be doing a Korum Job on it , I.E trying to make an “improvement” that is not needed , and may in fact be a backward step. I suppose that it has been tried before but it cannot have been so successful as it would be well known about .

Do we add flavour to worms ? Well maybe somebody has done so in the past but I have no personal wish to enhance what is already a very good bait in its own right .


I will be interested to see what other views are made re subject..


David

 

[Ian Murfin]

I'm in the same camp as you David, I've never flavoured hemp figuring that it works well enough on it's own. BUT..... I have a freshly boiled pan of hemp and i just spotted a jar of garlic salt and it's winking at me, whispering 'give me a try' .

 

[Jim Brook]

Have a look on YouTube, Andy Orme using flavoured hemp on the Teme when he used to run the heaven fishery, could be, hunting for barbel? Or traditional baits? I’ve not tried it myself though, I wonder how many people use hemp in enough quantity now? For it to spook the fish as stated in the video for the need to flavour arise?

 

[Alan Palmer]

I agree why the need to flavour something that is jam packed with natural flavour, amino acids and oils….just end up masking it IMO

 

[Derek Funcks]

I have tried chilli hemp in the winter, no better results than the good old plain stuff.

 

[Neil Watson]

Why not try flavouring hemp, Anglers are aways tinkering with bait flavourings in order to catch more fish. Its like saying don't flavour pellets, boilies, cheese, bread, maggots etc because it makes no difference, when it does IMO. My catch rate wen up least year and I put it down to one thing flavouring my bait and that includes hemp.

It's personal choice and I will continue to experiment.

 

[Damian Kimmins]

Flavour it with hemp oil.

 

[Huanzhou Zhu]

To me, flavouring the bait is just like flavouring our food, we want to flavour the food because it smells better and tastes better, why not do the same to the fish? As long as you are not over flavouring the bait, they should work well.

 

[Dave Brooksbank]

Why not try flavouring hemp, Anglers are aways tinkering with bait flavourings in order to catch more fish. Its like saying don't flavour pellets, boilies, cheese, bread, maggots etc because it makes no difference, when it does IMO. My catch rate wen up least year and I put it down to one thing flavouring my bait and that includes hemp.

It's personal choice and I will continue to experiment.

Totally on board with experimenting Neil.
When Roach fishing for example I may add a few drops of liquid flavour to breadcrumb/groundbait/maggots to get a scent in the water.
Works wonders imo.
Coriander is tops for Roach.

 

[Terry Simner]

I reckon this thread has gone way off the OP (well, lost the plot really). The question posed was ... what was our thoughts on flavouring hemp, not "Is there any benefit to be gained in flavouring baits in general". I think we've all added flavours to our baits, groundbaits, etc, if only to increase our own confidence in our baits. But seeing as it is believed (by most?) that hemp isn't actually digested by barbel (it comes out the same as it went in) then it's possible (probable?) that it's the flavour (smell, whatever) that attracts the barbel/fish to it. And if that's the case, why should we be adding a different flavour to it.
It could be a case of 'gilding the lily'.
N.b.. I've heard it said that fish may mistake hemp to be water snails. I'm far from sure that's true, but I do believe that many different seeds that are fed can result in a frenzy of feeding, especially amongst small/medium sized shoal fish.

 

[Paul Richardson]

I'm going to continue to go off piste but along the nothing ventured... route.
I bought 2 pints of mediocre maggots ( been there a few days) on Saturday. Decided too hot on Saturday so waited until Sunday
Come Sunday Maggots were sweaty so on the spur of the moment , I went into the kitchen and randomly picked a jar of Chinese 5 spice to flavour the maggots as they stunk of ammonia, and for no other reason than we don't use it much compared to Indian style spices. Thats as technial as it got.
Arrived at the river lunchtime, temp had dropped and some cloud cover but still arguably the worst time to have a go?
But better than gardening & cleaning cars.
Didn't bother with my usual routine of getting 6-8 mini spoppers of freebies ( usually hemp/ caster or today maggots) and then leave the swim for as long as I can , feeding regularly
Plan was to float fish for a few hours but on arrival there was a crosswind that was pleasant but made float fishing a pain, so I got my tip rod out.
Didn't set up a keepnet for chub( too warm)
Just a duffers session on a nice day was my new objective.
First put in, whack tip flew round - barbel, and this continued for nigh on 5 hours
Big chub constantly amongst the barbel - five over 5lb to 5lb 14oz in the middle of the day. All being returned straight back into the river, and normally this kills things with big , wily chub alerting the shoal but not on Sunday.

But again fish in my river don't read the barbel books as theoretically the chub are the greedy sentinels that move onto bait with the barbel hanging back. Sunday was the other way around, with exception of bigger barbel that put in an appearence once the frenzy died down after all the maggots had been used and bites slowed right down when I switched to pellet.
I didn't count how many fish, more barbel than chub, but 25-30 maybe more? -literally a bite a cast.
Did flavouring the maggots make a difference? Who knows but for sure I'll use that flavour again as I can't recall fish being so willing to feed so consistently under such mediocre conditions.
But I also accept it could have simply been right place, right time and they had got wary of pellets and boilies?
I have no qualms flavouring hemp and sea salt/ garlic salt/ chilli salt - Don't carp lads swear by sea salt on particles??
Have a go, nothing ventured.........

 

[Gerry Giles]

Not tried it for long enough Barbel fishing HOWEVER !
after using tons of hemp Carp fishing all over Europe for many many years I used to take a couple of 10 kg sacks on a trip ( 2 to 4 weeks) and found cooking with chilli flakes ( pressure cookers )
seem to produce a lot less bream but it seemed the Carp loved it more than the natural and when I returned to Barbel fishing I just carried on using it the Barbel didnt seem to mind

but who knows ?
ONE THING birds dont seem to taste it at all ? as if you mix chilli powder with bird seed the birds eat it just like normal seed

BUT mr Squirrel goes barmy ! and wont come back

 

[Richard Isaacs]

I always just use hemp naturally and Unflavored. However I don’t think chilli flakes in hemp will have anthing but a positive impact on that bait for barbel. They absolutely love a bit heat in their food. If there is one thing I have total confidence in when using bait for barbel it’s spices. Indian, Mexican, Chinese… it doesn’t matter. Give em some heat, they love it.

 

[Julian Peacock]

I’ve tried chilli, salt and other things long since forgotten and none of them ever improved results.
Fresh is also best.

 

[Joe Winstanley]

A couple of anglers I've fished with have always added some bicarb of soda to their hemp during the cooking process. The rationale being that it darkens the husk, and that the alkalinity of the bicarb reacts with the oils released by the hemp to make them more water soluble and therefore putting out more attraction /smell into the water.

I've not found it has made a noticeable difference, but it certainly hasn't done any harm.

I do sometimes add a little hemp oil when stillwater fishing. The appearance of a flat spot in your swim is a really handy indicator that some fish are in the swim.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

A couple of anglers I've fished with have always added some bicarb of soda to their hemp during the cooking process. The rationale being that it darkens the husk, and that the alkalinity of the bicarb reacts with the oils released by the hemp to make them more water soluble and therefore putting out more attraction /smell into the water.

I've not found it has made a noticeable difference, but it certainly hasn't done any harm.

I do sometimes add a little hemp oil when stillwater fishing. The appearance of a flat spot in your swim is a really handy indicator that some fish are in the swim.

I do it.
All it does is etch the seed and put a nice shine to them. I wouldn’t say I’ve noticed them get darker but certainly it buffs them up.

 

[Keith Holloway]

I find Mitten Crabs are not overly keen on Garlic boilies/meat so on an upcoming trip to the Tidal Trent I'm going to put out a big spread of Garlic hemp and see what happens.....

 

[Mike Hodgkiss]

I am old enough to remember when Hemp was banned by many angling clubs and associations as it was believed that the fish became addicted to it ! Other clubs used to ban bloodworm and jokers as it gave those who could get them an unfair advantage in fishing matches. As anglers we are always seeking that magic bait or groundbait that the fish find irresistible . I was in the tackle shop the other day and there was literally dozens of different flavoured groundbaits , pellets , boilies plus lots of glugs and additives , do they all work ? I'm of the mind that if an angler believes a particular bait or additive gives them an edge then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy . I am no different from everyone else and think that certain baits can produce better results , ultimately though we never really know as there are so many other factors influencing whether the fish take our bait or are attracted by our groundbait ., I still swear by Garlic Spam , and I still have a bottle of glug called ' minging fish ' and it certainly does ming , but I still give it a try now and again . The only bait I have ever used that seemed to drive fish , particularly chub in to a feeding frenzy is wasp grub / wasp cake , hard to get hold of but they certainly seem to throw caution to the wind whenever I use it , don't recall ever catching a barbel on the grub though ...

 

[Vince Maddock]

I am old enough to remember when Hemp was banned by many angling clubs and associations as it was believed that the fish became addicted to it ! Other clubs used to ban bloodworm and jokers as it gave those who could get them an unfair advantage in fishing matches. As anglers we are always seeking that magic bait or groundbait that the fish find irresistible . I was in the tackle shop the other day and there was literally dozens of different flavoured groundbaits , pellets , boilies plus lots of glugs and additives , do they all work ? I'm of the mind that if an angler believes a particular bait or additive gives them an edge then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy . I am no different from everyone else and think that certain baits can produce better results , ultimately though we never really know as there are so many other factors influencing whether the fish take our bait or are attracted by our groundbait ., I still swear by Garlic Spam , and I still have a bottle of glug called ' minging fish ' and it certainly does ming , but I still give it a try now and again . The only bait I have ever used that seemed to drive fish , particularly chub in to a feeding frenzy was wasp grub / wasp cake , hard to get hold of but they certainly seem to throw caution to the wind whenever I use it , never caught a barbel on it though ....

I remember being desperate to get my hands on some wasp grub in the early 1980's, never did.