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Fish on fruit..

David Craine

David Craine

Senior Member & Supporter
Did anybody watch "Countryfile "this evening,I switched the TV on after it had started, and was suprised to see a piece about a guy who films freshwater river fish , by either swimming with them or leaving a static underwater camera to film whatever comes along.
It was fascinating to watch really good footage of Chub feasting on Blackberries that were falling from riverbank bushes into the water, the Chub also were also eating fallen Elderberries, as well, I only managed to see a minute or so of the piece as I had to answer the phone, when I returned it had finished.

I have read of Chub eating Elderberries, but had no idea that they activley searched out any fruits that happened to fall into the water, although I suppose I shouldnt be suprised .

Would Barbel respond to such baits I wonder ?

Dave
 
I've not heard of barbel being caught on actual fruit but, as well as chub, I know roach do. Fruit flavoured boilies catch carp (obviously) and barbel, and cherries are a popular (chub?) bait in mainland Europe.
I suppose with fish being opportunists then they'll eat anything that edible if there's a safe ready supply of it.
I'd have thought its not the easiest way of catch barbel though..that is, although I've caught pike on luncheon meat, and on bread, I wouldn't fish for them using a spam sandwich as bait :)
 
Chub do like cherries, and all sorts of fish love elderberries, but that is in the main because they are opportunist feeders, and will take anything that is edible...and readily available. However, the flavours used in bait are another ball game, they are synthetic...and quite different. Banana flavour does well, particularly with bream, and pineapple flavour with bream, roach and others. However, it's not because they taste similar to the fruit they represent, it's because they contain esters, and fish love certain esters.

Artificial baits, aka 'plastic fantastic' are another example of fish liking synthetic esters. Take the artificial corn variety as an example. Most fish love natural sweetcorn, so many anglers assume that the carp mistake the plastic as real corn. That may possibly be so, on odd occasions during the day...but that natural mistake on the fishes part could not explain why they seek out and take plastic corn avidly on the darkest of nights, when even their enhanced underwater vision could not possibly locate them that way. The answer is simply that like the majority of their food, these baits are located by smell...and plastic baits contain esters, because that compound is used by the manufacturers as a plasticizer.

As we all know, essential oils of many kinds attract fish...and one of the main components of essential oil is...esters. My point is, fish do take certain fruits avidly, where they are dropping of trees/bushes in a steady stream...as I say, many fish are opportunistic feeders, and can't resist a regular free meal. However, though carp for instance will actively hunt out strawberry flavoured boilies, you would (in general) have a long wait if you put an actual strawberry on the hair. The two things are barely related. So, I wouldn't bother going down the natural fruit as bait journey IN GENERAL. It can work, but not regularly enough to make it a viable option, especially in a static bait situation. In my opinion.

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Chub do like cherries, and all sorts of fish love elderberries, but that is in the main because they are opportunist feeders, and will take anything that is edible...and readily available. However, the flavours used in bait are another ball game, they are synthetic...and quite different. Banana flavour does well, particularly with bream, and pineapple flavour with bream, roach and others. However, it's not because they taste similar to the fruit they represent, it's because they contain esters, and fish love certain esters.

Artificial baits, aka 'plastic fantastic' are another example of fish liking synthetic esters. Take the artificial corn variety as an example. Most fish love natural sweetcorn, so many anglers assume that the carp mistake the plastic as real corn. That may possibly be so, on odd occasions during the day...but that natural mistake on the fishes part could not explain why they seek out and take plastic corn avidly on the darkest of nights, when even their enhanced underwater vision could not possibly locate them that way. The answer is simply that like the majority of their food, these baits are located by smell...and plastic baits contain esters, because that compound is used by the manufacturers as a plasticizer.

As we all know, essential oils of many kinds attract fish...and one of the main components of essential oil is...esters. My point is, fish do take certain fruits avidly, where they are dropping of trees/bushes in a steady stream...as I say, many fish are opportunistic feeders, and can't resist a regular free meal. However, though carp for instance will actively hunt out strawberry flavoured boilies, you would (in general) have a long wait if you put an actual strawberry on the hair. The two things are barely related. So, I wouldn't bother going down the natural fruit as bait journey IN GENERAL. It can work, but not regularly enough to make it a viable option, especially in a static bait situation. In my opinion.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

Erm, excuse me Mr Gauntlett :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgSTQnxZM0g
 
remember watching a matt hayes program fishing in italy where he caught some nice carp on whole strawberrys.
Andy
 
My koi used to love an orange cut into 4 segments and also half a lettuce!
Thinking back, they probably had a healthier diet than your's truly!
Captive fish are likely to offer a skewed impression of food preferences though.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Chub do like cherries, and all sorts of fish love elderberries, but that is in the main because they are opportunist feeders, and will take anything that is edible...and readily available. However, the flavours used in bait are another ball game, they are synthetic...and quite different. Banana flavour does well, particularly with bream, and pineapple flavour with bream, roach and others. However, it's not because they taste similar to the fruit they represent, it's because they contain esters, and fish love certain esters.

Artificial baits, aka 'plastic fantastic' are another example of fish liking synthetic esters. Take the artificial corn variety as an example. Most fish love natural sweetcorn, so many anglers assume that the carp mistake the plastic as real corn. That may possibly be so, on odd occasions during the day...but that natural mistake on the fishes part could not explain why they seek out and take plastic corn avidly on the darkest of nights, when even their enhanced underwater vision could not possibly locate them that way. The answer is simply that like the majority of their food, these baits are located by smell...and plastic baits contain esters, because that compound is used by the manufacturers as a plasticizer.

As we all know, essential oils of many kinds attract fish...and one of the main components of essential oil is...esters. My point is, fish do take certain fruits avidly, where they are dropping of trees/bushes in a steady stream...as I say, many fish are opportunistic feeders, and can't resist a regular free meal. However, though carp for instance will actively hunt out strawberry flavoured boilies, you would (in general) have a long wait if you put an actual strawberry on the hair. The two things are barely related. So, I wouldn't bother going down the natural fruit as bait journey IN GENERAL. It can work, but not regularly enough to make it a viable option, especially in a static bait situation. In my opinion.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

This might be a tangent, but I'll ask it here because you seem to be the man with the nutritional knowledge... can fish be more attracted to fruits and veg that have started to ferment?

I ask this because when the corn has been opened a week or more, and perhaps been on a couple of trips to the river and back, it seems to drive the chub crazy - never had such violent knocks on a feeder as when pungent fermenting corn has been really compacted into it, or on a hair as when chub are trying to get corn off it.**

Slightly fermenting hemp also seems to be a major attractant and I've experimented successfully with it as an additive to cheesepaste.

**Incidentally, on another tangent, I've stopped seeing the need for artificial corn as fish seem to have a devil of a time getting multiple grains of real corn off a hair if it's threaded right, and on occasions they just seem to grab at it with increasing ferocity until they hook themselves on a hook that's completely or partially covered by another grain. And it does seem to stay on for multiple casts over a long period.
 
A friend of mine tried a gooseberry for bait while barbel fishing on the Cherwell a good few years ago. He hooked a fish and as I went to him with the net the line parted. Later he caught a medium sized barbel with his hook in it, so that was one fish with a liking for fresh fruit!
 
I always keep an eye out for berries and seeds that are around the waters that i fish. This is all natural food that falls into the water. I have caught Chub, Carp and Roach with these.
But no Barbel.
I too remember Matt Hayes trying all sorts of fruit to catch Carp. Turned out strawberries won the day. Lately, TAF was fishing for Carp with Jelly babies and other sweets. Although not natural it makes you think what fish are attracted to.
 
Graham Shaw said:
This might be a tangent, but I'll ask it here because you seem to be the man with the nutritional knowledge... can fish be more attracted to fruits and veg that have started to ferment?

I ask this because when the corn has been opened a week or more, and perhaps been on a couple of trips to the river and back, it seems to drive the chub crazy - never had such violent knocks on a feeder as when pungent fermenting corn has been really compacted into it, or on a hair as when chub are trying to get corn off it.**

Slightly fermenting hemp also seems to be a major attractant and I've experimented successfully with it as an additive to cheesepaste.

**Incidentally, on another tangent, I've stopped seeing the need for artificial corn as fish seem to have a devil of a time getting multiple grains of real corn off a hair if it's threaded right, and on occasions they just seem to grab at it with increasing ferocity until they hook themselves on a hook that's completely or partially covered by another grain. And it does seem to stay on for multiple casts over a long period.
Click to expand...

No Graham, a nutritional expert I certainly am not. You pick bits up along the way, especially if you play with bait a bit, but expert....no way :D

However, at the risk of sounding repetitive, guess what (amongst other things) is produced during the fermentation process? Yep...esters. One of the main flavour imparting compounds in beer production is ethyl acetate, which is an ester. So, though there are two very differing schools of thought amongst anglers on whether fermenting seeds and pulses etc. is a benefit or not for bait purposes, it is a fact that esters are produced during that process, and....fish like (some at least) of those esters.

Incidentally, that ester I mentioned earlier, ethyl acetate, has a sweet yet tangy flavour and smells very much like the old fashioned peardrop boiled sweets we used to get. It is in fact the basic ester used for many other fruit flavours, and is used as a solvent in the bait industry for other flavour extracting purposes.

Back on the yes/no question about fermenting particles, I have done well using fermented hemp, tiger nuts, maple peas and a number of other such bait items, but there are as many ideas on that subject as there are anglers, so you may open a huge debate with that one.

As I say, I am no expert. There are anglers on this forum with far more knowledge about bait (boilies in particular) than I will ever have....I just dabble on the fringe, with very little scientific knowhow. I like trying different boilie ingredients, but once these guys start talking about 'The amino acid profile', and FLAA of a bait, I am outa there :D:D:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Earlier this season i caught a lot of barbel on elderberries they were pushing fish out of the way to get there first,taking them on the drop.They chased them more aggressively than pellets
 
Graham Young said:
Have a look about 17/18 minutes in :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioI0EiDoFH8
Click to expand...

I know Graham, but I took pains to emphasize the words IN GENERAL, and even Matt says it's a first for him. Carp ARE opportunist feeders, and they are incorrigibly curious about whatever they come across, so the will suck in and blow out almost anything (including stones) to see if it's edible. Occasional catches on fruit can be down to anglers with an effective rig taking advantage of that curiosity and the fishes suck/blow method of testing unknown objects.

Frequent catches are different, usually down to a readily available source of the fruit, be that from overhead trees, or fruit growing in fields on the banks perhaps? On the other hand, all plants do have naturally occurring esters, so who knows :p I have seen carp repeatedly sucking in petals from red bankside plants, and then ejecting them, and thought 'if that had a hook in it'....but couldn't be arsed to try it :D. Anyway, who knows why a critter with a brain half the size of that of a chicken will do anything :D

How about this...I will fish alongside you on a carp lake with strawberry flavoured boilies, while you use the actual fruit, with a bet being made on the result. Owzat? Of course you would have to pick me up, carry most of my gear, and bring me back....but I would enjoy it immensely, and to hell with the outcome :D:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Earlier this season i caught a lot of barbel on elderberries they were pushing fish out of the way to get there first,taking them on the drop.They chased them more aggressively than pellets
Click to expand...

I reckon I know where that was, possibly even the swim :)
 
Yep that swim, number 1 in the draw, i thought i might be able to single out the big roach ,fat chance.The Barbel were like sharks in a blood trail.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Chub do like cherries, and all sorts of fish love elderberries, but that is in the main because they are opportunist feeders, and will take anything that is edible...and readily available. However, the flavours used in bait are another ball game, they are synthetic...and quite different. Banana flavour does well, particularly with bream, and pineapple flavour with bream, roach and others. However, it's not because they taste similar to the fruit they represent, it's because they contain esters, and fish love certain esters.

Artificial baits, aka 'plastic fantastic' are another example of fish liking synthetic esters. Take the artificial corn variety as an example. Most fish love natural sweetcorn, so many anglers assume that the carp mistake the plastic as real corn. That may possibly be so, on odd occasions during the day...but that natural mistake on the fishes part could not explain why they seek out and take plastic corn avidly on the darkest of nights, when even their enhanced underwater vision could not possibly locate them that way. The answer is simply that like the majority of their food, these baits are located by smell...and plastic baits contain esters, because that compound is used by the manufacturers as a plasticizer.

As we all know, essential oils of many kinds attract fish...and one of the main components of essential oil is...esters. My point is, fish do take certain fruits avidly, where they are dropping of trees/bushes in a steady stream...as I say, many fish are opportunistic feeders, and can't resist a regular free meal. However, though carp for instance will actively hunt out strawberry flavoured boilies, you would (in general) have a long wait if you put an actual strawberry on the hair. The two things are barely related. So, I wouldn't bother going down the natural fruit as bait journey IN GENERAL. It can work, but not regularly enough to make it a viable option, especially in a static bait situation. In my opinion.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...


Iv had carp take a hair rigged strawberry in the margins before Iv had chance to put the rod down on the rest
 
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