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Salt

Chris Bracey

Chris Bracey

Senior Member
Read an article (couple of years old or so) yesterday about the attempts to increase the need of urge to feed in barbel (and prob other fish) in colder/winter weather.

One suggestion of adding rock salt to your bait - now i searched and found the old thread about adding rock salt to cure boilies etc - i have also been in the talk given on this by Dave Mason.

The part of the article that I struggled with a bit was the suggestion of not only adding salt to bait but to add a solid pva bag of rock salt to the feeder/lead when casting out. :confused:

Any comments/views either-way gents?
 
i always add a tea spoon to 1 kg of ground bait, i use fine crushed maldon sea salt...lol
 
I had a very in depth conversation regards salt and baits with Dave a few seasons ago, what he said made a lot of sense.
 
I was under the impression that when the roads had been gritted (rock salt) and this washed into the rivers it put paid to any chances of catching at that time. Perhaps the speci boys are all out and catching when this happens!!
 
Dave Mason recommends adding salt, something to do with Barbel needing the salt as part of their diet, especially after spawning.
 
Anthony Pearson said:
I was under the impression that when the roads had been gritted (rock salt) and this washed into the rivers it put paid to any chances of catching at that time. Perhaps the speci boys are all out and catching when this happens!!
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Anthony - think that is possibly due to the water/run off generally being cold and also "extra" things are added to road salt (that are not good for fish - I read an article by Kevin Nash which went as far as to say it was possibly poisonous for them) and all other matters from the road being washed in???.

To make an obvious statement road salt is a different colour from rock salt so clearly must have some additive to it (can't see that they colour it just for the sake of it).

Think table salt also does not have the same effect as it has an additive that makes it "separate and pour/shake better??? :confused:)
 
Neil Smart said:
Dave Mason recommends adding salt, something to do with Barbel needing the salt as part of their diet, especially after spawning.
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Exactly what i had heard Neil but i also heard ???it stimulates their appetite especially in colder weather (winter into spring)???
 
I notice that Solar Tackle sell a salt and black pepper base mix additive...
 
We have been using salt in bait for years , luncheon meat , cheese, bread, sausage meat etc all heavily flavoured with salt.
 
David Will said:
We have been using salt in bait for years , luncheon meat , cheese, bread, sausage meat etc all heavily flavoured with salt.
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So true

And now the bait barons want us to buy these additives at their price. And of course, Nash Bait Salt is better than Holland&Barratt/Waitrose/Sainsbury/Morrsons/Tesco.etc. salt! :rolleyes:

Question we could be asking: if I boil baits in salted water, is that better than boiling baits with added salt? I found one works better than the other.
 
i aint positive but i would think salt would alter the ph in a small area where it disolves, been too long now since i played with the bait road though, maybe this is why the larger crystallised chunks work better, tescos had some large crystal salt bags on sale when the snow was here
 
I use quantaties of maldon to introduce hemp and caster in a pva bag. Didnt seem to deter the barbel in the slightest.
Salt has been proven to be medicinally beneficial for practically all species of freshwater fish. In particular as a cheap healing and calming agent in the transportation of fish - but to get these effects in a river i think you would have to introduce nigh on two tons of salt lol
 
Chris, your right about the runoff being bad for fishing because of the generally cold water entering the river. Also, I think they add de-icer for things like runways at airports and maybe some motorways, so that would certainly be poisonous.
 
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