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Shelve life , Frozen , Or roll your own ?

I use whatever comes to hand, at the moment it's some frozen maple 8 which a carper friend was going to throw out after his freezer packed up (they had been de-frosted less than 24 hours) they have been just as effective as any other bait this year, that's to say, I am still waiting to catch on them or anything else. It's my own fault for fishing an easy river............The lower Severn seal sanctuary.
 
It doesn't have to be like that though Phil, does it? I used to get most of my freezer bait from local rollers, so could guarantee it was fresh....often there myself to help load it straight from the drying racks into bags :D Similar with Mainline....straight from the factory after rolling, picked up by one of their team of 'experts'....and from the boot of their car to me, to take home and freeze :p. Then of course, Premier bait....(before and after the break up) could always be delivered fresh to the Colne valley lakes/pubs....provided you could get Geoff to answer the ruddy phone :D

If you want FRESH freezer baits, don't buy from retailers....get your supply lines sorted, lol.

Cheers, Dave.
 
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Freezer bait every time for me. Has anyone any idea as to how having a preserved bait affects the predigested parts of it or perhaps those with 'live' parts to them?
 
Joe, try dropping half a dozen shelflife boilies into a largish bottle of water, after 6 weeks tell me if any disolve:eek: i doubt it though mate, stick to fresh or frozen:)
 
I have had some dynamite baits for 3 seasons now stored on a shelf in my garage. Checked em today and still look perfect.... which was a surprise.
 
John Walker said:
Joe, try dropping half a dozen shelflife boilies into a largish bottle of water, after 6 weeks tell me if any disolve:eek: i doubt it though mate, stick to fresh or frozen:)
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Hi John, in my opinion you have highlighted one of the major potential issues with shelf-life baits. As you say, chances are that at least some shelf-life baits will not break down in that time...and unfortunately, that may well be true of those same baits once they are introduced as freebies and are lying on the lake/river bed.

I am sure most of us have heard the stories of huge beds of uneaten boilies being found/dredged up from lake/river beds. I have often wondered if these were tall tales...or at least exaggerated truths....spread by the 'anti boilie brigade'.....or not? Whatever....if it is true to any degree, then you can be sure that shelf-life baits would be the likely guilty parties here :rolleyes: Frozen baits break down far too quickly for that to occur....at least, all the baits I have ever used do, so I assume that will be true of any decent freezer bait. Try leaving one out on the hair for twelve hours and see the state of them when you reel in...if there is anything left to look at that is (Hopefully only a carp fisherman would be likely to have experienced that scenario :D)

All speculation though, as far as preserved baits are concerned...because I have never knowingly used such baits as feed :D The ones I had on my garage wall for years were sold to me as freezer baits :eek: (Supplied by the company we went to France with...that'll teach me...probably why I only bothered doing that twice :D:D)

Cheers, Dave.
 
Some interesting comments about shelf life and freezer baits . I suppose it a bit like the difference between fresh food and processed food ?
We all know fresh food is better for us and yet we continue to eat processed food .
We know the difference . Can a Barbel tell the difference ?
So my question is . Will freezer baits put more fish on the bank ?

If you take Mainline baits they do shelf life and freezer baits in the same flavours . So by using both baits will one put more fish on the bank than the other one ? Are wise old Barbel able to tell the difference ?
 
Joe, dunno about whether the fish can tell the difference but the carp guys can:eek: aint many who aint tried eating their bait,Dave i aint spoke to any
of the knight family since my so called p/ship broke up with cliff, man they had some real pongs on that farm in the early days:D
 
I never went there John, as I say, my bait was always via one of their consultants. Wrong...but they all did it, and Kev and Steve must have known because nobody can use as much bait as some of those guys were ordering :D:D

I guess it was accepted as one of the perks of the job :p

Cheers, Dave.
 
Contrary to accepted opinion, nutrabaits reckon Trigga shelf life hookbait with shelf life and frozen freebies out fishes frozen.
 
Graham Young said:
Has any research ever been done into how preservatives in bait may affect a fishes health?
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I doubt it Graham. Even if it has been done, I assume the testers would not be aware of the levels that they are being included at? The question is, at what level does a 'safe' preservative become an 'unsafe' one? The baits I and others have had hanging around for years must have had phenomenal levels included to last unchanged for as long as they did. I can't believe anything that can do that can be good for the fish, however 'safe' it is deemed to be at low/normal levels.

Cheers, Dave.
 
I think preservatives used in baits are in there to preserve the look of them, ie so they dont start to turn and look bad.

Some shelfies could have been on display for years, who knows if this is bad or not? I doubt it but prefer to use basemixes from reputable companies and roll my own (these should be fresh but again who knows).
 
I don't know what is used as a preservative nowadays, I believe that it used to be potassium sorbate, I cant see that these chemicals do the fish any good, anyone know what is used now?
 
One club i was a member of closed one it's lakes to drag it because the amount of rotting shelf life boilies that were laying on the bottom, they then restricted the use of all boilies to 1 bag a session.
 
The unwritten rule then is to use a quality fresh/frozen bait if you intend to pile it in and a shelf life to fish a single hook bait and maybe plip plop a couple in for attraction. Let's not get too carried away with fish welfare - shelflife or frozen, preservatives or not them fishmeal boilies are no good for the fish they were made from!
 
Andrew Boyne said:
The unwritten rule then is to use a quality fresh/frozen bait if you intend to pile it in and a shelf life to fish a single hook bait and maybe plip plop a couple in for attraction. Let's not get too carried away with fish welfare - shelflife or frozen, preservatives or not them fishmeal boilies are no good for the fish they were made from!
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Yeah, poor old Halibut ;)!
 
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