Carp fishing bait - when to use artificial bait

Artificial baits for carp fishing, usually made of rubber or plastic, aren’t a new phenomenon but are now being used more widely than ever before and account for a lot of carp that are being caught.

Originally these baits were designed to get around problems with nuisance species that are found in our lakes and rivers, such as crayfish, which attack and destroy conventional carp baits, leaving the angler unsure as to whether their rig still has a bait on it.

These artificial baits are designed to mimic the real thing in appearance, with the idea being that the carp can’t tell the difference until it has eaten the bait and it is too late, especially when it is being fished over the top of real bait, such as sweetcorn.

This has led to all sorts of different types of plastic baits being developed, with everything from maggots and corn to boilies, pellets and tiger nuts - plus some more unusual ones such as bread, dog biscuits, and even worms!

Artificial baits deter nuisance species

Crayfish are something which are a relatively new problem in the UK, as whilst we have always had native species they have never been an issue for anglers, and it is only the introduction of non-native species such as red signal crayfish from North America and Turkish crayfish, which spread rapidly through our waterways and lake, which cause anglers real problems.

As well as crayfish, carp anglers also have other non-native species such as Chinese mitten crabs to worry about if fishing on rivers, plus of course even native fish species such as roach can be a real problem at times where there are large numbers of them and often a carp angler doesn't wish to have to use very large hookbaits, which could also reduce their chances of catching carp, to get around this problem. Fishing real corn, maggots or pellets as a hook bait can be virtually impossible on some lakes where there are lots of silver fish, and especially so during the warmer months.

Plastic or rubber baits have also become popular with UK anglers venturing overseas into Europe, and of course local anglers there, as many of these lakes are also infested with crayfish, plus of course there are species such as poisson chat (a small type of catfish) that will happily eat its way through boilies.

Anglers do of course try to get around these issues by using more durable hookbaits, such as boilies which have been hardened or tiger nuts, but even those won’t stand up to crayfish and similar if they are present in large numbers. And once even a rock hard hookbait starts to be gradually whittled down, it is of course prone to becoming detached from your rig, leaving you fishing with no hookbait and no chance of catching.

Another big advantage of artificial baits in this scenario is that whilst they can look identical to your freebies, you can buy versions of them that are unflavoured, and therefore even less likely to be attractive to the crayfish. Even when using flavoured ones though the crayfish and others species will quickly realise that what they are trying to eat isn’t actually food.

Brightly coloured plastic carp bait

What started out as a way of avoiding nuisance species and ensuring that your hookbait was durable, progressed into a type of carp bait which is now widely used in conjunction with real baits, or even in situations where anglers believe that the artificial version is better than the real thing – less durable baits such as corn being a prime example, where a grain of actual corn could easily come off during the cast.

Imitation baits such as corn and pellets are not only now found in a colour which closely mimics the real thing, but can also be found in all sorts of bright and fluoro colours, and even versions which glow in the dark.

The idea being that they act as a beacon to the carp and can be used either on their own, such as when fishing a solid PVA bag and wanting a small bright hookbait in amongst whatever small food items you are putting in the bag.

Or they can be used to tip conventional hookbaits, such as adding a bit of colour to a boilie hookbait, and doing so with a bait that is far more durable than using a small piece of a pop-up or similar.

Rubber baits can be buoyant

The way that artificial baits are manufactured, such as the Korda Fake Food baits, means that they can be made to pop-up or be slow sinking wafter type baits, and so lend themselves to being used with all sorts of different presentations.

One advantage that they have over conventional hookbaits is that the buoyancy of one made from plastic or rubber doesn’t change once immersed in water, so even if it has been out there for 24 hours, you know that it still has exactly the same amount of buoyancy that it did when you cast out.

This allows you to precisely balance your rigs so that the hookbait sinks at whatever rate you want it to – whether that be critically balanced or over-weighted – and it will stay like that and fishing just how you want it to.

Flavoured plastic carp baits

It isn’t just the appearance of plastic baits that can be made attractive, but they can also be impregnated with flavour, or anglers can soak them in flavour themselves to give more options of getting exactly what they want.

The Korda Fake Foods range of artificial baits comes in a variety of flavours, which have been tried, tested and proven to be great carp catchers over the years – such as the incredible IB flavour which is available in a choice of yellow or pink baits such as imitation corn.

More recently, in conjunction with Mainline Baits, slow sinking boilies have been added to the Fake Food range, which are designed to exactly mimic your free offerings, both in terms of colour and smell/flavour, whilst giving you a hookbait that you know will always be fishing effectively. These are available in the most popular Mainline boilies – Cell, Essential Cell, Link, and Iso Fish.

If you haven’t yet given plastic baits like Fake Foods a go then you are missing out, as in some situations they can actually be more effective than the real thing! Artificial hook baits can be the best bait to use for big carp in some situations and will improve your catch rate.