Carp Bait bloodworm – That dark soft decaying debris that settles on the lakebed is home to many aquatic creatures that form part of the carp’s natural diet. Such areas are a magnet to carp, as they love to dig their head deep into the sediment filtering tasty morsels, which include water snails, larva, crayfish and other insects. In some areas the silt holds dense concentrations of midge larva, more commonly known as bloodworm beds and are amongst the best spots to place a trap due to the carp visiting them on a regular basis. There are a number of such spots in many lakes but can be difficult to stumble on. It’s fairly easy finding silt using modern feature finding methods, it is a little more difficult locating the exact spots within a silted area where they feed strongly i.e. areas of a higher concentration of natural food. These high concentrations of food don’t stand out as specific features, normally they are found through observing feeding fish.
Carp often give the location of these away as they burrow their heads sifting the silt, releasing fine air bubbles that are noticeable on the surface, commonly known as fizzing. On certain days at feeding time fizzing may be seen in many areas, especially on well-stocked silted lakes. So how do we identify such spots? Let the carp show us! Well it’s not quite as simple as that; water watching is the key to locating them, being observant over a period of time allows us to develop a picture of where they prefer to feed; this information can be gathered and used to our advantage. Maintaining a watchful eye on the lake surface is of prime importance as carp occasionally head and shoulder which not only gives their presence away but possibly the location of a natural food source. This is not necessarily a rule only a possibility, if however you notice carp pop their heads out in a similar area over a course of time then something is attracting them to that spot? (I believe carp head and shoulder for a number different of reasons; one of them being to clear the gill rakes and mouth).
I recommend you memorise these locations and use them as an aid to location on future sessions. Even when you have failed to locate carp these spots are worth a rod due to them being cord en bleu to the carp. They will return on a regular basis like bees to the honey pot in search of one of their favourite meal. If you locate a bloodworm bed you have successfully located one of the best features and should be able to catch from it, providing you fish effectively. Most baits and methods will be successful in such areas but I prefer to mimic the natural food supply as they will be more inclined to pick up morsels that they are engrossed in feeding on than boilie’s; use the little red haemoglobin worms in these situations.
They form part of the carp’s staple diet and they can become preoccupied upon them, to such an extent that at times it can be difficult to entice a take on anything else. Using one of their natural food sources will have obvious advantages when used as a bait, free offerings, and loose feed or as an addition to any mix. It is different and something they don’t associate with danger and I doubt if bloodworm will ever blow! Having experimented with bloodworm for a number of years and advocated their use on numerous occasions. I am pleased to see that they are now commercially available, not only the freeze-dried variety but also the freshly frozen larva. As one would expect they are an awesome fish attractor!

CC Moore and Sticky baits are amongst those companies that have developed their own bloodworm range. Although they have been available within the pet food trade in smallish ice cubed size blocks for a number of years, they were too expensive and not economically viable; recently the price per kilogram has dropped dramatically making them no more expensive than a bag of quality boilies. At last the bloodworm era is here and is available to all! Match anglers have been using bloodworm for some time and regard them as, “the bait” so much so that they have been banned on many matches.
Pre preparation of hook baits is recommended and worth the time and effort as effective presentation can be a bit fiddly due to them being so small. They can be incorporated into carp fishing at any time of the year using a variety of methods, but as with maggots I prefer to use them during the cooler months or year round on lakes that contain few nuisance species.

Recently their attractive qualities was highlighted during a cold winters day whilst carp watching on a local lake. The day struggled to climb above zero Celsius and was very still; far from the conditions I would expect them to feed at this time of year. During a creeping search looking into the snags I found a large group of carp ranging from high doubles to high twenties lying in 2 feet of clear water. They were stationary and looked to be in a semi dormant state and did not appear to be in a feeding mood. Whilst adorning the camouflage I was able to move to within 2 yards of them, keeping low and creeping stealthily to avoid detection. I was amazed how close I was able to get without them spooking; normally they would have bolted, as my approach was not exactly discreet, as I stood on and snapped a few twigs.
Several small pellets were flicked close into the water nearby, I was expecting them to be hovered up fairly quickly, but they showed no interest! Not too be too disgruntled I threw a few grains of sweet corn to the same area, again nothing stirred. From their reactions it was clear that they were aware of the food source but sat motionless. Next from Simpson’s pocket of carp culinary delights came the old faithful maggots, these were scattered over a small area, this time they showed some interest and a few were picked up. During past feeding sessions the reaction to maggots placed deep into these snags was almost immediate, not this time. Next from the pocket came bloodworm, a small handful was thrown to the same area. The initial reaction was pretty similar to that of the maggots; a few were picked up but nothing of note. Due to being in position and remaining still for over an hour

I was starting to get pins and needles, therefore crept out of position and sat back down, out of the way and warmed the cockles of my heart with a welcoming brew. As I sat eating my now bloodworm flavoured sandwiches (they were in the same pocket as a kilo of defrosting bloodworm) there was a swirl close to the baited area. A creep into position revealed no less than 10 carp in what can be described as a feeding race, their preference was quite clear as they were observed fighting to get to the next tiny red worm and ignoring the other baits (look carefully at the photograph and you will notice the sweet corn that they rejected). I remained in position observing them for approximately 2 hours; their preference to bloodworm was clearly evident over any other bait. As always my digital camera was not too far behind and managed to take upwards of 30 photographs, some of which have been included within this article. What surprised me most was their resilience too my presence. As I stood up raising my profile against the background they were not perturbed, even though they were aware of my presence they carried on munching with gusto. The events of the day were etched in my memory and have highlighted the qualities of bloodworm as bait.
Of course it’s not all roses when using bloodworm methods as just about every fish that swims will be keen to sample the baited area, making bloodworm difficult to use on some venues at certain times of the year.

 

Enterprise imitations baits

 

Rubberised imitation bloodworm from Enterprise tackle is probably the least used of their range rubber range, this is likely to change as the bloodworm era gathers pace. I tend to use several rubber worms threaded onto a size 8 or 10 fine wire hook and hair creating a small but effective presentation. (Due to the diameter of the rubber worms a small hook is required to avoid splitting).
An alternate mimicking method is with the use of a single red rubber maggot as a line aligner. The line aligner improves the hooking arrangement as well as acting as the bait and is very effective when fished over a golf ball sized bag of larva.

The medusa stocking

 

Bloodworm medusa balls can be made using commercially available netting or women’s tights. Of course we all carry tights whilst in session due to them being a useful addition to any tackle box!

Meshed bloodworm hook baits

1. Place a bunch of bloodworm in the mesh and wrap/twist the mesh to form a boilie shape.
2. Twist the neck of the rounded mesh and tie with some light line.
3. Place a spot of glue on the knot to prevent it from coming loose.
4. Freeze the hook baits or place them in an oil to preserve them.

 

Once tied of they can be thread onto the hair in the same manner as a boilie. To create the medusa effects pierce the ball with a fine baiting needle and pull the bloodworm half way out.

 

Bloodworm stick method

Due to them being wet once defrosted they cause PVA to melt. In order to get round this the defrosted bloodworm can be mixed with ground baits that absorb the moisture allowing them to be placed within PVA mesh for the stick method.
A simple cheap and very effective mix is with white bread crumb, once melted the small dark red worms stand out against the light crumb background that makes for a highly visual area against dark silt.
CC Moore and Sticky baits have both developed liquid foods based on bloodworm and can be added to any dry mix, neither melt PVA making them ideal to mix with any dry ingredient.

Bloodworm pellets

This new range of pellets contain bloodworm ingredients in addition to various quality meals, giving them an altogether different smell and taste to the run of the mill pellets. They have a dark red tinge created by the extract and liquids that are added during manufacture.  The dissolving pellets create a red halo that hovers over the baited area. A kilo of pellets mixed with a kilo of bloodworm and hemp can be an excellent combination that will catch on most lakes, it is also a very good spod mix that creates a tantalisingly attractive carpet.

Bloodworm liquid

The extract of bloodworm combined with several other well-known fish attracting liquid foods has been mixed to form a boosted liquid that holds a high percentage of dissected bloodworm. It is neither oil nor water based, which means it can be used within PVA bags or added to just about any bait at any quantity without the fear of over doing it. My good lady wife suggested I combine the liquid to form a cocktail

Conclusion

There are many other presentations or methods of using bloodworm that I have not detailed and am sure that other writers will experiment and present their own findings. Bloodworm has been used to good effect on the continent on a number of occasions, and I found them especially accommodating when the going was a little tough. Etang Neuilly was a typical example of a venue where I could have used them to great effect.