What is Bread Punch Fishing?

Bread punch fishing uses small Bread discs as hook baits and liquidised bread as groundbait. The discs of bread are usually punched out of a piece of sliced, white bread using a small ‘tool’ known as a ‘bread punch’.

Bread punches often come as a set of punches that are of different diameters, which enable you to create different-sized discs of bread, from a couple of millimetres in diameter to ten millimetres or more. This allows you to vary the size of your hook bait depending on the type and size of fish that you are targeting and how actively the fish are feeding.

When liquidised bread is used as groundbait, it creates an attractive cloud in the water, which pulls fish into your swim.

Is Bread Punch an Effective Fishing Bait?

Bread punch fishing is a highly effective technique for catching fish such as roach and skimmer bream, and can be especially productive on winter’s days, when fish are being finicky and not actively feeding on other baits such as maggots, worms or pellets.

Most species of fish can be caught when Bread Punch Fishing. It can be used throughout the year and is an excellent bait for tench, crucians, rudd and ‘king’ carp.

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An Inexpensive Bait

For most fishing sessions, a loaf or two of sliced white bread is all that you need for a great day’s fishing. Bread punch fishing is inexpensive, costing less than half a pint of maggots. Bread is widely and easily obtained, and so it is ideal for occasions when you are unable to get to the fishing tackle shop.

Which Bread is Best for Bread Punch Fishing?

Liquidised Bread: The most suitable bread for liquidised bread feed is the cheapest sliced white bread from supermarkets such as Lidl, Aldi or the like. A slightly stale loaf is usually best.

Hook Baits for the Punch: A higher-quality loaf, such as Warburtons, medium-sliced white, is more effective for the punched bread hook baits. A fresh loaf is ideal.

How Do I Make Liquidised Bread for Bread Punch Fishing?

Sliced bread is ‘liquidised’ using a food processor.

You will need the following items to make liquidised bread groundbait:

• Food processor
• Sieve/Riddle (a pinkie riddle is ideal, with a mesh of around 2-3mm). A flour sieve can also be used, which creates very fine groundbait.
• Plastic bags
• A large, clean bowl
• sliced white bread

Making Liquidised Bread for Groundbait

Crusts or No Crusts?

You can decide whether to remove the outer crusts from each slice before you liquidise the bread. It’s a personal choice, really. It does take some time to do this. I tend not to bother, but some anglers believe that it improves the groundbait.

Liquidising the Bread

Position your sieve/riddle over the large, clean bowl.

Feed two or three slices of bread into the food processor, and ‘blitz’ these until you see that the bread has become finely chopped. Don’t be tempted to put more and more slices into the food processor, as this can overwork the food processor’s motor. Instead, empty the liquised bread onto the sieve/riddle and repeat the process with the remaining slices from the loaf.

Next, riddle the liquidised bread through the sieve/riddle and into the bowl. The larger pieces of bread will be left in the sieve, and the fine bread groundbait will pass through into the bowl. It has a nice, fluffy texture.

You can put the larger pieces of bread from the sieve back into the food processor and repeat the process. Alternatively, these larger pieces of bread are an ideal feed bait for species like chub and large bream, so pop them in the freezer for a future fishing trip.

Bag up the liquidised bread. Split it into a couple of bags so that it doesn’t dry out on the bank.

How Do I Prepare the Sliced Bread Hook Bait?

It is perfectly acceptable to use unprepared, sliced bread straight from the packet, but some anglers like to prepare the hook bait slices in ways that will create a more rubbery, robust hook bait that will stay on the hook and ‘fluff out’ on the hook when it is in the water.

Higher-quality bread is naturally more robust on the hook.

How to Prepare Sliced Bread for Fishing

There are various ways of preparing bread for use on the hook.

Compressing the bread reduces the thickness of the slice and compacts it. This provides a firmer hook hold, and the punched bread will stay on the hook better.

Ways to Compress the Sliced Bread

While on the bank, you can simply press your thumb into the sliced bread and punch this section of the slice. Alternatively, prior to your fishing session, you can roll the bread using a rolling pin.

Steaming the slices prior to using the rolling pin creates a more rubbery bread that rolls out easily. You can also microwave slices for 20–30 seconds prior to rolling, which enables you to create a very thin, sheet-like slice of rolled bread.

Storing Bread Slices Prior to Fishing

Cut each slice in half (or quarters) and wrap them in cling film, ensuring that a layer of cling film separates each slice. When fishing, the sliced bread can dry out, and the smaller pieces of bread mean that you can regularly replace them in order to make sure that your hook bait is in the best condition.

The liquidised bread and the hook bait are best stored overnight in the fridge.

Unused bait can also be frozen, although this can dry out the bread slightly.

Fishing with Bread Punch

The Bread Punch Tool

A good-quality bread punch set will last many years. Sets offer a range of punch sizes. For most types of float fishing or pole fishing, punch diameters in the 2–7 mm range are most useful. These enable you to change the size of your hook bait depending on the conditions and the size and species that you are targeting.

Bigger-diameter bread punches can be used for larger fish, such as chub, carp and bream.

A 4 mm punch will sit nicely on a size 20 hook and is perfect for roach fishing. Fine wire hooks are usually best and allow the bread punch to gently fall through the water. The disc of bread punch will ‘fluff out’ in the water and cover the hook.

Feeding Liquidised Bread

The liquidised bread can be used directly from the bag without adding any water.

Choose a spot, not too far from the bank, where you can feed the liquidised bread by hand, using a gentle underarm throw.

Kick things off by forming a ball of liquidised bread (size: between a walnut and a small satsuma). It is best not to overdo it. It is easy to overfeed fish when fishing bread punch, especially if you are targeting small fish or are fishing during the colder months.

Instant Attraction and Instant Bites

The liquidised bread forms an attractive cloud in the water, which is highly attractive to fish, and you will often get an instant bite, and then the catching can be continuous.

Feed another small ball of liquidised bread when bites dry up. Feed cautiously so that you don’t overfeed the fish.

Sometimes, after you have had a good run of fish, the swim dies and bites don’t return, even after you have fed more liquidised bread. In such cases, try feeding and fishing a little further out from the bank, as the fish might have backed off.

Another option is to try an alternative bait, such as pinkies or casters, either over the top of where you have been feeding or in another part of the swim.

Special Situations: Deep or Flowing Water

When fishing deep swims or those that are flowing, aquarium gravel or white breadcrumb groundbait can be added, which will result in a heavier mix that will break up less easily.

Summary

Bread punch fishing is a highly effective way to catch fish, especially when targeting roach and skimmers. It can get you bites on cold winter days when fish aren’t interested in other baits.

But, it’s a good method at any time of year and can also be used to catch larger fish, such as bream, tench, and carp.

It is a very inexpensive bait and is easily obtainable.

The cheapest bread makes the best liquidised bread. Choose higher-quality bread for the hook bait.

It does take some time to prepare, but no more than about 20 minutes if you have everything to hand.

Get yourself a good-quality set of bread punches that will last many years.

Give bread punch fishing a try.

© Mark Elliott 000Fishing, All Rights Reserved

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