Mussels

yes! i have caught plenty of carp, eels, small catfish using 4 mussels on the hair. if you want to avoid carp you're out of luck, though, as mussels and prawns are the only bait the carp in my local will eat in the daytime, which is saying something!they're good though, especially on hard waters and i caught my first cat on a single mussel over a bed of prawns.

what kind of mussels are you using? and how do you keep them on the hair ?

i use normal small mussels (about an inch by half) from tesco. i put a load on the hair and put them in a solid pva bag with lots of pellets, dried hemp, dead maggots and so on. this way you never cast them off. a thin piece of plastic with a hole in can be used after the last mussel has been put on the hair so a normal boilie stop works. well worth using as mussels are a good bait for cats, eels and unfortunately carp.

I use six on a hair, Just the normal type that you can buy in bags frozen, Herons in hull sell them at a pound a bag. I just fish them over a bag or two loose. Its the carp and bream that are the problem. Gave up using them, If i wanted to catch snotties then i will fish for them properly.

i never had a bream take mussels. i've caught carp, tench catfish and eels on mussels, but i've never had any bream.

Fantastic bait for big bream, two on a 2 foot hair. Brilliant.

a 2foot hair ha ha

will ty it in the closed season when i cant catfish, but i catch more bream on KG1 boilies then i care to mention!

I meant on a two or three foot hooklink alright dan, smart ass!

Well I had one cat on mussels today and lost it but the carp drove me insane no matter how big I made the bait!

yeah they really like mussels, there's no way to avoid them except single hookbaits and hope a cat finds it first! excellent bait for every species that swims, which is the problem.