Morning all. Are there any particular ingredients/liquids/flavours etc which are worth including/avoiding in home rolled bait, to try and actively reduce/eliminate catching as many/any bream, without severely impacting attracting the carp we are trying to catch?
I’ll start the ball rolling myself, as I believe liquid molasses is defo one to avoid.
Before anyone says “use tigers” etc, no nuts are allowed on my venue, so not an option.
Also, bream are regularly caught on 24mm+ baits where I fish too and large baits also severely impact casting range, especially in the big winds we regularly get there (300 acre reservoir).
Many thanks in advance.

In reply to Post #1
Nuts won't save you anyways, caught many breams on tigernuts, lupin or even dava beans

I didn't find a specific recipe to avoid them
In any manner, don't use garlic in your baits ! Keep it for your pasta, snails with butter, your toasts or for your french guests 😂

Best
FrenchyHB

I've already found that rigs like the bo11ocks rig do a great job at getting you takes from bigger bream on double 15mm's, double 18mm baits didn't catch bream this weekend though.

I am getting some custom rolled 24mm baits inc 24mm hard hookers, I think this will deter all but a very few bream... fingers crossed

I don't think there is a reliable way of avoiding Bream, yes, people claim that garlic deters the bream but does it actually work?

I have fished 24mm hookers over 20mm feed and still caught a 4oz bream!
Obviously the odd one will eventually suck the hook in...
But compare the mouth size to the bait size, if they cant take the freebies then thats as good as you can do.
Avoid any pellets, particles and just ensure the free baits are still there when the carp come wandering along.

In reply to Post #3
Does that garlic work for breams or for carps ? In both case, the answer is yes ! Best spice in homemade boilies, even more with fishmeal and a touch of paprika but shhhhttt 🤫 don't tell everyone

If breams are annoying on your spot, stay away from rig without separation with your baits and if you are still catching some with rig with hairs, increase distance between your hook and your bait with hair lenght

Here my 2 cents from a non expert 🙏
People will probably give your better advices

In reply to Post #5
I have garlic in my baits and it isnt a bream repellant.
There is no bream repellant 😭

In reply to Post #1
haven't found anything that they won't eat,
Only fishing a little club water but they're onto on a fishmeal base in any flavour PDQ.
Sweet baits, maple/liver, home mades with Activ-8 😂

Only things that have saved me from catching hooking more me this year are wide-gape 4s & 6s with longer hairs and double baits. Still get a hour or two of single bleeps from small bream and snatchy takes as tench grab the baits & bolt without getting hooked.

In reply to Post #1
Based on my past experience, I would advise using baits containing a generous amount of black pepper and/or cayenne pepper.

In reply to Post #8
I've read that chilli in boilies could reduce other species but can't confirm that

Would you give a pourcent or amount of BP or cayenne pepper to use ?

In reply to Post #9
I've been fishing fishmeal baits with 5% of cayenne pepper without any issues

In reply to Post #10
Thx for the precision 🙏

I’ve only found one thing that slows them down and it’s Brazil nuts. I can imagine it’s only due to the shape and size being awkward for them to actually eat and hook themselves. I have still caught bream on them but it was drastically less than any other hookbait.

I’ve found once they get going and feeding hard you’ll never stop them. I was using 4inch pop ups, 18mm double pop up and still catching 5 pounders on a park lake years ago. Size 4 hook as well. If they didn’t hook themselves they were throwing me off the spot in to weed and I’d have to recast anyway.

You’ve either got to feed them off, which is near impossible, or use hardly any free offerings and make them big or awkward baits. A handful of 20/22mm boilies, XXL tigers and halved Brazil nuts (check buoyancy first)

Instead od thinking about baits, you can think about strategy
You could try to reduce baiting to use only pva stick

Also, maybe a massive baiting with small particle could distract breams while you are fishing away for carps ?