Ontario Shore Fishing Forum

I was packing up my bag and cooler to get ready for a wee fishing/picnic/outing to a riverbank with my lovely lady – saw my old bait needle………..and thought I should share this money saving tip:

Make your own bait needles.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory – but in this example - I used a mid-size saltwater stainless long shank hook (stainless is not as brittle as tempered steel hooks) – but any material would do (my old one is made from a cheap floating head jig hook – I just stripped off the foam head).

The hook – 2 corks – some crazy glue (or whatever to stick it – nail polish, lacquer, varathane or oil paint would work), and two sets of pliers to straighten the hook………. is all ya need.

Straighten the hook (leave barb in place to catch the loop on the hair rig), straighten the hook point end a wee bit as might be necessary, – put some stickum on the eye end and jam it in the first cork (wine corks will already have a hole from the corkscrew)………….. let set………….. voila………… it works just fine for 90% of most things……….. Plus it floats. It took me less than five easy minutes to do the project from end to end.

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I do caution that you should wear safety glasses or some sort of eye protection when straightening the hook - since some brittle hooks may snap unexpectedly throwing sharp fragments your way.

The second wine cork is what I use as a guard. Just open the hole up a bit with a screw or the bait needle – but leave it good and snug.

Will that be red or white wine, Sir?………………………………. personally I prefer the Ruffino over the Strewn with carp…………… smile.

Cheers,

OldTimer

Nice and easy, and great for pulling hair rigs through boilies!!

Yep - ya gotsta save a penny when ye can (...........as my grandad used to say).

And for a boilie stop - a stout blade or shaft of a grass works just dandy........... and edible by the carp too.

Cheers,

OldTimer

Great post great pictures! I made my first bait needle with a straightened-out jig head a few days ago. And I also pull my bait stops from the ground lol.

Great tip! I do the same too. I find the self made hook needle much easier to use than the commercial needles. The commercial ones have tips that were rounded off (I guess so customers won't poke themselves and complain). The sharp hook point is much easier to poke through a boilie as MikeH said.

I like to use a short segment of twig, leaf stem or grass stalk for hair rig stopper. With harder materials like twig or leaf stem, I like to keep them as short as possible since the carp may be able to feel ones that are too long and stiff.

MichaelAngelo just showed this to me the other day and my first thought, GENIUS. So simple and works great. Thank you for the instructions and pictures!