Groundbait - part the first

[Guest]

Groundbait can be both a generic and specific term. In it's generic sense it refers to the ‘free offerings’ you put around your hookbait to attract the little darlings. Now to cover this would take a week so I’ll talk about groundbait in its specific sense i.e. literally bait that has been ground down to a powder or similar for use as an attractor.

Choosing your groundbait
Now if you go into a tackle shop in the UK and ask for groundbait the assistant will smile politely and point you towards a set of shelves that seem to reach on forever. There are a number of groundbait manufacturers ( Sensas, Van Den Eynde, Ricworth, Dynamite Baits to name but a few ) who make groundbait mixes for all occasions. There are mixes for carp, bream, tench etc., for method feeders, for loose feeding – it can all be a bit daunting. Basically they are powders made of fishmeal / bird food/ crushed particles/ chemical attractors etc. to which you add water or flavoured fluids to make a loose paste. Some are what we call active i.e. they react with water when thrown in, fizzing up to release a cloud of attractants that will draw the fish in. Some will break down more quickly than others – whatever, the effect you want is a cloud up in the water or a ‘carpet’ on the lake/river bed of fish attracting goodies that yells ‘dinner time guys’ very loudly.

Mixing your groundbait
Now this is where the alchemy starts. There is NO definitive way to make your groundbait up, however there are some important guidelines. First off you need to add a fluid of some sort to achieve a nice, light and sticky consistency. Now first of all you should griddle the groundbait through a wire mesh or sieve to get rid of any lumps and large articles. Then gradually add your chosen fluid and mix it in with your hands. Now at this point it is important to think about how you want your groundbait to end up – what you usually want is a paste that just holds together when you squeeze it in your hands, and not a sticky, runny mud. Active groundbaits should have as little as possible fluids added or they won’t fizz. However you may want to throw a ball of groundbait a long way out, in which case use a little more water so that it sticks together more. It all comes down to trial and error in the end, but its always best to just gradually add fluids until you get a nice sticky yet loose mixture. Once you’ve got the mix to your preferred consistency its best to sieve it again to remove any lumps and get a bit of air into the mix.

Now the fluids you mix - forget tap water with all its nasty additives. I always mix my groundbait at the spot I’m fishing using the lake/river water. If you want to mix it before you go use rainwater or bottled spring water. You don’t have to just use water – just as there are loads of groundbait mixes there are zillions of different flavoured additives you can add to boost the stuff. I tend not to bother too much – too much flavouring is, I think, counter productive. What I will sometimes add is hemp oil, corn steeped liquor or salmon oil in small quantities. It's all down to experimentation.

Finally I add a few particles to the mix – usually whatever I’m using on the hook e.g sweetcorn or maize, plus a little hemp seed. You don’t want a lot in the mix or it will break up when cast or thrown out – about ten percent of the total mix I find is OK.

Getting it out there
There are a few ways of doing this. Just rolling it up into a ball the size of an orange and throwing it in by hand ( obviously). We also have a range of slingshots that can be used for a little added distance. We also use ‘feeders’. These are weighted, small wire or plastic cages attached to your mainline by a swivel or knot. They come in different sizes and weights from a few centimetres to a couple of inches long. They can be open feeders ie open at both ends or ‘block end feeders’ ie closed off at one end. You basically stuff your groundbait in the feeder and cast it out. When it hits the bottom the feed breaks out of the cage onto the lake bed. Also very popular is the ‘Method Feeder. This is a cage that has the mainline running through a tube in the middle. Just mould your ball of groundbait around it and cast. Used with a short hooklink it can be devastating – you can sit there watching carp knock the hell out of your feed and then – bang! You need to be casting out quite frequently at first since the main objective is to lay down a carpet of groundbait ( I cast out at least every 5 – 10 minutes in the first hour of fishing ). To do this effectively you need to hit the same spot every time with the cast.

Feeder casting.
This is a method that can be used to great effect regardless of whether you are using a feeder or not and you want to hit the same spot on your casts. Having found the spot you want to fish, cast out to that spot. Now use the clip on the side of the reel’s spool and clip in your line. This will set the distance to which you cast. Now look for a landmark on the other side of your water e.g. a tree to set the line on which you are casting. As long as you have the line clipped to the right distance and you cast to that tree you should be hitting the spot every time. Now its not a good idea to leave the line in the clip when fishing since a hard take by a 30lb carp would take your rod sailing away. When you’ve got everything in place take the line out of the clip and mark the line next to your rod tip ring -you can use a stop knot or do what I do and use a piece of trimmed down brightly coloured electrical masking tape. That way if a fish does run off, when you next come to cast out, just cast beyond your chosen spot, reel in the line until the tape marker is back in the same place, and clip up again to recast to your spot. Easy, eh? Oh, be careful when casting heavy weights whille 'clipped up' - 'feather' your cast by gently putting your finger on the mainline coming off the spool to reduce the speed the line comes off just before the cast hits the water otherwise a) you might break the clip and the force of the impact as the feeder hits the water will break open the groundbait too early. You want a nice, gentle landing - trial and error again on this one folks.

Home made groundbait
Wonderful as the manufactured mixes are, they ain’t cheap ( about 6 – 9 dollars per kilo ) and I doubt that you will have any access to them in the USA much. You don’t necessarily need these. A good one is breadcrumb – get some from your local baker or liquidize some bread and let it dry out fully – great for padding out bought groundbait mixes. Furthermore, get yourself a coffee grinder and grind down feed pellets – fish pellets such as trout pellets or koi pellets are best – whatever, carp are basically pigs and there’s no telling what they might go for! Ground up and lightly roasted hemp seeds make a wonderful active groundbait. Experiment with flavours. One additive I’m trying is a manufactured Amino Acid based fluid ( basically the chemical used in medicine to promote appetites in patients or so I’m told ). Another one is Butyric Acid – now this stuff stinks like hell ( like very old very sweaty socks ) but seems to shout FOOD to carp. You only want tiny amounts ( just a few millilitres. ) Milk powder is another good one, as is condensed milk or cream as a fluid - makes a lovely cloud. If you’re using sweetcorn add the liquid from the tin. Better still boil up some corn and leave it in a sealed bucket for a month – the natural sugars etc will ferment into a lovely stinky fluid perfect for mixing into your groundbait. Use your kitchen cupboard – Chinese spices and curry powder work well. Adding a spoonful of salt is a good idea. Experiment, my dears, experiment. The reason we've got all these mixes today is the result of people over the last few decades trying out anything, regardless of how crazy it might seem at first, that might give them 'the edge' over fellow anglers. People mocked the hair rig when it was first introduced 20 years ago, now everybody uses it ( still not sure about rubber carp's heads though....)

Sploosh!!!
Obviously chucking in balls of groundbait makes a bit of a splash – don’t worry. The main thing is not to throw feed directly on top of feeding fish. To other fish it might just sound like a bird landing or another carp ‘crashing out’ ( jumping – no-one knows why they do it ) on the surface. Also carp have cycles of feeding – many times I’ve watched them feed one spot then wander off for a few minutes to return and feed again, so introduce feed when they’ve gone. Soon they will associate the sound of the splash with food being served up. If you can’t see the fish then the best strategy is to get as much bait in early and then just top it up as the session goes on.
Hope this helps – there’s nothing so exciting as watching carp feed over your bait, sending up great swirls and masses of bubbles as you wait for them to find your hookbait. Carp are very competitive feeders once they get their heads down. Its sometimes a god idea, if you can use two rods, to place a bait just off the bed of feed. Larger carp often hang back from the shoal when they are feeding and come in later to feed.

Right, I’m off fishing this evening down our local lake – only one and a half acres big but full of fish. It gets a bit busy on a day like this when ( FINALLY!!!) the sun is shining, but most of them go home early evening. We’re in for a good spell of weather here this month so its looking good.
Cheers
Steve

[This message has been edited by englishsteve (edited 08-03-2003).]

[This message has been edited by englishsteve (edited 08-03-2003).]

[mnfisherman]

I earlier read about ground bait on the internet and made some that is basically bread crumbs and powered milk that I moisten and mash onto a home made feeder that I have created.