Fieldtester Tips... Ken Townley
Crumbed Attraction
If you are planning on making up a batch of boilie crumb you might like to try using ready mades. These can be crumbed in a food processor or an electric mincer. Alternatively try to find an old Spong Mincer in the car boot sales. It is also a good idea to blend together several different baits and then crumb them up together to create a crumb comprising different shapes and sizes of particle and a mixture of different flavours and attractors.
Cut n' Glug
Sometimes when the carp are playing hard to get, you might find that this little wheeze will put one or two on the bank. Take three or four dozen standard bottom baits and then cut them into quarters with a sharp knife. Now use one of our liquid foods such as Corn Steep Liquor, Multimino-PPC or Nutramino (you can also use the dedicated Liquids such as Trigga or 3D Liquid) to glug the cut baits. Leave them overnight to soak in the glug. At the lake add a small quantity of soaked quarters to a PVA bag or mesh and fish alongside your hookbait.
Boosted 3P’s
You can create a powerful source of attraction in the immediate vicinity of your hookbait by adding neat flavour or an essential oil. For instance, why not try boosting the already strong signal that is given off by our Pink Pepper Pop-ups? Sure the black pepper smell is pretty strong to start with but sometimes you need to kick start a feeding response if the fish are a bit lethargic, as can happen on hot summer days. If you add just a few extra drops of Black Pepper Essential Oil to a pot of 3P's you will find that when on the lakebed the oil immediately leaks off and rises slowly up through the water table, diffusing as it goes. The smell will soon tweak the appetite of even most lethargic carp on the hottest of summer days! Alternatively try one as a floater…Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Glugged PVA
We all know how effective PVA bags and PVA mesh can be but you can add still further to the pulling power of a PVA parcel by adding liquid attraction in the form of one of our food liquids or Bait Soak Complexes.
The latter are tailor-made for use a PVA glug thanks to their design, which comprises several different liquid foods blended to create a unique and powerful source of attraction that simply screams ‘food’. You can add the contents to a solid PVA bag without fear that the liquid will melt it and you can also glug PVA mesh parcels with either neat liquid food or one of our Bait Soak Complexes, as shown in this photo where Trigga Ice Baits Soak Complex is being used.
Red Hot Snowman
One of the most effective rigs of recent years has been the Snowman Rig. This comprises standard bottom bait and a buoyant pop-up fished together on the same hair, usually, but not always, with the pop-up going on last. You can of course use any of your favourite bottom baits and pop-ups in whatever combination you wish, but one combo that has proved deadly over the past few years is that of a Trigga or Trigga Ice ready made bottom bait topped with a Pink Pepper Pop-Up alternative hookbait. It is this combination that has lead to the capture of some of the biggest carp in Europe of late, including Bill Cottam’s capture of the Scar Fish from Les Graviers at 82lb 4oz.
The Alternative 360
Our Alternative Hookbait range of pop-ups hookbaits is ideal for fishing the 360 Degree rig. This rig is usually set up using a long curved shank hook like the long shank Nailer. However, of late concern has been voiced about the potential for mouth damage with these types of hook so you may like to know that the rig works equally well with many other hook patters. One of my most effective rigs and baits over the past three years has been the 360 fished with a 10mm Pink Pepper or 10mm Pineapple and Butyric pop up. Instead of the usual long curved shank hook I have been using a size 4 Fox SSC hook and this has worked a treat with a 360 Degree set-up.
Rollin Paste
I expect you all know by now why boilies were invented? It was to prevent small fish from nibbling away at paste bait, eating it before the carp could get a look in. However, there is no escaping that paste is more effective than boiled bait, as there is no skin on the paste to hamper the escape of attraction from within, as there is with a boilie. So use the pulling power of paste to your advantage by wrapping some around your hookbait(s) before casting out. Next time you ask Rollin to make you up a batch of bait, ask them to keep back say a kilo of the paste rather than processing it into boilies. Then take it to the lake and create a dedicated paste wrap out of the same paste that has been used to create the Boilies.
