Very good bait.
Dear All,
I use paste in their various forms and types for almost all of my fishing now, save for bread, steak, shrimps, prawns, tares, corn, maggots and casters which I use for float fishing. The pellet type paste I make is basically pellets put through a bait pump to soften them up which are then mashed (an old food blender is very good) and to the resulting mush I add enough plain flour to stiffen to the consistency of plastercine. Too hard and the hook will be restricted on the strike and too soft means attention from small fish will limited its break down time considerably.
At this time of the year don't forget the effectiveness of a good cheese paste. The one I make is an old favorite found in many specialist angling books. Take some ready made short crust pastry (found in super markets usually pre rolled) lay it flat and grate a good palm full of strong cheddar cheese in the middle. To that crumble in some Danish Blue cheese about a third of the amount of the cheddar. Now fold the pastry over the cheese and pop in a mixing bowl. Simply kneed the pastry and cheese together until it’s mixed to the same consistency of plastercine. A paste that is too soft is useless and one too hard restricts the setting of the hook on the strike.
Another two brilliant types are the "hemp" paste and the "honey" paste. For the hemp one use the ready made pastry as before and add roasted crushed hemp in the middle. Trial and error here as to how much hemp to add but a couple of cup full’s is about right. Kneed it all well in and if the resulting paste is a bit stiff add a drizzle of hemp oil that can be got from any health food store. This paste can be fished very effectively over a bed of hemp whilst ledgering or smaller AAA or BB sized pieces can be float fished on the hook whilst feeding hemp using the trotting method. Honey paste is made by again using the ready made short crust pastry and by adding "set honey" then kneading in. If you have added too much honey and the resulting paste comes out a bit soft just add corn flour until you obtain the right consistency. Honey paste is brilliant for carp, roach and bream but chub and barbel both wolf it down as well!!!
Regarding the use of paste on the smaller river the angler needs to be aware that a "balanced method" is crucial to the set up. And by "balanced" I mean the lightest amount of weight added to the line, or none at all, so the fish feels hardly and resistance when picking up the bait. Paste works especially well here because it’s quite a heavy bait so a meat ball sized hook bait will hold bottom very well on its own in normal conditions. And when added weight is required I rarely go over two number 3ssg pinched on the mainline. I use a size 4 hook and add a two ounce quiver tip to my rod in normal conditions. Bites vary but even the slightest nibble is registered either by touch or on the quiver tip. Normally the bites come in the form of good pulls or a complete collapse in the line as the bait is picked up.
The great thing about paste baits is most of the ingredients are very easy to buy and remain fairly cheap. They take minutes to make up and are "extremely" effective.
Regards,
Lee.