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Hemp my way.

Richard Isaacs

Richard Isaacs

Senior Member & Supporter
Many ways to skin a cat I just finished a batch of hemp off last night and thought I’d share my way of doing it.
Very rarely will I buy the pre prepared stuff as I think it’s way over priced.

You read a lot about the freshness of raw hemp been the important thing and that’s something I’ve never quite got my head around. Are they saying it should be used straight away or kept sealed because from my experience it’s of little importance. My hemp is bought in huge sacks and they sit around for months with the bag simply closed up with a rubber band. It’s hardly fresh. Just clean.
So I think this is total poppycock personally and waaaasaay over exaggerated.

For me the trick is in the soak. 24 hours isn’t enough if you want to have control over the spilt. When you put your hemp in to soak at a rough ratio 1 part hemp 2 parts water the seeds will all be floating on top.

Over time they sink and I’ve found with the larger seeds that I like to use, after 24 hours 60-70% have sunk. I will not touch them until every seed is sitting at the bottom (36-40 hours minimum)
Once they’ve all sunk they are ready for cooking. I don’t time anything with hemp I soak till they sink and I cook till I get the split I want.
I like a 25-30% spilt on my hemp. Split seed doesn't react in the water the same way as unsplit ones do and they tend to travel a bit further before becoming held up. Good as an attraction puller but the bulk of it I want where I want so I like that ratio. and I don’t believe the fish really care at all so long as they are cooked properly.

So for my preference on the split it’s around 20 mins ish at boiling point.
You can cook it for up to 40 mins and it will still stay crunchy but the split rate is much higher if that’s what you want.
Never add salt during Cooking as it stops the split pretty much altogether and a drop of bicarbonate soda isn’t necessary but it does nicely polish up the seeds so I add a couple of tee spoons.
Flavors are entirely up to you but be careful if adding during cooking that you ain’t putting any salt in or you’ll lose control over the split you want.
That’s my method and it’s slightly different to the usual 24 hours for this and 25 mins for this but I think the time is irrelevant. You can tell if it’s right simply by looking at your bait.
Key important thing is NOT Freshness it’s the soak time imo.
 
As ever Richard, on the money. I watched every YouTube video going pre-season as I have NEVER been able to get the same results using the methods I have seen. I have changed suppliers, used pressure cookers, coolboxes, Baby burcos - you name it and never got split hemp so ended up exactly as you say, soaking it for 2-3 days and boiling it until I had to , to get a reasonable split. Last time this meant I added even more water as it nearly boiled dry several times BUT I had again been suckered by Hinders and only soaked for 24 hours. I didn't know that re salt. Good post.
 
I agree Richard, I get a much better result with a longer soak. A couple of other points to those new to home hemp prep.
1) You don't have to start with a huge sackful (though it is much cheaper in bulk). Your local animal feed store will sell it loose. So buy a couple of kilos to try first.
2) it will probably contain quite a lot of dust, so wash it several times before putting in clean water to soak.
3) change water again before cooking.
4) I don't think it smells a lot during cooking, but my misses disagrees. For harmony cook in the garage on a camping stove if possible. Alternatively, and this is my method, I purchased a slow cooker from Tesco for about £10. On the high setting it takes about 3 hours to get the grains slightly soft and a split of around 30%. Then just leave overnight to cool.
5) drain off liquid, bag and put in the freezer . The liquid is great for mixing groundbait, but does not store for more than a few days.
Perhaps we should start a BFW masterchef competition.
 
I did ask about quality of hemp on here a long while ago - the stuff I got locally was tiny & didn't prepare well at all.
CC Moore reckon their stuff is top quality - have you tried it or an alternative?
I do know a racing pigeon feed supplier here in Yorks, maybe they would have some decent stuff?
 
Mike Thompson said:
I agree Richard, I get a much better result with a longer soak. A couple of other points to those new to home hemp prep.
1) You don't have to start with a huge sackful (though it is much cheaper in bulk). Your local animal feed store will sell it loose. So buy a couple of kilos to try first.
2) it will probably contain quite a lot of dust, so wash it several times before putting in clean water to soak.
3) change water again before cooking.
4) I don't think it smells a lot during cooking, but my misses disagrees. For harmony cook in the garage on a camping stove if possible. Alternatively, and this is my method, I purchased a slow cooker from Tesco for about £10. On the high setting it takes about 3 hours to get the grains slightly soft and a split of around 30%. Then just leave overnight to cool.
5) drain off liquid, bag and put in the freezer . The liquid is great for mixing groundbait, but does not store for more than a few days.
Perhaps we should start a BFW masterchef competition.
Click to expand...
Great info there. I would suggest though if you are freezing it add some liquid or it does dry right out with the dehydration process around freezing
 
Julian Marshall said:
I did ask about quality of hemp on here a long while ago - the stuff I got locally was tiny & didn't prepare well at all.
CC Moore reckon their stuff is top quality - have you tried it or an alternative?
I do know a racing pigeon feed supplier here in Yorks, maybe they would have some decent stuff?
Click to expand...
I don’t buy top branded fishing stuff.
A friend gets me sacks of it probably from a bird feed place and like Mike said It sometimes just needs a good rinse.
Nice big seeds with a lovely green tinge to them.
 
When I used to fish mainly Europe often 3 week trips I used to take 56lb sacks I think I must have tried every method going but in the end I used to cook as I was using it on the bank in 15mins in a Pressure cooker
I never soaked it just filled the trivet and the trick was to only just cover the seeds with water ( yes they floated but used a plate pushing down JUST
to get the water level right)
bring it up to max steam pressure then time 15mins had perfect results every time I then tipped it in a bucket and added Himalayan pink rock salt to it this enabled me to put it in PVA bags
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Great info there. I would suggest though if you are freezing it add some liquid or it does dry right out with the dehydration process around freezing
Click to expand...
Richard, to be honest I do not bag mine. As a 70+ I have access to empty Horlicks jars😊. These are plastic and hold about a litre of hemp, so I always add some liquid before freezing. I remove from the freezer the night before a trip and put in my rucksack. Keeps everything including my sandwiches nice and cool.
 
I use alot of mixed particle, particularly for my prebaiting for river carp, and i generally soak most particles for longer than generally recommended, hemp being no exception.

I like to soak most for min 48 hours, some, like tigers, longer.
 
It wouldn't matter if the hemp I used was delicately harvested from the Himalayan steppes on a crisp Spring moon lit night by the slender fingertips of a Eurasian princess, washed by naiads, and prepared by Alain Ducasse himself precisely according to Richard's instructions with a resultant 27.5% split and each grain individually polished by hand in a saltless secret tincture prior to being counted into an ornately ribboned Morocco leather pouch; as it would still be lying on a turgid Thames river bed exactly where it landed when I chucked it in a week ago...
 
Edward Adcock said:
It wouldn't matter if the hemp I used was delicately harvested from the Himalayan steppes on a crisp Spring moon lit night by the slender fingertips of a Eurasian princess, washed by naiads, and prepared by Alain Ducasse himself precisely according to Richard's instructions with a resultant 27.5% split and each grain individually polished by hand in a saltless secret tincture prior to being counted into an ornately ribboned Morocco leather pouch; as it would still be lying on a turgid Thames river bed exactly where it landed when I chucked it in a week ago...
Click to expand...
How long did it take you to put that together?
No porkies now cos I’m betting you were sat writing that for at least 30 mins 🤣🤣
 
I find the most important thing is where you buy it from. In recent years, I’ve stopped buying the cheaper stuff from local seed merchants, as the grain size can be tiny and much of the seed is dead and doesn’t split (brown centre). Also when you get to the bottom of the sack, it’s crawling, with all manner of horrible creatures! Even found half a dead dried out rat in a sack once!

I tend to buy it now from Haith’s, who pre wash all their seeds (it’s also where I get my garden bird seed from), CC Moore or Hinders. I’ve just had 10 KG of Chinese Hemp delivered from Hinders and the grain size is huge. It splits well too; yes you pay more, but the quality is always good.
 
My old '3 day method', and still my go-to method if I'm preparing a lot of the stuff, is to just bung it in a bucket and cover it well with water and leave it ~3 days, stirring maybe twice a day to sort out the 'floaters' (that I don't see as a problem anyway). After that the seeds are black and mostly split.
I now often use a 24hr method for smaller amounts .... I'll 1/4 fill my pressure cooker with hemp, then half fill it with water, bring it up to pressure, then let it slowly cool on the hob. Next day I'll bring it up to pressure again, then leave it to cool ...and job's a good 'un.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
How long did it take you to put that together?
No porkies now cos I’m betting you were sat writing that for at least 30 mins 🤣🤣
Click to expand...

Probably less time than it takes you to cook your hemp Richard😋

For myself, I preheat a flask ,then when its hot, chuck out the boilingvwater, and fill it with dry hempseed, then add boiling water to the top ,leave it overnight and in the morning take the flask with me , the hemp is always ready to use , and mix it in the groundbait with the water from the flask.

I do not think that having it split makes any difference really, as an experiment once I dropped in a couple of good handfulls of hemp prepared as above , then painstakingly
hair rigged a half dozen swollen but not split particles on a size ten , plopped it into the prebaited area and within five mins had a good roach and a barbel out.

In all the years I have been using hemp, and I will bet it a lot longer than many, I have never worried about it being split, although its nice to see it when it does , I never lose any sleep over it.

David
 
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