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Features >> Harry Charrington-Particle Hookbait Success

Harry Charrington-Particle Hookbait Success

Having just returned from another successful trip to the Linear Fisheries complex I thought I would quickly share with you a great little tip for a slightly different, yet highly effective hook bait.

At the Complex and indeed all over the country in the spring and summer month’s particles seem to dominate the baiting strategies of many anglers and this is not without good reason. They really do seem to get the carp grubbing about on the deck, searching for every last little bit of hemp. Saying this, the catch reports generally see anglers catching over the bait on a 14 or 16mm boilies, which is obviously great as they have caught fish and I am sure they have returned very happy. However, I always find this slightly strange as the fish will be picking up all of the tiny bits of particle and a 14mm bait will be significantly larger and I believe may be approached with more caution by the carp.

I tend to opt for small baits when fishing over particle as I believe that it will always get you a quicker bite than a large one. I always include the larger baits in my mix as I believe these act almost as decoys the fish deliberately leave the larger baits till last, clearing up the small bits as quickly as they can. This is not just a theory either, I have many times recently, observed carp in the edge, on the Richworth complex and also fox pool in the Colne Valley becoming preoccupied on the smaller baits that the large ones are ignored right till the very end.

My standard baits for fishing over particle have been tiny 8 and 10mm Tutti pop-ups that I have rolled myself however on this particular session two baits worked exceptionally well sharing the 18 bites I received 50/50 the first was a 10mm KG1 with half an 8mm white Tutti popup topping it, just to take away the weight of the hook. The second bait is a rather special one.

A number of years ago Alexei Bygrave showed me a bait that he had taken apart a number of waters with, including the Carp Societies Horseshoe lake. It is simply maize soaked in the Richworth Minamino. I believe soaking the bait in this enhances its attraction tenfold and thus it is one of the first bits to be taken by the carp rather than the last. The pot I brought with me was one of Alexei’s old batches that had been soaking for over 5 years! Which shows that it does not matter how long you soak it for it is still an incredibly effective bait. All you need to do is pick the good grains out of a tin of maize put them in an old pop up pot and add 10 to 15mm of Minamino, give it a good shake and there you have it, special maize hookbaits for the next 10 seasons. These I know will catch you loads of carp and what’s more will be different to anything the other anglers are using on your lake.

I fished these baits this week on St Johns as single grains with a tiny piece of foam on top, over a light scattering of particle on a marginal shelf and managed 12 carp to 30lbs whilst the others on the lake struggled to catch anything at all.

So why not give it a try and I'm sure your particle fishing will be transformed!

Best of luck

Harry Charrington

 

 

 

 

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