offs in these situations is to use the shortest hook

I suspect I am right in saying that the majority of anglers fishing for carp will use boilies for bait. Some of them will regard particles as just another bait, when, in fact, they are much more than that. Fishing particles properly is an angling principle. Particles are a relatively cheap, yet in terms of fish catching, not necessarily inferior alternative to the ubiquitous boilie. One cannot hope to cover the whole scope of particle fishing in one short article, but what I will try to do is to give anglers with little or no experience of fishing particles a rough idea of the principles and techniques involved. First, I would define particles as the collective name given to small baits that are applied in quantity, and as such the name covers many different forms of bait ranging from maggots, through all the seeds, beans, nuts and pulses, to particle boilies. One should be clear at the outset that though some particle baits do work better than others, when using particles as bait you are employing a baiting principle as much as you are utilising a type of bait. At its best that principle takes advantage of the fish’s tendency to become preoccupied with small and abundant food items, by ensuring that there is a plentiful supply of the particle in use. Some baits which generally come under the heading of particles have been fished successfully without actually using that principle, so don’t think that the first pre-requisite is to fill in the lake with your bait. This applies particularly to the larger baits, such as tiger nuts, the introduction of which, in great quantities, may eventually have a detrimental effect on the fish and indeed they have been banned on some waters simply because some anglers went over the top with their baiting schemes. Baiting quantities will obviously depend on how large the individual baits are, and you should think in terms of weight rather than quantity. As a general guide, somewhere between a half pound and two pounds are usually sufficient around your hook-baits, though this will of course depend both on how long you plan to stay at the water, how many carp you would judge are likely to be feeding at any one time, and how large those carp are. Particles have also been criticised for being of low nutritive value. Such criticism may well be justified, but if so it will apply equally to some of the boiled baits in use these days. As in all things, moderation is the name of the game, especially if you choose a bait that only the carp may eat. When using very small seeds that can be eaten by other coarse fish, over-baiting may not cause so much of a problem. On the face of it, fishing just one or two hook-baits among perhaps several hundred free offerings, you might expect to wait an awfully long time for any action. However, this is not necessarily the case, and if the carp are on your baits, it is surprising how often you can get a take within minutes of casting a single hook-bait among perhaps several hundred free offerings. If however this does worry you, it may give you more confidence to fish a boiled hook-bait, pop-up or otherwise, on top of your particle bed; indeed this has been a very successful method. But bear in mind, if your baiting has been successful and you have achieved a degree of pre-occupation then any other type of bait may well be ignored. I have encountered puzzled anglers who have had carp feeding heavily on beds of hemp and are unable to catch them by fishing a bright yellow pop-up over the top. Indeed, from what I’ve heard, something similar has happened only recently to one of the best-known carp anglers in the country. I won’t embarrass him though, by naming him. If you think this situation is occurring, I’d advise you to cut down on the amount of free offerings, and perhaps fish popped up particles as hookbaits.When using particles, fishing methods should be carefully considered. The idea of using relatively large quantities of small baits is to get the fish feeding with confidence. If you succeed in doing this, then the carp will not be moving very far between picking up each bait. If you don’t set up your rig to give you an early indication that the fish has the bait, then you may suffer from bite-offs where the fish takes the bait down and bites through the line with its pharyngeal teeth. This manifests itself in a screaming run, a strike, a bump, and the retrieval of a hook-less rig. It is less likely to happen with braid than with mono, but it can still happen. By far the most successful method of avoiding bite-offs in these situations is to use the shortest hook-link that the nature of the lake bottom allow(e.g. don’t go too short if it’s silty, or weedy), usually in conjunction with a fairly big fixed, or semi-fixed (back-stopped) lead. Thus the carp, on picking up the bait will feel resistance almost immediately, and should bolt before taking the bait back to the throat teeth, giving you an un-missable run. There are of course many variations on that theme, but the purpose of this article is only to give a basic out-line of particle fishing. One of the main disadvantages with using particles is that it can restrict the range at which you are fishing. Most particles don’t catapult out all that well, especially if you are fishing into a wind. If you do wish to fish particles at range, and on many waters that may give you an advantage, as particle beds at 80 yards may be something the fish have not previously encountered, and may allay their suspicions of such a set-up, then you can use bait-droppers, or as they are now more generally known, spods. Don’t ask me why they are called spods as I’ve never been sure from whence that name originated. There are commercial versions available, such as the various bait rockets made by Gardner tackle, which are good for medium to long range baiting. The Gardner pocket-rocket will cast 100 yards or more on the right tackle. If you want to bait at long range then you will need a fairly powerful rod. I sometimes use a beach-caster, though this is hard work, and if you have a spare, fairly through action rod of around 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 lbs t.c., you will find this far more manageable. Use light running line with a heavy shock leader for maximum distance, and don’t worry about all the commotion – I have caught fish within minutes of putting out particle beds on a bait dropper. I think sometimes the splashes actually attract them! You don’t even need an especially big reel – with fine running line (I use Drennan Double strength 10lb) you can cast an awfully long way with a Mitchell 300. Better than that are the Mitchell 410, and 810 as they have a much quicker retrieval rate than the 300. The 810 retrieves significantly quicker than both the 300 and the 410, and if you have plenty of spodding to do, you’ll soon come to appreciate a reel that allows you to retrieve the dropper quickly. And the relative small size of these reels means you can easily find space for them in your tackle bag, or on a made up rod in a holdall. You can pick the aforementioned reels up quite cheaply second hand. Generally particles can be split into several groups, and preparation is broadly similar within each group. Firstly, the seeds and pulses, which tend to be the smallest of the particles. These can be prepared just by soaking overnight. Some anglers recommend that they then be boiled to prevent the seeds germinating, while others recommend letting the seeds germinate and ferment. Try both and see which works best. One of the best of the smaller particles is undoubtedly hemp-seed, prepared in the normal way of boiling until the case splits. Again, anglers have claimed good results by merely letting the seed germinate, though I have not tried this myself. I expect you’d get some funny plants coming up if you did manage to germinate hemp! I have had problems when using hemp in that the carp became so preoccupied, I couldn’t get them to take anything else, and every time I tried hemp as a hook-bait, the roach nicked it! Sprouted moth beans can be very effective. To get them (or any other seed to sprout), first soak them over-night. They will expand to almost 3 times their original size, so leave plenty of room in the bucket! I then put them into a clear plastic bin liner, lay it on its side and spread the beans out to a depth of no more than half an inch and leave them in the sun. This acts as a mini greenhouse and the beans will sprout within a day or so. I have used them like this without any apparent problems of them growing on in the lake, or frozen them at this point for later use. You’ll need to dry some out to keep as hook-baits otherwise you might find them too soft to cast. Maples are an excellent bait, and the best method of preparation would seem to be to soak them until the water they are in turns a milky white. They are fairly easy to fire out in a catapult, being quite dense, and uniform in shape. This may however give you a problem when fishing over soft silt, so do think about what you are doing. Maize seems to have gone out of fashion lately, but Mike Wilson had some phenomenal catches on it from Savay many years ago. This was a classic case of application of a bait, and maize was only chosen because it was one of the cheapest baits around. Mike refers to his method as the ‘Baiting Pyramid”. Full details of this have been published elsewhere, I believe in one of the very early Carp Society Magazines. It is prepared either by pressure cooking and soaking, which was what Mike did, or by fermenting. Similarly, sweet-corn has been a very successful bait, with the advantage that it needs no preparation. Probably as much to do with its easily recognisable colour as anything else, many carp are now extremely wary of it. However, there must be many waters that haven’t seen sweet-corn for some time and it could be due for a revival, especially now the cormorants have eaten all the small (nuisance?) fish in most of our gravel pits. Dying sweet-corn a different colour would seem a good idea, though I don’t think it was ever as successful as it was in its original form. Of the beans, broad beans and black eyes have been very successful, though due to their shape, they are very difficult to catapult, flying all over the place if you try for any distance. They are best prepared by cooking in a soup such tomato, or beef, until they are fairly soft. They are fairly buoyant and are useful when fishing over silt or weed. Two of the most popular particles over the past decade have been peanuts, and tiger nuts. However, both are said to represent a potential danger to the carp. Inferior grades of peanut can cause some forms of cancer, and preoccupation on them can also cause deficiencies in certain vitamins. If you must use them, please do so in moderation, and only buy human food grade, not animal grades. They are prepared by either soaking, boiling, or both. Tiger nuts have had an equally bad press with some people, and it is said that even if properly prepared, they can cause internal damage to a carp if that carp is put under any stress (i.e. being caught!) when it has tiger nuts in its intestine. This is evidenced by bleeding at the vent. If the nuts are not properly prepared, that is cooked and soaked until soft, then damage to the carp is almost certain to result. I have had most success with tiger nuts when I have boiled them, then left them to soak for a week or so in normal summer temperatures. At this stage they, and the liquid they are in become quite sticky. A word of warning here – when they reach this stage, don’t try to catapult them into the wind – if you do you won’t be able to get a comb through your hair for weeks! That, and the original hair rig have a lot to answer for in terms of bald carp anglers!When using particles as hookbaits, it is often advantageous to use more than one bait on the hook, or hair, and you may wish to balance or pop them up in the same way as you do boiled baits. This can be achieved by either mounting them on a hair together with small pieces of cork, polystyrene or rig foam, or by drilling a hole in the bait and inserting a piece of buoyant material into the bait itself. Most particles can be flavoured by including some form of flavour at the boiling/soaking stage, though I must admit that with the exception of the beans, I have never found this to make much difference. I don’t believe they hold the flavour for that long once in the water.One of the most effective forms of particle, though not actually classified as a particle, but applying the same principle, is the particle boilie. This gives you the dual advantage of the undoubtedly successful particle principle, combined with control over the ingredients of the bait. Particle boilies are also easy to make if you don’t want them round – just roll out a sausage as for normal boilies, chop it into pieces, then boil. I think that the smaller the bait, the more likely it is that pre-occupation will occur. This may never happen though, especially if you are fishing a water where a lot of bait is going in on a regular basis. It may be that your water hasn’t seen particles fished properly for some time. They are definitely due for a revival and it may be that on some waters at least, they might now produce more fish than boilies. Worth a thought! Many pet shops will provide a limited range of particles, but probably the prime supplier of quality particle baits (and a good variety of pellets too) are Hinders of Swindon, and I am indebted to them for letting me use, at short notice, photos from their catalogue. Hinders will readily offer advice on any subject relating to particles, and have a rapidly evolving web site at www.hinders.co.uk. Failing that you can phone them on 01793 333900 for advice, or a copy of their catalogue which contains some interesting seed mixtures. They also sell at a reasonable price some great particle buckets, with lids that don’t make that terrible rasping sound right across the lake as you remove them.

Alan Tomkins