Prepare to catch! Liquid goodness & max attraction!

If there’s one thing my angling relies upon it’s preparation! My time on the bank is generally pretty limited at just a night, or maybe two at the weekend. To maximise my time at venues, I nearly always travel to them straight from work. To take advantage of every moment, I try to have as many things as possible, prepared and ready to go. Rigs are tied, homework on new waters is done and a little knowledge gathered, and then of course, there’s the bait…

Prepping the mix

Having your bait prepared for such sessions is obviously important, but it also gives you the chance to tweak or create your mix according to your personal preferences - which is exactly what I do. My mix may alter slightly from time to time depending on the lake I’m fishing, but in most cases, it’ll remain the same.

Firstly, I’ll defrost some boilies - Cell, Hybrid or The Link (like I say, my mix may vary slightly from lake to lake, and the boilie flavour is generally what I’ll alter). Next, I’ll add some Response Pellets. I might also prepare these the night before putting together my mix, by adding some Hemp Oil, thus allowing 24hrs for the pellets to soak in the liquid. Oil leaving the pellets to rise up through the water column can really help in the summer months, when the fish are often found well off the bottom.

Particle & Pellet Syrups: packed with attraction, they’re an absolute must for my bait prep

Back to the boilies… Once these have thawed overnight, I’ll crush and crumb pretty much all the baits. By doing this, I believe you release all the goodness and attraction from them much quicker enabling you to create a cloud in the water column. You’ll also leave lots of small particles of crumb on the lakebed which hopefully, will keep the carp in your area longer. I’ll then add the Response pellets to give a ratio of around 60/40, boilie to pellet.

Now for the final, and perhaps most important element of the mix: some Particle & Pellet Syrup. These liquids are absolutely brilliant! Again, they provide heaps of attraction which disperses throughout the water column to create a ‘halo’ effect around your baited area. What’s more, it’s impossible to overdose with this liquid - which is great, as you want to make sure that every piece of bait gets an even coating.

My bait mix needs to keep from turning during my session

Why? Well, the coating of syrup provides one more very important function: it will preserve the boilie crumb throughout the duration of your session, which means you won’t be worrying about the mix turning. This is a stupidly good benefit if, like me, you prep the mix in the week, two or three days ahead of your Friday-night venue sprint!

How to put together Lawrence's boilie mix

1. These are the baits you’ll need for my mix: boilies (Cell), Response Pellets and Particle & Pellet Syrup.

2. Start by removing the freezer baits from the bag and thawing them out - preferably overnight.

3. Either by hand or with a mechanical crusher, chop and crumb pretty much all of the boilies next.

4. Now add some Response Pellets - for an extra boost you can soak these in Hemp Oil beforehand.

5. At this stage, your mix should look something like this, with around a 60/40 split between boilie and pellets.

6. The Particle & Pellet Syrup goes in next. You can’t overdo it, so give everything a good, even coating.

7.Make sure you give the mix a good stir - you want all the items to be coated so it won’t turn.

8. The finished mix will look like this and makes the perfect base for addition to baits like particles and corn.

9. Forming a halo-like cloud from the Spomb, with liquid attraction diffusing through the water column…

Loz's top tip
During the warmer months, I like to give my solid bags an edge. Just before casting out, I inject Hemp Oil directly into the contents of the bag, this will immediately give off attraction through the upper layers and can quite often draw the fish down to your spot, bringing you a quick bite.