Pimp your pellets
When it comes to pellets and powders there isn’t much bait pro, Ian Moore doesn’t know. Here’s two of his finest tweaks for the carp’s favourite produce…
Pellets in their various shapes, sizes and colours can be the ultimate summertime baiting edge, and are responsible for huge numbers of big carp captures each season. It would be fair to say, however, that most anglers who utilise pellets in their fishing tend to be quite non-experimental with their application, and there are a ridiculous amount of little tips and tricks which can be used to enhance their carp magnetism even further. A boilie fished over a bed of equal sized and buoyancy pellets…? No, we can do MUCH better than that! Read on…
Pimp those pellet mixes
MIX 1: COLOUR, ATTRACTION, MOVEMENT – THIS HAS THE LOT!
Ever used an ‘off the shelf’ pellet mix? There are so many available that it’s difficult to know which is the one for you… but! There are some neat little additions to these mixes which really can enhance their pulling power 10-fold. An example would be our Mini Ultra-Mix, which is an awesome carpet feed in its own right but a few tweaks can really set it apart from anything else! It already contains a blend of betaine pellets, salmon micro-feed, standard trout and shrimp pellets which are all superb feed items individually, and offer different taste and attraction properties to the carp.
Try this little edge though! Take a good quantity of Ultra-Mix and place it into a bucket. Next, take a fishy liquid food, such as Whole Krill Extract and add a liberal splash to the pellets and give them a really good shake. This oily, pungent liquid will coat all of the pellets and add a huge boost of soluble attraction as they breakdown. Next addition is a scoop of the awesome Pacific Tuna Pellets in 2mm. These evil smelling little red pellets add not only a huge boost of attraction to the mix, they also add a real splash of colour and this will just ensure the mix is nicely visible to the carp, especially when priming a nice marginal feature. Lastly, a good handful of the awesome Krill Micromass completes the mix. These oily, soft krill-based pellets add a much slower breakdown rate into the mix, and also a different texture.
If you concoct this little blend the day before your planned session and leave the liquid to really soak into the pellets overnight, you will be ready to go with an awesome feed the next day which will be perfect for straight loose-feeding or solid bags alike! The slick which comes off a solid bag tied up using this little mixture has to be seen to be believed, no doubt due to the oil content in the Whole Krill Extract and Krill Micromass…. definitely one for those summer sessions when the fish are cruising in the upper layers and you are trying to tempt them down, or for priming a few snaggy margin spots!
Powder coating with a difference
MIX 2: HERE’S HOW TO GIVE YOUR PELLETS SOME EXTRA KICK
Natural powdered additives are no secret, and are widely used in the carp fishing world. There are numerous quality additives which can boost your pellet mixes to the maximum. It’s dead simple to do, and is something that can easily be done whilst you are on the bank to try and nick an extra chance or two!
The secret is again to utilise a very sticky, gloopy liquid to give the pellets a decent coating. The absolute winner for this is one of the liquid fish protein type products, such as Krill Amino or Tuna L030. These amino and protein rich super foods are heavy, sticky liquids and will glaze the surface of the pellets allowing you to coat the pellets with the powder of your choice. The world is your oyster here, quite literally! There are so many good little combinations you can try, but as a suggestion why not coat some Marine Amino Pellets in Tuna L030 liquid and then give them a dusting of chilli powder or GLM Extract? You then have a pellet mix boosted with masses of extra attraction and a real kick to it when eaten by the carp.
This really is an inexpensive and simple little edge that will just set your approach apart from the standard ‘boilie over pellet’ method which is absolutely done to death by the masses, especially on the busy day ticket venues. A little selection of powdered additives will only cost you the same as a kilo of bait, and it just gives you a whole load of different options for solid bagging, making Stick mixes or simply boosting standard pellets as described.