Using paste in winter

Paste has been around for a long time in angling and over the years it has been used by many in a variety of different situations. In recent years, anglers have often overlooked paste, choosing to use more conventional tactics involving boilies and pellets throughout the year.

Paste, in its raw form, is much more attractive than your standard boilie, due to the fact that it has not had a skin formed around the bait following the boiling process. What this means is, the attraction from a paste bait leaks out much quicker than from boiled bait, increasing the solubility and amount of food signals released into the water column.

Paste is extremely tacky, soft and pliable to the touch, while maintaining all the important ingredients that go into the boilie of choice. While this does have its drawbacks, paste also offers a whole host of excellent properties that allow the angler to tailor it
to their type of fishing.

Coming into the colder months of the year, paste comes into its own, with the high level of digestibility and instant attractiveness, utilising paste throughout the winter months is a surefire winner!

The following feature outlines some great ways of putting paste to good use, but with a little creative thought, you can certainly incorporate paste effectively into your style of fishing this winter.

2. Adding coarse ingredients

Adding coarse powders and groundbaits helps to effectively speed up the breakdown of the paste when introduced into the water. This is most effectively done by pinching a small amount of paste and rolling it into the coarse powder. A perfect choice for this type of tactic is the Meggablend Fruit which contains a mixture of fruity, crunchy and highly appealing sugars and seeds. By combining the highly soluble paste with the coarse base mix, it helps speed up the breakdown of the paste, making it less sticky and more water-soluble, releasing attraction quickly into the water column. This tactic is vital during the cooler times of the year when the water levels are much lower and can be used alongside small amounts of boilie loose feed to create unique attraction in the swim.

3. Boosting your paste with naturals

A tricky little tip for adding superb natural attraction and taste aroma to further enhance the paste is with the use of naturals. One such bait that is ideal for this neat tactic is the Frozen Water Snails. Again, take a small pinch of the paste and press it firmly into a small amount of water snails. Due to the paste being sticky, the small snails cling firmly, making a lovely alternative bait, bursting with natural feeding triggers. With the cold temperatures approaching, the lake’s natural food will begin to slowly depreciate and this is when small pockets of natural attraction entice the carp to feed harder.

4. Packing with pellet power!

A devastating method of creating unique paste balls full of attraction and ideal for baiting small areas or marginal traps is with the addition of adding pellets. With the summer months now a distant memory, the ideal bait leading into the winter is one that breaks down well in cold-water conditions and this is where the Milkamin Pellets perfectly compliment the paste balls. By simply pressing the paste into the pellet, you can develop small, super appealing balls of soluble goodness that breakdown leaving a carpet
of pellets with the scent of paste.

5. Meshing up

Meshing is by far the best way of presenting a paste bait. By taking a small pinch of paste and wrapping it in a dedicated mesh or tights allows you to use paste effectively as a hookbait. This ensures that all the goodness and highly soluble attraction can now be presented effectively on your rig, ensuring that the bait remains intact, constantly leaking off potent attraction. To further enhance the attractive properties and food signals being released from the hookbait, coating the bait in powder before meshing is a fantastic way of boosting the paste bait with added taste and aroma.

With a whole host of great, individual powders available you can quite easily tailor your paste hookbait with the addition of a crusty layer of super- soluble appeal that carp find hard to resist.

6. Corkballing

Due to the fact that paste is identical in colour and attraction to your free offerings, it lends itself perfectly to creating the ‘match the hatch’ style of hookbait. By wrapping the paste round a corkball, rolling it in the palm of your hands until perfectly round and then boiling it, you are left with the perfect matching hookbaits.