Such is the effectiveness and popularity of pellets on commercial fisheries, it’s easy to ignore groundbait. I can understand why, because fish see so many pellets that these more or less now form their natural diet.
That’s not to say groundbait won’t work, though. There’s nothing to stop you feeding three or four balls in an open-water swim, but doing this will create its own set of problems. You see, in deep water I think groundbait can cause the swim to fizz with bubbles too much as the fish tear up the bottom, eating what they can find.
For that reason, groundbait for me only comes into play when using the feeder, fishing for skimmers or having a go in the margins. For some reason, it’s a lot easier to hold fish in shallow swims using groundbait, perhaps because they’re not as hard to catch in 18 inches of water?
Feel free to use groundbait – all I’d say is, be aware of the instances when it really works better than anything else and, of course, when it doesn’t!
Getting it down
My mix for the edge needs to sink quickly and stay on the bottom. It also needs a high food content. That means Dynamite Swim Stim Match Sweet Fishmeal, mixed on the wet side.
Fishmeal favourite
For open water I’d feed a few balls if skimmers were about. A sweet fishmeal mix keeps all species happy, and for F1s on snake lake far banks I’d use Ringer Baits F1 Black with Ringer’s Original.
For bream and carp
A great feeder mix for big bream and carp is 50/50 Ringer Baits Original and Dark. Mixed on the wet side, it gives off a cloud as the feeder sinks – especially important for bream.
Match the hatch
When fishing the pole with expanders, I use Ringer Baits R Crush, mixed wet. It’s basically crushed pellets and ‘matches the hatch’, giving the fish the same as what’s on the hook.
