Archie with a superb Bream

There are many good groundbait mixes on the market, but to buy a bag each time you go fishing really bumps up your costs. This easily variable mix is one I’ve used for 20 years, its very inexpensive, and easy to prepare.

There are four basic ingredients;

  • white crumb
  • brown crumb
  • maize flour
  • bran

I buy a sack of each and store it in plastic bins; it lasts forever if kept dry. If two or three of you share the cost you will each get a couple of years worth or more at a very low price. These ingredients all have a job to do, as follows.

WHITE CRUMB…
This is a binder, the more you put in the stiffer the mix will become.

BROWN CRUMB…
Doesn’t bind as much, and is a more active ingredient than white.

MAIZE FLOUR…
Another binder, very fine, but when disturbed by rooting fish it clouds the water temporarily. This, and the two ‘crumbs’ can be obtained for you by your local tackle shop.

BRAN…
This overlooked ingredient is hardly ever used these days, but it’s vital to any mix. If you take a handful, soak it, squeeze it as hard as you can then drop it in the water, it will immediately separate. It will not bind, so, dependant on how much you use, you can control the rate your mix breaks down in the water. Bran is obtained from animal feed stores, and I recently paid around £7.00 for a 40kg bag¬… which is a large amount. Certainly enough to supply three anglers for 2-3 years of regular use.

QUANTITIES

I use cheap plastic jugs to measure out my ingredients, which have various printed measures on the side, including pints. I fill a jug with the dry powder up to the following marks:

BRAN                          1 PINT
BROWN CRUMB          1 PINT
MAIZE FLOUR            ¾ PINT
WHITE CRUMB           ¾ PINT

Well mixed together, this gives about 1kg of dry items. This is my standard mix, but if I want it to bind more I’ll reduce the Bran by a quarter of a pint, and up the White Crumb by the same amount. Vice versa for a looser mix, and you could juggle about with all of the ingredients to obtain different mixes if you wish.

Add to this dry mix the additive of your choice from the Quest or Archie Braddock range, at the levels recommended on the container, using Xotic for perch, Supaspice for roach, etc.

To a 1 kilo dry mix I add three quarters of a pint of water, using the same jug. Mixed well and left 20mins to absorb water, it will give you a fairly dry mix, to which you can add river water when fishing, if needed.

Before adding the water I stir flavour into it, adding 5mls of Red Surprise to the three quarters of a pint of water. I use this flavour not only because it’s a proven perch attractor, but because it’s a ‘thin’ flavour which disperses into the water faster. My Perch Magic I reserve for dipping worms into, and for treating the dead maggots I use in my Choppy Mix. I don’t supply the trade now, except for my local shop Walkers, 0115 9301816. You can come direct to me, but I would need a cheque with order. There are of course many other flavours you can use, but the two mentioned are the only ones on the market developed for, and exhaustively tested on, perch.

Tight lines,
Archie Braddock.

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