Particle Fishing

Particle fishing is a very much neglected form of carp fishing but it can be so incredibly effective in catching carp. Rod Hutchinson did so much pioneering work on particle fishing during the 1970’s and opened up so many carp anglers eyes to the effectiveness of various seeds, beans and peas through his numerous magazine articles of the time and then further still in the 80’s through his three books of the time.

These days I see so many carp anglers baiting up with particle baits as a back ground carpet feed but rarely see anyone actually fish particle baits on the hair or hook other than the odd grain of maize or tiger nut.

Just think about it for a moment. If I told you I could give you a bait to use which the carp ate and enjoyed eating. A bait they had a regular supply of but were never hooked on. A bait they felt no danger in eating, then you would be quite interested wouldn’t you?

Well, we have that situation with many particle baits. Yes anglers feed particles, particularly hemp seed, and the various mixed seed mixes available but so rarely try and fish the same bait on the hair. Just think of the kilos and kilos of hemp seed your average carp eats in a season yet never actually gets caught upon it. Yes, they may pick a boilie up whilst feeding on the hemp and get caught, but that is a totally different scenario. The carp get wary of the larger baits they often see on the baited patches such as boilies etc.

One only has to look at the Korda underwater DVD’s to see how willing the carp are to pick up the small items of feed but the larger items create so much caution within the fish. Now you can use this situation to your advantage as I have done on lots of different occasions particularly when using our Quest Baits Garlic Feast. By incorporating a few boilies into the feed but not actually using a boilie on the hook the carp remain wary of the boilies and take most of the other baits without too much caution.

Garlic feast is a blend of no less than 20 different ingredients, lots of mixed seeds, beans and peas. The carp absolutely love the stuff and it has become the only particle bait I use these days. I have always advocated mixing different baits together in both size shape and colour. The Garlic Feast is the outcome of this and is so different to many particle blends out there that I feel no need to change it. With it’s 20 different ingredients the carp really can’t have much of an idea why they got caught on it so long as your hook bait wasn’t significantly larger than most of the other baits.

Particle Tips

HOOK BAIT TIP
I often hear it said that the problem with trying to use most beans and peas as hook baits is that they often come off on the cast when using large leads. Or worse still the smaller nuisance species often remove them from the hair without dislodging the lead to let you know. I get around this by selecting a few baits prior to cooking and simply leave them soaking in a small container of water. This softens them up enough to get a baiting needle through but keeps them much tougher than the cooked baits you feed with.

SUMMER TIP
Do yourself a favour during the warmest periods of the year and try one rod fishing with particles only. Don’t put any boilies into the swim at all. You may be surprised how much action you get on the particles.

WINTER TIP
The warmest months of the summer have always been the most productive times for me whilst particle fishing but lots of particles really do work well during the winter too. I have done particularly well on flavoured wheat mixed with Sweetcorn.

COOKING TIP
If in doubt simply give everything a 24 hour soak prior to cooking. Bring the particles to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes for the smaller seed type baits and 30 minutes for the larger peas and nuts etc. I leave my baits in the same water for the whole duration and leave them to cool down in it too. There is a lot of attraction in that water.