Discover how pasta can transform your paste fishing.
My supermarket revelation will have you fishing paste in a whole new way
LOTS of anglers really struggle with paste fishing. They find the bait difficult to keep on the hook, or else it dries out and becoming unusable.
Yet pastes are well worth the effort – few baits produce the same level of attraction as these soft offerings. Fish find the texture easy to handle, and so will tend to eat more and larger offerings.
No two paste recipes are the same. A bait for margin fishing on the pole will be very different from one that you can cast out on the straight lead.
The simplest method is to fish paste down the margin on a short carp pole, a brilliant tactic late in the day when fish are used to finding discarded bait in the edge.
RELAXED MARGIN FISHING
A super-soft paste that almost melts off the hook is normally recommended for margin fishing, but let’s look at it a different way.
Big fish, often in less than 2ft of water, will inevitably move the rig around as they brush the line. Use a paste that is too soft and you will be constantly rebaiting. Personally, I prefer a more relaxed approach and I use a paste that holds together more effectively.
There is often no need to feed much when fishing paste. If the bait does not fall off the hook when you lift the rig out then it can be worth introducing a couple of small pieces, but most of the time I rely on the smell released, and the fact that I already have hungry fish in the peg, to keep the bites coming.
If you use a float with a relatively long bristle, the weight of the paste will be enough to sink the float. If the bait does become dislodged, the float will rise.
PASTE AT RANGE
Of course, a lot of the time, you will need to fish further out than the margins, either with a wagger or leger rig, and this can be where paste fishing becomes frustrating if your mix isn’t right.
The simplest thing to do is
to swap to a bait that has been designed specifically for this type of fishing.
Sonubaits Fibre Paste is a good example of a bait that will not come off the hook, even on a long chuck, and Steve Gregory’s Miracle Paste still takes some beating when I want a tough bait.
The secret of these baits is in their texture. Once wetted, they develop a stringy structure which binds together really well – sometimes too well, so make sure the hookpoint is exposed to avoid missed bites. Check out my Quick Tip to see how you can make your own stringy baits.
PASTE IN A TUBE
A soft paste is the ultimate attractor bait, creating a slick of flavour in the water as it breaks down. This is a massive edge, and can double the number of bites compared to skinned baits, like boilies, where most of the attraction is locked inside.
For many years I have used paste cages and Enterprise Tackle’s corn skins stuffed with paste to give me a long-lasting hookbait filled with soft paste. Increasingly, though fishery rules banning ‘fake baits’ are stopping me from using my favoured tactic, so I have been
searching for an alternative.
A lightbulb moment as I was cooking dinner one night saw me pocket a handful of pasta shells for later experimentation. These proved to be the answer that I had been looking for, being edible, tough and long-lasting. Better still, pasta comes in a huge range of different shapes, many of which are perfect for my purpose.
Having scoured various supermarkets, the best pasta that I have found so far for paste fishing is called Ditaloni Rigati. These are short tubes, that will last upwards of two hours in water, and are perfect for use with a size 10 hook. Other shapes that I have been using are the traditional pasta twists, with paste moulded around the outside, and pasta shells, which hold a good-sized portion of bait.
So, if you are having trouble fishing with paste baits, give this idea a go. It has certainly revolutionised my paste fishing, especially for bigger fish, taking all of the hassle and doubt out of these highly effective baits.