Bait-Tech’s Andy Bennett
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
QWould you consider still using groundbait in winter, even though the fish seem to only want tiny bits of food?
A Without a doubt where silverfish are concerned! Fish such as skimmers and roach love groundbait even in winter and you’ll also catch carp and F1s over it, although for targeting purely these fish I would always opt for feeding particles such as maggots or micro pellets.
However, if I were after roach, skimmers, ide and so on, then groundbait would play a key part but I would take it easy at the start, feeding maybe one or two small tangerine-sized balls of groundbait and then looking to top up with small nuggets of the mix if and when bites dried up.
You can also try adding some 2mm micro Carp & Coarse Pellets into the mix if skimmers are likely, but these should be minimal amounts as you won’t need to feed many to keep the fish grazing about for long periods without filling them up too much.
If I was expecting mainly roach, then maggots or casters would be added, again only as a sprinkling.
In terms of which mixes to use, I tend to go for Bait-Tech’s Pro-Natural on venues where pellets aren’t used that much and so the fish don’t see much fishmeal. On the flipside, if I was on a fishery where pellets are fed regularly and there were a lot of skimmers present too, this would change to Bait-Tech F1, a crushed pellet mix that works brilliantly fished alongside expander pellets on the hook.