MUSH... DIFFERENT GRAVY!
Need bites in a hurry? Get on slurry! Read on as Korum’s Mat Woods reveals why baiting with mushed-up boilies is the key to summer success
BOILED new potatoes... not your first choice, right? Much prefer some roasties or, better yet, a plateful of mushy mashed potato. I know which one I’m going for!
And it seems that the carp have a similar appetite after spawning. They just love ‘the mush’, which I believe in its current form began life in Oxfordshire, where constant angling pressure made the carp permanently difficult to catch.
Anglers were blitzing their boilies then adding lake water or hemp to make a mush, so a baited area looked as if it had been there a while.
While carp will indeed feed with more confidence over old baited areas, especially when no lines are present, they still love a good food signal – so if you can marry the two you’ve got a winning formula.
It’s my opinion that a good boilie gets better the longer it’s in a lake, as more of its ‘cooked-in’ goodness gets chance to release and the soluble ingredients start to work their magic. However, nothing is perfect straight out the bag, so pimping the slurry with liquid ingredients is a good way to ‘carry’ them into the lake.
Take hemp and its juices. Normally, those juices are lost in the undertow. Capture them in boilies, which are like a sponge, and you lock in that goodness, flavour and food signal. That’s what the mush is all about, for me.
I make it by crushing up loads of Code Red boilies, quite loosely, then adding hemp until it forms a stodge, like a cake mix.
You can mix it up so it’s more liquid if you like, but for the sake of Spombing or throwing it in, a slightly firmer mix is bang on.
It’s important that some ‘chunks’ of bait are left in, and that any hookbait presented over the top is not overly buoyant.
A wafter or a chunk of bottom bait seems to be best and, in my own experience, that seems to work perfectly. Pop a Code Red dumbbell or Wafter on a German rig and you’re laughing.
At least that was certainly the case when I visited Baden Hall’s Glovers Pool recently for the first time in over three years!
I hadn’t actually fished it since it opened to the public – I was fortunate enough to fish it during the test-fishing stages and caught a lot of carp in a short period of time. I was hoping for a similar result and had a bucket of Code Red crumb, a bucket of Sonubaits Hemp and Meat and assorted bits, like sweetcorn, to add a touch of colour.
I wanted to target the shallow water and spent a lot of time investigating the lakebed. I think it was a good six hours before I decided where to fish!
I was so confident with what I’d found, however, and placed almost all the bait I’d brought with me on to a nice sandy area on the far margin, where the carp were patrolling regularly. It was a massive gamble in 30ºC temperatures, but I’ve found that through the night and morning the water temperature reduces just enough to get them going.
And so it proved to be! My first bite came in the morning, and the spot provided a steady procession of mega-looking carp who had clearly been enjoying the sunshine.
They were so black and gnarly, and it was awesome seeing them in such great light conditions.
As I’d put so much bait in to start with, I didn’t need to disturb the area between bites with more bait. I’d just get my rods out there as soon as I could and ensure I made the most of the window of opportunity.
The great thing about the mush is that the fish keep coming back looking for those larger pieces. It’s easier for them to eat the chunks of boilie, the bits of corn and patches of hemp than it is trying to sift through all the mush.
It drives them mad and gets them competing – a situation that lowers their guard and makes them very catchable.
Obviously, with the mush, you can tweak it as you see fit. I’ve done well using the 24/7 boilie,
for instance, in conjunction with blended up sweetcorn and loads of salt. I like that salt and sugar contrast if the lake gets an algal bloom – for some reason carp really seem to like that when the clarity levels are reduced.
I ended my trip to Glovers with 10 carp –a great return for my 48-hour trip and a testament to the great fishing on offer in the summer when it all comes together. What’s crazy is that eight of my carp came in the space of four hours. Talk about feeding time at the zoo!
Had the wind continued to blow strongly I believe that tally could have been even higher. The mush really drove them wild and the carp were truly breathtaking. In fact, a little like a good bowl of mashed potato, Glovers is full of bangers! Different gravy!