Groundbait mix for natural venue

[sam]

Hi Guys,

I'm after some advice on targeting a natural venue, in these cold winter months. The estate lake is a couple acres in size, surrounded by woodland. It holds Roach, Perch,Tench but people mainly fish it for the large specimen Carp. It doesn't get heavily fished, and I don't think anyone really targets the silverfish in there. I want to give it a go see what surprises might come along!

Anyway, I've attached a map of the lake, showing the depths. They range from 7 to 16ft, with a shallow and deep end. My approach is going to be to fish typical natural baits, such as casters, worms and red maggots, over a black groundbait mix.

For the mix itself I'm sure whether to fish a sweet or sweet fishmeal mix? Also given the depth would it pay to add some river groundbait as a binder, and mole hill for weight?

Any advice on targeting this sort of venue would be appreciated

[joffmiester]

Hi Sam i would go down the lines of a traditional mix probably a dark mix with a smell rather than high food content this way you can attract fish in to your peg rather than feeding them . Established are often hard to crack i wouldn't use fishmeal on this trip i'd see how you get on with a low feed G/B as you can always add chopped worm dead pinkies and casters to your mix.
Sensas Gros Gardons black
Sensas lake for the smell
probably Sensas match blend no feed content
Sounds negative but you can put more in but you can't take it out .
let us know how you get on

[sam]

Thanks Joff, I will let you know how I get on

[daskin]

I would suggest Punch but looking at your map it looks a bit too deep.

[SW]

I would suggest Punch but looking at your map it looks a bit too deep.

Hi Derek,

Just out of interest would you ever consider about using gravel mixed in with some Liccy if fishing deep water margins,

Reason for asking is that I used to fish quite regularly at one time on the tidal Thames for the roach and dace trotting sticks and always used gravel mixed in with Liccy and crumb to good affects, the mix was also stiffened a little to give it time to get down to the bottom layers before breaking up, this was in depths of up to around 10ft or so

[daskin]

To be totally honest I have never used gravel with liquidised bread-- I dont normally fish deep waters, so I cant really comment on that.
I know lots of folks swear by it, but in my opinion its more phycological that practical,, as in my opinion, using my liquidised,it would seperate on the way down, say after about 3-5ft with the gravel dropping to the bottom and the bread clouding in midwater. plus the chance of the fish going for the gravel, also if you try to get your feed down to the bottom in a lump on shallower water -you are completely defeating the object -- I may be wrong on this one, I stand to be corrected if i am.
PS: I have fished my method in our club pond in 8ft of water, just used the normal liquidised--and had 100 Roach for 10lb.

[SW]

To be totally honest I have never used gravel with liquidised bread-- I dont normally fish deep waters, so I cant really comment on that.
I know lots of folks swear by it, but in my opinion its more phycological that practical,, as in my opinion, using my liquidised,it would seperate on the way down, say after about 3-5ft with the gravel dropping to the bottom and the bread clouding in midwater. plus the chance of the fish going for the gravel, also if you try to get your feed down to the bottom in a lump on shallower water -you are completely defeating the object -- I may be wrong on this one, I stand to be corrected if i am.
PS: I have fished my method in our club pond in 8ft of water, just used the normal liquidised--and had 100 Roach for 10lb.

Yep can see what yer saying Derek, that would make sense,
I normally only used to use the gravel with Liccy and make it quite stiff for when I was fishing the depths of the tidal Thames and where the river maybe pushing through at a rate of knots, this would be in the days when I used to fish there regularly with big sticks and balsa's inching it through the swim

Nowadays most of me fishing is now done more locally on the Medway which is generally quite slow running and with depths of around 4-5 ft in the margins and with 8-9 ft in the centre track