Part 1 Bait Quest Series
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I| SHAUN HARRISON BAIT QUEST Bait Quest Shaun Harrison PASTE... THE FINAL FRONTIER Shaun Harrison needs no introduction, he’s one of the quickest minds in carp fi shing and has a depth of knowledge about bait that is second to none. This month Shaun looks in detail at what can be achieved with paste! III|III Paste – have you got the balls? hink of a bait that can be any size, any What Is Paste? II|I shape, any colour, any flavour, floating, For the purpose of this article, each time MAX 0gms T sinking, soft, skinned, air-dried, coated, I refer to paste I am relating to the ball of impregnated, and can be used with the hook dough-like substance created during boilie- buried inside it so that it can be presented on making. This is the soft paste before it is the top of soft weed and silt! Sounds great, actually rolled out into separate baits and doesn’t it? So, why is it that I see so few anglers boiled. Paste baits can be made in different carrying paste, let alone using it? I, for one, ways, using water, or any other liquid come to would feel lost without a couple of tubs of that. Again, for the purpose of this article, I paste in my pack. There are so many uses for am referring to pastes made from boilie base it other than the obvious one, as an alternative mix ingredients, additives and eggs. The few | hookbait to the more commonly used boilies, people I do see using paste simply use it as a I I particles and pellet. For many years I was a soft alternative to a boilie. It does, however, I I | little blinkered into thinking that I could offer many advantages to the standard hard- I I only get away with using paste baits during skinned boiled bait. The whole idea of the I I | the colder winter months when nuisance fish boilie was to make it difficult for small I I become less of a problem. Then again, I only nuisance fish to eat the baits. By boiling I I saw paste as a soft mouldable bit of unboiled the paste a skin forms on the outside of the | I I boilie mix. So, what other variations does paste bait. If you continue to boil the bait it will I 16 I present, or what else can we do with paste? become hard all the way through as the egg | 70gms I I I I | I I 016_Paste.indd 2 20/12/06 22:41:59 |I 40gms II 700ml I| II I I Bait Quest Shaun Harrison What’s your fl avour? 6 50 a ball of paste to form a boilie destroys many paste on the Hair. For years I used to tie a of the additives that are added to the mix pre- plastic bead or a button onto the Hair Rig boiling. Not only this, but some of the more then mould the paste around this. It was a subtle attractors that carp find so appealing method that worked well for so long, simply are often trapped behind a sealed skin. With giving the paste something to grip and mould standard paste baits, all those expensive bits around. These days I prefer to use a small and bobs that went into the mix remain boilie on the Hair and mould my bait around in the mix and are free to slowly leak out this. If the nuisance fish do strip the boilie into water surrounding the bait. The mere of paste, at least I still have a bait in place. fact that the bait hasn’t been cooked keeps Having said that, I have now caught so many everything more soluble. A piece of paste has carp on artificial baits I would400ml probably still so much more pulling power than any boiled have caught on a plastic bead or button. Who 400m bait. However, there is a drawback – small knows – I probably have! nuisance fish will peck away at the bait until Just for the sake of keeping things it is small enough to be consumed. This non-boilie-related I tend to offer paste in isn’t always a bad thing. There is no better different shapes and sizes. Some large bits, feed stimulant I am aware of than other some small, some round, and some flat. I fish actually feeding, the tiny puffs of cloud don’t want the carp to truffle up everything emitting from a paste bait being harassed by with the same amount of suck. By mixing Nailed on the paste! nuisance fish is as good a feeding gong as any sizes and shapes there is less chance of the I know. So yes, fishing with paste can be an carp detecting any extra resistance from the (and some of the other ingredients) start to absolute pain with smaller fish present, but weight of a hook and hooklink. For what it cook and stiffen up, resulting in a hard bait. there are always a few dodges you can employ. is worth, when boilie fishing I also bait with All very basic stuff I know, but take a step different-sized baits for the300ml same reason. If back and re-read what Attraction I can get away with fishing paste over paste, 300m I have just written. There is no better The simplest and this would be my preferred method of attack. Do you really suffer feed stimulant I am easiest way is to After all, it isn’t completely removed from from nuisance fish reverse the situation my years of work in rehydrating boilies back problems everywhere aware of than other and feed with paste, to paste form. you fish? Do you use fish actually feeding, but fish with a boilie Another basic paste method I employ conventional boilies on the Hair amongst is rolling the bait as you would in boilie- simply because that the tiny puffs of cloud the paste. The boilie making, and then simply air-drying it. This is what you have used “emitting from a paste will be sampled but ends up as a hard bait that will give a slower for years? Do you use quickly neglected in leak-off of flavour. boilies because they are bait being harassed favour of all those So yes, I know it is hard to believe, but simply very convenient by nuisance fish is as tasty little morsels the paste baits are actually very attractive to carp and fire out a long nuisance fish can peck and offer advantages that200ml you don’t get with a way? Well, if one of the good a feeding gong away at. This way you conventional boilie. 200ml three aforementioned have the full benefit questions has stirred as any I know of paste attraction, Clever Edges anything then it may be worth taking a look but with a boilie on the Hair, which should Th ere is so much more to paste, so much more at a few alternative approaches I use. last until your bait has been wiped out. It is you can do with it. Up to this point I have So, let’s start off with the most basic form then that the nuisance fish may just start to listed the obvious. Now let us look at a few of paste fishing – using paste on the Hair persevere and play blow football with your little dodges where paste can help you put a instead of a more conventional boilie. This hookbait.” During the colder winter months, few extra fi sh on the bank. One thing paste is offers many advantages over the standard small nuisance species are less of a problem incredibly useful for is disguising your hookbait hard, dry boilie. The simple process of boiling and you may well be able to get away with from waterfowl, as well as other anglers. 17 100ml 016_Paste.indd 3 20/12/06100 22:42:13 l I| II |I I 220gms II I SHAUN HARRISON | Shaun’s Fruity Trifl e Paste Mix BAIT QUEST gms Ingredients: 1 2 * 14oz Base Mix (Shaun has used his Yellow Birdy Base Mix, but he wouldn’t tell us what was in it!) Both the enhancer and stimulator s Bait Quest Shaun Harrison are already blended into the base mix. Any good quality base will do for paste making. However, Shaun’s tip for winter paste is 0gms The fi rst job is to weigh out the Next up is to crack three eggs into to avoid Fishmeal mixes. Fishmeal in the | 14oz of base mix accurately on a a clean mixing bowl. Shaun wears I I I set of quality scales. gloves to stop any contamination. I 170gms summer, Birdfood in the winter. | I I I I | I I * Three eggs I 1 I 3 4 | * 1.5ml Sweetener I * 3ml Fruit Flavour * 3ml Dairy Flavour * 3 Drops Fruit Oil Shaun adds in the Fruit Flavour Again, Shaun uses a pipette to * Eighth of a teaspoon of Colour using a pipette at a rate of 3ml for add in the Dairy Flavour, again at the three eggs. a rate of 3ml. 5 6 7 8 Three drops of Essential Fruit Oil Now it is time to add an eighth of All the liquids, eggs and powder Now Shaun adds two thirds of the are added to maintain a constant a teaspoon of red-powdered colour colouring are now mixed together measured base mix into the liquid, fl avour in the paste.