Perfection of powerful particles.

Particles! Every angler should be familiar with them. They’re deadly effective in all types of fishing. Even better, they’re not just for Carp, just look at some of the specimen bream, roach, rudd, barbel, tench, crucians, the list is endless for fish caught on particles. Particles in their dictionary definition means ‘small pieces of matter’, this ‘matter’ is; nuts, seeds and pulses – in a fishing bait term.

So many seeds, so much goodness!

There is a lot of bad press about incorrect preparation of particles, and rightly so! Uncooked particles are as dangerous as fishing baits gets. They can swell up in the fish’s stomach and cause all sorts of nasty implications to the health of the fish – including death.

With that out of the way, correctly cooked nuts/seeds/pulses can be a very effective bait in your armoury.

This will swell up so leave
space or it gets very mucky.

Many online tackle/bait shops sell prepared and un-prepared particles. Although, particles bought in the shop ready-to-go are generally more expensive. On the other hand, they’re awfully convenient and you are safe in the knowledge that it’s safe for the fish. However, uncooked and un-prepared baits like these are much cheaper and you can add what you like to your desired mix. Many particles need at least a 24hr soak. This doesn’t have to be just plain water, adding sweeteners, liquid foods, flavours and other additives – but not salt (explained later on) – will greatly enhance the pulling power of them. It’s always safer to soak them longer than the minimum amount of time. Hemp, for example, apparently only needs a 24hr soak, I tend to allow a 48hr soak instead.

Mmmm, tasty!

Making PVA friendly particles is easy – if you know what you’re doing – soaking the particles in salt will seriously work against you, as this dehydrates them even more. This, intern, makes them almost impossible to cook to a safe standard! I tend to soak the particles in a mix of lake water and chilli powder, this impregnates a spicy taste to the bait throughout the seed. After the cooking process I will drain the mix off fully, leaving no juice. I then add the damp – not dry – cooked mix to a super salty mix of water, chilli and any other water soluble additives. After 36 hours I drain the mix off – keeping the liquid to be used as a PVA friendly glug or an additive to other mixes.

Home-made PVA friendly
particles work. 

Not only that, the high salt content makes the mix last a little longer than a normal fresh mix. Hopefully you can apply this to your own fishing. It’d be great to see the results, send in your catch via the e-mail on ‘Links’, to be up here on the pictures tab.