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Winter fishing is very different to the fast moving fishing of the summer months. The fish are sluggish in their movements and are very docile not feeding at all aggressively.
In winter it is very easy to overfeed the fish if you add too much loose feed or your mix is too lumpy. The ideal is to add little or no loose fee to your mix and use the ground bait to attract fish into your swim rather that feed them. Dark ground baits seem to be best for winter fishing.
There seems to be no reason, perhaps, it is because predators are very active and with clear water prey fish are easy to spot. This being so it is possible that prey fish like a cloud of dark coloured ground bait to hind in.
Many of the countries top match anglers swear by breadcrumb especially brown as it is less starchy than white. If you were to use a mix of brown crumb and well riddled garden peat or mole hill soil you would have a dark coloured mix.
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Which would break up easily in the water.
This mix wouldn't be very attractive to fish so various attractants could be added. It is possible to add coriander, turmeric, vanilla, aniseed or worm extract, the secret is not to add too much because a strong tasting mix put the fish off.
There are many other additives which perform in various ways which could be worth mentioning.
Garden Peat or Mole hill soil
It helps to produce a bulky, dark open textured ground bait. Peat or soil is a good carrier for bloodworm and joker on its own.
Molassed cattle feed
This is a sweet, dark brown high fibre material which is commercially produced for the feeding of stock.
Hemp
Grilled hemp is used mainly to attract fish by the nutty smell and presumably taste.
It also makes the mixture “fizz”.
Crushed hemp isn't cooked and gives off an attractive oil. Both these ingredients are available at tackle shops.
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