One of my favourite ways to fish is the “Method”, the first thing I will do is explain how to fish the method in case you’ve never fished it before and then I will give you a couple of recipes to get you started and give you some ideas.
Now to fish the method you need a method feeder which is a small piece of plastic with ridges and a weight underneath to help it land the right way.
You also need a short hair rig with a hook bait, for me one of the best hook baits I have ever used is the Evolution Carp Tackle Corn Balls topped with one of their double maggots as a hair rig. Check their Evolution Facebook Page to see more about them.
Right now that you have this connect it to your chosen rod and reel and you are ready to start fishing.
Take some of your method mix and squeeze it on to the method feeder as shown in the picture.
Place your hook and hook bait on the top of the method mix you’ve just squeezed on again as shown in the picture.
Finally squeeze another small layer of method mix over the top of your hook and hook bait being careful not to get the hook in your hand.
When you cast your loaded method feeder out you want the fish to have to work at getting the food so make sure you have squeezed it all together nice and tight. Ideally you want the ball of method mix to last around 10 minutes.
As the fish nibble away at the method ball your bait starts to be revealed and if (as in the case of the one I use) your hook bait is buoyant, it will pop up away from the method mix (this sometimes results in a bite too!!) and stand nicely above a cloud of food and attractant waiting to be snatched by a hungry fish.
Okay so that is how you fish the method. Now we move on to the home made method mixes, there are so many combinations that you can use that there is no way for me to cover them all.
Here is a very simple mix that is cheap and works well.
300g Vitalin
100g Halibut Pellet Powder
50ml Molasses
Then simply add lake water until you have a mix that holds together nice and firm when you squeeze it tightly.
This next mix is one of my favourites and has caught me quite a few mixed species fish.
200g Vitalin
100g Ground Halibut Pellet Powder
100g Ready Oats
50g Ground Hemp Seed
50g Bait-Tech 2mm Carp & Coarse Pellets
30g Haith’s Robin Red
20g Ground Himalayan Rock Salt
1tsp Ground Almonds
1tsp Cajun Spice
50ml Bait-Tech Omega3 Fish Oil
As before add lake water until it sticks together nicely when you squeeze it tightly. (this is the mix featured in the photos above)
There are a huge selection of ready made shop bought method mixes which are really good quality such as Bait-Tech Krill & Tuna if you don’t fancy making your own however, I really enjoy making my own mixes.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and it has given you some ideas on making your own method mixes.
Always find your posts interesting and gives me something to work on
My angling club doesn’t allow dried dog foods i.e. Vitalin so when I enquired about a binding agent to use in my method mix I was told to add dried blood mix for black pudding making. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet so I would be interested in your thoughts.
Blood powder is a good one as is Haith’s CLO or even whole egg powder
When I get a chance I will try out the different mixes and do a bit of field testing. Thanks for the info.
Hi Ant,
Quick question if you don’t mind, do you whizz your Vitalin or use it as it comes out of the bag?
Also, I usually add a tin of condensed milk (sweetness and cloud) and a tin of pilchards in tomato sauce for flavour and texture. Is that a waste of time and money do you think?
Cheers
Hi Dennis,
I sometimes whizz it around first but not always. Condensed Milk is great as is any fishy type products.
Thanks for your opinion, appreciate it.
I tried using the black pudding mix in with my usual method mix today and I caught 2 big skimmers while others blanked, well pleased.
Nice congratulations 🙂
Used to use a method mix of vitalin, fishmeal and 2/4mm pellet, simple but very effective, I did find that if you make it the night before or a couple of hours before you go fishing it sticks to the method better 🙂