"This season has been by far my best ever, and, amongst the usual reasons
(I've worked harder at location, made more time to be at the venue and so one)
I firmly believe that a creative use of groundbait has given me a big edge."

"Most people wanting to use groundbait tend to think of either balling it up, or method feeders. With a little thought, much more effective uses are available. On Horton this year, rather than balling in my groundbait, I've mixed it up as at least 50% of my spod mix, very wet, with an awful lot of pellet (of different types and sizes), plus a good helping of whole and chopped boilies. I only use a few handfuls of hemp. This mix provides a range of sizes, from the tiny specks of groundbait, right up to the hookbaits, and seems to prevent the fish becoming preoccupied with smaller items. When first spodded out, this mix creates a lovely milky cloud in the water that will hopefully drop fish down from the upper layers."

"The fine pieces of nut in the groundbait, plus the other small feed items tend to get caught up in between gravel, in weed and so on, and keeps the smell of food in the area for long times. I'm sure that as small stuff clears the mix up, the lingering smell, coupled with the difficulty of clearing the remaining bits, will lead fish to take the hookbaits out of shear frustration! And even if my thoughts are a little of beam, the fact that this mix is so different from the usual hemp/particle/pellet spod mix must be an enormous advantage."

" Closer in, I've been using the groundbait slightly differently again. The margin spots I've taken fish from have been tight to the bank in relatively shallow water. The Horton fish are very cagey in the edge, and so I've been looking to drop a single fish, with a small mouthful of bait presented in a PVA bag - and no free baits except when 'resting' the spots during the mornings. To make my bags, I take a chunk of frozen bloodworm, and defrost it in the base of a small bucket. To this I add a splash of tiger jank, plus the amino liquid that comes with the groundbait. A small amount of pellets (I've been trying some hemp oil pellets) are added, and the whole lot is mixed up with groundbait. This creates a lovely sweet smelling mix, which puts out an awful lot of attraction, with little real feed. A small bag (golfball sized) is used, with small bottom bait. This one looks to me like a pretty good winter tactic "