Bait-Tech suggest this is a big carp groundbait mix but as we all know when you are fishing any method it is not so much the groundbait you use that will determine how big the fish you catch is but the type of water you are fishing and the size of hook and hookbait you are using; even then you cannot always guarantee ‘big’!
That said, this mix is packed with a lot of ingredients that big carp love to chow down on and used in the right situation with the right hookbait I’ve no doubt it will catch exactly what it says on the bag.
So what of the ingredients?
For starters there are crushed hemp, milled tiger nuts and chick peas – all great big carp fodder. On top of that there is ground Vitalin (a brilliant muesli-style dog food with a great carp-catching pedegree), mixed pellets and particles, ground and flaked maize, sweet biscuit and breadcrumbs. What’s not to like?
Finally there are the attractors which include, as the name suggests, coconut as well as molasses and salt; again great carp catchers all of them.
Out of the bag the mix is certainly very slightly on the coarse size, giving browsing fish plenty to dig about for, and it mixed to a nicely sticky finish which moulded perfectly around a big frame feeder but it is a mix that will feed as well as attract. The smell when mixed with lake water was beautifully sweet with plenty of coconut but Bait-Tech do a sweet coconut liquid if you want to boost it further. Always one to play about with bait I also knocked up a quick mix with some canned coconut milk and the end result was stupendous – giving a brilliant milky cloud in the water above a great carpet of feed.
Breakdown time on the feeder was ‘medium’ with a good few minutes before it had completely collapsed, ideal for the bigger fish scenario but easily tweaked with a bit of crushed hemp if you want a faster breakdown, or some pellet powder or binder if you need a slower breakdown.
The mix was plenty sticky enough to act as a carrier of a few extra bits if you wanted to add some pellet, hemp, dead maggot or corn and if you were balling by hand to closer range you could really pack it in without the ball breaking up in-flight. I actually added a fair bit of mini pellet and corn, ‘skinned’ it with a little water and put small orange-sized balls out to the 40 to 50m range with a groundbait catty no problem.
With the tiger nut content a growler over the top would be my first choice of hookbait but if you wanted to match the groundbait then Bait-Tech do a complementary coconut pop-up which would sit very nicely with it.
Packed in a 2kg bag – to give you enough for most day sessions on the method – you can find the Sweet Coconut Method Mix in all Bait-Tech stockists for around £5.99.
