A column in which Dave Dowding writes about the volatile, often confusing, but nevertheless intriguing world of baits and flavours.
He is affectionately known as Dave the Flave due to his love affair with baits and flavours and is a self-confessed flavour junky. ROUTINE, RITUAL OR RELIGION? PART 2 As these products are totally new to me but are often in the various magazines I thought I would mention my initial thoughts on them as there may be many of you that like me haven’t got round to using them. I am not a great boilie user although they are widely used and are very successful. I always prefer to try a pellet or paste bait first and then some meat but then if these fail and the water dictates it I have no hesitation with moving onto the boilies. It’s all very well having favourite baits as long as they are working effectively. Which is why this year so far is a good one for me, I have both new pellets and a paste mix I made up to try out and also some excellent new groundbait ingredients. The first is a nut flour, I am a great believer in peanut as a fish attractor and I do like to add fine freshly ground peanut to a lot of my mixes. It has two great qualities when it has been freshly done; first the taste level is at its highest and second it can be an incredible binder. It is not an easy job to do properly but it is well worth the effort, as the natural oils will leak out into your dry mix and absorb into it.
Recently I was told about the possibility of obtaining some Tiger Nut flour, well everyone knows the pulling properties of Tiger Nuts even if you don’t or can’t use then so I thought I might as well give it a go. I am so glad I did this is something special, it has a high natural flavour level with a sweet undertone, it tastes gorgeous! I mixed some with water to test its binding qualities and the taste got even sweeter. Its binding is excellent too; you can actually wet the flour, roll it and allow to dry out slightly and fire in balls of pure Tiger Nut flour. Once in the water it rapidly breaks back down creating a lovely milky cloud and a mass of mini particles. I also used it as a binder with some dry groundbait to mould my pre-bait particles and it worked a treat (see photo). I already have ideas of incorporating this into a Method mix and can see it doing really well as most species will turn onto nuts in their ground form given the chance. And of course there are no worries on poor preparation being harmful to the health of any fish as the particles are so finely ground. Although the flour is not cheap (around £ 3 per kilo) it is added in smallish quantities and I can see it being a regular additive for my fishing this year. The other nut product I managed to source direct is Concentrated Tiger Nut extract. I have read a lot on this product and was quick to take the offer when it came. Tiger nut extract is a rich thick milky syrup that has got an incredible taste; I had no problems getting taste testers on this one. The general agreement is that it resembles thick creamy nutty custard, now I know why this one has become so popular with anglers as the fish must go crazy for it. There are loads of articles with anglers using this extract under a different name and combining it with their boilie mixes, particle mixes, groundbaits and of coarse soaking their Tiger Nuts in it. If you use a lot of PVA bags it can also be added to these, as they are oil based they do not melt the bags.
The first way I have used it so far is to put my prepared particles into a bowl along with some of their juice and add a liberal dollop of the Tiger Nut extract. I then sprinkled some dry groundbait and Tiger Nut flour onto them to bind them into balls. These can then be lobbed or catapulted into the swim prior to my fishing. The next thing to try out was the new Halibut pellets I had ordered, not the gobstopper sizes offered by a lot of outlets, but sizes that would allow me to lay them out as a feed (6mm) for other fish and a nice 18mm that most fish could tackle to put on the hair, plus a 11mm for the band. The Marine Halibut pellets have a rich fish smell very unlike either the carp or trout pellet and are very dark in colour. You only have to pick a magazine or weekly up to see how well they are doing, it seems they may well be the next generation of fish catching pellets. The 18mm’s have a long breakdown time as I drilled and tank tested a few and they were still on the hair after 24 hours! Although the outer few layers had softened giving off a nice cloud into the water and small particles that lifted on the slightest disturbance.When fishing pellet on the hair I tend to cover it with a coating of paste for increased attraction and I will no doubt do the same with the Marine Halibuts. Often when tench fishing as an alternative approach I use a small running lead of around 1/2 to  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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