Surf 'n' Turf groundbait...

Mmmm... Nice friable groundbait mix

As the weather warms up, I am thinking about groundbait again. My Two Dog groundbait is still my preferred feeder mix for summer feeder fishing. Now I am looking for something to fish my pole over. Yes, I could use the Two Dog as groundbait but I thought I would try something with a different attractant.

I want a darker colour to fish over. The plan is to use this moulded into balls that have been fortified with maggot and other particles including the intended hookbait. The plan is to cup it into the swim to lay a carpet of interesting food to fish over and top up with the odd ball and free offerings of the hook bait.

Here is my recipe for my first attempt.  It will need more water added at the lake, to get it to a good moulding and sinking consistency. 

My Surf 'n' Turf groundbait recipe

• 1000g bread crumb
• 250g ground fish meal pellets (or ground fish meal)
• 250g cat biscuit (fish flavour)
•  500g Vitalin
•  2 Oxo cubes
•  1 cups of brown sauce 
•  1 tablespoons of gravy browning
• 2 cups of water  

With the exception of the Oxo, All the dry ingredients were sieved and mixed together in my bucket. It is much easier to do this in a nice big bucket, being able to get your hands right in it and give it a really good mix.

The wet ingredients are mixed together with the Oxo cubes. The water is needed to carry the sticky stuff in a less concentrated form, making it easier to combine evenly with the dry stuff. I heated a cupful of water and dissolved the Oxo in that, before adding the other, cold liquids, I put the whole lot in the blender and gave it a good whiz in there, this also collected any stray dry mix in the corners of the blender jar. Once thoroughly mixed, this was added to the dry ingredients and mixed together as thoroughly as possible. At this stage the mix is very lumpy. Now the best bit - riddling! I have discovered that there is no substitute for a good riddling. Tip the mixture into a bowl and then put a couple of scoops of it back into the riddle, held over the bucket, and riddle. The dry stuff will fall through first and the lumpy bits, full of the liquid ingredients, need to be pushed through by hand. repeat this until all the mixture has passed through the riddle. The mixture in the bucket will be in alternative layers of dry and damp ground bait. It is then mixed together again by hand and riddled again. I keep doing this until I am left without any lumpy bits that have to be pushed through the riddle.

Bag sealer saves freezer space

After leaving to stand for a couple of hours, I riddled it again, packed it into 1kg bags that are sealed using my heat sealer - brilliant bit of kit for under £20.00 - that makes nice flat bags that take up far less room in the freezer. I think it would be all right in the fridge for a few days (maybe longer) but I don't want to risk the now damp ingredients growing mould.

First batch - now lets see if it works

I plan to give it a go on Thursday, so long as the weather permits. But now I need to get the line, floats, shot and hooks out, empty the spaghetti jar and get making some rigs and hook lengths.

Ralph.