It has been a funny few months. Fishing has all-but come to a halt since September. I had a couple of hours on the weir pool in Canterbury at the end of November but blanked. Since then a whole raft of things has got in the way of my fishing. I have been planning a piking trip, but that is not as simple as it might be due to my location, stuck here in London. It is far easier at the moment to just revert to type and go and pester a few of the resident perch at my favourite commercial. With Christmas and the New Year over and done with, I am off to carry on with a spot of perch fishing at Beaver. I could do a spot of piking there, but I don't have a lure rod man enough for pike, and I really don't fancy sitting on the bank at The Major's Lake for hours on end on the off chance of bagging one on deadbait.
Time to get the gear together, with such a long gap between sessions I need to regroup and decide what I need to take. I planned to keep it really simple, but while making up some experimental groundbait, a couple of days ago, I realised the mix might be more suited to making a paste. I had used a good amount of leftover prawn crackers, you know the things they give away free every time you buy a Chinese takeaway. The prawn crackers contain tapioca flour that makes the mix hold together like dough. It is not at all friable as groundbait should be so I have ended up with a paste mix that is bright red when made wet. Perch seem to favour red so I am going to see if they are interested in my paste. I have no idea if this will work, but I will give it a go, even though it is not something that is usually used at this time of year, to my limited knowledge. In the tradition of the blog, It has to have a silly name and this one was suggested by Sue, so don't blame me!
In case you fancy having a go at making your own, here is the recipe:
Chinese Dog Bite paste mix
- 800g dog biscuit selection
- 150g prawn crackers
- 1350g white breadcrumb
- 1tsp red food colouring powder
The dog biscuits are sold in 800g bags and mine came from our local Poundland. As I have said, the prawn crackers came with a Chinese takeaway, but you can buy them from the supermarket, although they seem expensive. It is probably cheaper to just buy some from the local takeaway, if you don't have any left over. The white crumb I now buy in bulk bags already finely ground and absolutely bone dry. If you don't want a huge amount then just dry out a couple of sliced loaves, that will give you about the correct amount. I found that an 800g loaf will dry out to render about 650g of dry crumb. Finally the food colouring. I found a small pot of red colouring at my local Asian food shop. They sell all sorts of useful ingredients that are not commonly available in the traditional supermarkets. Especially spices which are sold in much larger quantities at reasonable prices.
The dog biscuits are ground up with the prawn crackers. It is almost impossible to whiz the prawn crackers on their own as they are so light they tend to stick to the side of the liquidiser and have to be painstakingly wiped out. The biscuit/cracker mix is added to the crumb and mixed together until the mix has a uniform colour. Sprinkle the food colouring into the mix turning it over as you go. Now, riddle the mixture a couple of times to disperse the colouring evenly. Although the mix will not look very red at this stage, it will change dramatically when the water is added. Personally, I like to add river/lake water to my mixes so I will make it up on the bank. If I do need to make some up before I go, I use rain water. The food colouring is very strong and bleeds like mad when it is added to water, in a dry form. It seems to get 'locked in' once absorbed into the paste and the cloud effect I expected to get when the paste is immersed in water does not happen. I might try rolling the paste in dry paste-mix powder, just before it is dropped into the water, and see if that makes a cloud. It is all experimental at the moment, but for me that is all part of the fun.
I will take some of my Cattyfish groundbait as I know that works for perch and try the paste as hook-bait and small amounts of marble-sized loose feed. I will have worms, prawns and maggots with me as well so I should be able to catch the odd perch, come what may. I will post the results of my experimenting in the next few days.
Ralph.
