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Particle fishing is well known but not commonly used within the fishing community. This could be due to it being a slightly more complex baiting method than boilies. Fishing over particles is a great way to draw fish into an area and if you're feeding regularly and accurately you are able to catch a good amount of fish in a session.
Fishing with particles works great in the summer when the carp have only been seeing boilies throughout the rest of the year. An extra bit of kit you'll need when fishing with particles is a spod rod. You will also need either a spod or a spomb to carry the particles to the swim. If you're unfamiliar with them check out our guide on Spombs vs Spods.
FEEDING
Fishing with particles is a lot more active than fishing with boilies and other baits. It's important to feed correctly and accurately. Depending on your casting accuracy you'll typically want to fish in the same spot with all your rods. If you can only cast 50 yards with pinpoint accuracy there's no point fishing past that as your spombs will be landing in different spots and pulling the fish away from your original swim. Using wrap sticks and the line clip can help with getting the correct distance with each cast.Â
Once you have decided the location you want to fish then it's important to start by getting the bait out there. This could include up to ten spomb fulls of particles in one spot. Liquid boosters can also be added to the particle mix for added attraction. Next you'll want to get the rods on the same spot as the particle you have just casted. A tip is to use a feature on the other side of the bank as a marker so you know the direction to cast each time and with the line clip you'll be able to hit the same spot more often.Â
It's also important to feed the area often but to not overfeed. It's a good idea to cast out another spomb after netting a fish to keep them in the swim. Also sometimes taking an extra net can be helpful in case you have two rods with a bite at the same time.
RIGS AND HOOKBAITS WITH PARTICLES
When fishing with particles, using a stiffer hooklink material like a fluorocarbon instead of braid can help prevent tangles when the fish are actively scooping up the mix. A commonly used rig over particle is the multi rig with a pop up. It's also worth considering using a brighter colour hookbait instead of matching the mix with something like a tiger nut or corn. This is because the fish will have a harder time finding your hookbait and could eat the whole carpet of particles before picking up that last tiger. If you're fishing with three rods then it might be worth using three different colours until you find the one they like the best and then change all the rigs to that colour. For more information on multi rigs and pop ups check out our Guide to Fishing with Pop Ups.
PREPARATIONÂ
Particle fishing looks a lot more complicated than it actually is. There are even companies now that do pre-made particle mix so you don't have to worry about preparation. The most commonly used particle mix consists of tiger nuts, corn and hemp or something similar.
When Preparing a mix of particles you'll need some empty buckets, water and bait. Some anglers will prepare each ingredient in separate buckets as different foods like hemp and tiger nuts will absorb different amounts of water.Â
It's good practice to also wash the particles before soaking them as they can have dust on them which can cause bacterial infections. The easiest way to do this is to have two buckets, a solid one and one with holes in the bottom. You can then fill the bucket with holes with as many particles as you need and pour cold water over them to clean them. This step can be repeated a couple of times until the water is clear.
Once the particles have been cleaned they are able to be soaked separately overnight. If you're using hemp then you'll only need to fill the bucket with water just over the line the hemp has reached as hemp won't absorb as much water as other foods.Â
Once they have been soaked and fully expanded then it's time to cook them. It's also best to cook them separately as they will usually have different cooking times.Â
Finally, once they have cooled and the excess water has been drained then they can be added together. Also many anglers will mix in salt as an extra attraction. Â
