The French Mix ….. Real Time!
I’ve
been fishing in France, since the late 80’s on
a wide variety of waters, from huge inland seas to
tiny intimate estate lakes. Over the years you try
different things and some work and some don’t.
In those early days of fishing in France we made some
serious mistakes with the baits we took. Boilies that
went off, particles we couldn’t prepare
properly, in quantity, on the bank….if there
was a mistake to make, we made it!
A
steep learning curve I think you call it, and when
you’ve travelled hundreds of miles to blank, it
doesn’t come a lot steeper!
Gradually
we started to get it right, and one of the first
pieces of the jigsaw was the French
Mix. We wanted high visibility, we wanted long
term holding power, we wanted ease of preparation,
and we wanted high attraction. The French Mix gave us
the lot, and has been a key part of my baiting
schemes for France eversince.
The
three key ingredients are Flaked Maize (highly
visible), Parti-blend
(very tiny, good holding power), and Groats (soaks up
loads of flavour, good attraction).
Preparation
was easy, but important, to achieve maximum
effectiveness.
Basically,
this is how I do it.
-
Take a
10k bucket and put 7k of the French Mix in
it.
-
Add one
or two tins of Evaporated Milk.
-
Add
100mls of Multimino (or other liquid
attractors of your choice)
-
Top up
the bucket with lake water, and stir
thoroughly.
-
Put the
lid on and leave for 24hrs. (In cold weather
it’s a good idea to use hot water. In the
summer leave the bucket in the sun.).
-
After
the 24hrs the liquids will have been absorbed into
the groats etc. and you have a particle mix that
leaves a lovely milky cloud through the water, and
a coating of particles, laced with Multimino or
other liquids, on the bottom, that carp
love.
I
have total confidence in the “French
Mix”, so when, last year, I was asked to take
part in filming a Discovery Real Time programme with
Kev Green as part of the Carp Crew 2 series, the
“French Mix” was automatically part of my
baiting plans, and a phone call to Hinders, one of my
firstjobs.
The
sacks arrived, and as usual I re-bagged them all up
into 7k bags in advance, plus the first three into
buckets ready to be soaked on arrival in
France.
Other
baits were to be a pellet mix, and boilies.
Filming
was April this year, at Etang Meunier, a Millers Carp
and Cats water. Catching for the camera brings with
it an added pressure, plus it was also early in the
season, so we thought our baiting strategy was
important. We decided to bait a joint area midway
between us with the French Mix, pellets and boilies,
but not fish the first 24 hours, so the fish would
have time to find and get on the bait.
To
cut a long story short, we had a great session, and
caught some lovely fish for the cameras. I’m
convinced the baiting plan was a very important part
of the success we had, and if you are going to France
I would suggest you take a close look at the
“French Mix”, as part of your bait
plans.
The
programme goes out for the first time in June of this
year, and we are really pleased with it, as we think
it shows a good balance of serious/relaxed holiday
fishing. Thanks to Hinders, for their support. In my
opinion there’s no doubt that their products
have helped me catch a lot of fish over the years,
and the “French Mix” would be close to
the top of the list.
Good
fishing
Brian
Skoyles
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