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Honest answer is I would leave out the maples and maize from the particles, and I'd be using ground tiggers and peanuts in rather than whole. The fish will really get stuck in on smaller pieces, whereas with tigers, peanuts and maize, larger particles, they can be selective. I have seen carp picking out specific food items in a mix! The only reason I would use salt is if I was PVA bagging it, but with dry groundbait, if you are quick enough you can get away without it. Liquid wise, molasses and evaporated milk would be the only ones I would add, the milk is fine at creating a cloud. I think we try to be too clever at creating our own mixes, pigeon conditioner and hemp work on their own as they stand, as does hemp and maize. Even maples work on their own, and are a good tench bait. The other thing is adding to the cost with extra ingredients, pigeon conditioner, and maize are cheap. I do like using peanut granules and crushed or tiger granules in groundbait, but I don't honestly think it makes much difference. The advantage of having whole tigers, maize, maples and peanuts is you could use them as hookbait. Always a few crushed and whole boilies in the mix. I mention I have seen carp pick up specific items from a particle mix; hemp from a mix of hemp and tares, and hemp from a mix of pigeon conditioner and hemp. Whole tigers from a particle mix.

My fish from Alton last few seasons came over Vitalin, pigeon conditioner and hemp. The Vitalin was only used as a binder so I could throw it in by hand from the bridge... If I Spombed it in it was just boilies, pigeon conditioner and hemp.

That's probably good advice tbh, I guess the point of trying to make a hookbait stand out is that it does 😁 I've already got a load of pigeon conditioner so that has to stay in, will have a rethink about the rest, I want some bigger particles in there I think though Thanks good advice as usual 👍

I use pigeon conditioner (cheap and varied) and hemp (not so cheap any more) and once cooked, add a kilo bag of frozen sweetcorn (cheap and doing my bit for the environment by not using a tin.) After that I add a good dollop of salt and chilli powder. As I prefer using a spod to a spomb, I'll make up a groundbait mix to plug it, normally bound with the juice from the seeds but you could any add liquid you've mentioned. This time of year I don't go overboard with particles and PVA bags with crumbed boilie are a good starting point. Liquids can take it to a whole new level, watch Adam Penning's video below for some brilliant idea's.

I'd go with the all the particles and the boilies but the liquid additives and salt I'd leave alone. If you do the mix you've written down and on top of it one of your goo'd up hookbaits there will be so many signals the carp wouldn't know what is going on. Sometimes too many signals, especially if over powering can be a repellent. It might also be a flier, but have you the time to sit behind rods for a number of weekend's to find out? Less is more they say. From your list I personally would use 3 items and that's it.

Appreciate the info Nick, I went for one of my 9ft 2.75tc carp rods in the end. Seems to feel like a nice balanced setup. Unfortunately no fish to report but there's always next session. Many thanks. Dan

If he ever has a car boot sale il be there like a shot

Took this one this morning from my front garden.

I came off social media years ago because I couldn’t be doing with the hassle, after we returned from Afghanistan, my colleague posted some “helmet cam” footage filmed during one of our firefights with the insurgents. (In it you get to see my rear end in glorious detail as I’m heroically sheltering in a ditch!!) it wasn’t a long video, we are patrolling, we get ambushed, we fight back and then extract. Well the abuse we got as a result was laughable, we were called baby killers, (difficult to eat a live one I always found) we were government stooges, murderers, we were criticised by faceless sofa warriors saying how we were “fighting all wrong” etc - by people who had never served in the military and never been ambushed in a mulberry grove by a village, we were called cowards for extracting rather than fighting it out (hey, who cares about the civvies that have to live in the village) it was endless. I don’t understand why people feel the need, they wouldn’t say it to my face after all!