The main principle of particle fishing is to try and simulate the abundance of natural food. It’s probably the only method where a high degree of preoccupation can be achieved. If carpets of small baits are introduced, instead of eating ten or twenty boilies before picking up the hook bait, a carp will have eaten hundreds, if not thousands, of particles. The more they eat, the less cautious they become, the more likely they will make a mistake.

Two nice mirrors caught on particles

Particle baits stay effective for an unbelievably long time. In fact, the same fish can be caught several times on the same particle before it starts to get cautious. I think that this is because of the amount that they will eat - up to six times more than the same volume of boilies. So if you would usually bait up with one pound of boilies per rod per night, you could safely bait with five to six pounds of particles per rod. Instead of two hundred or so boilies in the swim you have hundreds or even thousands of particles. Therefore, you could bait a larger area and keep more carp on the feed for a longer period, making a multiple catch more likely.

The particles used most often can be placed into three groups. Group one is the larger size baits. These include baits such as tiger nuts, peanuts, giant maize, almonds, sweet lupines, hazel nuts, red kidney beans, pinto beans, pistachio nuts, cashew nuts and butter beans. These can be used in the same way as boilies or fished over the top of a particle from one of the other groups. They work best on hungry waters or waters were the natural food is made up of large mollusks or crayfish. Group two contains, in my opinion, some of the most effective baits. Particles such as groats, oats, wheat, barley, mung beans, tares, maple peas, adzuki beans, Soya beans, dun peas, black eyed beans, haricots, blue peas, chick peas, tic beans and, of course, sweetcorn.

Group three is made up of tiny particles which can keep carp feeding for extraordinary lengths of time. These are hemp seed, moth beans, millet, pin head oat meal, buck wheat, dari seed, linseed, and rape.

Make sure the particles you buy are of the best quality around. Ask for the bag to be opened before you part with your money. They should be free from dust and rubbish. They should be from the most recent harvest and they must have been kept in the dry. Check the bag for signs of moisture.

You can’t use particles straight from the bag as they need to be re-hydrated, this causes them to swell up and release there natural attractors. If a carp was fed unprepared particles they would swell in its gut and cause it severe discomfort and even death. You also need to stop them from germinating. You do this by boiling or scolding.

To prepare baits from the group one list you need to wash them to remove any dust and grit. Then you need to soak them for at least twelve hours, preferably 24 hours. Once they have swollen up, you can either boil them in a saucepan for at least twenty minutes or you can use a pressure cooker. The pressure cooker will halve the boiling time and also hold more of the flavor in the bait. It is also ideal if you have to prepare your baits on the bank whilst fishing.

This mirror was caught on a chick pea in February

The group three baits just need to be scolded with boiling water and then left over night in a bucket with a lid on. This way they cool down slowly.

There are three particles which can be very dangerous to carp, but if prepared properly and looked after, will not cause them any problems. These are red kidney beans, peanuts and almonds. Red kidney beans must be soaked for at least twelve hours and cooked for a minimum of thirty minutes in a saucepan or twenty minutes in a pressure cooker. The problem with peanuts is not in the preparation, but in the way they have been stored. If they are old nuts and have been in contact with the cold floor a dangerous mould starts to grow. This mould is not easily seen with the naked eye. I believe it is called aflotoxin. When you buy your peanuts you should ask the seed merchant if you can see the anti-aflotoxin certificate which is supplied with the nuts. If this is not available or you are only using small quantities of nuts then you can buy peanuts fit for human consumption from a supermarket. These will be of the highest quality and will most certainly be free from mould. Almonds, once prepared, go off very quickly. I don’t think that a carp would eat a rank almond, but make sure you only use freshly prepared almonds just to be safe. Please don’t throw left over almonds in the waters edge because they are also dangerous to other wildlife.

Fully scaled caught in March on maple peas

There are a few ways that you can make your particles even more attractive. One is to sprout them before cooking. This alters the chemical makeup of the bait by turning some of the carbohydrate into sugars. To sprout your baits you need to soak them overnight, then lay them out on a shallow tray and cover with damp newspaper. Check them every day until they have a five to ten millimeter sprout, then boil as usual. You can also ferment your particles. Many particles are at there most attractive when they have been fermented. To do this, prepare them as normal but once they have cooled down put the lid on the container and leave in a warm place. They are ready when the water has gone milky and the baits have a sweet smell. At a temperature above twenty five degrees centigrade, this may only take one day, but in the UK it usually takes three days in the Summer and up to a week in the Winter. Almonds must not be fermented, they must be used as fresh as possible.

Some particles can be brought in tins already prepared. This is a convenient way of using baits in small quantities. The most popular of these are sweetcorn, chick peas, butter beans and red kidney beans.

The next time you go carp fishing, give the seed a go.

Leigh Holman