1. Swim stim ground bait – Add almost boiling water to a bowl and then sprinkle on the ground bait, keep adding until it is very sloppy and then leave for 10 minutes, the mix will stiffen when it begins to cool. This is a great paste used on the pole very soft, it breaks down within a couple of minutes to leave a small pile of feed.
Great for carp, bream and tench fished over pellets. If you want to add flavours add it to the water before adding the ground-bait.
This type of paste works with all the swim stim and crazy bait ranges of ground-bait and I have done it with silly bait but tend to sieve it first as it has some bigger particles.
2. Pellet Paste
Method one – Get yourself a coffee grinder ( mine was 14 quid from amazon) Put a handful of pellets in the grinder and grind until a very fine powder, keep doing this until you have a bag full and then mix with water just off boiling as you would with the swim stim. I have found that dependant on the oil content of the pellets you sometimes get a very sticky mix, add a drop of ground bait if needed to make it a little easier to use, again if you want to add flavours add to the water first.
Method two – get a bowl of pellets, cover with boiling water and leave for an hour, only just cover the pellets with water or will be too mushy. After the hour just kneed the mush with your hands to make the paste. This method I have found best when a fishery states you must use their pellets, this is what the fish are fed so using a paste made of the same makes sense.
This is how I make all my paste and the tips I can give are : Fish it as soft as you can get away with, obviously you need to make it stiffer to fish with rod and line. I personally don’t add eggs, this makes the paste too binding for the way I fish it, I want it to break down in a couple of minutes, however it may be better for rod and line fishing. The other thing about eggs is that they go off in hot weather.
Water just off the boil is better than cold, it emulsifies the oils in the paste giving off more attractants, Roy Marlow agrees with this and he knows more about carp feeding than most.
Flavours that have worked well for me have included, Strawberry and scopex crazy bait double squirts, Vanilla essence nicked from the missus food cupboard and csl and mollases. Dont be afraid to experiment with different flavours.
Paste floats .
In the margins less than 18″ deep I use a loaded PI Tyson float. This is a self-cocking dibber type float, which is very short and visible. I plumb to find a clear flat spot on the bottom and fish it slightly over depth (1/2″). I don’t strike at all when fishing paste but lift about 4 inches to set the hook but only when the float has completely disappeared.
In water between 18″ and 4′ deep I use PI Durafloat 7’s in between 4 x14 and 4 x 18 sizes dependent on the depth and tow. I slightly undershot the float by about a no. 10 shot, which just leaves about 2mm of the body showing. I then take a lot of time to plumb up and find an area about 12″ square that has a flat bottom, I know it states in the mags that you need to be completely accurate with your placements but no-one can guarantee landing on the same inch perfect spot. Right, I plumb so that the float is absolutely at dead depth allowing then an additional 1/2″ inch of line as the piece of paste can pull the line a little further down and if set dead depth the float disappears.
In water deeper than this I use a maver paste float which has a very long bristle in sizes between 1/2 g and 1.5g, don’t be afraid to use a heavy float as paste is a heavy bait and the fish don’t tend to feel the resistance. If conditions are good I shot this with an olivette locked with a shot, the weight of which takes the float only to the bottom of the bristle. I fish it with the olivette at least 2ft from the hook. I again plumb the same allowing 1/2 inch for the paste ball. Don’t be afraid to have an inch of bristle showing. With both this and the dura float I only strike when the float sails away, lifts sharply or disappears, if getting a lot of liners and knocks I often count to one after the float goes before lifting into the bite, get much less foul hookers this way.
If the weather is bad or the water is towing strongly add a no.10 shot and fish the paste 2″ over depth, again only lift into bites that are solid as I said above.
I always use a pot on the top kit to put my paste in as it is very soft and tip it in, I make mine by drilling out dove deodorant tops, they are just the right size for me but the fox toss pots are also good. I never fish smaller than a size 12 hook as paste is a big bait and will even go up to a size 8 drennan star point for big fish.
I try and fish as short a line between pole and float as possible, 6″ in good conditions and up to 2′ if windy, I ship out with the paste in the pot, tip the paste in and then ship back the distance between pot and pole tip so that the float is directly over the paste. If fishing with a float over 1 gram i lift the float out of the water as soon as I tip the paste in and slowly lower it so that the shot/olivette doesn’t pull the hook out of the paste.
I tend to only feed a pot of pellets at the start along with 3 or 4 pieces of paste, your paste is constantly feeding you swim as you keep re-baiting. I only top up the pellets when I stop getting bites or liners. I have found that if i feed a few pellets each cast it can lead to fish coming up in the water which causes no end of bother.
As I said at the start I am no expert but at least this may help you get started on the paste, be prepared to miss a lot of bites but when you do master it a great days fishing you will have.
taken from a piece on maggot drowner’s .
matthews580 