Mix of the Month December 2011

December in the fens signals the start of what I call "bread season" with the March Xmas match and a number of the drains swapping to this brilliant method.

 

There is always a discussion regarding the best feed at this time of year, and a number of anglers have different views on this, the general debate is whether to use liquidised bread or punch crumb, and in reality I use both.

 

Punch crumb, in particular Sensas Punch Crumb can be used in all bread fishing situations, but I tend to use it in conjunction with liquidised bread.

 

My rules of thumb are as follows, on shallow drains with very little flow I tend to use liquidised, but with about 25% punch crumb, just to help bind it and ensure it gets down.

 

As the flow increases or the depth gets over 5 feet I then add more punch crumb, until on the rivers with 8 foot of even slowly moving water I will use 100% punch crumb.

 

Mixing punch crumb can be difficult, and I have two simple methods that never fail. The first is my groundbait whisk, by carefully adding water through the whisk it disperses perfectly evenly, I tend to mix until damp, leave for 10 minutes and repeat the process, you may need to repeat a third time to get it perfect. Generally a single 700g of punch crumb will be enough on its own, but on good days with some flow where you may feed a small ball every chuck I will mix 2 bags. (You can freeze it for another day). the other way of mixing is in the same food processor that I use for liquidised bread, adding a few drops of water constantly on high speed, this too needs repeating after 10 mins as the feed dries out.

 

Punch is a superb method throughout the year, but in this part of the world it is essential, and punch crumb is a mix I use constantly for the last three to four months of the season, go on, become a bread head!!