Groundbait Recipes for Carp Fishing

We are frequently asked by the beginners about groundbait recipes for carp fishing in Bangladesh, especially for species like rohu, catla and mrigal. Most of the good anglers basically keep a variety of alternatives for their groundbait preparation to fit in different conditions which is actually one of the biggest secrets of their higher success rates compared to general anglers or the beginners.

We love angling and we deeply want other fellow anglers, especially the beginners to equally enjoy the game of angling alongside the experts. But it is difficult to carry on with a passion if there is a very low success rate. A frequent catching gives confidence to novices which is significantly important to go on with the passion for angling.

To help you we are going to provide you with different groundbaits and hookbaits recipes. The following groundbait is the base of the most groundbaits being used around this subcontinent for local carps. It works for almost all of the carp species of our country.

There are hundreds of ingredients anyone may use for their baits or groundbaits. But my personal preference is to keep it simple and straightforward. Because if you use very complex recipes at the beginning, it is very much possible that you are going to miss some great catches. Because fishes are blessed with the strongest senses in the whole animal kingdom. And groundbaits are in fact mixtures of different herbs and other components. The herbs provide the necessary chemical compounds and edible oils to trigger the senses of the fish to come around your spot. That is why it is very important to highly maintain the accuracy of the measurements of the ingredients. A small change in the measurements of the ingredients may alter the purpose of the baits or groundbaits. Therefore more ingredients require more careful measurements. For the beginners the possibility of making mistakes is very high. So, it is always a good practice to start with a simple approach. The possibilities for improvements are limitless. More you research and experiment with different ingredients, the more you will understand the secrets of successful angling.  You are welcome to share with us if you have developed your own version of groundbait or hookbait recipes. Well, enough with the lecture. Let’s have a look at the basic ingredients of our groundbait.

Ingredients:

1. 1 kg of oil cake (খৈল)(roasted )
2. 1 kg of the left over of pure ghee ( ঘি এর ছাকা)
3. 1.5 kg of left over of sweetmeats (মিস্টির গাদ)
4. 250 gram lesser galangale (একাঙ্গি) powder (roasted)
5. 10 gram cardamom (এলাচ) powder (roasted)
6. 100 gram anise (মৌরি) powder (roasted )
7. Half kg soybean oil
8. 5 grams of mace powder (যৈয়ত্রী)
9. 2 pieces of nutmegs (জায়ফল) powder

Preparation:

First make fine powder with the oil cake and then fry them on a pan. Don’t burn them frying. Just fry until it becomes light brown. Do the same to the leftover of ghee. Mix these two items very well rubbing with both hands in a big bowl. This is our base mix. Now mix all the spices in a different bowl similarly by rubbing them with your hands. Take a handful of spice mixture and spread them over the base mix and using both of your hands mix spaces very well. Follow this procedure until all the spices are mixed well with the base mix. We will call this mixture as dry mix. Now, divided your dry mix in two parts and put them in two separate bowls. Slowly stir mix half of the dry mix well with the sweetmeat left over (মিস্টির গাদ ).

Carefully check the consistency of the mixture. The final product will be as hard as a tennis ball. Mix some dry mix if it is too loose or mix some sweetmeat left over if it is too hard. When you are finished with it, warm the soybean oil on a pan in slow temperature. You may add some pure ghee with it as well. After warming the oil spread it over the mixture using a spoon. Make sure that oil reaches all the mixture equally. Now keep them under a fan until it becomes cold. Your groundbait is ready. Keeping groundbaits fresh and active is a tricky and laborious job. After cooling of the groundbait store them in a dry and clean container.

Moisture is the number one enemy to all kinds of groundbaits. You must preserve your groundbaits well and feed them with the sunlight regularly for at least 15 days after its preparation. Alter the sides of the groundbaits using a clean stick or something after each 2/3 days. This will vaporize most of the moisture of the groundbait. Carefully wipe out the moisture of the lid and wall of the container with a dry cloth regularly. When you go for fishing, take 50% of the groundbait and 50% of dry mud in a bowl. Mix them well and make tennis sized balls with the mixture and throw them in your desired spot before setting lines. Hope, you would find this recipe very useful and don’t forget to drop us a few lines to let us know if you find this recipe useful.

Tight lines and crying reels.