FOR F1s shallow you’d be forgiven for fishing pellets inches deep under a light dibber or taking the bristle float route to put together a netful.
Groundbait certainly wouldn’t be on the agenda, yet ignore it and you could be missing a trick.
The trouble is, groundbait doesn’t lend itself to fishing in the first 12ins of the water. It’s designed to make into balls for catching on the bottom.
However, by going against the grain and turning it into what looks at first glance to be an unusable, runny mess, it can actually outfish the standard pellet shallow approach.
Here's how to fish the 'slop'...
What’s in the mix?
With an expander pellet-type groundbait you can add lots of water without it turning into putty. Dynamite Baits Sweet F1 is perfect – but try it with Swim Stim and you’ll struggle.
How much to feed
Rather than drop the lot in at once, I instead ‘drip’ the slop in from a big pot over 30 seconds or so, giving me more time to get a bite.
Get their attention
You need to regularly loosefeed to make some noise. I’ll fire twenty 4mm pellets in twice on each drop-in, which will help grab the attention of any F1s in the area.
Vary the consistency
On calm days I find a wet slop is best, but when it’s windy, I like to stiffen the mix with some dry groundbait. This stops the feed being carried away by wind or tow.
The Jigga is best
A Jigga lets me lower the bait fully through the slop – a fixed float would only be effective to the depth it is set at. Mine is a 0.4g Drennan Inline Crystal Dibber with the stem cut off.
On the hook
I’ve caught on banded caster, double maggot and even meat. But a hard 4mm banded pellet matches the loosefeed. What you need is a bait that stands out in the cloud of slop.
