Joe Carass has huge experience with paste and is the perfect man to walk you through the details of this highly effective bait!

Joe Carass

36

Northampton

NuFish

Paste fishing for me started when I was very young. Growing up in Knaresborough, I was just a stones throw from the excellent Woodlands Lakes in Thirsk and that place became a paste fishing Mecca. In fact my first ever attempt at fishing the bait came when I was 13 and on a pleasure session at said venue and I bumped into (mithered) an angler targeting the Skylark lake with paste. 

The angler was a chap called Sean Rodgers who seemed to know what he was doing and kindly gave me a small ball of paste to try and I’ve been hooked ever since!

But it was my friendship with Darryl Taylor, a wonderful angler from Knaresborough, that really got me on the right path when it comes to fishing paste. Darryl had it well and truly sorted out and while he wouldn’t divulge all of his secrets I could glean enough to make me competitive at venues such as The Willows near York where I probably learnt more about paste fishing than anywhere else at the time. 

When I think about it, paste dominated the Northern scene for a spell. Darryl, Phil Sellers, Greg Norris, Jamie Masson etc were deadly with the bait and many others tried to copy their tactics too. Quite simply if I wanted to beat my peers I HAD to get good with paste and my love affair is as strong now as it was then with the bait. 

But what is it about paste that just draws me in? I liken it to hemp fishing on a river and the way that bait grabs hold of anglers who try and master it. Paste is the same, it’s the puzzle that can never be completed! But once it gets you, that lure of catching those bigger than average fish is too much for me to resist. 

But it isn’t just a psychological thing, paste is a truly exceptional bait. It wins matches everywhere in the summer and has that uncanny knack of picking out those bigger specimens at close range. It’s a marmite bait but I urge you all to get to grips with it, or at least give it a chance. 

The Paste Itself

I guess the first thing to discuss is the paste itself. Now the world is your oyster when it comes to paste. There are dozens of ‘paste mixes’ on the market, some of them good, some of them awful and there are plenty of fishmeal ground baits that can also be used. There is also the option of creating your own using ground down pellets and fishmeal powders along with other goodies. I heard all kinds of rumours of secret mixes and blends throughout my youth but the truth is much simpler than the gossip!

The basic ingredient that is best is a fine fishmeal groundbait. There are several classic ones, Dynamite’s Green Swim Swim is what Darryl always used and I know many excellent paste men use Bait-Tech Special G too. I’ve had a long relationship with Sonubaits and have used Thatchers for the last few years and to be honest I’d find it hard to use anything else!

I run it through a fine sieve just to remove any bigger items but essentially it is a proper fishmeal groundbait, not just crushed expanders like many mixes are these days. Of course crushed expanders are a good ingredient for groundbait but are useless for paste! They make the hook bait break down far too quickly and you’re forever in and out re-baiting. 

Look for that fine texture and you won’t go far wrong. A quick look through the tackle shop will reveal something that will work for you but if you pick one of the three I’ve mentioned then you can’t go too far wrong!

I do add two other things to the Thatchers. The first is a small amount of wheat gluten powder. I remember years ago seeing ready made paste mixes almost seem stringy and dough like, I didn’t like them and felt they were designed to make the paste more user friendly as opposed to more effective fish catchers. 

So why am I using it? Well it came to a point last year that I was getting so many fish in the margins that it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep the bait on the hook long enough to get a proper bite. So I looked for different ingredients to help keep the Thatchers together a touch longer and I got thinking back to those old school pastes with the stringy texture. 

In fact it was a picture of Steve Gregory’s Miracle Paste that I just so happened to see on Facebook that the penny dropped. It was almost stringy but was obviously not as doughy as those old pastes from the early days. 

So I started playing around with low levels of wheat gluten in my mixes and its worked a treat. I use it to just hold the paste together a touch longer, I want to be able to see a bit of gluten in there but it not be like an elastic paste. 

The ratios are up in the air and I’m sure someone with a more analytical mind would find some exact measures but as a rough guide to a 250ml pot of Thatchers I add about 100ml of Wheat Gluten. But this can vary as I’ve found the wheat gluten isn’t as strong as the batch I had last summer and I’m having to add slightly more as a result. 

Mix it the day before and stick it in the fridge for best results to allow the gluten to activate. If you don’t want the faff, buy Steve Gregory’s Miracle Paste!

The final thing I like to add is a red dye. I have caught lots of fish in the margins on red paste in recent years and I’m not sure why but it definitely gets you bites when the water is heavily coloured. I use the Fjuka red dye and have found it excellent.

Rigs

My rigs are simple and strong. All of them are tied to 0.20mm Detexion fished straight through to a size 10 hook and combined with an 18+ ZIPP elastic! Strong reliable components to help me deal with the big fish. The floats are where things get interesting and the shotting patterns (or lack of)! 

Let’s talk open water paste fishing first. I believe paste is at it’s best in five feet of water or less. If I am going to a deeper venue I generally use a different bait that is more efficient. For three to five feet then I will use the 0.3g JC Paste float. I am a firm believer in taking the buoyancy out of the float for paste fishing and we purposely designed the floats around this ethos. The hollow bristle has the stem right through to the very tip, this gives you a nice bright bristle without the air trapped inside like other hollow tipped patterns. 

I have two No8 stotz directly below the float to help it tip up when the paste is introduced from the pot and that’s it, no other shot down the line. The rig is plumbed up slightly over depth and the weight of the paste cocks the float, bites will either be positive lifts or one or two sharp jabs before a fly under!

For three feet and under I switch to the JC Margin paste, my little beauties! They look so unorthodox with the thin bristle but allow me to explain the benefits. I used to fish the margins with conventional hollow tipped floats and every time I got a liner the buoyancy in the float and tip would pull the hook from the bait. So I got my thinking cap on several years ago and developed an early version of the new model with a thin glass bristle. It was a game changer for me. Now when I get a liner the float simply slides under and pops back up with the hook bait still attached. The minimal resistance of this thin bristle makes so much difference when fish are feeding in the edge. They look different but have been designed for a purpose and they work better than anything else in the margins when using paste!

Paste Essentials

Before we go into the good stuff like feeding there are a couple of essentials I feel every paste angler needs. The first is a bowl of water! It is a messy game and being able to clean your hands every time you rebait will make things so much nicer. I have the Bowl & Ring positioned off my front leg and I use it every time I rebait. A wet hand makes moulding the bait easier and then you can clean them every time. 

A paste pot of some description is the next essential and in my eyes the bigger the better! I use a easter egg edition of a kinder egg but there are many options in tackle shops if you prefer something ready to go. 

Complimentary Baits

Paste goes with many different baits and I know some excellent paste anglers that just use 4mm pellets as feed with great success. I have always preferred using smaller particles though and hemp is my number one choice. It goes back to my days of fishing with Darryl who always used hemp and it does me proud even now on these pellet dominated waters. Three or four pints of hemp always come with me for a days paste fishing. 

Micro pellets are a good option too and on waters where hemp is banned I will turn to them as the next best thing. 

For the margins though I do like introducing groundbait, not loads, but one pot every now and then really helps pull the fish into the margins. Again take your pick when it comes to margin mixes, I’d pick any from the Sonubaits range and be happy, in fact today I’m using my half bags I had left from last summer!

Fishing Time

Here at Shearsby Valley we have a 30m wide lake that is 7-8ft in the middle and shallow up to around 18inches int he margins. As I mentioned earlier I dislike fishing paste in anything over five feet so that means fishing at five metres or less. Which is handy really as the closer you can fish the easier paste fishing will be.

Today is a warm day with temperatures well in the 20s and fish cruising it doesn’t take much to assume the fish won’t like being in deep water. For that reason I’ve positioned my first line in four feet of depth which is just a top kit and one section out. This is always a great option on this venue especially early and late in the match. 

I kick off with half a big pot of hemp and immediately follow it in with a large hook bait of paste on the 0.3g rig. I know this venue well and true to form three carp in three casts get the day off to a flier before the F1s and crucians make an appearance. This happens every single week and I am happy to just keep plugging away catching the odd carp between the F1s. 

I try to feed a decent amount of hemp every two or three fish to try keep the fish on the bottom where my hook bait will be and I never feed by hand in open water as that will just lead to line bites and foul hooked fish. 

I am, however, an impatient sod and I know a small adjustment here will get me back among the carp. I simply take a foot off the depth, find a new spot in that 3ft area and start again. This works even better and now I am catching just carp, no smaller fish at all. There is always a golden depth on a given day, if its cloudy 4ft will be better for example. It is just a case of repeating the feeding pattern and buying myself time before the margins kick in later in the session. 

When it comes to hitting bites on paste, unfortunately it comes with experience of what to look for. What I will say though is be patient. Once a fish takes paste, it isn’t letting go so delay that strike. Let the float go under, wait a few seconds then strike. There are no medals for striking at every indication and while I appreciate it takes some discipline, the lack of buoyancy in our floats mean that you can afford to wait on bites. If you strike at every indication your day will become a nightmare. 

After well over 100lb in a couple of hours short, the fish have suddenly started swimming around close in. This is the tell tale sign to start considering the margins and a glance at my phone reveals it’s 2pm – margin time!

So I always feed the edge and go on it immediately. Timing that first feed is everything and unless everything is going pear shaped elsewhere I will leave it as late as possible. The later you leave the margins with no bait in them, the stronger the feeding response will be in my experience. 

My first feed is always one big pot of groundbait I then load my paste pot with hemp or micros each time I go in. I am much more aggressive with the bait when fishing the edges and like to create a mini big pot scenario every time I ship in using the feed and hook bait as a trap. Feeding these larger amounts using the paste pot mean I am less reliant on the big pot and feeding with groundbait. 

You may notice my float sitting on an angle and this is for a reason. Again this is to delay my temptation to strike, you get many indications in the edge and fishing over-depth like this means that those liners will simply look like small flicks and twitches. I can then confidently wait until the float sails away at a million miles an hour!

It is not uncommon for me to catch 100lb in the last hour here when they arrive in the margins. When it’s right it is hard to catch them any quicker with other baits as they treat paste with so little caution that they just slurp it in and ask questions later.