So you’ve spent your hard earned money on the best bait we can possibly put together, with the finest ingredients from all over the world, and steamed to perfection making sure we don’t lose the expensive soluble attractors.
So why would you want to wash a bait out?
Why do anglers dry their baits in air dry sacks? It baffles me more why anglers do this, there are enough ingredients and tips and tricks to harden and extend the shelf life of the bait without it turning even with freezer bait only waters.
Air drying is the biggest way of denaturing all those soluble and key ingredients in a perfectly designed bait.
The term washing baits out doesn’t mean soaking for days on end, to the point that there is nothing there at all.
A simple soak for a few hours can bring the attractors or flavour out more prominently whilst softening the outer slightly but still making fishable on the hair.
Where an essential oil is used in a bait, Garlic for example at low level 3-4 drops per kilo, soaking baits overnight can make the essential oil smell stronger than its inclusion level as the oil is being drawn to the surface.
Soaking baits for longer is an old tactic of trying to make baits appear safe and that have been on the lake bottom for some time. This tactic can be devastating on pressured waters or for anglers like myself that fish short sessions, arriving late Friday night and away first thing Sunday morning.
It seems nowadays a lot of anglers are looking for maximum attraction from their mixes with every lotion and potion under the sun added to them, dare to be different and do the opposite.
Even washing baits out longer and adding a small amount of our natural boosters to the bucket of water will get the flavour signal through the water column but what appear to be safer baits on the bottom.
Going back to 90’s on Broadlands lake, this tactic proved to be devastating during peak periods, bank holidays etc as the water saw an influx of anglers on an already busy water piling the bait in.
Just recently on a trip to Mar Peche this tactic proved itself with numerous big fish falling to it on this heavily pressured water.
Remember washing out baits doesn’t mean complete flavour or attractor loss, experiment with timings and see the difference in texture and aroma to see what suits your angling situation.
