I've read from many sources aswell as noticing this new found "Posh fisherman" trend going around that people are using more and more house hold things to mix Groundbaits and pastes. I've never understood why people mix ground bait at home and even so why they insist on using boiling water for Paste and Groundbait. I mean understandable if it has any particles in which float or even bird seed, but i've never understood people who mix plain Paste & Groundbait at home and heres why...
Much like making a cup of coffee, you probably think it's much better to use hot or warm water when mixing your groundbait. Personally I've found that using cold water makes a much more consistent mix, especially if you're turning it into paste. Ingredients wise, groundbait consists of an insoluble base that provides bulk but doesn't dissolve in water and various soluble fish attractants, proteins, amino acids, fish meal etc. which dissolve in water. Everyone knows from experience that the warmer the water is ,the quicker and better things dissolve. The thing about groundbait is it already comes perfectly mixed! The quicker and more of the soluble parts of it we dissolve in the water the more you separate them. You may think this isn't a problem because the absorbent bulk soaks up the water with the soluble attractants with it. While true this also means it takes them out of the bulk quicker aswell and as your warm water cools down it gets denser and slower to dissolve attractants so your mix ends up alot less even. Basically, cold water helps keep the mix consistent by staying at the same temperture throughout the entire mix dissolving the dissolvable parts much slower and keeping your mix alot more inline with how it was before you added water. Thus giving your a better texture.
So what about using cold water from home rather than what from the lake?
Another thing about using tap water is, tapwater has got about 1.5ppm of chlorine in it and anything over 0.003ppm stresses fish and damages their gills. Obviously chucking groundbait in made with tapwater isn't going to kill a fish, but it may effect its confidence in feeding if its irritated.
A few things for you to think about...
Nathan
@ Fish4Thought
