How to prepare fishing hemp

Easy ways to prepare fishing hemp and make your own homemade hemp groundbait. Includes easy to follow hemp groundbait recipe.

It's been a while since I wrote an article for Haith's so I thought I'd write one on something that most anglers have heard of and is a well known fish catcher - HEMP.

There lots of ways to use hemp but one of the most important things with hemp is to get good quality fresh hemp seeds as older hemp seeds will have a tendency not to crack and reveal the white sprout when prepared. Haith's do two products which are the hemp seeds and these will need to be prepared before using (I will cover that in a minute) and also the crushed hemp seed which can be used straight from the bag.

How to prepare fishing hemp:

Preparing uncooked hemp seed is really really easy, simply soak the hemp seed for between 12 and 24 hours in a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil and then transfer to a bucket with an air tight sealable lid. Allow the mix to cool and then drain the water off making sure you keep the water for making boilies, adding to groundbaits, spod mixes, etc.

Transfer the drained hemp seed to a suitable airtight container and add 50ml of hemp oil per 500g of hemp seed you have prepared. If you aren't going to use lots of hemp seed there is a neat little trick for preparing it that is even easier than the above method.

Take an old flask and fill it a quarter full of unprepared hemp seed, now fill the flask with boiling water, seal and leave for 12 hours or overnight. When you open the flask you should find perfectly prepared hemp seed.

While we are on the subject of preparing your own, why not make your own simple groundbait/stick mix? All you need to do is mix equal amounts of prepared hemp seed, crushed hemp seed and fine breadcrumb then add your liquids or oils depending on whether your using it as a groundbait or stick mix.

Moving on to my last favourite trick for hemp homemade hemp pop ups, these are easy to make and the fish absolutely love them fished over a bed of homemade hemp groundbait.

The recipe is as follows;

- Hemp Pop Ups
- 70g Pop Up Mix (my preference is FeedStimulants milk protein based pop up mix)
- 20g Crushed Hemp Seed
- 12g Whole Egg Powder
- 10g Hemp Protein Powder
- 5g Egg Albumin
- 10ml Bait Preservative
-30ml Hemp Seed Water (from the hemp you prepared earlier) 10ml Hemp Oil If you fancy changing the recipe around a bit you could replace 5g of the hemp protein powder with 5g chilli powder or maybe 1g of the hemp protein powder with 1g garlic powder.

To make your pop ups mix all of the dry ingredients together and set to one side, now mix all of the wet ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Start to add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients a bit at a time, stirring it in until you can't stir any more. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix by hand until you have a nice dough ball.

You can now either use a sausage gun and rolling table to make your pop ups or pinch pieces of and roll them into balls in the palm of your hand.

Once you have done this place the balls into a boiling saucepan of water for 60-90 seconds and allow to air dry for 5-7 days. Place in an airtight tub and these should last a good 8-12 months.

Written by Anthony Wood