What everyone ought to know about preparing groats

In my opinion, groats are on a par with hemp seed when it comes to pulling down carp onto a bait carpet. It absolutely staggered me to watch them feed and I have never seen preoccupied feeding like it. As I watched I witnessed dozens of carp really competing hard for every last grain and from time to time a fish would turn away from the bait carpet, literally stuffed to the gills. I clearly saw hundreds of individual grains spilling from its mouth and gill covers, so much had it crammed in.

Groats are extremely convenient for foreign jaunts as they can be prepared so easily by the lakeside. They soak up flavour like a sponge and carp adore them. In fact groats have everything going for than, which must make them my favorite of all particles. I have seen many suggested methods for preparing groats but in my opinion the simplest is always the best so here is how I do it if I am preparing them by the lakeside:

• Place the required amount of groats in a bucket.
• Add a good dollop of flavour.
• Add one tin of evaporated milk and 50ml any of the liquid food additives.
• Top up with lake water and stir well.
• Leave to soak overnight in the neat attractors and evaporated milk and next morning they are ready to use.

This is a brilliant way to prepare groats during a session when you need to make up frequent batches of bait on the bank and we use this method exclusively when we are fishing sessions in France. It’s best to get into a routine so set aside a few minutes per day to prepare tomorrow’s bait. N.B. Don’t forget to chuck any used hookbaits into the bucket as well. Every little helps!

If you have a bit more time on your hand to prepare the groats at home, I can thoroughly recommend the following method:

First empty 5kg of dry groats into a bucket with a lid and add 25g/kilo (dry weight) of neat Robin Red– ah…there’s the secret!

• Now add the flavour and liquid food.
• Next thin down 250ml of molasses such Stimulite Nectar Food with boiling water.
• Pour on the liquids and top up with water and evaporated milk.
• Now seal the bucket and leave for 24-48 hours.
• In this time the groats will cook in the hot water and as they cool down they will swell considerably, absorbing a lot of the molasses-rich water.
• Adding boiling water, as opposed to cold lake water does make a considerable difference to the pulling power of groats so give this method a try if you have the time available.

Groats are the perfect partner for some of our seed blends such as Red Band. Alternatively, try mixing them 50/50 with prepared hemp seed and fish a single tiger nut as a hookbait over the bait carpet. Groats also compliment our range of pellets superbly.

Oat Groats + Stimulite = success!

Prepared goats ready for use after just a 12-hour overnight soak. This is the best way to prepare groats during a session when you need to make up frequent batches of bait on the bank.

Add the flavours and liquid food then thin down a generous dollop of Stimulite using boiling water.

Then add the liquids to the oat groats and then top up with boiling water.

This is a blend of 50% oat groats and 50% Carpticle.

Written by Ken Townley