Firstly, what is pre-baiting and what does it involve? It involves traveling to and from you’re choice of lake regularly, feeding a particular swim or spot with the feed of your choice, the item of food that you think is going to give you the edge! Pre-baiting means adding feed to your fishing spot / swim several days/weeks before you get there to actually fish.

Is it legal?

Now before you make any decisions about pre-baiting, or putting any plans into action, you need to find out from the various councils, whether pre-baiting is even allowed in the province you are wanting to fish in. There are certain rules that you as an angler, need to adhere to at all times. Breaking those rules could cancel ANY plans you had of fishing at all, so just be careful.

Once you have established whether or not it is allowed in that certain province, you can then move on to finding out whether or not it is legal in the particular dam, lake or river that you want to fish. Certain venues don’t allow pre-baiting even if it’s a legal procedure in the province. An example of this would be Donaldson Dam in Westonaria. There are strict rules assigned to that lake, and they are mostly rules on feeding. They run a strict “NO PARTICLES” ruling, which anglers have to stick to when feeding and even when considering particles as a hook-bait. It is prohibited and is not the only lake that will have such a ruling. It’s a very good ruling as a matter of fact, because it has benefits for the carp themselves.

In the UK for instance, there are heavy bans on particle baits in a lot of their lakes and dams. Pre-baiting is prohibited in most parts, and even feeding once you get to the particular waters, isn’t allowed.

The main reason pre-baiting isn’t allowed in a lot of lakes is because most pre-baits consist of particles, and if they aren’t prepared properly or under prepared, it can be extremely damaging and unhealthy for the carp, in the long run and even over a short period of time. Baits can be fed in abundance and there could be some of that bait that just lies at the bottom of the lake, going rotten and causing who knows what to happen in the water. All the carp in the lake might never get around to eating it all.

Pre-baiting strategies?

Every single angler out there will have their own way that they like to pre-bait. Be it a 5-month feeding campaign for a weeklong session, or a 1-week feeding campaign for the following weekend session. Both work just as well as the other.

I’m going to share with you the way that I prefer pre-baiting my choice of venue or swim. Obviously depending on how many fish are in a lake, will determine how much you would feed. If I were going to fish the Saturday and Sunday of the week, I would start my pre-baiting, the Tuesday of that same week and feed 3kg of my choice of feed. This may seem a bit much, but you will see why. Skipping Wednesday now, I would feed on Thursday, this time the lake would have only received a small 1kg offering of bait from me, spread out a little more this time to cover any nearby area I might have missed in the surroundings, but still mainly covering my choice of area. Saturday and Sunday, you may feed as much as you wanted to, because hopefully by the weekend, the carp will have gotten into a regular pattern where they know that food is available for them, but only every so often, thus forcing them and causing them to want to check again, whether there was food in the area. Once they come and see food again, they will eat it all and you will have hook baits nicely concealed in the feed.

Keep the fish guessing and you can't go wrong. Their natural will to be nosy and inquisitive, will cause them to fall victim to you're carefully placed hook baits amongst the food that they have been eating so carefree over the past week. Hopefully that plan will bank you a few more fish. Its not the be all and end all of strategies, but it does make a lot of sense and has worked for me.

What is the purpose of pre-baiting and will it give you “an edge?”

Pre-baiting will more than likely give you an edge over fellow anglers, unless your choice of area to pre-bait was not a good one. You could decide upon a great plan of action, but put all your efforts and feed into completely the wrong area, thus not giving you any edge over fellow anglers. If someone else just arrives at a dam and starts feeding only then, you, having pre-baited should have a much better chance of catching something due to the feed you put in, having a lot more time to have worked up to now.

Always remember, the main reason for a pre-baiting campaign, is not to feed the carp and make them full, causing them to leave and never come back to that particular spot. It's main reason is to keep the carp interested and make them want to come back more and more often to your pre-baited area.

The best way to describe pre-baiting is by saying “less is more”. In this regard, it is true, because the less feed you put in over a period of time, the more fish you are going to attract and get interested in your feed.

Feeding a lot is also not a bad idea, but is recommended more for the lakes that contain a lot of smaller fish as well. If you are intending on fishing only for the large specimen sized fish, then smaller quantities of good quality food will be perfect and very beneficial.

So remember, when pre-baiting, you want to keep carp interested and occupied for a long time, not full and cause them to move on.

What should my pre-bait mixture include?

There are two categories of “pre-bait” here. You get your normal everyday particle mix that will contain mostly:

• Maize

• Maples

• Hemp seed

• Tiger Nuts

This is a foolproof mixture to use. It contains all the natural elements and flavours that carp are looking for. This is of course, the natural way of feeding.

The second category of pre-bait would be your stimulators and appetizers. Items of food that attract the carp to them via smell and their lateral line. Most of this kind of feed would consist of pellets and boilies. Make sure that you get yourself a good quality pellet if you intend on feeding with them. A plain fishmeal pellet is great and will never do any harm. Then you could move onto getting a pellet that has certain ingredients inside it, designed to attract the carp.
Salmon Pellets is a good example. They contain traces of salmon oil in them, which due to reasons ONLY known to carp, end up attracting them. A lot has to do with the fishy essence it emits. Halibut pellets is another example.

When fishing with pellets, you can include hempseed because it has a lot of natural oils. There are a number of other items that you can include, such as kelp and betaine, but that’s another article.

Do oils make a difference?

Not wanting to dwell on the use of oils too long, they can make a big difference yes, obviously depending on the time of the year and the water temperature. This however, does not seem to be a big problem in our waters. In the UK they suffer with it, because of the major temperature differences between their summer and winter. The slow emition of oils from certain baits can be lethal if used correctly in the correct time of the year.

Adding color to my feed, will it be beneficial and is it necessary?

Yes and no. There will be the odd time when you don’t need to add color because of the water clarity of the lakes you are fishing. Even if it is a dirty color water, you don’t HAVE to add color into you're pre-baited area. It will help, as I think adding color can sometimes make that extra little difference.
If you add plain yellow maize, even that counts as color. So plain maize will suffice. Especially when you are fishing over a muddy bottom. Another alternative would be to add red maize. Just adding food coloring to the maize will help you achieve the desired coloring.

I still think that the carp can see the coloring, so if you feel like you may want to include it into you're pre-bait, then do. You won't be sorry!

Another alternative is not only using particles as coloring. You can also use boilies! Red, yellow, green…the list goes on. Somewhere out there, there is a boilie of every color! Perhaps you have heard of someone doing well on a particular color. Use it! Put it into your feed and reap the rewards!

How much do I feed?

This all comes down to personal preference. You may want to feed HECTICALLY over a certain amount of time, or you may want to drop in small amounts of bait more often. The seasons that you fish also influence the quantities that you should feed.

For this sub-chapter, I can’t say what is and what isn’t the correct way to do this. Here’s a tip though.
When fishing in summer, you may feed more and not really have to worry about it going off on the lakebed. A carps metabolism is a lot faster in the warmer months, so they can eat more and expend it quicker. In summer, you can afford to feed that extra 2kg’s or so, if you're trying to lure in the big boys!

Winter, on the other hand, is just the opposite. The carp’s metabolism is a lot slower and they take much longer to digest the food and get feeding actively. Feeding a little less at this time could be more advantageous to you, so consider feeding slightly less when planning a pre-baiting campaign. The fish will still find the baits and eat them, but it will take them longer.

So to recap the important points and the finer details of pre-baiting:

• Find out if it is allowed in the province you choose to fish in.

• Get permission to pre-bait the lake of choice.

• Bait up with either particles or a choice of high quality pellets and boilies.

• Use oil based flavors or baits when you feel it can help you.

• Feed more in summer, and feed less in winter.

• Pre-bait to attract, not to feed.

I hope that the details included in this article can aid you in catching more fish or at least luring a couple more into your swim by the time your session begins.