I have deceided that now is the time to try a different bait to the good old maggot. So could anyone out there explain the basics on how to mix ground bait and how much to use and also the amount of boilies to prepare for a days fishing
thanks

All depends on how your using the Groundbait and where your fishing are the fish use to the bollie your using do they no what a bollie is.
The other question is if you have only ever used maggotts then is your gear upto the job.
More info in all respects is needed before any advice can be offered.

i normaly use single 15mm boilie's and bait up with a pva bag and spod. i put between 10-15 bollies of the same flavour and about 10 other bollies of different flavours and sizes. i do this to try and get the carp feeding on alot of differnt bollies and get there confidence up. with the spod which i use casting to one bait. i fill it up with diferent size pellets and few times. i find this will get you alot more line bite but site on your hands and wait for a proper run.

When u mix your ground bait make sure its mixed properly use a round bowl with a flat bottom.And makeing sure there is no lumps of dry ground bait.Adding small pellets 2 your ground bait works well with a little mallases.Try using a method feeder with a short hook lenth.Tutti fruity boilie's work well this time of year and the size of the boilie's depends on the size of the carp u are fishing four 10 and 12 mil boilie's work well.Try choping some boilie's up and putting them in your ground bait.Another method u could try is single hook bait's (pop ups) with no freebies.Hope this helps tight lines

Get some basic carp powder bait in a tub mix it with a whole tube of ancovy paste and add a little bit of fish oil to make a ground bait ball i hope this helps you.