Liquid additives – essential in the armoury of any carp, match, specimen or pleasure angler these days and if you are one of the few who have not yet cottoned onto the fact that bait additives give you a real edge then it’s about time you woke up and realised just how much more effective your baiting could be!

At the time of writing it’s early spring but to be outside walking around a lake – as we have just done – you wouldn’t know it as, despite being the middle of the day and almost Easter,  the temperatures are hovering just above freezing and when the wind-chill is factored in it is sub-zero. Not exactly the best of conditions to be fishing so our trip to Willow Park Fishery give these additives an outing was somewhat curtailed but we did endure frozen fingers in the interests of knocking up some groundbait and soaking some pellets and other hookbaits.

Apart from carp one of the first species to start feeding hard at this time of year is the bream and both of these liquid additives are essentials in the bait bag of anyone who plans on putting together a decent catch of slabs.

The fondness of bream for fish oil and fishmeal-based baits and pellets has long been recognised but the one additive that even surpasses fish oil as far as bream are concerned is green lipped mussel – they just adore the stuff and the Bait-Tech version is delightfully pungent and gives a nice ‘zing’ to groundbait and pellets. One word of warning though, it is not PVA friendly so you can’t glug it directly onto pellet bags – although we did find pellets soaked in a 50:50 mix of both the Liquid Pellet and the Green Lipped Mussel was fine.

The Liquid Pellet is, as you might expect, a 100% pure fish oil and as soon as the water temperatures begin to pick up it will be ideal for glugging, soaking and adding to groundbait and spod mixes etc. At this time of year though we recommend it is used very sparingly, if at all, and, if possible, mixed with an emulsifier to ensure it delivers its attraction effectively through the water.

In addition to being top of the list as far as bream palates are concerned both additives will also be terrific enhancers for baits intended for a variety of species, particularly carp and barbel.

Both liquid additives are available in 250ml bottles from all Bait-Tech stockists.