Black Pack aka Germ Pack Bait basic recipe step by step Part 1 of 2

As the spring is drawing closer I wanted to start to focus on more baits and one popular packbait that I have used in the past with great results is the Black Pack aka the Wheat Germ Pack Bait. This one is insanely easy to  make and only requires a few ingredients.  In this article I am using CC Moore Liquid Food Liquid Molasses and CC Moore Wheatgerm.  This does require heating the Molasses so it absorbs into the wheat germ better and also refrigerating the mix will stiffen it to allow for maximum distances on the cast over 100 yards.

The first step will be for you to measure out 6 cups of wheat germ to 2 cups of molasses.  It is best to measure out the wheat germ and place it into a seperate bag or bowl. I then measure out the molasses and place it into a put and begin warming.

After you place the 2 cups of molasses into your pot it will look like the image above. Once it begins to bubble it will change to light brown and then start to turn foamy like you can see in the pictures below.

Once it reaches the bubbling stage take it off of the heat and mix in your wheat germ that you had measured out. You will want to do this quickly because as it cools it becomes harder to manage.

Next step is to let this cool a little bit then place it into a freezer bag. The freezer bags are thicker so they can withstand the flattening process.

As you can see in the above photo you want to press and roll this flat to around 1/2 inch thick or less. After doing so you want to place it in your refrigerator for a good 6 hours or you can place it in your freezer for around 1 hours time to speed up this process. The key is to keep this in a cooler bag while you fish. This ensures the mix stays stiff and you will be able to cast  an extremely far distance without it flying off. You can either mold it around your lead, boilies or baits.

As you can see as soon as you place the pack into the tank the color fades as the molasses spreads throughout the water so you have the flavor traveling far quickly.

I usually pair up this mix with a CC Moore Steeped Black Tiger nut as it compliments the pack bait well.

The amount of leakage is incredible after only a minute on the bottom and keep in mind this is in a tank with no current so the effects on a lake will be much quicker.

The above is molded around a lead weight. I enclosed some pictures of the pack around the boilies as well.

You can see each one side by side and compare the amount of leakage each one will present on  the bottom to give you a better idea.

Finally my favorite part the cloud effect. A light stirring of the water and you can see how the molasses fills the tank!

PVA friendly the CC Moore Glycerine way!

Winter time leaves the carp angler dreaming of spring and with so many winter days to go through until it begins to warm up the internet can be a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips.  I was reading the CC Moore bait blog and read an article on CC Moore Glycerine and some of its uses. Right away I knew this would apply to most all of the anglers out there reading this. We have all heard about adding salt to any particles to make them pva friendly but certain baits we really don't want to add salt content or even make them salty in any way shape or form. Glycerine allows the baits or particles to keep the same color,smell and taste all while making them pva friendly and with a few steps you can also create a high leakage mix using pva bags.

Part 1 video found below!

The first step in this article I tool some CC Moore Hi-Viz Tigers the Tutti Frutti Tigers to be exact which can be found here.    I took a small sized Korda Krusha to break them down into various sizes from small to large to give the best presentation on the bottom of the lake as the pva broke down. It is best when using particles to create as natural of a presentation as you can so having various shapes and sizes can fool even the weariest of fish.

The next step is quite simple as all you have to do is add in the CC Moore Glycerine which is found here.  You do not need a whole lot but make sure that it is mixed very well on both the particles and the liquid.  I also spoon in some extra liquid to use in pva bags. I feel adding liquids to bags give the bait a lot of extra appeal as it can draw fish from a farther range than just the bait alone. After you mix in the glycerine you will want to let it rest for around 5 minutes to make sure it absorbs a little and is fully mixed.

After letting the mix rest and making a pva bag up I did a tank test to see how the break time was and also how much area the liquid covered on the bottom. Before I finished the bag I added in a few spoonfuls of extra liquid to make sure my bag had maximum attraction and of course draw the fish in faster.

In the final picture above you can see just how much the flavor leaked over a few minute period and of course this is in a fish tank so keep in mind a lake that has constant moving water will draw fish in from a far distance very quick.

Now that we covered pva bags lets talk about pva mesh. The only drawback I can see is you can not add extra liquid obviously to the mesh as it would just leak out before you even cast. You will see in  the video above how a very tight pva mesh bag will pop as it breaks down in the water. Also another tip if you want your breakdown time to be even slower yet just dunk the made up pva bag or mesh bag into the glycerine/tiger mix and it will prolong the breakdown even more.

The above picture you can see the pva bag on the left broken down and the flavors leaking everywhere. The mesh bag on the right was just dropped into the water. The picture below shows the broken down mesh bag and how it is extremely difficult to pick out the hook bait.

Part 2 of this section I wanted to mainly focus on particles in glycerine with no extra liquids. I found I got a much better explosion when the pva melted which you can see in the video below.

The above is the CC Moore Particles in Talin and I added in glycerine to produce the pva friendly mix. I used a pva mesh stick for this part as I wanted to focus primarily on the explosion comparision from a mix with more liquid compared to just a pva friendly particle mix.

After dropping the mesh stick into the tank the break down was quicker due to the mesh and left a nice presentation on the bottom that any carp would find irresistible . I used the same rig before which had a Hi-Viz Tutti Frutti Tiger on it just to grab a photo of how the bait was presented after the break down.

After recording this and rewatching it a few times I came to the conclusion that this was an insanely easy mix to use every time out on the bank with little to no prep time and creates a deadly tactic worth trying. As winter drags on expect a lot more videos to come.. Brian Wingard

Products used in this video and links

CC Moore Glycerine

CC Moore Hi-Viz Tigers "Tutti Frutti"

CC Moore Particles in Talin COMING SOON to BCT!

Korda Krusha small size

Korda Solidz pva bags

Korda Funnel Web boilie size

How to defeat the weed in any lake with CC Moore Weedbeater Mix

The fall season is upon us and like most lakes one of the major obstacles to face is still the amount of weed present in the lake. As the outdoor temperatures and surface temperatures decrease the underwater temperature still remains warm enough for the weed to continue growing. When the water cools it becomes much more clearer and the sunlight will penetrate through easier to promote weed growth. So what can we do as an angler to tackle this major problem. In the latest NACA which is the Carp Anglers Group's quarterly magazine that they put out I wrote a part 1 to this on how to destroy weed. If you plan to fish a spot a lot you can remove weed over a course of a few days. You can find that article written here. NACA   This method is geared towards the ability to visit a lake periodically to bait up and the fish will really root through and uproot the weeds in a particular spot for you. This will create clear spot that makes fishing a ton easier.

So what about the places that we do not have the ability to prebait or visit regular? Weed can grow back in a matter of weeks and make it difficult all over again. CC Moore has come up with a Stick/Bag Mix that helps to conquer this problem and it is called the weedbeater mix. It comes in all the boilie varieties so you can match it up with their boilie range or you can mix and match mixes and be creative. Big Carp Tackle sells the weedbeater mix and you can find it here. CC Moore Weedbeater Mix  It has been so successful that at the time of this article only the Odyssey Mix is left but David will be stocking more in the very near future.  How this works is you you determine what type of weed you have on the bottom by casting out a lead and reeling it in. If you have weed over a few feet high then this mix will not work the greatest but if you have your typical blanket weed or silt that is under a foot and a half high then this is the mix for you. When you reel in your lead determine the height of the weed. Next step will be to make your hook length around 6 inches longer than the weeds height. You then either make a pva bag or a pva stick and thread it onto your hook length and pierce the hook into the stick or the bag which ever you decided to use. The bag will protect the hook from the weeds and will prevent tangling. Finally choose a hookbait. I usually try to use the weedbeater mix  with the matching hookbait. You can mix and match like I mentioned above to give yourself a unique blend of flavors and attractors though.  If you use a standard bottom bait or a pop up is up to you but I like using the bottom baits with this.

Ok so you made up your mix which I will say you can add some liquid attractors to but remember we want this mix to remain light and fluffy. Before you even go to cast I like to poke a lot of holes into the pva bag that way any trapped air will escape and the water will penetrate and break the bag faster. The next thing to do is cast to your desired location. When you go to cast make sure you feather down the lead and this will dive into the weeds.  The mix does all the work for you because as the pva melts it will gently lay itself on top of the weed. The mix is extremely light so even after the pva is all disolved the mix will stay on top of the weed allowing the fish to find your bait. Also as you can see in my video below the mix will rise and fall over and over again attracting fish down to your mix. Once the carp start to find the mix you will see a great big cloud form from the mix. This surely attracts many more carp into the area resulting in some fast pace action. When I began using this mix I went from hooks covred in weed to weed free hooks. My last session I had 5 fish in around 3-4 hours as a result of being able to fish on top of the weed properly without my rig and hook getting buried rendering it useless.

On my last trip out I was really amazed at how well this had worked on a spot that is always weed choked. It seemed like fish after fish had been coming out and no signs of tangled weed on the rig itself but only around the lead which was buried into the weed. This definitely gave me an edge with overcoming this weed problem. Another great thing is the fact that every lake we travel to has weed in it. Some lakes are kinder than others on the amount of weed but with this you always have a plan of action in getting results. The CC Moore Weedbeater mix is extremely easy to use lasts a good amount of time considering you only use a bag full here and there. This is a great way to save some cash as well since you are not chumming it and chumming it over and over. A good typical night for me and I may use around 8-10 pva bags of this mix so you can imagine how long it will last for.

Click on the video below to play the video about the CC Moore Weedbeater mix and it also shows how it looks breaking down underwater in my fish tank.