Paste > Reviews > Bogey Balls

Author's product rating:   

Ease of Use
Value for Money

Advantages:	easy to use eventually .   Catches loads (carp especially)
Disadvantages:	Paste takes a while to get the hang of, but don& # 8217;t worry if a few things go wrong initially .  Not such a good all round bait .   Better for the bigger fish .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Well, this is a funny one which actually took me quite a while to get the hang of. Always having heard about all these amazing catches being taken on big dollops bogey looking brown stuff, I sneakily got my hands on some and started to experiment.

Totally glad I did too, cos this stuff has won me a load of money in competitions. It is probably my all time favourite bait for carp, and since I got it sussed, I’ve had billions of the things. I said on the op. about sweetcorn (once I updated it), that the manufactured flavoured ones were no better than the plain stuff you get in the shops. With paste, I personally think that the opposite could be said. Some of the Sensas ones in particular are really really good.

They sell them in loads of different flavours like ‘Prawn and Shrimp’ (which smells nice enough to eat, but then when you do it tastes totally sick – I’m so stupid sometimes), ‘Strawberry’ and ‘Tutti Fruity’ to name but a few. Van Den Eynde also have a similar range, but I prefer the Sensas ones. They normally come in tubs which cost less than £2 in most cases (but they do last a suprisingly long time).

The first point to make about using paste, is that you must leave the hookpoint clear. Actually, that may be wrong for some cases, but if you are going to engulf the hook, then the paste needs to be soft enough for you to be able to pull the hook out of it on the strike (so that you can catch the fishies).

Often people will make their own pastes. This is definitely a cheaper way of doing it. All you need is some crushed trout pellets, maybe a few flavourings if you really want to use them, some water, and possibly an egg. Just mix them all together and spend some time making it all look as squidgey bogey-like as possible. It can be quite a messy job as you’d imagine. Just make sure that you add the water slowly because you really don’t want it to be too runny. You can make it actually any consistency you like. A stiffer mix will obviously hold the hook better for longer casts etc, while a soft one will probably catch you more fish, but you then have trouble casting whilst keeping the bait intact.

I said before about the Sensas range of pastes. These really are made to just the right consistent I think. I suppose they are fairly stiff, but still soft enough to mould nicely around the hook. For bigger carp in particular, I’ve had a lot of success. Either underneath a waggler with a size 10 hook, and a big ball of the stuff, or on the pole with a 14 hook, they always just seem to love it.

I fish it most often on the pole, and have found it to be especially effective when fished close in, right up next to the reeds.

This really has caught me loads of fish, so I really recommend using my method that I’m just about to tell ye about. Starting at the top, you’ll need a strong pole with something like a 12+elastic. Mainline would normally be about 4.5lb (the Silstar stuff), and I’d have a short but strong float taking about 0.2 grams, set just over-depth. The hook would be as I said, probably a 14 or maybe a 12.

By setting the float just over-depth, the paste (which would sink the float if set to shallow) is resting on the bottom, with quite a tight line between it and the float. You can then drag the pole to the side slightly, pulling the line between the pole tip and the float tight so that the float is nearly being dragged under. This basically means that you have a tight line between the pole and the bait. This makes bites unmissable as the float will often really shoot under, sometimes with such aggression, that the fish will hook themselves on the tight line. The problem with it is though, that it often makes it too sensitive, and you’ll even be able to see movements of the float every time a fish scrapes along your line. Once you’ve done it a few times though, you’ll really be able to tell the difference between the liners and the real bites.

Feeding for this method is really simple. Introduce a large handful of trout pellets at the start, and then just feed as much as you think the fish are eating from that point on. If you’re catching loads, then you’ll obviously need to feed more. REMEMBER: You can’t take out what you’ve put in!! When feeding non-moving baits like pellets or corn, if the fish don’t eat them and you keep on feeding, you’ll just end up covering the bottom in food. How the flip is a fish supposed to pick out your bait among all those other free offerings?? But then I suppose that’s where using the paste really helps. A big lump of bogey (sorry I’m so disgusting) is gonna stand out and hopefully get snapped up by a big old fishy looking for his tea.

Paste definitely works best during the summer months when the fish are more active. Like I said with the corn though, if you know of somewhere that is well enough stocked to allow you to catch all year round, then it will probably still work there when it gets colder. Also, during the colder months, you might also find that smaller bits work best.

Ok, to summarise:

As a general rule, always hook it so that the hookpoint is showing, even if its only a tiny bit. As long as the hook can escape from its pastey surroundings, you won’t miss bites.

In winter scale your tackle down a bit. Slightly finer lines, smaller hooks and smaller pieces of paste will probably work better. The fish won’t be fighting so hard so you’ll get away with all the lighter stuff.

Try the Sensas stuff (‘Prawn and Shrip’ in particular)!!! Also get the flavoured Sensas pellets of the same flavour.

Use a big enough hook. This totally depends on the size of the bait though, so you really have to work it out for yourself. A ball with a diameter about the same as a pound coin, is ok with about a size 12 (that should get you started anyway).

Try it!! Even if you're not fishing, just buy some of the stuff so you can see how nice it smells, but I strongly advise against putting it in your mouth :)