Stick It To Them!

Stick mixes have been around for years, but dan reckons it’s more fun and more productive to make your own bespoke concoctions.

- Dan Cleary

Stick Mixes have been around for many years and those of us that use them regularly have our own favourite mixes. I like using PVA sticks on the hooklink, as I think it is better to present the fish with a small patch of attraction around the hookbait as well as helping to alleviate tangles on the cast, rather than simply using a PVA nugget on the hook that dissolves leaving only the hookbait. I also believe using the stick mix can assist in stopping silt from affecting the hookbait, which you can find happening on some venues at certain times of the season.

Over the years I have used various mixes, which over time have now been whittled down to two custom, bespoke blends I use exclusively. I call them my summer mix and winter mix.

THE SUMMER MIX:

Dynamite Source Stick Mix

• Crushed Complex-T shelf-life boilies

• Complex-T Hookbait Dip

• CSL Liquid

• A pinch of Sea Salt

• A glug of Salmon Oil

THE WINTER MIX:

• Dynamite Monster Tiger Nut

• Stick Mix Crushed Red-Amo Shelf Life

• boilies Red-Amo Hookbait Dip

• CSL Liquid

• A pinch of Sea Salt

• A glug of Hemp Oil

I have found that the Source Stick Mix complements both the Complex-T and Crave range, while the Monster Tiger Nut goes equally well with the Monster Tiger Nut and Red-Amo ranges. For this feature I was fishing on Gingerbread Lake in Cambridgeshire, which contains a lot of silver fish including a large number of bream, so I refrained from using small pellets in my stick mixes as I’d end up getting breamed out! Had this not been a problem, I like to add a small amount of 3mm Swim Stim Pellets to the mix, as they add bags of attraction and flavour and the carp love them.