Carp can become totally preoccupied on these crunchy little yellow grains.

Carp anglers have been using groats for many years and with good reason - they work! In our opinion, groats are on a par with hemp seed when it comes to pulling down carp onto a bait carpet and once you have actually watched carp feed on these little yellow grains you be absolutely staggered by the hugely aggressive and competitive way they approach a bait carpet.

You can often watch them turn away from the other feeding carp with groats spilling from their mouths and gills. Yes, they are literally stuffed to the gills! Groats are extremely convenient for foreign jaunts as they can be prepared so easily by the lakeside. They soak up flavour like a sponge and carp adore them. In fact groats have everything going for them, which makes the favourite bait of many carp anglers across the world.

We have seen many suggested methods for preparing groats but in our opinion the most convenient method is to prepare them by the lakeside. Simply soak in lake or river water and leave them overnight. The next morning they are ready to use.

If you have a bit more time on your hand to prepare the groats at home, I can thoroughly recommend the following method:

• First empty 5kg of dry groats into a bucket with a lid and add 25g/kilo (dry weight) of neat Robin Red – ah…there’s the secret!)

• Now add the flavour and liquid food.

• Next thin down 250ml of molasses with boiling water.

• Pour on the liquids and top up with water and evaporated milk so as to cover the bait by at least an inch of water.

• Now seal the bucket and leave for 24-48 hours.

• In this time the groats will cook in the hot water and as they cool down they will swell considerably, absorbing a lot of the molasses-rich water.

• Adding boiling water, as opposed to cold lake water does make a considerable difference to the pulling power of groats so give this method a try if you have the time available.

 Groats are the perfect partner for some of our seed blends such as hemp seed or Red Band and they also compliment our range of pellets superbly.