CONTENTS.................................

Soils – an introduction
Light loams
River soils (soils for fishing in rivers)
Clays/Leams (or Argiles)
Light Sands
Other soils

Flavoured, coloured or pure?

How to use soils – getting the mix right

In Conclusion

by Nicolas Béroud and David Ewing for Déclic Pêche

Soil - An Introduction
The last time I remember soil being widely talked about in the British angling press was in the mid 1970’s. The soil in question was peat and the method shown, by Percy Anderson, on the Cam was Black Magic (if memory serves me correctly).
Since then we have learnt a lot about groundbait and what it does. We have gained in experience and confidence as more and better groundbaits have become available in the UK, yet the use of soil has rather past us by. If you take a trip to any good French tackle shop there are bags and bags of different soils on sale. French anglers are masters at knowing what soil to use and in what proportions it should be mixed with grounbait.
It is perhaps understandable that soil has played a lesser part in UK fishing!
Soil is an essential constituent of a groundbait designed to carry joker because they need a support – a bed – to lie on once on the bottom of a lake or river and soil is therefore the ideal medium for presenting them. Didier Guessard explained this succinctly to Déclic: "On a bed of soil the joker is protected, put it on a bed of groundbait, even underwater, and the ingredients in the groundbait can quickly kill it. By using soil, I am guaranteed of having joker still alive in my swim at the end of a competition". This message, from one of the most adaptable anglers in France is clear, soil is a MUST if you intend to use joker along with groundbait.
If you wish to learn a little more about what soil to use, and why, then read on...

Light loams
Loams occur widely in the UK and in France they are generally known as "Terre de Somme" or Earth of the Somme. This doesn't mean that they come solely from the Somme Valley but just that the name has been taken from this region were these light soils were first used by Northern French matchmen.
Please note – LOAM has nothing to do with LEAM!!!!

The characteristics of a light loam are:
It is a loose soil which does not bind hard
It tends to be light in colour – beige to light brown
It clouds noticeably once in water.

This is why it is so widely used for fishing. Because it does not bind it does not alter greatly the action of a groundbait. More importantly, it does not add lumps to the groundbait so the attractive cloud it creates helps to draw and hold fish, especially bream.

When you find a vein of loam getting it is easy, just try to avoid going after heavy rain - a drought is not a problem as it is easier to riddle off.

It is best to scrape the soil with a small shovel, or better still, a small hand rake if the soil is slightly damp. Take a large bucket with you and simply work away at the soil and fill your bucket.

Once you have filled the bucket with soil, riddle it off to get rid of any vegetable matter and stones, then put it in a bin bag. If you want to keep it a relatively short time, say up to 4 months, then you can keep it slightly damp in a bag. If you want to keep the soil longer then it is best to dry it completely, either in the sun, laid out on boards, or in the oven (to avoid accusations of insanity wait until the house is empty). If you do not dry the soil it will "turn" after a while as the bacteria starts to develop, due to the damp.

You can easily dampen dry soil. One way is to use a small atomiser but it is not the most efficient method. It is simpler to pour water on the soil, like with groundbait, and mix it thoroughly. Once damp push it through a riddle to knock out all of the lumps.

Another way is to lay sheets of newspaper over the top of a bucket of soil and pour the water over the newspaper and leave it. The newspaper acts as a natural filter, so the soil gets damp must the same way as after natural rain.

These methods are only used when soil is added to groundbait that has already been dampened. We will see later that soil can also be added to a dry groundbait mix or as a muddy "soup". These different ways of preparing soil can have a considerable impact on the action of the groundbait (see the How to Use soil section!)

River soils
This does not refer to a soil found by a river (a river could flow through pure sand thereby giving you a sandy soil!) but to soils used for fishing in rivers.

They are very common soils and have these characteristics:
Dark in colour – dark brown generally
Sticky and heavy – you can check the binding potential of a soil by rubbing it between your fingers. If it crumbles, it will not stick, if it feels soapy and smears your fingers then it will.
Will not cloud in water.

Obviously the binding properties of a river soil will be different, depending on which river you intend to use them on. Fishing the Trent will need a stickier soil than say the Warwickshire Avon at Evesham. and most French anglers will have three or four river soils, each with different binding properties for this very reason.

You can test river soils on the bank or in your garden by making up balls and throwing them out, as if you where pole fishing at 11 metres. The soils you need range from a lightish river soil, which will hold a ball together in the air but break up as it hits the ground, to the heaviest soil which will make a hard ball which when it hits the ground will only be slightly damaged.

Gathering river soils is a more delicate affair than with the light loams. River soils will turn to mud if too wet and form hard solid lumps when too dry. The ideal place to gather them is in woodland where they are protected from rain and sun by the canopy of the trees and leaf mould. Gathering them and storage is the same in practise as for the light loams, except that when riddling use a larger mesh because this stickier soil will not go through a standard maggot riddle. Even with a larger mesh you will still have a lot of lumps left - DO NOT SQUEEZE them through the riddle, throw them away and get on to the next batch.

Clays/Leams (or Argiles)
These are the fine powdered clays commonly known as leams in the UK.

Their characteristics are:
They come in a variety of colours – from grey to green, through beige or yellow!
Most are extremely sticky – Bentonite, for example, will bind groundbaits rather like cement. A few hundred grams of bentonite will change a light bleak mix into a heavy river mix, so handle with care!
Some clays do not bind! This is just a note of warning as Sensas have released some red and yellow damp argile which actually acts more like a sand than a clay.

Gathering clay is difficult, even when slightly wet it can turn into a sticky mud, you know the sort of thing which sucks off your boots when you walk through it, and when dry it turns rock hard and you need to take a hammer or mallet to it to break it down.

It is probably best just to buy these clays as the amounts used are very small. This is worth bearing in mind for UK anglers who can be quick to mix a whole packet of grey leam with any groundbait and say it is a river mix. It will bind fine but will it work as it should on the bottom of a river by releasing your bait effectively? Too much clay will result in balls breaking up in lumps rather than opening or, in a worst case scenario, not breaking up at all!

Light sands
These are directly opposite to clays and have:
No binding power at all. In fact they can often act as a dispersant and help break groundbait down.
A light colour. The colour most common is - sandy yellow. Now there's a surprise!
Little actual clouding capacity. Simply throw a ball of sand into a river, or canal and notice that it does not produce any lingering cloud.

Light sands usually occur on beaches, but there are large areas of sand inland created by shallow Jurassic and Cretaceous seas. Gathering these light soils is relatively easy. Certain rivers, like the River Wey in Surrey, flow through sandy soil so you can get your kids out with their buckets and spades and simply dig up a load. It dries quickly, keeps well and should be treated in exactly the same way as loams.

These sands are particularly useful for light bleak or skimmer mixes. The weight of the sand will help you get the balls further out, or get your mix to break up at mid depth, rather than on the surface. The sand will also add weight but not affect the action of these mixes.

Other soils
The four soil types described above are the main ones, however there is a whole range of soils which have a value for fishing. Take the soil in my back garden, a standard garden soil, dark in colour but with little in the way of binding power. This insignificant soil does not fall into any of the above categories yet I have used it or ages as an ideal soil for winter roach fishing on canals. It adds dark colour to my groundbait and works quickly once it is on the bottom as it does not bind the mix, which is exactly what a winter roach mix should do. So I worry not about what type of soil it is or its name, it does the job that I want it to do!

Peat also falls into the hard to classify category. It is strangely unfashionable these days – sorry Percy (see intro!) - but peat is a good carrier for pure joker or chopped worm. It allows you to make small balls which break up on contact with the surface which then clouds up nicely, ideal for roach and especially perch.

Other "soils" worth considering are red brick dust which forms a lingering cloud when wet, ideal for regular feeding small fish, particularly in coloured water.

Just before I finish this section it is worth mentioning about molehill soil. Anglers have extolled its virtues for years, yet there is no specific 'molehill' soil. Obviously the nature of a soil from a molehill will depend entirely on the characteristics of the soil that the mole has decided to burrow through!!!

Flavoured, coloured or pure?

For many years soils were used 'au natural' which means pure and mixed with a relatively haphazard manner. This was usually to add weight or reduce the nutritional value of a groundbait. Soils have also come in and out of fashion, continental anglers could not leave it alone during the 60’s and 70’s only to see soil fall from grace during the 80’s. The last decade has seen a resurgence in soil use. The way soils are used has also changed. Nowadays soil is prepared like any other constituant part of a groundbait mix. Some anglers flavour it, others colour it while many others mix different soils to get exactly the right action for a particular venue, for example light loam could be used to make a river soil work quicker on hitting the bottom.

Flavouring soils has long been regarded as a well kept secret amongst top French anglers. Jean Pierre Fougeat, to name but one, was fanatically secret about flavouring soils with brasem or vanilla. These are no longer well kept secrets. Most top anglers have now realised that so called 'secrets' do nothing to promote our sport and Jean Pierre, in common with many others, now share openly how they prepare their soils and groundbaits.

All top anglers do something to their soils. The French and the Belgian’s are famous for flavouring soils whilst the English and Italians are known for mixing soils. Most anglers at world level colour their soils when necessary.

To flavour a soil you can use either powdered or liquid flavours. Powdered flavourings are easy to mix with soil – simply sprinkle on and mix. Liquid flavourings are a little trickier. The best way is to mix the liquid with water in an atomiser and wet the soil by spraying.

In any case FLAVOURED SOILS SHOULD ONLY BE USED PURE when laying down an initial carpet for joker feed. You should not add flavoured soils to groundbaits as the flavours might work against each other.

It is also worthwhile flavouring soils a few days before fishing. Some flavours will also affect the action of a soil. Sugary flavours, like molasses or Aromix, will increase the binding power of a soil. You could transform a light loam, with say Aromix, into a light coloured, cloud forming but sticky soil which is different from traditional river soils yet ideal for river bream fishing.

Colouring soils is now common practise. Sensas have even produced a dark version of the famous yellow loam – Terre de Somme. Simply by darkening the soil they have preserved the action of a loam and created an ideal soil for cold or clear waters. Obviously there is such a range of groundbait colouring agents available that anglers can now mix and create almost any colour they like. The most widely used colours are dark brown, black and yellow. The first two allow the soil to blend imperceptibly with the natural shades of the bed of a lake and the yellow is more suitable for bream fishing.

As with flavourings there is little point in colouring a soil and then mixing it with groundbait. You would be much better mixing the soil with the groundbait first then colouring the whole lot!

Soils can also be mixed with each other to create a cocktail which optimises their action for a particular venue. One fashionable mix is to combine a light loam with a small quantity of bentonite, Alan Scotthorne is expert at this method, it means he can feed tiny balls of soil, which bind hard and allow him to vary the amount of jokers in the mix at different stages of a match. The more bentonite he puts in, the more the mix sticks and the greater its capacity to hold joker, in this way he can feed almost neat joker balls in a flow and be sure that the bait gets down to the bottom. He has been known to use as much as 80% bentonite to 20% loam so that the joker content of his mix can be maximised.

All sorts of combination of soil type and characteristic are possible. Using fine sand, like the Litou (available in France), with light loams, can make sure that a loam based soil breaks up instantly from the top of the water and add to the potential cloud it creates. The possibilities of lightening a river soil with sand or adding weight to a loam soil with clay are endless. It is up to anglers to understand exactly what each soil does, the way it holds or breaks up underwater, then adapt this knowledge to each specific venue they fish.

Working out what different soils do underwater is important, the French team have used swimming pools in the past to watch what soils and groundbaits actually did. If your local leisure centre is not that accommodating, then try a clear canal and simply observe what happens when you throw different soils in, to get a feel for their action.

How to use soil – getting the mix right!

The exact quantities of soil to groundbait is a question even French anglers often ask Déclic Pêche - there is no simple answer. The right amount of soil can vary from 0% to 100% of a mix and only the conditions and venue on a particular day can determine exactly the right answer. There are, however, some basic ground rules to observe.

Soil is all but useless for carp fishing except in extremely strong flows. Some soils are so powerful as binders (bentonite and the other clays) that only a small percentage is ever needed in a mix. In other cases pure soil may be the best option. Didier Guessard mentioned earlier about joker being fed in soil, as opposed to groundbait. It is worth noting that chopped worms are also damaged by the salts and sugars in cereal groundbaits. Using pure soil is especially useful for an initial bombardment because if you need to keep joker alive for the full match, then soil is the only medium to use. French anglers may use, say a 20 ball initial bombardment but that would be made up of approx. 15 plus balls of pure soil and joker with the rest balls of groundbait on top. So the perception that continentals use groundbait like confetti is misguided and incorrect!

Interestingly, French anglers also favour using pure soil as a way of feeding hemp in a flow because once on the bottom the soil is inactive with no additional feed value but it will concentrate hemp much better than loosefeeding in powerful rivers, it's certainly easier than using a bait dropper!

As a guide for lake fishing you should use 20% loam in summer for actively feeding fish in a mix, this will rise to about 70% in winter if fishing is hard as this will considerably reduce the nutritional value of your feed.

River mixes will vary from 10% in summer to 50 % in winter with a binding river soil and canal fishing can go as high as 80% soil in winter with 30% as a starting point in summer.

In conclusion
The light loam soils are the most useful for all round fishing as they do not significantly change the action of a groundbait, they are ideal on lakes, canals and slow flowing rivers. River soils are most useful on powerful rivers such as the Thames, Trent, Severn, Bristol Avon etc., and on shallower but swift rivers like the Wye, the Ribble and many of the Yorkshire rivers. Clays are most useful on flooded rivers and are almost never used pure. Lastly the sandy soils which break up quickly are ideal for top up feeding and work especially well on muddy or silty bottoms where they break groundbait up very quickly.

One last question worth answering is in what form should you add the soil to a mix. Should the soil be dry or wet and should the groundbait be dry or wet? These are important questions because the way you mix the soil will affect the way the groundbait works.

If you mix a dry soil with a dry groundbait and mix them together you will get a heavy and dense mix which will need riddling. This is interesting when you want to use a light loam in a river. On the other hand if you mix a damp soil with a wetted groundbait you don’t change the characteristics of either the soil or the groundbait. It is worth noting that you should slightly over wet the groundbait as the soil has a tendency to dry a mix out – even when the soil is already dampened. As mentioned earlier, soil can be easily dampened by laying sheets of newspaper over a bucket and letting water filter through. The newspaper acts rather like grass and the soil is dampened 'naturally'.

One last solution is to mix the soil with water and get a sort of a mud which, when mixed with groundbait, gives a really stiff mix. This method is especially useful on deep rivers where bream come to the noise of top up feeding, this is well known ploy used by all good Seine anglers who know how important noise is (just think of the World Champs next year!). The World Champs venue on the Seine looks like a roach venue now, but if the bream move in watch out for some noisy feeding!

So there you have it, a lot of technical information on soils and mixes which will make perfect sense to your average French match angler but we on the other hand have some way to go before matching their level of understanding and application...

...we hope this article does something to redress that balance and gives you food for thought with some ideas on how to use soils in the future. If you have any comments or questions relating to this article please forward an email to us.