I don’t know about you, but I love trying weird and wonderful baits. One that I’ve seen being talked about quite a bit is aniseed. Today, we will be taking a look into whether it can help you catch fish and more important, catch more carp.
So, do carp like aniseed? Yes, aniseed has a very potent smell that and when added to your fishing bait can help attract carp into the area. It works great when added to boilies or ground bait.
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What Exactly Is Aniseed?
Aniseed (Anise), is actually a plant from the herbaceous plant family. It is grown in warmer clients and originated from Africa. It grows up to 3ft in height before it is harvested for use. It is used in a wide variety of products such as fragrances, sweets, food and drinks. Now it’s also used as a fishing attractant!
Will It Help You Catch Fish?
I sometimes wonder if these crazy bait smells and combinations are just there to catch the angler and not the fish but carp do love a strong flavour.
Let’s take a look at some of the best baits that you can add aniseed into to hopefully improve your catch rate.
What are The Best Fishing Baits To add It To?
Spod Mixes
When a spot hits the water then the aniseed oil will be released along with the rest of the baits. This will act as a chum to the carp and hopefully bring them in from far away.
Pop-ups and Boilies
You could create your own glug with aniseed oil and then dip your pop up baits or boilies into it. This will come off after a few minutes but hopefully, any fish that are nearby will smell it and come into it.
Groundbait
When you mix up your ground bait with water then why not pop a bit of aniseed oil into it. You can then make the ground bait into aniseed balls that can be thrown over where you are fishing. This will work well down in the margins.
Hemp
While doing my research I found that people were adding aniseed essential oils into hemp. You don’t need much of it but once the hemp has been cooked and is still hot, just add a few drops and mix it around the hemp.
Aniseed Bread Paste (Aniseed Balls)
Make your own bread paste and then add some drops of aniseed into it. This can then be moulded into aniseed balls which can be used on a ledger.
What Aniseed Products Are Available?
The Actual Plants
If you can get hold of them I have heard about people boiling up the actual plant and then soaking their bait in it. Not sure this one is for me as it does sound like quite a lot of work compared to other options.
Ready-Made Soaked Pellets
A company called Bag Up Baits produce some soft hooker pellets that have been presoaked in aniseed. If you want to try them, here is the link.
Aniseed Additive Particles
Van Den Eynde produce a product that’s in granular form. This is to be added to your normal ground bait. These are well-respected ground bait manufacturer and this could be worth a try. You can find a link to the product here.
Aniseed Concentrate (Essential Oils)
A company called Bait Hacks sells a concentrated version of aniseed oil. This would be my go-to choice to add to baits. It’s small, fits in your tackle box and is versatile.
Final Thoughts
I’m not 100% convinced about aniseed when you compare it to some baits for fishing but there’s no harm in trying it.
Have you used aniseed baits before? Let me know how you got on in the comments below.
Mike has over 30 years of fishing experience in carp fishing and general coarse fishing. He is always looking for the latest fishing kit to try out and talk about and needs a bigger shed due to all the fishing tackle he owns. You can read more about him here.