Moisture and break-down time
How much water is in the mix is a decision made before the first cast. It's almost a one-way choice: adding water is easy, taking it back out isn't. That's why water is added in stages, not all at once.
What water does
It glues particles together — up to a point. The more water, the tougher the ball, and the more of the mix reaches the bottom intact; past that point the mix stops holding its shape at all. A dry mix, by contrast, falls apart at once and gives a cloud instead of a patch.
What saves an over-wetted mix
A dry additive — breadcrumb, bran, soil. This works, but it has a cost: the additive increases the volume of the mix and dilutes it, and sometimes it simply isn't on hand. That's why water is added carefully: it can be fixed, but not for free.
Why it's added in stages
Because the mix doesn't take up water instantly: part of the liquid hasn't reached the centre of the particle yet, and a mix that seemed dry a moment ago turns sticky within a short time. That's why water is added, stirred in, and the mix is left to sit for a while — and only then is it decided whether more is needed.
Water from the venue
Not for the sake of ‘getting the fish used to the smell’ — that's something we haven't checked — but for a simple reason: it's right there, and it's the same temperature as the water the mix is about to enter. A cold mix in warm water, or the other way around, doesn't behave the way it's expected to.
Sieving
A moistened mix clumps together, and in that state it works unevenly: a clump opens up differently from the rest of the mix. Sieving breaks the clumps apart and restores the mix's uniformity — this applies to both the coarse and the fine fraction.
How firmly it's packed
The second lever, and it comes into play when the ball is being formed. From one and the same mix, a ball can be packed that opens up on the way down, or one that sits on the bottom almost unopened. Packing is tuned to the depth: the deeper, the firmer.
Why there are no minutes here
Break-down time depends on moisture, packing, depth, current and water temperature all at once. A number pulled out of that set would read as a norm it isn't. The practical way to find it for a given mix is to throw a ball in shallow water and watch.