This year I hit upon what seems to be the answer. Fix a short piece of elastic band, tied into a loop, to the hookshank and force the mixer into the loop, with the hook at right angles to it. The elastic not only holds it in place but the tension of it also seems to stop it soaking up excess moisture. In this manner, mixers will stay on the hook for hours rather than minutes. Image - Mounting a chum mixer One of the most useful pieces of tackle for carp that my box contains is a candle.
Candles come in very handy as controller floats.
They are heavy and can be cast much further than conventional floats. I use both white ones and red ones, and neither seem to put the fish off. An extra advantage of using a candle is that it can be easily switched into a slow sinking weight. This can be achieved by putting a twist of lead wire around it, or by pinching a large shot onto the wick at the bottom of the candle. The candle is then balanced to rest gently on top of deep bottom weed and this helps prevent the bait from being obscured.