what makes a good boillie???

[Neneman Nick]

a question for all you home rollers of baits....how can i tell the difference between a good one or a bad one??? can its smell mask all manner of horrors??? is it a case of splitting one in half and looking at texture or ingredient contents??? do you home bait makers have a keen eye,an instinct for these things???
or is it just a case of using it and seing if it catches???

the reason i ask is,that i have just took delivery of a small quantity of home rolled baits via e-bay.admitedly i am only going to use them for my chub and barbel fishing but if anyone knows about home rolled baits its you carp fishing chappies.

[baggie{boing boing}]

making bait can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be, i can make a bait for a few quid or spend my hard earned big time and the result will be the same.bait catches more fisherman than fish.

you'll never tell a good boilie by looking at it, a small amount of decent ingredients can mask all sort of horrors!

but like baggie says, bait catches more anglers than fish....

do they get weighed and photos in the press ?

i've got mags full of pictures of lots of people in various poses.

i used to have some,now you can get the same on video

"you'll never tell a good boilie by looking at it, a small amount of decent ingredients can mask all sort of horrors!"

ohhhhh **** )

but you can tell if the composition is acceptable, if it crumbles well and doesn't appear stodgy, you can look, smell and taste for certain palatability, so in answer to the original question, I believe a knowledgeable bait maker should be able to tell if a bait is half decent, but that doesn't always mean that it will catch.

[ian hewett]

Get out and fish with it Nik and if you roll it yourself you will get much more satisfaction from catching. The big brand base mixes are all good but I know you can get round the cost with a bit of thought. I use active-8 and find it very agreeable on my waters good luck.

As usal Big Rik tells it the way it is and hes bang on with his theory.

I saw John Baker getting someone else to taste one of his boilies (John Bakers not daft).Munching a monster crab with salmon oil boilie would not whet my appetite but then again I am not a fish

Like most things in life the more you make boilies then the better your instincts (or whatever) kick in and tell you if youre making a good un.

Carpers dont part with loads of dosh for ready mades because they have a brand name,they know they are,usually, buying a product thats tried and tested and will catch (theres no cast iron guarantee that they will cus if youre a **** angler you still wont catch).
Part of the fun of fishing with your home made baits in general is the satisfaction of making them and catching on them.I told my wife this after I tipped a container of lobster thermodore over the kitchen floor.....she wasn't convinced!