Starting Carping, Part 7 - Making Your Own Boilies
WHEN BOILIE FISHING, everyone wants an edge, a new bait, a new rig or a new method to catch the fish unawares. The one thing in common with most boilies bought by people is that they are round, so the easiest trick is to get non-round baits. Not many companies do chops/dumbbells, etc, in any sort of volume, so you'll have to make them yourself.
Bait rolling can be expensive to get started - rolling tables, bait guns, all the ingredients - but I'll try and show you how to make some “different” baits without the need for all the kit.
Baitwise, I'm going to make some Shellfish B5 - easily one of the best baits on the market. Essential do a “handy pack” - 3kg of basemix plus the bits needed to make the bait, which should make over 5kg of finished bait. At £29.99 delivered, it works out at £6 a kilo - and it's confidence in a tub!
When rolling lots of bait, I tend to do it in an old basemix tub, I've done 36 egg mixes in one and it's quite easy when you get the hang of it. I'm going to do a 6 egg mix, which should equate to about 1kg dry mix, about 1.5kg finished bait.
Leave to settle for a couple of minutes as it will carry on drying out as the mix absorbs the liquids
Carry on adding dry mix a little at a time until it stiffens up
Again, leave for a minute or two
Get your hands in there and keep kneading until the mix doesn't stick to your hands any more.
Shaping up
This is the point where you normally use a gun to extrude sausages and roll the bait on a roller, but there are other - sometimes better - ways to make bait. Just remember boilies are only round out of convenience, they are easy to mass-produce like that, and they will catapult further. But if you are fishing close in, spodding, or have a baitboat, why not be just a little different?
The first method is to simply roll sausages, and to chop them with a knife. This will give different shaped baits - “pillows”. Try not to make them all the same size.
The second is to make a brick shape. I then put it in the freezer to stiffen it, which will make it easier to cut. I then slice it like a loaf, and cut into small cubes. This will give a very open mix, which will leak attractors and break down quite quickly - ideal as freebies or for short session. You can also cook the brick, either by wrapping in clingfilm and boiling, or by wrapping and putting in the microwave, but I prefer my way as with both methods you can end up with it being overcooked on the outside, and paste in the middle (might actually be an advantage), and with micro waving, you could easily end up with half of it floating!
If you want to make round baits, you can do so as in the video clip - get the hang of it and you can roll 3 at a time! Roll a sausage as if you are going to make “pillows”, and cut them the same size, this'll make the boilies all roughly the same size.
Remember to keep a little paste back for wrapping around the hookbait as added attraction, and for pop-ups. Just roll some paste around a cork ball, leaving about 2mm of bait around it, will produce a bait that will stay popped up all night.
Boiling
Once you have rolled your bait, it's just a case of boiling for the required time. I normally just boil until the mix floats, which suits most of the baits I've made in the past. I use a Burco, as I can put about 3kg in it - and I don't upset the wife in the kitchen (not that she's ever in there!). Make sure the water is boiling hard before you put the bait in, and don't put so much in that it takes a long time to come back to the boil. I put the bait in inside an old carp sack, which means I can just lift it all out in one go.
Drying, bagging and freezing
It's then just a case of hanging the baits up somewhere to dry out, normally a couple of hours should be fine and then bagging up and putting it in the freezer. It took me approx 30mins from start to finish to produce enough bait for a weekend session, and I've produced a bait that's a bit different to everyone else's and, more importantly, nearly half the cost!
Starting Carping The first in a new series from Dave Rothery aimed at carp angling improvers.
Making Your Own Boilies From Scratch We are in an age when anglers can rely entirely on commercial products but what if you want to make your own boilies? Asks Tim Ridge
The Best Boilie? Anglers often ask, “what’s the best boilie?” But as Dave Rothery says, there is no best boilie, but you do have to make a considered choice
Making Boilies – The First Steps Stuart Dennis follows up his controversial but popular forum thread Boilie Baits or Blatant Bullshit? with his trial and error foray into making boilies.
carl pepper
