Boilies and the Seasons

Which Flavour / Consistancy boilies suit which seasons, and are there any true all rounders ?

they are all round ......

The Dumb Bell shaped ones ain't

Have a look at this, I'm not really a carper, but have mentioned this site giving some good info on other posts.

What Boilie for what time of year? | Fishing Bait Shop

We are now getting to that time of year where cranberry flavour, presented with an eye catching glint of tinsel, can be fruitful. Or brandy flavoured Xmas pudding boilie perhaps?

I ain't bothered about flavours, I'm sure the carp aren't either. The standard thing was always swap to EA flavours in the winter as they leak better in colder water. Personally I'm happy to use a food bait that has no artifical smell.

As the water temp drops the carps ability to digest protein slows down, fats thicken up at cold temps making then less attractive and digestable to carp too. So in winter I'd be using a 35-40% protein, less than 10% fat fishmeal based boilie, pretty much the same as in summer but in lower amounts. The idea the fishmeals aren't too good in winter come about before the low temp fishmeals came around, they just so digestable and low fat that you can use them all year round.

I'd happily use baitcrafts T1 all year round aslong as a bit of bait was going in all year round.

The reason i asked is that i would like to make some of my own boilies, I know how to make boilies but with ingredients initially being expensive to outlay for then i wanted to make sure i didn't waste money buying ingredients i may not initially require.

If you wanted to stick to a pre-made base mix then ccmoores live system is a good place to start, all you need to do is just add eggs and roll.

If you want to make a boilie from scratch then a birdfood based boilie is the cheapest but I personally found them unpredictable catchers as they'd work well somewhere and then be not so hot at other places. Milk protein baits IMO are too expensive to justify using them regularly. I start with a fishmeal based boilie as IMO they are cost effective and it's fairly easy to make a boilie that you will catch on.

I Find it funny that there are so many companys out there riding on the back of the fishermen of the world, in the 1950s and 60s bread flake, bread paste, caught Roach, Tench, Carp, Stewed Wheat, got the Roach, Bream, go to the old knackery and turn over a few cows heads and bits you had all the maggots you needed, walk up on to the cricket ground at 4am and pick up as many Lob worms as you wanted for the day, Lunchon meat, Cheese, saw the Chub, and Barble biting, Spoons or Live Baits for the Pike, now if you dont spend quids on baits, ground baits, your not in with a chance, its getting crazy out there what happened to going fishing for a few hours, jump on the push bike from Heckmondwike, to York fish for the day and then ride home again, 56 mile round trip, just think if i had to get all the gear on a push bike now, id need a bus just for the gear,, im back to basics now, a couple of rods a tackle box a chair and a couple of rod holders with there own bite indicator on,,, and sit and watch the world go by,, a very relaxing time is had by all.

billmo said:

I Find it funny that there are so many companys out there riding on the back of the fishermen of the world, in the 1950s and 60s bread flake, bread paste, caught Roach, Tench, Carp, Stewed Wheat, got the Roach, Bream, go to the old knackery and turn over a few cows heads and bits you had all the maggots you needed, walk up on to the cricket ground at 4am and pick up as many Lob worms as you wanted for the day, Lunchon meat, Cheese, saw the Chub, and Barble biting, Spoons or Live Baits for the Pike, now if you dont spend quids on baits, ground baits, your not in with a chance, its getting crazy out there what happened to going fishing for a few hours, jump on the push bike from Heckmondwike, to York fish for the day and then ride home again, 56 mile round trip, just think if i had to get all the gear on a push bike now, id need a bus just for the gear,, im back to basics now, a couple of rods a tackle box a chair and a couple of rod holders with there own bite indicator on,,, and sit and watch the world go by,, a very relaxing time is had by all.

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Good !!

I'm please for you.

But what has your post got anything to do with the Question ?

Bob

mol said:

I ain't bothered about flavours, I'm sure the carp aren't either. The standard thing was always swap to EA flavours in the winter as they leak better in colder water. Personally I'm happy to use a food bait that has no artifical smell.

As the water temp drops the carps ability to digest protein slows down, fats thicken up at cold temps making then less attractive and digestable to carp too. So in winter I'd be using a 35-40% protein, less than 10% fat fishmeal based boilie, pretty much the same as in summer but in lower amounts. The idea the fishmeals aren't too good in winter come about before the low temp fishmeals came around, they just so digestable and low fat that you can use them all year round.

I'd happily use baitcrafts T1 all year round aslong as a bit of bait was going in all year round.

Click to expand...

Mol, I read through your post and if I were to follow your (good) advice, it would only give me two options; low oil carp/coarse pellets, or making my own.

Maybe you can help: http://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/coarse-fishing/257735-what-worth-boilies.html

I wouldn't choose a boilie because of the flavour/smell but if it was on a good basemix then I would use that boilie. To me a flavour is a pointless ingredient that is added to the boilie to attract the angler more than to attract the fish. I must confess that I'm a firm believer in the HNV theory and believe a carp is attracted to a boilie more because of the food value not the artificial flavour/smell. If I was rolling a bait at home I wouldn't pay the extra £1 a kilo to put a flavour on the basemix I would leave it natural as I've done in the past and I'd happily catch on it. If I was producing a commerical boilie then would a natural smelling boilie appeal to anglers? I'm not sure it would as the first thing people do when you throw them a new boilie is smell it.

I would agree that certain flavours/smells have a reputation for being good in the winter, richworths tutti frutti and nutratbaits techni spice to name but two. Personally I think most of this is a self perpetuating cycle. Richworth tutti's came out at a similar time to everybody using 80% protein milk based boilies in the winter, I'm sure the tutti's out fished them because a 80% protein basemix would be difficult for the fish to digest in the winter and not because of the tutti smell/flavour. It has created a self perpetuating cycle though and if I was to commerical produce a boilie specifically for the winter then I would probably flavour it with tutti frutti as I'm sure it would appeal to anglers.

I don't know about other anglers but I tend to stick with fishy/savoury flavours during the summer but when the winter gets here I move over to more fruity and creamy flavours. That said I also highly rate spicy flavours highly in the winter such as Ultraspice, Megaspice, Garlic etc and these also combine nicely with either fruit of creamy flavours. I'd be happy to use Ultraspice all year round providing the base mix was of sufficient quality.