Home made boilies

Hi I've been fishing now for two years roughly and seen allot of programs with people making there own recipes for boilies and dips etc

Am really interested in making my own boilies and would mind some advice on what works and what doesn't and what's needed

I've seen the boilie making kits with the rolling trays and gun on eBay for like £10 for a cheap one would this do.also what ingredients are key and where can they be sourced from cheaply also I'd be interested in making shelf life boilies rather then freezer ones so what sort of preservatives are needed

Thanks

To be fair, if you're thinking of making your own Shelf Life boilies, unless you are making large quantities and using large quantities it really isn't worth it, the shelf life boilies you can buy these days are really good quality.

It's only really worth making you're own boilies, IMO if you are going to be using a lot or that you want to make a specific recipe that can't be readily bought.

Look at how much you really use boilies and whether it really would be worth your while. It can be expensive to buy everything first off, but can pay for itself over time if you make a lot of them.

Most of my generation made there own and spent half a life time mixing and rolling . Of the many that did this though the 70s /90s I do not know of any today who mix and roll there own. There honestly is no advantage.

I agree with Steph, however:

The best advise I can give is that you buy a bag of base mix (not 50/50 - proper base mix). Make up a small batch (2 egg) so that you can see how it feels and acts when mixing and rolling.

The better base mixes don't really need anything else added but if you really feel the need then look no further than your kitchen for flavours and additives: jam, Marmite, Bovril, peanut butter, curry powder; mix this in with your eggs (1 teapsoon for 4 eggs [ish]) then slowly add your base mix to desired consistency.

Roll them out by hand.

Boil them in accordance with the instructions on the base mix packet (depending on size).

You can air dry them for a couple of days or more (depending on where you dry them) for shelf life, they will be rock hard; it's the moisture in them which makes them go off.

Once you have a bit of confidence in making them and feel that you really enjoy it and need to make your own, then start looking at all the other (secret) ingredients to add to the base mix and maybe a rolling table if you want round ones.

It can cost a fortune to buy all the bits and pieces and if you lose interest, they will just catch dust so by buying a bag of base mix it won't cost much to begin with.

Ignore colours and additives wherever possible to begin with, they will only distract you. Ignore the packets which need an activator or some such (I'm not saying they don't work, but they do cost and [if you hadn't gathered] start slowly but surely), plenty of bait manufacturers provide base mixes which are complete in themselves and only require eggs, it is us that insist on adding more stuff to them which may or may not be good to do.

The above is just a guide, the sky is the limit with making your own boilies, but I strongly suggest you start with something you know will work.

Keep notes on boil times, recipes, mixtures etc..

What is your target by the way?

Thanks for the replying people I can understand initially getting all the base ingredients at first will cost a lot but over a weekend session 3 of us would be using sometimes anywhere from 5 to 15 kg of boilies and depending on what brand you buy now some 1kg packs are over the £10 mark! Surely if three of us chipped together we would save making them in bulk how much is a 1kg base mix ?? And then is it just a case of follow instructions on how many eggs are needed then the flavourings obviously are up to personal preference

tiinker said:

Most of my generation made there own and spent half a life time mixing and rolling . Of the many that did this though the 70s /90s I do not know of any today who mix and roll there own. There honestly is no advantage.

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couldn't agree more Tiinker. The thought of rolling my own boilies, or even mixing my own base mixes, fills me with dread nowadays. Not rolled any baits in years and never will again.

Tooly; there's a lot to making successful base mixes unless you just want a cheap attractor bait (like the shelf life boilies in shops). Those are usually just semolina, soya flour and egg albumin. Great for short sessions but can blow if used extensively in a water due to low food value and high artificial flavour content. There's a chance that the preservatives used in shelflife boilies could also put fish off a bait after a while if you put a lot of bait out or use them over a long period of time.

if you plan on fishing the same venue for a long period of time you're better off with a proper food bait, rather than an attractor bait. You'd have to think about how much of each ingredient to mix in order to provide attraction (leak off), digestibility and allow the baits to bind. The little things that can make the difference between an ok bait and a good bait is the addition of taste enhancers and vitamins. Base mix selection can also depend on how long you want to fish a water.. if it's years then a mix of birdfood and fishmeal is a good bet. During the winter months you can then reduce the fishmeal content to make the baits more digestible and provide greater leak off. Protein levels can be supplemented by adding milk proteins during the winter but using the same flavours (label). There's a strong case for using unflavoured food baits if you plan to fish a water over a long period and want the fish to continue eating your bait. Alternatively use low levels of flavouring just to give them something to identify with, not as an attractor.

I'm not trying to put you off but there's a lot more to it than "key ingredients" or "what works".. it can take years to understand why some things are better than others and why they should be included in the base mix.

If you still want to roll your own boilies then I'd suggest buying the base mix from a reputable company and using one of their recommended flavour combinations.

personally i'd just buy good frozen baits and spend your time fishing rather than making bait and stinking the house out.. that has lead to many divorces over the years (don't buy garlic essential oil... ever! Women aren't that impressed with monster crab either! )

ccmoores is a good place to source ingredients.

With a bit of homework and reading on a carp's diet it's fairly straight forward making a basemix that'll catch carp. What's difficult is making an excellent basemix.

If all you want to do is save money then I'd suggest getting together and buying in bulk. Bait making takes a lot of effort and TBH the people that make the best bait know more about olfactory and gustatory stimuli in carp than any man should.

By buying a base mix bag, you know it will work and can have confidence in it whilst you are learning what it should feel and behave like rather than learning by mistake with various ingredients that all change the consistency. Take as many variables out of the equation as you can, many find making their own boilies tedious and time consuming, time you could be fishing, the amount of boilies you are talking about will take a fair amount of time to make (I mean a lot of time). Maybe just make a handful of hook-bait boilies.

The volumes you are looking at should give you the option to bulk buy your boilies (as said above), much cheaper that way; freezer baits can be air dried (once thawed out), I believe Nash air dry for two days instead of one day (for freezer baits) and do not use preservatives.

You can also buy the base mix in bulk from some manufacturers.