Hard hook baits

Dal · Aug 30, 2009

I've been making my own Boillies for about 15 years now but recently I've been having a problem with them being demolished by "nuisance" fish within 3 of 4 hours, I boil them as normal for 3 minutes and dry them for about an hour before freezing, should I air-dry them (if so for how long) or does any one have any better ideas?

Bluenose · Aug 30, 2009

I think they might need air drying for longer before freezing Dal, also when you defrost if you leave them in the bag if there is a lot of moisture in there, this can soften them prematurely as they are already being kept in water, if you see what I mean!

Also, and Frothey or someone will know more about this, the hardness can depend on the ingredients.

Stealph Viper · Aug 30, 2009

I have absolutely no idea, i have never heard of nuisance fish demolishing boilies.
I know there used to be like a plastic cage that they used to use to house the boilie in to stop cray fish, or they used pieces of old tights to wrap the boilie in, but i never tried them.

wayne mitchell · Aug 30, 2009

whey gel or blood powder will harden them up look on ccmoors site for them

Dal · Aug 30, 2009

Cheers EC, yes they do seem to have a fair bit of frost/moisture in them, I should have thought of that (Doh)! As you say perhaps drying them for longer before freezing could do the trick. I've never air-dried though, perhaps I'll try that for a few days/weeks or so? It just seems funny that this problem has only happened in the last 6 months to a year, the bream in my local lake now go up to 14lb so perhaps they're the culprits!

Stealph, when I say nuisance fish, these bream only ran to about 3-4lb 10 years ago but they shoal in "mob handed" now and strip the swim of freebies. Perhaps I'll have a look at the plastic thingeys but I'd like to make the baits rock hard.

wayne mitchell said:
whey gel or blood powder will harden them up look on ccmoors site for them

Thanks for that Wayne, I'll have a look

Nobby C (ACA) · Sep 2, 2009

Air drying them for 3/4 days will help provided they're 'jiggled' about to ensure as much surface area is exposed. Also dips, (glycerine based?) can have the effect of hardening baits too. Thread your dried baits onto a long baiting needle and immerse the lot in a tube, say a vitamin c tablet tube, but be careful to keep it upright and cover with cling film.
If you air dry them for weeks, they do go rock hard but, unfortunately brittle too and will split and disintigrate, much like a halibut pellet does.

Dal · Sep 2, 2009

Cheers Nobby, I'm doing a 3 day session on a syndicate lake in about 2 weeks time so I thought I'd knock up a mix and air dry them before trying them back on my normal carp lake. I tried a few shop bought dips/soaks many years ago and discovered soaking them for 6 months was a bit OTT, they were so hard I snapped a baiting needle Doh!

Graham Marsden · Sep 2, 2009

How to Air Dry Boilies

Here's one way to 'air dry' boilies

noknot · Sep 2, 2009

Hi Dal,

You could try egg albumin in your base mix as this will defo harden your baits! Or you could air dry them as said above, 3-4 days makes a good hard bait, but still useable and good when glugged.

Nobby C (ACA) · Sep 2, 2009

Dal (Don't mess with my *****) said:
soaking them for 6 months was a bit OTT, they were so hard I snapped a baiting needle Doh!

Not trying to sound smug but that's the reason I said pierce them first, there's more than a few danglers who've ended up piercing their hands and fingers with ultra hard baits.
Just thinking about this, if you use a fine splicing needle you could pull a length of braid or mono of a useful diameter and create a stringer, air dry for 3/4 days and bung the lot in a sealed container of dip.
In fact. I'm so pleased with myself that that's exactly what I'm going to try tomorrow. Yay me.:w

Dal · Sep 2, 2009

Cheers Graham, I remember seeing that quite a while ago, I should have looked

Cheers Noknot, thanks for the info

Nobby, as I said that was quite a few years ago, I hope I've learnt my lesson

. Have a good session tomorrow and let us know how it goes mate!!!

noknot · Sep 3, 2009

My pleasure Dal,

I hope it works for you

Frothey · Sep 4, 2009

air drying baits will make them hard, but most will then go crumbly when they absorb water. adding egg albumin or meshing baits is the best way.

Comfortably_Numb · Sep 4, 2009

Ge on the 20mm ... ore even 24mm .... that'll sort the nusiance fish out

Dal · Sep 4, 2009

Cheers Comfortably, I'll bear that in mind, nice to see you back on the Forum

Foxy · Oct 2, 2009

I always dry mine for at least three days before using them, use bigger baits and just air dry them for 3- days that should sort it

noknot · Oct 3, 2009

Hi Dal,

Have you had any more out on my "specials" ???

Dal · Oct 6, 2009

Cheers Boys, NokNot, I'm doing a few days next week so I'll let you know how it goes

noknot · Dec 5, 2009

Well it seems to be doing the Biz for you Dal, well in and keep it up!

Shine · Dec 5, 2009

Nice fish Dal, very cool looking too

.... sorry, I've got a twitch in my eye

Hard hook baits

Well-known member

Moderator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Editor Emeritus

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Senior Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member