Boilie Baits
Welcome to this section on boilies; one of the most used carp baits around. This section will deal with and explain the different types of boilies available, some bait recipes if you fancy rolling them yourself, and other boilie related advice.
Boilies are one of the major attributes that made Carp fishing so much easier, because before the boilie there was quite allot of secrecy about bait for Carp, this made it hard for anglers to get into the sport. Then commercially ready made boilies were released and every angler could have an excellent bait, which had all the makings of a devastating bait.
Click on any of the links below to be taken to the that boilie subject:-
What are: Ready Made Boilies? What are: HNV (High Nutritional Value) Boilies? What are: What are High Attract Boilies? Boilies: An Overview Making your own boilies My Own CHEAP Bait Recipes Commercial Bait Recipes
These are handy little bags or buckets of ready rolled baits that you can buy either in your tackle shop or through mail order. These are a good alternative if you do not fancy making bait your self. Generally ready-mades contain a good mix of ingredients and attractors designed to draw fish in quickly, notably smells and flavours. Ready-mades are usually found in a shelf life form but you can get ready-made frozen bates if you wish. The "shelf life boilies" can be kept in an unfrozen state for quite some time as they contain preservatives in them. These baits are especially effective during June to October when the Carp are generally quite active and looking for food.
HNV (or High Nutritional Value) boilies are basically baits which incorporate a range of ingredients that benefit the fish in some way. You usually have to roll these baits your self or get someone else to do it for you.
A typical HNV mix will include digestible or predigested casein's, proteins, vitamins and minerals. On top of these the angler making his own boilies can add further flavours, colours, enhancers etc... This type of bait will benefit the fish quite highly in your lake but as you may have guessed HNV baits are quite expensive! These baits are especially effective during June to November.
What are High Attract Boilies?
These baits are generally pop-ups (a bait which is buoyant), and are normally used on their own as a single hook bait (no free offerings around the hook bait). The essence of these boilies is to over flavour them, producing a bait that truly stands out from the lake bed. These baits are generally brightly coloured.
Alternatively, the high level of attraction can be produced via the aid of a bait dip, soak or glug which can be home made, or shop bought. The baits are very effective when fish do not want to get their heads down and feed (during the depths of winter for example), as these baits can often induce a take from winter Carp even if it is out of curiosity! I have found this type of bait to be effective all year round but it does come in to it's own during the really cold winter months.
Ready-made Boilies - an overview
There are many different variables when it comes to ready made boilies>>> the flavour, the colour, the size, the hardness, the palatents, the attractants, the oils etc.... There are also many different brands of boilies, some better than others, but at the same time some more expensive than others. But undoubtedly the ready made boilies is a consistent fish catcher and has helped allot of beginners to catch there first carp.
There are so many flavours and different concoctions of boilies out there that it makes bait choice that little bit more difficult. The one way to narrow the flavour of you ready-made's down is to think about the water you are going to target, and then do a little research. Go down to your chosen lake, speak to anglers find out what are the most popular baits are for the lake, most will try and help you out but some carp anglers may be reluctant to tell you what they are using, you have to respect this and continue with your research. Try and find out the flavours and makes of bait that are consistent catchers on the lake, most baits will catch on there day but you will be surprised how some certain baits will perform undoubtedly better than others. You will soon find out the most popular baits on your lake because most of the anglers will be using these, this will be your best choice, because you know that the carp in the lake are readily accepting them and getting caught, so already just by a little research you have improved your chance of catching two fold.
If there is nobody at your chosen lake then try and ask somebody in your local tackle shop. They should be able to recommend a few baits that will work. If you are still left without any idea then opt for a known fish catching flavour such as strawberry or fish meal boilies.
Making your own bait needn't be expensive, it depends on how extravagant you wish to be with your bait. Most of the time the attractors push the price up. But you can catch many fish on a good base mix alone, and if you consider how many boilies a kilo of base mix will make on average then sometimes it can work out very cheaply. Most base mixes have inherent flavors and attractants. But it can give you an edge to include an additional attractant, such as Betaine for example.
Bait, a bit of a nightmare if you can't get it right. But below I have listed some recipes that I have used and caught fish on my self without applying kilos of bait into the lake! There are also some other bait recipe's that defiantly catch. But first I'll start with why I started making my own bait, the fact was that at the time I had very little money to spend and what I did have was being spent on other things (girls, and food for night sessions etc...) They were all very cheap to make and did the business.
The only major problem that I had with making my own bait was my mother and use of the kitchen. As those of you who have made bait in the kitchen, will know that the female of the house always has some kind of grumble or complaint about it. My advice to get round this problem is to sweeten them up first and tell them what you are going to be doing. But an even better plan for making bait in the kitchen is to wait till they go out for a couple of hours, then make the bait, clear away all the discriminating evidence. Then nobody's the wiser!!!
Bait I have devised and made my self:
Almond Special
1 Kilo of Tails-Up Gold Mix (Milk Protein) or Similar (Richworth 50/50)
Tesco Value Six Medium Eggs, (or whatsoever needed to get the consistency right)
50ml of Almond Essence (Super Cook)
Richworth Coloring, Yellow
* I put the eggs in a blender, shell and all, adds to the crunch of the boilie. Small pieces though. This is sometimes a good advantage as Carp like to crunch their food, i.e. they often eat crustaecia and such like. When Carp come across food that needs to be chewed, it will toss it to the back of the mouth to chew it with it's teeth, thus the hook is further back in the mouth, meaning their is more chance of getting a good hook hold.
I had quite a bit of success in the summer months on this mix. If you soak the boilie in the almond flavouring it enhances the attractiveness of the boilie. The coloring is optional just like the rest of the baits on this page, you may want to use a different colour or no coloring at all.
Hot Tandoori Curry
1 Kilo of Tails-Up Gold Mix (Milk Protein)
Tesco Value Six Medium Eggs
65g of Tesco Hot Tandoori Curry Powder
Richworth Coloring, Yellow
*I put the eggs in a blender, shell and all, this adds to the crunch of the boilie. Small pieces though.
This is the mix I used to tempt a 16lb 1oz Mirror Carp in Autumn from West Golds. If you follow the bait guidelines you will end up with a lovely smelling bait that gives off a good set of smells in the water. Feel free to add other ingredients to this mix, such as Betaine if you wish. Although I used Yellow coloring in this mix, the baits actually turned out a light brown colour.
Liver Boilie
1 Kilo of Richworth Gold 50/50
Tesco Value Six Medium Eggs
Liver Powder
Liver flavour boilies, always a good bet. I didn't use any colourings but you can add some if you want to.
Other cheap fish catching baits
Fishy Mix 1
1 Kilo of Richworth 50/50
Tesco Value Six Medium Eggs
20 Oz of Ground Up Go Cat Biscuits (Salmon, Trout, or Tuna)
Fishy Mix 2
1 Kilo of any base mix
Tesco Value Six Medium Eggs
5 Oz of White Fish Meal,
These baits use
more conventional 'ingredients' and thus are a bit more expensive to make, try
them see how you get on (all of these baits have been field tested and have
had some amazing results!):
1kg Mainline Active-8 Base Mix
12ml Mainline Activator
5 eggs
1kg Solar Dairy Cream Base Mix
5ml Solar Esterblend
6 eggs
1kg Solar Club Mix
6 eggs
2tsp Anchovy Concentrate
5ml Squid & Octopus
10-15ml Stimulin Amino Compound
Approx. 18-20oz Withy Pool Mix, Six Eggs
15-30ml Whacker Catcher Oil
2-3ml Peach and Pepper Flavour
1 tbsp Whacker Catcher Betaine
1 tbsp Whacker Catcher Powdered Cream
16oz Shellfish B.5
3 Large Eggs
4ml Shellfish Plum
1 tsp Fruit Factor 6
2 tsp Green Lipped Mussel
20ml Red Salmon Oil
16oz LFU
1oz green lipped mussel extract
1oz liver powder
30ml richermino
5ml salmon oil
1tsp red dye
1tsp brown dye
5 to 10g amino betaine
16oz Big Fish Mix, BFM(Nutrabaits)
2gms green lipped mussel
15ml fish feed oil
15ml nutramino
2ml sweet cajouser
4ml tutti fruiti ora flavour of your choice
16oz LFU
Thats all for this section, if you have any baits recipes or ideas then please e-mail them to me ([email protected]) so i can post them up here.