I first started using tiger nuts around 1995. At the time I had no idea they were such an outstanding carp bait, in fact, it took me quite a while to pluck up the courage to actually use them. It was a chance happening on a local pond that convinced me to give them a go. I just happened to be sitting talking to a carp angler when his rod screamed off and after a good fight he netted a half decent carp, it was then I noticed the tiger nut hanging from the carps mouth. After chatting to him and enquiring about the tiger nuts, he convinced me they were worth a go. I look back now and laugh, even when I cast out my first ever tiger nut rig I still wasn’t convinced they were any good for catching carp!.
If I could choose just one carp bait to fish with for the rest of my life it would be tiger nuts. I'm not sure why they are such a good bait, maybe it's their sweetness, or that carp like to 'crunch' on them, probably a bit of both, one things for sure, I'd put tiger nuts up against any boilie you can think of, and they will perform very favorably.
If you’re planning to use tiger nuts, you should make sure that you prepare them correctly, as they are very hard. When you buy them, you will notice that they are dehydrated, they need to be soaked for at least 24hrs. During this time, they will take on water and swell to their normal size. Once soaked, they should be boiled for at least 30 minutes, this is to soften them a bit. I don't think they will soften any more than this so there's not much point in boiling them any longer. Once boiling is completed, they can be left in the same water to cool. It's just a case of take them to the lake and use them once they are prepared!. Some people prefer to leave their tigers at this stage, as, after a while, they will begin to ferment. They do smell a bit when they reach this stage, some people swear by their effectiveness when left to ferment, personally, I like mine fresh and will use them within 3 days of preparation.
Dry Tiger Nuts, Soak them for 24 hours then boil for 30 minutes.
For presentation, I like to fish tiger nuts on a hair rig using a knotless knot set up. I cut a piece of cork to the shape of a tiger nut and use that as the top half of a snowman hook bait, that is, the cork sits on top of the tiger nut to pop it up. It's then just a case of balancing the rig with a bit of putty, so that it sinks very slowly. This has been a superb presentation for me over the years and I've taken many carp using it. You should not worry about the cork being on top of the tiger nut, the fish can't tell one way or the other. I usually put a few pieces of cork in with my prepared tiger nuts, that way, they soak in some of the juices from the nuts.
Tiger nut carp rig, fish as a pop up or trim the cork to size so the bait just sinks with the weight of the hook.
Saturday, 11 June 2011
PEPERAMI - Carp Like It Hot.
For those not familiar with Peperami, it's a salami sausage. A salami sausage is cured, fermented and then air dried. As it says on the packet it's a mixture of pork, fats, salt and spices, so no wonder carp love it.
It comes in three varieties that have different coloured packets, green, red and black.
Green - This is the least spicy of the three
Red - A fairly hot chilli based salami with a red tinge to the meat
Black - The word "firestick" is not out of place. A red hot chilli salami, with dark colour.
My favourites are the two hotter ones, as shown in the photo above.
Tip.
Because Peperami is pasteurized (heated) in the packet, as long as the packet is unopened, it does not have to be kept cool. I therefore always keep at least a couple of packets in my tackle bag or rucksack. Just watch the "sell by" date.
Also well worth a go if pellets and boilies are banned on a water.
Hooking Peperami.
Because Peperami is air dried it is a very firm meat, so it will stay on a standard hair, without the hair cutting through it. A standard boilie stop will also be enough to secure the meat in place.
The photo on the right shows a rig I was using at a commercial type fishery, which had so many bait bans I was maybe a bit cheeky using Peperami. You think at 7 quid a day they would give you some leway.
Notice that because I'm using a stiff hook length material (florocarbon) and the "knotless Knot", I like to push some tubing over the hook eye. This prevents the florocarbon leaving the hook at an awkward angle.
Pop-Up Peperami.
I've had quite a few fish by using peperami as a pop-up. The drawing on the right shows a simple pop-up rig.
A small piece of cork or foam is shaped to the same diameter as the Peperami. This is then placed above the Peperami on the hair, so that the cork or foam is nearest the boilie stop.
When tying this rig I like to make the loop knot on the hair quite bulky. This knot then holds the Peperami in place and stops it sliding down the hair towards the hook, which would ruin presentation.
It comes in three varieties that have different coloured packets, green, red and black.
Green - This is the least spicy of the three
Red - A fairly hot chilli based salami with a red tinge to the meat
Black - The word "firestick" is not out of place. A red hot chilli salami, with dark colour.
My favourites are the two hotter ones, as shown in the photo above.
Tip.
Because Peperami is pasteurized (heated) in the packet, as long as the packet is unopened, it does not have to be kept cool. I therefore always keep at least a couple of packets in my tackle bag or rucksack. Just watch the "sell by" date.
Also well worth a go if pellets and boilies are banned on a water.
Hooking Peperami.
Because Peperami is air dried it is a very firm meat, so it will stay on a standard hair, without the hair cutting through it. A standard boilie stop will also be enough to secure the meat in place.
The photo on the right shows a rig I was using at a commercial type fishery, which had so many bait bans I was maybe a bit cheeky using Peperami. You think at 7 quid a day they would give you some leway.
Notice that because I'm using a stiff hook length material (florocarbon) and the "knotless Knot", I like to push some tubing over the hook eye. This prevents the florocarbon leaving the hook at an awkward angle.
Pop-Up Peperami.
I've had quite a few fish by using peperami as a pop-up. The drawing on the right shows a simple pop-up rig.
A small piece of cork or foam is shaped to the same diameter as the Peperami. This is then placed above the Peperami on the hair, so that the cork or foam is nearest the boilie stop.
When tying this rig I like to make the loop knot on the hair quite bulky. This knot then holds the Peperami in place and stops it sliding down the hair towards the hook, which would ruin presentation.
More On Boillie Making.
Boilies are the most popular bait for modern day carp fishing, the reason for this is they are easy to use and apply.
They came about in the early eighties as a way of deterring nuisance fish and sustaining long periods underwater, being hard, but at the same time containing as much attractiveness and/or nutrition as possible.
Being spherical and hard they are easy to mount, whether side hooked or hair-rigged and also easy to apply either by throwing, catapult or for long distance a throwing stick.
Boilies are made up of a mixture of a powdered basemix to bulk, additives/flavours and eggs to bind. Together they make a paste that can be shaped and then boiled and stored in a freezer, unless a preservative is added or they are air-dried.
In this article I will try to outline the basics of making your own boilies.
Making your own
There is nothing like catching on your own bait, whether it is your own recipe or just rolled by yourself, the satisfaction is immense.
Making boilies can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it.
There are different ways of going about it; you can buy a basemix and a simple liquid trigger additive or buy any combination of basemix, additives and/or flavours to suit your needs.
The process of making boilies is simple. However, with rolling tables and a bait-gun it is made even easier.
The ingredients
Basemixes can be bought off the shelf at most tackle shops as can additives and flavours.
Nowadays, the basic types of basemix are a 50/50 mix (50% Soya Four and 50% Semolina), a Birdseed (suited for winter use) and Fishmeal (suited for summer use), although specific basemixes and basemix ingredients can be sourced.
Just some of the many ingredients available
Additives can be added to in the form of liquids and powders. These range from Amino acids, like Minamino and Betaine, to Phosphoylcolamines (PPC) like Nutramino.
Other products can be added to the mix like appetite stimulators, palatants, vitamin and minerals, colours, oils and lastly flavours.
Flavours are usually added in the form of a concentrated liquid and usually need enhancing with a sweetener, as most flavours have a bitter after taste.
All of the above have recommended dosage levels, which you can experiment with, but are usually about right.
Liquids
To start off with you need to find out how many eggs you need for your dry base mix.
Break the eggs into a suitable bowl and then begin to add your liquid additives and/or flavours.
One thing to point out at this stage is that you always add liquids to liquids and powders to powders.
Liquids to liquids
Once all of your liquids are measured out, slowly mix them together.
Don’t whisk like crazy as this will add air to your liquids and you will find that your finished boilies are buoyant!
Powders
Next, in another suitable bowl, weigh out your base mix (if you have to) and then add your powdered additives and/or flavours.
Make sure these are well mixed.
Powders to powders
Paste
Add 50% of your powders to all of your liquid mix and mix together, then add more of the powdered mix a little bit at a time until you have stiff paste.
If you add too much powder your paste mix will be too dry and will fall apart when you try to roll the paste.
Once your paste is of the right consistency you can then load it into your bait-gun or if you do not have a bait-gun then they can be rolled by hand.
Loading the ‘gun’
A little tip here, when you are not using the paste seal it up in a bag to stop it drying out.
If you do not have a bait-gun then roll the sausages by hand.
‘Sausages’
50/50 and Birdseed base mixes can become very sticky so a good tip at this point is just before you load the bait-gun, lightly smear cooking oil onto your hands, this will put a very light coating onto the paste that will aid ‘gunning’ and rolling.
Ready to roll
The oily coating will boil off without leaving a trace on the boilie.
With the correct nozzle and rolling table you can then roll your baits.
If you don’t have a rolling table then they can be made by hand.
Boiling
Place the rolled baits into a wire basket and lower them into already boiling water and start the stopwatch.
I start my stopwatch to count down from sixty seconds as soon as they go into the boiling water.
Boiling Point
You may need to play around with times to suit your requirements, Fishmeal base mixes tend to be harder than Birdseed or 50/50 mixes when boiled for the same length of time.
Once the time is up, drain and allow drying on a tea towel overnight, or as I do, leave for a couple of days.
Once dry, bag, label and then place them into the freezer, unless you have added a preservative or are going to air-dry them.
Any left over paste can be frozen and rolled, or used as a paste hookbait whenever it is thawed out.
Ready for bagging up
In Conclusion
When making boilies for the first time don’t make a large batch, use half or a quarter of the ingredients so that if you find them too strong in flavour or too soft in texture you have enough ingredients to fine tune and remake your boilies.
It’s a good idea to make bait with a friend as you can share costs and the making of the bait.
I’ve always made my own bait and always will. I hope you have the success I’ve had in rolling your own.
Tight Lines.
Boilie Boy
They came about in the early eighties as a way of deterring nuisance fish and sustaining long periods underwater, being hard, but at the same time containing as much attractiveness and/or nutrition as possible.
Being spherical and hard they are easy to mount, whether side hooked or hair-rigged and also easy to apply either by throwing, catapult or for long distance a throwing stick.
Boilies are made up of a mixture of a powdered basemix to bulk, additives/flavours and eggs to bind. Together they make a paste that can be shaped and then boiled and stored in a freezer, unless a preservative is added or they are air-dried.
In this article I will try to outline the basics of making your own boilies.
Making your own
There is nothing like catching on your own bait, whether it is your own recipe or just rolled by yourself, the satisfaction is immense.
Making boilies can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it.
There are different ways of going about it; you can buy a basemix and a simple liquid trigger additive or buy any combination of basemix, additives and/or flavours to suit your needs.
The process of making boilies is simple. However, with rolling tables and a bait-gun it is made even easier.
The ingredients
Basemixes can be bought off the shelf at most tackle shops as can additives and flavours.
Nowadays, the basic types of basemix are a 50/50 mix (50% Soya Four and 50% Semolina), a Birdseed (suited for winter use) and Fishmeal (suited for summer use), although specific basemixes and basemix ingredients can be sourced.
Just some of the many ingredients available
Additives can be added to in the form of liquids and powders. These range from Amino acids, like Minamino and Betaine, to Phosphoylcolamines (PPC) like Nutramino.
Other products can be added to the mix like appetite stimulators, palatants, vitamin and minerals, colours, oils and lastly flavours.
Flavours are usually added in the form of a concentrated liquid and usually need enhancing with a sweetener, as most flavours have a bitter after taste.
All of the above have recommended dosage levels, which you can experiment with, but are usually about right.
Liquids
To start off with you need to find out how many eggs you need for your dry base mix.
Break the eggs into a suitable bowl and then begin to add your liquid additives and/or flavours.
One thing to point out at this stage is that you always add liquids to liquids and powders to powders.
Liquids to liquids
Once all of your liquids are measured out, slowly mix them together.
Don’t whisk like crazy as this will add air to your liquids and you will find that your finished boilies are buoyant!
Powders
Next, in another suitable bowl, weigh out your base mix (if you have to) and then add your powdered additives and/or flavours.
Make sure these are well mixed.
Powders to powders
Paste
Add 50% of your powders to all of your liquid mix and mix together, then add more of the powdered mix a little bit at a time until you have stiff paste.
If you add too much powder your paste mix will be too dry and will fall apart when you try to roll the paste.
Once your paste is of the right consistency you can then load it into your bait-gun or if you do not have a bait-gun then they can be rolled by hand.
Loading the ‘gun’
A little tip here, when you are not using the paste seal it up in a bag to stop it drying out.
If you do not have a bait-gun then roll the sausages by hand.
‘Sausages’
50/50 and Birdseed base mixes can become very sticky so a good tip at this point is just before you load the bait-gun, lightly smear cooking oil onto your hands, this will put a very light coating onto the paste that will aid ‘gunning’ and rolling.
Ready to roll
The oily coating will boil off without leaving a trace on the boilie.
With the correct nozzle and rolling table you can then roll your baits.
If you don’t have a rolling table then they can be made by hand.
Boiling
Place the rolled baits into a wire basket and lower them into already boiling water and start the stopwatch.
I start my stopwatch to count down from sixty seconds as soon as they go into the boiling water.
Boiling Point
You may need to play around with times to suit your requirements, Fishmeal base mixes tend to be harder than Birdseed or 50/50 mixes when boiled for the same length of time.
Once the time is up, drain and allow drying on a tea towel overnight, or as I do, leave for a couple of days.
Once dry, bag, label and then place them into the freezer, unless you have added a preservative or are going to air-dry them.
Any left over paste can be frozen and rolled, or used as a paste hookbait whenever it is thawed out.
Ready for bagging up
In Conclusion
When making boilies for the first time don’t make a large batch, use half or a quarter of the ingredients so that if you find them too strong in flavour or too soft in texture you have enough ingredients to fine tune and remake your boilies.
It’s a good idea to make bait with a friend as you can share costs and the making of the bait.
I’ve always made my own bait and always will. I hope you have the success I’ve had in rolling your own.
Tight Lines.
Boilie Boy
Try Making your own Boilies.
Boilies, surely the most convenient bait devised for angling? But I sometimes wonder if the sheer success and convenience of these baits can actually pose problems to anglers who start using them for the first time.
Their first approach to a tackle shop in search of these will be a daunting one as they survey rows and rows of coloured baits with extravagant and mystic names, such as Assasin8, Activ8, Multiplex and the Isotonic range to name just a few of the multitude available. Now all of these baits are extremely effective and catch thousands of fish each year, but I feel that the high success rates of them actually means the new angler can lose out on a valuable aspect of angling; that desire to know why and how their baits work.
I still find this part of fishing such a challenge and a very enjoyable one at that and a lot of new anglers don't even think about it. To be honest they don't need to know, but I feel they miss out on the element of experimentation that most anglers with a few years under their belts still seem to relish.
Let me try to clarify this a bit more so as not to sound old fashioned, set in my ways or even out of touch. With the multitude of readymade boilies available just about everywhere I personally feel it has taken a lot of the learning curve away from anglers who, being new to the sport, can theoretically approach a water and ask various anglers what's working. And then trot off to the shop to buy some, return and put the same bait on both rods and sit back to await the fish.
Now there are most likely a lot of you shaking your heads at my last statement and thinking, 'but surely the idea is to go to a water with the right bait!' But I cannot remember how many new anglers, young and not so young, I have met bankside that have come for a chat and been so downhearted that they did not arrive with THE bait! They were defeated before they had put a line in the water and their enthusiasm had gone. Even the offer of some flavoured luncheon meat or paste that I had been catching on did not re-light their fuse. They just had no faith in it. I am also dismayed at the number of young anglers who take up carp fishing as their first approach to fishing and have never used anything else but boilies!
I am not anti-boilie in any way (I'd hardly be writing this article if I was, would I?). I always carry a small selection whenever I am lake fishing as so many species have become accustomed to eating them on a daily basis. And there has been many a time that I have used a certain boilie on one rod and had take after take with not a touch on the boilie on the other rod. So yes, I have put them on both rods; it stands to reason we are there to catch fish but I at least had the choice of other baits.
As often mentioned in previous articles both my family and pets suffer great loss at times for my love of bait making, there is very little that comes into the house that does not get the once-over after it has hit the cupboard.
Think back. Who amongst you hasn't pinched the cat's biscuits and put them through the grinder when 'she who must be obeyed' has gone out. Or nicked the custard powder and the milkshake powders. Devastating! This is what I mean about the learning curve. I remember years ago taking boilies made up of trout pellet, an Oxo cube and ground cat biscuits, and after a successful trip thinking I had THE magic bait only to open the bait box before the next trip to find fur balls that resembled the offspring of Gizmo! Obviously I had a lot to learn about preservatives, but learn I did and I continue to do so.
This was when the majority of 'specialist' baits came from the home cupboard and allowed an endless scope for experimentation.
Anglers wanting to make up their own boilies without having to go in-depth on the various base ingredients need look no further than the shelves of their local tackle shop. There are some very effective base mixes out there to choose from and this allows you to make up your own boilies with just the addition of your own 'special' additives.
Making your own baits this way allows you to use a mix based on the 'working' bait on your chosen water and experiment with flavour and attractor combinations, shapes and sizes to make the bait even more effective over a longer period of time.
This can be very rewarding and can give a great deal of enjoyment to the angler. Making your own baits should save a few pounds along the way too.
Another problem the newcomer to boilie making may come across is the cost of some of the various ingredients. Having read or been told a few recipes they go off to their tackle shop armed with a shopping list and then find that the bottle of X is £12 and the tub of XX is £9.99, plus the bottle of MultiXX is £14.99. And they haven't even looked at the rows of base mixes yet. So quite often their bait making ideas are short lived. Although, once purchased, many of these tubs and bottles often work out very economical.
So let's have a look at the various stages of making boilies, beginning with a few ideas about making up the boilie paste, and then, in Part 2 next week, some hints on freezing, storage and preserving, including a couple of basic recipes. These can be made without a multitude of additives so therefore they won't cost the Earth.
MAKING THE PASTE
One piece of advice before you start: do not be tempted to add a bit more flavour than the stated dose. You will find that the bottles of flavour are highly concentrated and our rather primitive noses cannot appreciate the true flavour levels, but believe me, the carp will reject the bait if you overdo it too much.
I mention this because it often happens that once the flavour is added to the eggs, etc, it loses its smell, at least to us, and it can be tempting to add a 'touch' more.
EQUIPMENT
A Bowl - Get your own, as the wife/girlfriend will not appreciate the type of ingredients we use for fishing and the smell does linger.
Scales - For accurate weighing of the dry ingredients.
Syringe - For accurate measuring of flavours, amino liquids etc.
Measuring spoon - For mini doses of dry additives such as Betaine, Sweetener, etc.
Fork - For stirring.
Rolling Table - Although you can roll by hand this makes the job both quicker and easier.
Bait Gun - Again not essential, but does make the job easier.
Air Drying Tray - For hardening off the finished boilies.
TIP: If you are hand rolling then it would be advisable to just break off a lump of the paste and keep the rest of the mix in a plastic bag as a lot of boilie mixes dry out very quickly.
1. In a separate bowl measure out the dry base mix and add any other dry ingredients you choose to use.
2. In your main bowl crack the required eggs and add your liquid flavours, oils and any additives.
3. If you're using Betaine (an excellent all round additive) this is one of the rare occasions where you change the rule of adding powder to powder only. As Betaine disperses fully into liquid you should add it to the eggs.
4. Once all the liquids have been added to the eggs use the fork to whip it all together evenly.
5. If you want to colour your baits, now is the time to do it, whether it is powder or liquid colouring add it to the egg mix and stir it well in.
6. Once you're happy with the liquids start adding your dry base mix a little at a time.
Finished paste ready to roll
7. Start folding the mix together and slowly keep adding more base. It will get to a stage where it becomes too stiff for the fork.
8. So get your hands dirty! If the mix is a bit too sticky add a dusting of base mix to your hands first. Keep kneading until the mix is smooth and slightly sticky to the touch.
TIP: Paste
Why not keep a bit of the mix aside in a plastic bag to use as either a paste or a wrap for your boilies? This can really give you the edge on some waters and just entails wrapping a covering of the paste around your boilie to give an instant powerful leak-off as the paste slowly breaks down.
If you decide to do this you may have to add a little of your dry mix to stiffen it up, but this really can work well so it's always worth a go.
Their first approach to a tackle shop in search of these will be a daunting one as they survey rows and rows of coloured baits with extravagant and mystic names, such as Assasin8, Activ8, Multiplex and the Isotonic range to name just a few of the multitude available. Now all of these baits are extremely effective and catch thousands of fish each year, but I feel that the high success rates of them actually means the new angler can lose out on a valuable aspect of angling; that desire to know why and how their baits work.
I still find this part of fishing such a challenge and a very enjoyable one at that and a lot of new anglers don't even think about it. To be honest they don't need to know, but I feel they miss out on the element of experimentation that most anglers with a few years under their belts still seem to relish.
Let me try to clarify this a bit more so as not to sound old fashioned, set in my ways or even out of touch. With the multitude of readymade boilies available just about everywhere I personally feel it has taken a lot of the learning curve away from anglers who, being new to the sport, can theoretically approach a water and ask various anglers what's working. And then trot off to the shop to buy some, return and put the same bait on both rods and sit back to await the fish.
Now there are most likely a lot of you shaking your heads at my last statement and thinking, 'but surely the idea is to go to a water with the right bait!' But I cannot remember how many new anglers, young and not so young, I have met bankside that have come for a chat and been so downhearted that they did not arrive with THE bait! They were defeated before they had put a line in the water and their enthusiasm had gone. Even the offer of some flavoured luncheon meat or paste that I had been catching on did not re-light their fuse. They just had no faith in it. I am also dismayed at the number of young anglers who take up carp fishing as their first approach to fishing and have never used anything else but boilies!
I am not anti-boilie in any way (I'd hardly be writing this article if I was, would I?). I always carry a small selection whenever I am lake fishing as so many species have become accustomed to eating them on a daily basis. And there has been many a time that I have used a certain boilie on one rod and had take after take with not a touch on the boilie on the other rod. So yes, I have put them on both rods; it stands to reason we are there to catch fish but I at least had the choice of other baits.
As often mentioned in previous articles both my family and pets suffer great loss at times for my love of bait making, there is very little that comes into the house that does not get the once-over after it has hit the cupboard.
Think back. Who amongst you hasn't pinched the cat's biscuits and put them through the grinder when 'she who must be obeyed' has gone out. Or nicked the custard powder and the milkshake powders. Devastating! This is what I mean about the learning curve. I remember years ago taking boilies made up of trout pellet, an Oxo cube and ground cat biscuits, and after a successful trip thinking I had THE magic bait only to open the bait box before the next trip to find fur balls that resembled the offspring of Gizmo! Obviously I had a lot to learn about preservatives, but learn I did and I continue to do so.
This was when the majority of 'specialist' baits came from the home cupboard and allowed an endless scope for experimentation.
Anglers wanting to make up their own boilies without having to go in-depth on the various base ingredients need look no further than the shelves of their local tackle shop. There are some very effective base mixes out there to choose from and this allows you to make up your own boilies with just the addition of your own 'special' additives.
Making your own baits this way allows you to use a mix based on the 'working' bait on your chosen water and experiment with flavour and attractor combinations, shapes and sizes to make the bait even more effective over a longer period of time.
This can be very rewarding and can give a great deal of enjoyment to the angler. Making your own baits should save a few pounds along the way too.
Another problem the newcomer to boilie making may come across is the cost of some of the various ingredients. Having read or been told a few recipes they go off to their tackle shop armed with a shopping list and then find that the bottle of X is £12 and the tub of XX is £9.99, plus the bottle of MultiXX is £14.99. And they haven't even looked at the rows of base mixes yet. So quite often their bait making ideas are short lived. Although, once purchased, many of these tubs and bottles often work out very economical.
So let's have a look at the various stages of making boilies, beginning with a few ideas about making up the boilie paste, and then, in Part 2 next week, some hints on freezing, storage and preserving, including a couple of basic recipes. These can be made without a multitude of additives so therefore they won't cost the Earth.
MAKING THE PASTE
One piece of advice before you start: do not be tempted to add a bit more flavour than the stated dose. You will find that the bottles of flavour are highly concentrated and our rather primitive noses cannot appreciate the true flavour levels, but believe me, the carp will reject the bait if you overdo it too much.
I mention this because it often happens that once the flavour is added to the eggs, etc, it loses its smell, at least to us, and it can be tempting to add a 'touch' more.
EQUIPMENT
A Bowl - Get your own, as the wife/girlfriend will not appreciate the type of ingredients we use for fishing and the smell does linger.
Scales - For accurate weighing of the dry ingredients.
Syringe - For accurate measuring of flavours, amino liquids etc.
Measuring spoon - For mini doses of dry additives such as Betaine, Sweetener, etc.
Fork - For stirring.
Rolling Table - Although you can roll by hand this makes the job both quicker and easier.
Bait Gun - Again not essential, but does make the job easier.
Air Drying Tray - For hardening off the finished boilies.
TIP: If you are hand rolling then it would be advisable to just break off a lump of the paste and keep the rest of the mix in a plastic bag as a lot of boilie mixes dry out very quickly.
1. In a separate bowl measure out the dry base mix and add any other dry ingredients you choose to use.
2. In your main bowl crack the required eggs and add your liquid flavours, oils and any additives.
3. If you're using Betaine (an excellent all round additive) this is one of the rare occasions where you change the rule of adding powder to powder only. As Betaine disperses fully into liquid you should add it to the eggs.
4. Once all the liquids have been added to the eggs use the fork to whip it all together evenly.
5. If you want to colour your baits, now is the time to do it, whether it is powder or liquid colouring add it to the egg mix and stir it well in.
6. Once you're happy with the liquids start adding your dry base mix a little at a time.
Finished paste ready to roll
7. Start folding the mix together and slowly keep adding more base. It will get to a stage where it becomes too stiff for the fork.
8. So get your hands dirty! If the mix is a bit too sticky add a dusting of base mix to your hands first. Keep kneading until the mix is smooth and slightly sticky to the touch.
TIP: Paste
Why not keep a bit of the mix aside in a plastic bag to use as either a paste or a wrap for your boilies? This can really give you the edge on some waters and just entails wrapping a covering of the paste around your boilie to give an instant powerful leak-off as the paste slowly breaks down.
If you decide to do this you may have to add a little of your dry mix to stiffen it up, but this really can work well so it's always worth a go.
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
New News
Just taking a short break rods will be out in a couple of weeks
spk to you soon & Hopefully with some more carp pictures.
Take Care
BOILIE BOY.
spk to you soon & Hopefully with some more carp pictures.
Take Care
BOILIE BOY.
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