Making bait seems to be a dying art these days. With the increase of quality freezer baits from commercial companies, I still feel that a major edge can be gained when making your own bait. Little tweaks and extras can be added to an already top notch bait.

This, when done properly, will not only increase your baits attraction but give your bait a unique label. Bait to me is one of the most valuable things in carp fishing; the better the bait the more carp you will catch!

    Since the tender age of about three, I used to help my dad Graham, hand roll his bait concoctions. His philosophy and views on bait, have helped mould me into someone that takes great care and thought on the subject. To me, making bait means more to me than going out and buying a pre-made base mix, I like to start from scratch. It’s exciting putting a new mix together and not knowing how good it is until the carp tell you.

    It is a good idea to actually contact your chosen bait company and have a good old chat about what you want from a bait. They should tell you, within reason, what’s in the bait, how it works and how best to use it. In my experience, they’re also flexible enough to add bits and pieces that you want into the mix.

   Now let’s start talking about how you go about rolling your own bait at home (Do it in the shed and not in the kitchen as ‘the missus’ might react)

   The basic ingredients of any boilie are a good base mix, ½ a dozen eggs, flavorings, colourings and maybe sweetener. You will also find the job a lot easier if you have available a bait gun and a rolling table. Although these are not essentials, they will save a lot of time, mess and hassle. Other pieces of equipment you will require are a mixing bowl, a fork, whisk or electric mixer, a syringe for measuring liquid, kitchen scales, saucepan, metal sieve and an air drying tray in which to finish off the baits. You also need a clean surface on which to work, with the equipment laid out ready and all of this will help you to complete the job more easily.

Putting the base mix together..

Before going into much detail, the rule here is to always mix the dry ingredients together in one container and the wet ingredients in another. That said, let's start with the dry. Place the required amount of base mix into your mixing bowl. For half a dozen eggs, this will probably be 16 oz, but you can always add a little more later if needed. Most mixes will come with mixing instructions from the manufacturer, so always follow these. Add any powdered additives. Natural derived additives such as liver powder, robin red and green lipped mussel powder can’t be over loaded in a mix so the more the merrier! Mix this well, ensuring that all of the additives are well incorporated into the base mix. Now in a separate bowl, mix the liquid ingredients. First crack open the eggs and place in a large mixing bowl. Now add your liquid flavours. Use a syringe and measure the exact quantity stated. Never overdo it, even if you can't smell it, it is in there and even slightly too much flavour can repel the carp, rather than attract them. Now whisk the eggs and flavours very thoroughly or the flavour will not be evenly distributed amongst your finished baits.

Bringing the two together..

Now add the powdered ingredients to the egg mix, slowly stirring together with a fork as you gradually add more powder. An electric mixer can be used here if you prefer, but do start it off on a slow speed, or your ingredients will end up everywhere. Keep adding the base mix and form a paste which is just sticky to the touch but not too dry or your baits will split. If you find the mix sticking to your hands, putting a little cooking oil on them will stop it happening. Fishmeal mixes dry out quicker so, if you’re making these in large quantities, make up the paste a little more wet than usual.

Ready, load, fire..

Now is the time to load the paste into your bait gun. First, roll it into a sausage shape that fits into the gun. Squeeze the bait out of the gun across your rolling table, forming thin sausage shapes. For larger mixes and to increase the speed of the whole operation gun out all the sausages the correct length of the table at once. Before you start rolling, lightly paint some oil on the tables to prevent the paste sticking to them. Put a sausage on the table, then place the top of the table over the baits and roll it backwards and forwards a few times. Lift it off again and you should have a batch of raw boilies. Start with putting one sausage on the table and then, with a little practice, add one or two more. If the paste sticks to the table, you need to add more powder next time to firm it up. If you don't have a rolling table and gun, you are going to be there for a while as you hand roll each bait into a ball.

Prepare to boil..

Now boil your water and have ready a metal sieve. Placing few baits at a time into the sieve, dunk it into the water. Do about 30 baits at a time  depending on the size of your container. Allow them to boil for about 45 - 60 seconds depending on their size. The longer you leave them, the harder they will be, so, if you have to suffer crayfish in your water, you may want to leave them a little longer. Also the bigger the boilie, the longer they take. I would estimate 45 seconds for a 14mm boilie of average hardness. Once boiled, remove them and place them in a drying tray while you get on with the next lot.

   You can create barrel shaped boilies by using a smaller nozzle than the rolling table or, a personal favorite of mine, chops. Place sausages all over your table leaving a 1cm gap between each one, then simply press the lid down firmly, just to cut the baits and that’s how easy it is to make chops. Chops, in my eyes, are great and because of their shape, they can  look like they have been in the water longer than they have. They also have paste ends, which releases more flavour. Another advantage, is that they sink at a slower rate to normal round baits. They almost flutter there way down causing them to rest higher on silt and weed. The slower sinking and their shape, could help them rest on slopes more easily, as well. So all these attributes add up to make them different to the norm, which can only be a good thing!

 Making your own baits from scratch

Winter carp baits

 A sweet tasting and highly digestible milk protein bird food mix, is the type of bait I make for myself throughout the winter months. Winter is when milk protein baits come in to there own. Bird foods are used in the natural state they arrive in, to give my bait looseness and a texture which helps to realise my liquid attractors. I never grind the bird foods in winter. Wheat germ is in my mix because it has long been recognized as a very valuable component of aquaculture baits and feeds that supports the intestinal flora of fish, especially during the colder months when digestibility is essential. The human food grade ingredient, I use, is very buoyant, making the bait naturally balanced. This helps it to rest on silt and chod, also, it make it easier for the carp to consume, it by requiring less effort to suck it up, than heavier baits.

    Another ingredient I use is Strawberry Milk Shake powder. I use this for its’ taste properties and it is highly soluble in cold water. It also adds an element of nutrition and protein to the bait being a milk powder. I love messing about with bait and at the moment I am playing around with a strawberry flavoured liquid you add to milk, to make milkshake. This again adds a major taste element to the bait and is even more water soluble than the powder. I then glug my baits in a cordial type liquid, the one I use is a summer fruits. All three of these ingredients should leak out well in winter due to them being used with cold water.

    I usually steam my baits, to retain their goodness, unless I’m using large quantities when they are boiled very lightly, between 20 – 45seconds. I like to have a mix of steamed baits and boiled baits in the swim as they break down differently and you get a more constant diffusion of attraction, rather than just using one type. You can still use a fishmeal in winter, but when the carp eats the bait, it will take much, much, longer to digest and so fish activity is reduced. In winter, my baits are 10mm chops or barrels, which make the descent slower as well. These facts alone might get you an extra bite when fishing is slow.

Summer carp baits 

my summer baits usually consist of a high percentage of fishmeals, normally, 60%. This can be made up of ingredients such as krill, ‘Lt94’, pre digested fishmeal and Provimi 66 fishmeal. To add texture to a bait I use a seaweed meal as it adds to the bait a source of vitamins and minerals and a nice taste element. A  Carp's digestion differs greatly between summer and winter. In the summer, the digestive system can break down a boilie quickly and extract the goodness. In the winter it takes much longer. Fishmeal, is readily digested at higher temperatures, but at lower temperatures, you need a bait that the fish can extract the goodness from, more quickly. Oils are used to add to attraction, and to help the bait roll more easily. You can use unflavoured oil, or a smelly’ oil such as a salmon oil or a hemp oil. 5ml per egg is about the right level.   

All season carp baits 

  Bait that works all year round would combine milks, bird foods and a small amount of pre-digested fishmeal. If you have established a fishmeal type bait, but want to keep using in the winter, then you should consider reducing the amount of fishmeal in your baits for the winter, and replace it with more milk proteins.

Glugs..

I glug every bait I use, as I know my attractor won’t be damaged by the boiling process. I mainly use glugs that are made out of natural liquids and not chemical based.  I use things like liquid fish protein or minamino. I add these to the bag before freezing when they thaw out they will draw the glug in the bait. Make sure that the bag is shaken vigorously to coat every bait. You can make glugs out of many different liquids such as ‘Tesco’s’ summer fruits cordial and you can also use neat flavours as used in boilie making. Be careful not to over do it with them because, unlike bait soaked/dips, they are very potent. Overpowering your hooks bait, can have an adverse effect, actually repelling the carp, as apposed to attracting them. I found it best to dilute these types of flavours with water or a bait dip/soak, that are widely available, because it can’t be over-dosed. I start by adding a small measurement of the neat flavour to the diluting liquid, and then slowly increase the dosage with each new batch, until the optimum level is found. Make sure that you record the levels used each time so that you can remember the results at each stage and determine which amount worked best. 

Why I make my own bait..

I love making bait and messing around with new ingredients and mixes as it’s all part of fishing for me. You can change and tweak so much with home made bait; for instance, the baits colour, texture, size, shape, buoyancy and its break down rate. You can compare it tying your own flies for trout and getting such a sense of satisfaction when you caught a fish on your own creations. To me, it’s the same with boilies! I can remember when I gave a bait that I had made, to my best mate, Thomas Adams and the first time he used it he caught a new PB. The personal satisfaction that I got from that news was nearly as good as me catching it myself; I was well pleased for him.

   My advice would be, to spend a little time creating your own personal bait, as this can be a major edge, when the majority of people buy ‘ready mades’ or ‘freezer baits’ and it’s also very rewarding. Hope this has given you food for thought!

Be lucky and bag a big’un.

 Jed Kent.