How do you go about making your own Bait (Please Help)

[Lofte]

Hi Lads thanks for dropping in. This season as I am sure you already know I am planning to fish the Matchlake on the Yatley Complex. I have alrady decided on what bait I want to use and can buy it ready rolled from the chosen company. However this season for the first time ever I want to make role and boile my own baits adding my own personal touch to it. However am clueless as to how to go about it. one thing that really puzzles me is how do you make the frozen ready made type boilee. all information posted will be appreciated and put into good use.
cheers guys
Lofte




<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Lofte on 27/01/01 08:28 PM.</FONT></P>

[CarponlineEditor]

Blimey how do you explain this one lol.

Right I have made kilos and kilos of boilies. Firstly I would get a big bowl and put all the ingredients which are liqiud in first. The reason that you do this is because it is easy to add powder a bit a time but it can be very difficult to add eggs a bit at a time. So, we decide on the amounts of liquid ingeredients that will go with say six eggs and then thoroughly mix these together. Once this is done we will slowly add the powders a bit at a time. Before we do this though if we are going to add any powdered additives to the baits we must mix these into the bulk powder. I do this by adding all the dry ingredients into a large air tight bag and then tying a knot in the top and then shaking it all for a while until i think it is all mixed properly.

Right as I said before we then add the powder slowly a bit at a time to the eggs until it is just sort of dry sticky, you must not let it get too dry and also not to wet. This bit is a bit trial and error but once you have sussed it keep a note of the exact amounts of ingredients and then you can repeat it over and over.

Once you have your dough then a good tip i was told before is to wrap it up in a piece of cling film to stop it from drying out any more. Then you can put it into your bait gun one sausage shape at a time, make your sausage shapes and then using a boilie roller create your desired boilie sizes.

You can just roll your dough into sausages of the diameter that you want your baits to be and then cut them into sections and then hand roll all your baits but if you are doing any amount of bait then it will take a while.

Once you have all your baits made then you must boil them, you can boil them for thirty seconds or so and have quite soft skinned baits or boil them anything up to two minutes and create a hard skinned bait. Once you have boiled them then you must dry them out on say a tea towel or something like that before freezing them otherwise they will get freezer burn or you will have them all frozen together.

Sorry if that lot is hard to follow but if you have any questions just mail me and i will try to help you out.

Cheers, Andy

[Lofte]

Thanks Andy your infromation it is very much appreciated.
cheers again
Lofte

[bazza]

andy has explained most of what you need to know, but a couple of other things...

when you have made your sausages ready to be cut up for rolling, they *can* just be left as cut up pieces. there seems to be an unwritten rule that all boilies should be perfectly round. if you use a throwing stick, or catapult at range then i agree - keep 'em round! - but for short range, spodded or pva baiting a pillow-shaped bait is just as good, if not better than a round bait. 99.9% of boilies are round, a different shape may just give you an edge! it should also reduce the overall time you spend making your bait.

as andy said, when boiling your bait, the longer you boil for, the firmer the skin on the bait. however, the longer you boil the more you reduce the flavour and attractor levels of the bait (this is why paste works so well - 100% flavour/attractor). i personally avoid boiling for any longer than two minutes. that said, however, a short boiling time will reduce the breakdown rate of the bait ie. it will break down sooner due to the thinner skin. you will have to weigh up the pro's and con's to decide on a boiling time. if you renew your hookbaits twice a day, you could afford to go with a short boiling time, if you like to leave your rigs in position for more than 24 hrs perhaps a longer boiling time will better suit your fishing style.

lastly, i airdry my baits for three days before freezing them. i use a gardner airdrying bag, but you can use anything which is made of material and allows good airflow (your landing net for example, but make sure the holes in the net are smaller than your bait)! give the baits a shake up twice a day, and this should eliminate the majority of moisture from the bait and reduce freezer burn.

good luck! it is a good feeling to catch a fish on a bait you have created yourself...

[Crispy]

Bazza

Does air drying baits allow you to heat seal them and save the trouble of freezing them.

I don't have very much freezer room at all but want to start making my own baits again.

[Smarts]

I air-dry mine...they go like marbles...rock'ard!
It's because I have no room in the freezer so I bag them up like this.Make sure they are COMPLETELY dry..it takes a couple of weeks in the loft!.(they smell!).

Smarts

[bazza]

as smarts said, air drying the baits can be done instead of freezing them, but they do go rock hard. it could be beneficial - a different texture to the soft, pastey boilies the fish normally come across...