Fishing Frenzy

There are a few different methods of making your baits, the first is to take it from the very beginning and produce your own base mix prior to making the bait. This method takes you through the whole process of making the bait alternatively you can use a ready made base mix and create the your bait from this stage.

There are advantages to both and these are mainly revolving around the cost and quality of the fishing bait you are making. For instance, with a ready to go mix you can make a very good carp bait that only requires additional flavorings, eggs and any additional oils you wish for. Most of them already have the right grade and quantities of the various additives you would look at using, i.e, seaweeds, milk protein and fish meals. Although this is the expensive way you tend to get a very good quality carp bait at the end of the process.

The second method is to pull together all of the ingredients that are required to make a basic base mix for your fishing bait. There are three main ingredients to make the basic base mix, Semolina, Soya Flour and Ground Rice. It can take a while to get this right but it is worth it in the long run so a little patience goes a long way.

At this point you would look at adding any powder ingredients to the mix, so if you were using fish meal or robin red then remember one of the key rules of bait making powder to powder and liquid to liquid!, pretty self explanatory but let me expand, if you take a semolina and soya flour mix then before adding any eggs ensure you have added all the dry ingredients and mixed them evenly into the base mix. This can be done by placing the contents into a re-sealing sandwich bag and shaking it around for a minute or so.

When you have sorted out your base mix and have decided which way you are going to make your carp bait, then crack your eggs into a bowl and add your flavours and oils to the eggs, most manufacturers will give you guidelines on how much egg you need to make your carp bait, however a usual rule of thumb is approx 4 eggs per kilo of base mix. With the eggs cracked and the flavors added slowly whisk the mix with a fork trying to avoid getting to much air into the eggs, if you beat to much air in then the air will boil out of the bait and leave your finished product too soft.

When the liquids are thoroughly mixed start adding your base mix little and often, continue mixing it with a fork until the paste is to tough to use a fork. Continue with the mixing by hand and keep adding the base mix until the mix is dry enough not to stick to your hands. Break the ball open and if you have dry powder in the center you need to carry on mixing until the ball is damp.

Break the paste into sections that can be placed into a bait gun, compress the sausage through the gun using the nozzle that corresponds with the size of carp bait you want, i.e 18mm nozzle for 18mm boilies. When you have the sausage roll it out with a Gardner sausage rolling table, this ensures the sausage is level and will avoid your boilies coming out oval and broken.

Place the sausage onto your choice of rolling table and slide back and forward till you create the article that is ready to go on the boil. When you have rolled out a decent amount place a small amount of them in boiling water for 2 mins, never be tempted to overfill the pan as it stops the water from boiling and will stop the carp bait cooking effectively.

After the two mins is up we recommend placing them on an air dry tray for around 24 hours so that the skin forms fully and you can now take your carp bait and see what the fish think!