Dark Art Of Boilies

Building a recipe is fairly simple, although sometimes a slight variation from the norm can make a huge difference. In other words, if everyone is using a fish meal bait, then a simple addition of roasted peanut meal or the addition of a cheese or fruit powder to the mix can dramatically change the bait and make it a lot more interesting for our quarry. To know what is in your bait it is best to make a bait calculator as illustrated below. I got my better half to do mine, which she did on an Excel spreadsheet. Any ingredient can be added to the calculator and all the amino data can be found on “Nutri data” or similar sites on the web. As a general rule when mixing up your ingredients, the dry ingredients stay together and the wet stays together. There’s been an upsurge in fishmeal baits this past year so I will show you how to build a basic mix and then something a bit more complicated. BASIC FISHY MIX A basic fishy mix would look something like this: 450gr fish meal (protein) 100gr full fat soya (mid-level protein +binder) 100gr semolina (carbs + binder) 150gr clo (carbs+vits+minerals+binder) 50gr - kelp (vits and minerals) 50gr predigested fish meal (soluble-leaks from the bait) Let’s say we are using sardine and anchovy fish meal in the above mix. What we have so far is: If you can’t get predigested fish meal it can be replaced with calf milk powder or baby milk powder (sma) which is quite good and available at Dischem. But that then changes the mix as follows (for the example below I substituted the predigested with sorromil) . As you can see just by changing the predigested for sorromil calf milk replacer, the amino profile changes and the protein and solubility changes . Some changes could still be made: you could add 2, 3 or 4 types of fish meal. They don’t all have to be dried - I’ve used blitzed mussels, squid, lots of types of aquarium fish food, dried liver powder, tinned sardines in chili and crab for example. If the fish meal that you’re using is light, the addition of a touch of blood meal will darken the bait nicely. WET INGREDIENTS Once you’re happy with your dry mix, it’s time to look at the wet side of things. Your wet mix is: egg, liquid food, flavouring and taste enhancers. What I do is first take 100gr of base mix and mix it with one egg at a time to work out how many eggs you will need per kilo base. Let’s say as an example that you will need 8 eggs per kilo - I use 6 eggs without shell and 2 with shells; it’s also better and easier to use a blender at this stage. Place your eggs in the blender. Add 25ml of liquid food - I like krill or belachen, but there are a lot on the market nowadays. I was fortunate enough to get CSL from BFA and from MCT. Both are very good and won’t break the bank. I’m not a fan of artificial flavours, so I use fruits, either blended or blitzed. These can also go into the eggs or at this stage a quarter tin of sardines and the oil. Blend up the whole lot. Add this mixture to your dry mix. If it’s a little sticky add some base mix and on the next batch reduce your eggs by one because you’ve now added extra liquids to the eggs. These would then be mixed, rolled and boiled. Then air dried and you’re ready to fish. BIG FISH RECIPE A recipe I’ve had a lot of big fish on in the past is as follows: 175 semolina 175 soya 250 fish meal 75 maize meal 50 super gold 50 whey protein concentrate 50 spice - paprika, chili, fenugreek, black pepper. 30 wheat germ 50 sma baby milk powder 20 kelp powder 25 blood meal 25 liver powder or belachan 25 brewers yeast Into the eggs put 30 ml of oil-hemp or fish oil, and 25 ml of csl. I’ve found that there’s no need for artificial flavours with this recipe, but that’s up to your imagination. Once you have a recipe that you’re happy with, a lot of tweaks can be done for different waters or conditions. In the winter for example the addition of an emulsifier could be added, or a Ph changer could also be added. Just remember that it’s best to change one ingredient at a time so you can keep notes of your results. There is no bait that is guaranteed to catch carp, however you can turn the odds in your favour with a bit of thought and research. Good luck!