Yes, yes, we are going to take a trip down the quite frequently trodden path of bait making!

A subject on which you can read huge amounts of information, most of it incredibly confusing and tedious. But the most important thing to remember about bait making is you don’t have to have a degree or a tackle shop in your shed to try.

A large portion of us can look back on the first time we attempted to attain the grail and make a bait that was going to take apart our local lake. Not only did it fall apart when we rolled it, split when we boiled it, smelt of mouldy bread, was regulation dark brown in colour, didn’t catch any fish, it went mouldy before we got a chance to freeze it! Ah yes those fond memories…still, now after several dodgy past attempts, we have the equipment and the get up and go to make it.

First off you need to make a choice about the water your fishing, what, if anything, is catching fish at the moment? Most carp only waters see a lot of pressure from start of season to finish, and see just about every type of bait there is going. These waters are pretty much what most of us fish week in week out. The only decision to be made in this case is from previous catches. Is there a theme developing? Is anything you’ve used in the past seemed to do better than your last bait? The best thing to do here is to go in with your fishing mate or a group of mates and all religiously stick to the same bait. This will undoubtedly have a better effect than all using something different. If the fish see enough of a bait they will begin recognise it against the other indiscriminate baits going in. This means you will be left with an ideal opportunity to cash in on the fish using a reliable and unchanging food source. This may then in turn lead to the fish becoming suss to your bait but then you’re getting into arguments that I’m frankly unqualified to take part in!

O.k, probably no closer at all to making you’re decision as to a flavour and base mix, we’re moving on anyway! I’m not about to tell you to use this or that or even publish our current recipe, suffice to say that it’s the nuts and early signs are a good un!

You will need all or most of the following, if you don’t have them all you can cut some corners cost wise but you’ll be worse off in the long run.  

Measuring spoons -                          For accurately judging levels of additives!

Syringes -                                          These are invaluable for dishing out your flavourings and stuff

Bloody great big saucepan -             Boiling the buggers in

Wire sieve or chip fat fryer mesh -   Dipping your baits into the pan!

Sealant squirting gun -                      Squirt out sausages for your rolling table

Rolling table -                                   Anyone who has rolled by hand knows why!

Firstly weigh out you’re mix, the levels you work to will obviously depend on the amount you make, if you start off using a typical recipe off the back of a mix bag then you will only end up with about a couple of pounds of bait for what may be quite a strenuous evenings work!  

As a happy medium and for ease of mixing we would usually do two, two pound mixes, just for an easy starting point, if you get through the first one you can always abandon the next mix! This normally leaves us with about three kilos of finished rolled bait ready for freezing, this is about an hour and a half in the making! (we tend to get sidetracked easily). This requires eighteen medium sized eggs in total.

Start with an empty bowl and the flavours additives etc. At this stage you need to measure out how much of each of your pre-chosen goodies you will need. These all go into the bowl followed by the eggs, if you are making a bait for the very first time it may be that you have opted for a very simple approach, and don’t have a bowl half filled with aminos and oils etc, if this is the case watch the mix carefully it may be that you need to add another egg or water into the mix to prevent it from hardening and making it impossible to roll!

Slowly add the mix in a bit at a time making sure that the whole mixture is thoroughly mixed up and there aren’t any areas with all the flavour or colour in! Once you’ve added all the mix in and pounded it together you should end up with a dough-like substance. If yours is still slopping about in the bowl then you’ve got a major problem and obviously can’t follow simple instructions! If it’s too hard then you haven’t paid enough attention to the number of eggs or oils etc and compensated for it. This is vaguely fixable at this stage with a bit of water and much hard work.

Its good to bear in mind that this mix once in its dough-like stage will in fact dry out rather quickly, so if its only just usable at this stage by the time you get to the end of rolling, it will more than likely have dried out! If you’ve got a pan of water on the boil ready for the bait then the kitchens bound to be mega hot anyway, we always have to open a door or window to stop the place overheating!

Now, if you’ve read the list of helpful equipment and paid any attention you will have bothered to get a sealant extruding gun, not only do these put the mixture under a little bit of pressure (makes em’ that bit tougher before you start the boiling process) but you can also squeeze them out to the exact diameter required by you’re rolling table (also see list of useful equipment) Personally if you don’t have one of these then you’re only likely to be making one batch of boilies! The fact that you’ve now made this doughy mess means you’re gonna want to use it. Trust me, once you’ve rolled every one by hand then you’ll never want to see one ever again. The point?.....Get a bloody rolling table!

Right, you’ve extruded you’re mix into sausages, you’ve placed them on you’re table and by now hopefully you’ve ended up with a dirty great big pile of ready to boil round jobs. Its important to grease you’re rolling table especially if the mix is a little on the stiff side, otherwise you’ll end up with a load of baits that may split when you’ll boil em’ if not before. You can use vegetable oil or it’s a nice idea to use a little of your chosen flavouring. Don’t stick the finished products in a big heap before you boil them or when you go to pick the sods up you’re just going to have a large sheep like jobbie on your hands, not pleasant!

Boiling time, if you haven’t got yourself a wire sieve or a chip fat fryer inside than you’re obviously not paying any attention to the list of goodies earlier on and you don’t deserve to have nice bait. There are loads of good reasons for having one of these, firstly you can be really quick and accurate with the length of time you boil the bait for and secondly you don’t have to feel like a prat chasing the buggers round the saucepan with a spoon!

You can boil you’re bait any where from a about forty five seconds (reasonably firm bait) to a couple of minutes (mega hard) depending on the application. If you’re fishing a hard water you’ll want a bait that’s not going to break down after a few hours and keeps letting off flavours and oils four hours, if its just in your local fish a chuck day ticket water then a bait which lets out bags of flavours etc in a very short space of time is ideal.

Let them dry out thoroughly before you freeze them this stops unwanted moisture freezing in the bags with them (when you defrost they can go soft again if the don’t stay dry).

Good Luck (You'll Need it) .

Jut & Andy CarpSlags…..