How to make your own boilies

[RaiderBoy 19]

1) The first and one of the most important things is somewhere to roll your bait, the wife’s kitchen especially if you are using Squid & Octopus or

Garlic essential oil will only cause a big row! Find a garage, garden shed or outhouse that has plenty of firm working area so that you can spread

out your base mixes, oils, attractors, mixing and measuring utensils. Make sure, you have everything to hand so that you are not going to run out of

any ingredients when you start. At this point I must emphasise, when measuring and weighing your ingredients you must have accurate equipment,

keep to the recommended dosages, have a recipe sheet or small book available so that you can write down the exact amounts used. A spoon of

this, a glug of that, just doesn't’t work. The day you find a combination that gives you the edge is useless unless you have accurate records to copy.

You will need a large mixing bowl, or electric mixer, a saucepan to boil your finished baits in, a spoon or sieve to remove them from the water, a

good rolling table and a kitchen timer. I suggest a 16mm or 18mm table to start and a bait gun, either hand operated or one that is operated by a

compressor.

 

2) You are now ready to start mixing: Eggs are a very important part of a base mix and great care should be made to only use FRESH eggs: Try to

buy them direct from a farmer. A method of testing if eggs are fresh is to place them one at a time in a bowl of water, if they remain in the bottom of

the bowl they are ok, if they start to rise or float they should be discarded. I always use medium eggs and work in 6 egg mixes, depending on the

type of base mix used, this will produce approximately 1½ kilo of finished mix.

ALWAYS work with the same size eggs, if in doubt weigh each egg. Break 6 eggs into a large mixing bowl or mixer; whisk the eggs together with a

fork until blended. Do not use a whisk or blender due to producing too many bubbles, which could result in your mix floating.

 

3) You can now add any flavours, bulk food oils, or liquid foods to your eggs. You can also add a teaspoon of colour to your liquid if required but

remember fishmeal's and red seed mixes will end up brown and red, this is due to the colour of the base ingredients. Blend in the liquids so they

disperse in the eggs. IF you are adding powdered attractors and enhancer's, add them to the base mix and make sure they are mixed in well. Make

sure you have accurately measured the oil and liquid foods keeping to the recommended dosage levels, if you do accidentally put in too much of

something, throw it away and start again.

 

4) You are now ready to add your base mix to the eggs. A lot of people seem to have problems at this stage. Don’t just pour in 1000g of base mix

and expect it to mix well, because it won’t. Depending on how much liquid you have after adding liquid foods, bulk food oils, flavours and variation

in eggs sizes.

You may need to use 450g of mix or 1000g. The best thing to do is have some spare mix handy in case you need a little extra. After making

several batches of bait you will know almost to the gram how much mix you are going to need, however if for any reason you change your recipe

make sure of that extra mix, if its not used put it in an airtight container and save it for the next time.

Add your dry mix to the bowl 200g at a time, using a fork or electric mixer with a dough hook, mix until

a firm consistency is arrived at. Once it becomes impossible to mix with a fork it is time to lift it out

and start kneading by hand. Common sense and a couple of mixes will tell you when the mix is right,

a good rule of thumb is a clean bowl with no excess mix clinging to the sides, and no dry mix in the

bottom of the bowl. Before you lift out your mix rub a little olive oil on you hands, this stops the base

mix sticking whilst you knead it.

 

 

5) Lift out your mix and start to knead by hand. At this stage you might find it too sticky. Put another handful of base mix into your bowl and drop the

ball of paste into it. By constantly pushing and kneading the sticky base mix into the dry mix it will start to firm up quite quickly. Do not get it too dry,

as this will cause the base mix to start cracking, if this happens add a little water and knead into the paste until it becomes workable again.

To test if it is ready to roll take a small piece of paste and roll it in the palms of you hand, if it makes a perfect smooth bait with no cracks and it

does not stick to your hand you are ready to roll your boilies.

 

6) Take the paste and roll into a long sausage, so that it fits into your bait gun, any excess can be

used after you have used what’s in the gun. Placing the excess paste into a plastic bag this will help

to stop it drying out. In very warm conditions I only make enough to just fill the gun. One tip is if you

are using a hand operated gun don’t fill it right to the top this will make it easier to extrude a sausage

onto your bait table base, now place the top on and press down firmly, push backwards and forwards

3 to 4 times, lift off the top, you should now have perfectly round baits ready to boil. If they have

broken up the mix is to dry. If they have dragged along the table they are too sticky. Roll all the base

mix ready for boiling. The other major problem is down to the wrong nozzle size. This will produce

misshapen baits, ovals and square sides are the most common.Different types of base mix may require slightly different size nozzles. This will depend on the base mix ingredients; just because you rolling out a 18mm bird food base mix it doesn't’t necessarily mean

the nozzle has to be 18mm. As you extrude the sausage some mixes will expand sometimes by up to

1mm. So a 18mm sausage finishes up 19mm, the result is misshapen boilies; trial and error will

produce the exact size nozzle. I always start 1mm smaller than I am rolling and trim small amounts off

the nozzle until I am satisfied with my finished baits. Mark the nozzle for the next time you use it, a

good supply of spare nozzles will ensure you can keep on rolling if you cut one the wrong size.

 

 

 

 

7) When you have finished rolling your base mix put on your pan of water to boil, now clean up the utensils, put away your flavours, oils and liquid

foods. Seal up the bag containing any base mix and store in a dry plastic container for next time. I like to use a large towel to put my boiled baits on

this helps in drying them off.

The most important thing is when you put your boilies into the boiling water you only put a few in at a time, the water MUST NOT come off the boil.

A kitchen timer is invaluable at this point as too much boiling can ruin a great bait making it no better than a ready-made shelf life boilie. Set your

timer to the required time and now drop in a few baits give them a stir after 30 seconds. As your timer goes off at 2minutes, scoop out your boilies,

and place them on the towel, repeat until all your bait has been boiled.

You may have to add extra water because of evaporation, always make sure the water is brought back to boiling point before continuing.

Make sure you follow the recommended boiling times on the base mix instructions. I sometimes vary these batch to batch, some baits will be softer

to release their attraction quicker, some slightly harder for hook baits.

I always give my baits a minimum of 12hrs drying. I then place them 1kilo at a time into plastic bags, write any information on the bag – flavour –

attractors – liquid foods. There is nothing like knowing what you are fishing with.

So there you have it a complete guide to making your own boilies. It might seem a little complicated but after a couple of mixes you will be rolling

like a professional.

And remember boilies don’t have to be little round balls, chops and pellet shapes always seem to catch fish because they look a little different to

what other anglers are using.

Bait Diameter Suggested boiling times

Standard base mixes

Suggested boiling times

Mlk proteins

10mm 40secs 20secs

12mm 60secs 30secs

14mm 70secs 35secs

16mm 90secs 40secs

18mm 2 minutes 45secs

20mm 2 ¼ minutes 50secs

22m 3 minutes 55+secs

24mm 3 ½ minutes 60+secs

PLEASE REMEMBER BASE MIXES CONTAINING HIGH QUALITY PROTIENS AND NATURAL EXTRACTS WILL ALWAYS

COST CONSIDERABLE MORE THAN BASIC MIXES, MY ADVICE IS TO BUY A MIX YOU CAN AFFORD TO USE WITHOUT

BREAKING THE BANK AND SUPPLEMENT IT WITH PELLET, CHOPPED BOILIE, PARTICLE AND GROUNDBAITS.

 

 

 

And good luck with your new baits

Raiderboy