Making boilies is not as difficult as some anglers would have you believe. Although ready-made or shelf life boilies are extremely effective and do catch a great number of carp, making boilies will improve your catches, save you money and can be fun. Many serious carp anglers would not consider using ready mades and insist on making their own. Their argument being that by using only fresh ingredients, which will be more acceptable to the carp, your catch rates will increase dramatically. The other argument in favour of home made boilies is of course cost. Making a reasonable sized batch of your own boilies, especially if you share the cost with a friend, can save a good deal of expense, and once you have some of the basic tools and flavours in stock, they become increasingly cheaper with each batch.
So here is a quick guide to get you started in the art of boilie making. With practice you will soon be making baits that those carp just can't resist.
What you need ;
The basic ingredients of any boilie are a good base mix, ½ a dozen eggs, flavourings, colourings and maybe sweetener. You will also find the job a lot easier if you have available a bait gun and a rolling table. Although these are not essentials, they will save a lot of time, mess and hassle. Other pieces of equipment you will require are a mixing bowl, a fork, whisk or electric mixer, a syringe, kitchen scales, saucepan, metal sieve and an air drying tray in which to finish off the baits. A clean surface on which to work with the equipment laid out ready will help you to complete the job more easily.
Mix it up
Before going into much detail, the rule here is to always mix the dry ingredients together in one container, and the wet ingredients in another. That said, let' sstart with the dry. Place the required amount of base mix into your mixing bowl. For half a dozen eggs, this will probably be 16 oz, but you can always add a little more later if needed. Most mixes will come with mixing instructions from the manufacturer, so always follow these. Add any powdered additives such as sweetener, about ½ a teaspoon of each usually, but again, follow instructions on the container. Mix this well, ensuring that all of the additives are well incorporated into the base mix. Now in a separate bowl, mix the liquid ingredients. First crack open the eggs and place in a large mixing bowl. Now add your liquid flavours. Use a syringe and measure the exact quantity stated. Never overdo it, even if you can't smell it, it is there, and even slightly too much flavour can repel the carp rather than attract them. Now whisk the eggs and flavours very thoroughly or the flavour will not be evenly distributed amongst your finished baits.
Bring it together
Now add the powdered ingredients to the egg mix, slowly stirring together with a fork as you gradually add more powder. An electric mixer can be used here if you prefer, but do start it off on a slow speed, or your ingredients will end up everywhere. Keep adding the base mix and form a paste which is just sticky to the touch but not too dry or your baits will split. If you find the mix sticking to your hands, a little cooking oil on them will stop it happening.
Ready, load, fire
Now is the time to load the paste into your bait gun. First roll it into a sausage shape that fits into the gun. Squeeze the bait out of the gun across your rolling table, forming 3 thin sausage shapes. Place the top of the table over the baits and roll it backwards and forwards a few times. Lift it off again and you should have a batch of raw boilies. If the paste sticks to the table, you need to add more powder next time. If you don't have a rolling table and gun, you are going to be there for a while as you hand roll each bait into a ball.
Prepare to boil
Now boil your water and have ready a metal sieve. Placing few baits at a time into the sieve, dunk it into the water. About 30 baits at a time is good depending on the size of your container. Allow them to boil for about 45 - 60 seconds depending on their size. The longer you leave them, the harder they will, be, so if you have to suffer crayfish in your water, you may want to leave them a little longer. Also the bigger the boilie, the longer they take. I would estimate 45 seconds for a 14mm boilie of average hardness. Once boiled, remove them and place them in a drying tray while you get on with the next lot.
Dry, store, freeze and use
When all of your baits have dried, you can store them for use. If you want them very dry, a week or two in the airing cupboard will help, remember that if they are still moist, they will start to mould unless you freeze them. Freezing is best done in small polythene bags. Remove as much air as you can and place straight into the freezer.
Pop-Ups
If you want to make some pop ups during the above process, this is easily achieved by hand rolling some of your mixture around cork balls. Then cook and store as normal. Don't forget to keep them separately or you wont know which is which when you come to use them. Some anglers make their pop-ups bigger so that they can tell them apart.
Hint. - Always keep a log of the boilies that you make, and always use the same size eggs. This way, to repeat a successful recipe or refine a not so good one, you will be able to look up exactly what you did last time you made it.
Remember - Too much flavour is a waste of boilie mixture. It won't help you catch but will have the opposite effect and scare the carp off.
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