fishingetc.net » Bait Fishing

How To Make A SteelShad Blade Bait Fishing Lure Seg 3

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:18:50 +0000

fishgills42 asked:

Dip Bait Fishing For BlueGills,Snaping Turtle and fishing with a Redneck pole

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:44:05 +0000

WOW SO CRAZY

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Fishing Live Bait: Hooking A Shrimp For Live Bait Fishing

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:40:28 +0000

http://fishing-live-bait.com/ . How to hook a shrimp for live bait fishing. This video will show you how to hook a shrimp for live bait fishing. Fishing with live bait is a great technique. Learn more at www.fishing-live-bait.com – everything about fishing with live bait.

Albacore Tuna Bait Fishing Off Coast Of Oregon

admin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:52:21 +0000

Jimmy vic and Tom Doin it the old school

Florida Lake Talquin Fishing Report

admin — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:23:29 +0000

Lake Talquin holds good populations of black bass, Striped bass, white bass, black crappie, bluegill, and redear sunfish. Lake Talquin is one of the best black bass lakes during the winter, But if you want to catch specs, bream, and redear sunfish Lake Talquin is the place to be! The Florida Fish And Wildlife Commission Maintains the population of Stripers by stocking. The striper ave. catch size is between 10 and 15lbs but very few stripers over 20lbs are ever caught. The good months for Stripers are normally caught during February, March and April.

Lake Talquin has an abundance of natural bait fish that keep the predator fish population very active. You can find Golden shiner, seminole killfish, sunfish, crayfish, threadfin shad and gizzard shad are the most common forage. Minnows such as sailfin mollies, pot-guts and a variety of others. You can also find Insect larvae, clams, mussels, frogs, tadpoles, leeches, sirens and water dogs that keep the fish on the move.

Largemouth bass can be caught in drop-offs and channels. Anchor your boat in 6 to 8 ft of water and fish into the deeper channels using Texas- or Carolina rigged plastic worms. In the spring fish the grass flats in 4 to 7 feet of water. Make sure you search along the river and creek channels for spawning habitat. Minnow imitations and plastic worms are effective where the creeks empty into lake Talquin.

You can catch Stripers all year round on lake Talquin, but one of the funnest times for fishing is in the fall. The striper school in open water and feed on vigorously during the fall and winter. You can spot them by watching the birds. If the birds are diving on bait the open waters, chances are the there are strippers schooling and feeding on threadfin shad. Fish any artificial bait that imitates these shad. Some suggestions would be to fish Minnow imitations and chugger-style topwater lures. They seem to work well on stripers that are feeding on Shad.

The best live bait for shellcraker and bream is grass shrimp. Shellcraker and bream are very active during from april through may and you can get some great catches. Catch Black crappie in the winter months by drifting or slow trolling open water. spider rigging is most effective. Make sure you vary depths until you find the schools of crappie. They will be suspended.

Area #1 Talquin Fishing Lake Report Picnic Point is a sandbar in one of the widest sections of the Ochlockonee River. There is heavy cover on top of the bar and 5-foot depths along the edge that drop to about 22 feet at midchannel. A jig or crankbait like a Big N worked down the drop is most effective. .

Area #2 The Smokehouse area off the mouth of Hunter Creek is a flat about 4 feet deep with good spring bass fishing. Stumps and vegetation along the channel provide great cover for both forage and largemouth bass. When the water is running, use deep-diving crankbaits. Plastic worms are also good bets throughout the year. There is good spring fishing when rainfall allows access to the shallows.

Area #3 Lake Talquin Fishing Report The Iron Post, also known as the Talquin flats area, has a deep hole at the end of an old submerged channel. Work auger tail and paddle tail worms along the ledge of the adjacent flooded flats for big bass. Topwater stick baits such as the Bomber Long A take smaller, schooling bass during summer and early fall.

Area #4 A bend in the river channel directly across from Coe’s Landing is a prime largemouth spot during the winter months. The water drops from 5 feet to 18 feet in the channel. Cast plastic worms and deep-running crankbaits in the stumps and nearby flats. Be careful of stumps.

Area #5 This minor creek channel on the Coe’s Landing side is at the southern tip of what local anglers call the Iron Curtain. Bass hold on sandbar drop-offs along the tiny creek. Using plastic worms along the creek drop-offs, which runs almost to Williams Landing, is effective for winter bass. Target schooling bass here in the summer.

Area #6The deep channel at High Bluff provides excellent winter fishing for striper and largemouth on live shiners or deep-diving crankbaits. Fish the creek channel that runs from Double Creek to the old wooden pier. Fish the creek channel and pier pilings for big bass and striped bass. For stripers, cast small crank baits, vibration lures, plastic worms, and stick baits in pockets of open water surrounded by lily pads.

Area #7 A 20-foot drop-off near the small island holds winter largemouth that will take plastic worms dragged along bottom and down the drop. In the heat of summer, if bass are not schooling on the surface nearby, a jigging spoon can sometimes entice fish from the depths. A plastic worm, rigged Carolina style, is effective along the edge of the river channel. Bend the hook back into the worm to prevent snags, then drag it back, imparting no movement, through the stumpy drop-off. This is one of the most productive big bass spots on the lake.

Area #8Lake Talquin Fishing Report Fish this delta-shaped inlet with old docks for black bass. Work the shallow drop-off into the cove, a small spring-fed channel called Cootermill Creek, and the nearby Ochlockonee River channel, which averages about 22 feet deep. Fish plastic worms and jig spoons in the holes and drop-offs, and toss crankbaits along edges of the channel. A floating worm snaked through the lily pads in areas with cypress trees and stumps may draw a strike.

Area #9Plenty of shellcracker beds, sometimes more than an acre of them, are found just off the High Bluff area around mid-April. The sandy flats remain loaded with beds for about 3 months. Move in carefully over the stumpy-area. Fish the edges of the flats with spinnerbaits and floating worms for bass. In close, cast small Beetle Spin lures or switch to shellcracker rigs and use crickets or worms.

Area #10 Talquin Lake Fishing Report The mouth of Mews Creek is a good year-round area for schooling bass. Work plastic worms for largemouth where Mewes Creek and Ochlockonee River channels merge. Cast toward the bank then work the creek channel

Area #11The bends on Little River average about 12 feet deep and hold crappie during winter. One method is to use a rake or paddle to scoop a hole in the floating hyacinth, and then check for minnows. If bait is present, crappie are generally below. Drop a live minnow or small jig through the hole in the weed canopy. In the summer, bass and striper school are here, feeding on thick populations of shad. Near here an old boat house collapsed into the water, creating a good spot. This is also a spawning area, from February through May.

Area #12Pre-spawn bass provide excellent action in the back of Little River Arm. The depth varies from 12 feet in the river channel to 7 or 8 feet along the edge. Work shad-colored crankbaits along the channel during early spring. When there’s a flow, move up the creek and work likely areas with a plastic crayfish or 1/4-ounce, lipless crankbait.

Well I hope the 12 areas identified in this Florida lake Talquin Fishing Report will help on you plan your next freshwater fishing trip to Florida. Lets Go Fish’in!

Sea Fishing Tackle – Storage Solutions for Live Bait

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:09:07 +0000

Keeping bait alive is a challenge in itself. If trying to catch a fish is enough you got to keep your bait alive and in tip top condition too! There are ways to help keep you bait alive. I will go through the basics of some of the most popular baits used and how you can keep it alive with the minimum of casualty’s and fuss.

Sandeels

Live Sandeel is probably the deadliest bait known to sea angling in British waters, presented as a freelined bait, fished under a float or legered on a long leader, they will catch just about all of our major sporting species including Bass. There are two factors in keeping sand eel alive for any period of time. One is oxygenation and two is Temperature. Sandeels sitting in stagnant water all day is doomed and is not going to last you more than 1 hour. You need to provide fresh supply’s of oxygen via a bait air pump and a suitable container to keep them out of the sun. Water in small quantities left in the summer heat can quickly rise cooking you Sandeels. A good solution to this is a bait bucket, I highly recommend the Salt Bucket by Shakespeare not only it comes with a built in pouch for your pump but it also has a zip up lid to stop your eels jumping out and to keep the sun exposure from heating your water. If that’s not all, you are also able to collapse it and wash it out with ease.

If you want to store Sandeels for any long period of time, you need to set up a tank at home which you have had cycling for at least 4 weeks. Cycling meaning allowing the tank to go through the nitrogen cycle. When there are no traces of Ammonia left by using a saltwater test kit at your local aquatic center it is then safe to introduce you eels. This cycling process is exactly the same as if you where setting up tropical or marine fish tank.

Fitted to your tank you will need a filter pump that can circulate you tanks volume by at least 4 times an hour as a rule and some suitable saltwater rocks for the bacteria to colonise. Also you will need an air pump connected to an air stone running 24/7 this is beneficial to your Sandeels and the bacteria in your setup. Remember to change 25% of your sea water every 2 weeks, this stops the build up of Nitrates which will kill your Sandeels.

A good food for your Sandeels is Live Plankton cultures which you can buy live from all good marine aquatic shops. If not Mysis is very good too! Any eels that do die freeze down in packs and use when you wish do not allow dead Sandeels to float around your tank as this will kill off the live ones.

Peeler Crab

You can keep peelers for long periods of time by using the same method above. However most of us will place the peeler crabs in an Ice Cream tub and cover with seaweed and place into the fridge until ready to use. A great way of storing them when fishing is to place them into a bait cool bag damp! this will keep them out of the sun and elements until ready to use. Anyfish Anywhere Bait bag is a good recommended sized bag for the job. If you need to bring your crabs on further into the peeling stage bring them out of the fridge and allow them to warm up to room temperature and place them in a 1.5cm of water in a tray to allow them to drink.

Prawns

Most of us collect live prawns when fishing for rays. Prawns can be difficult to keep for any long length of time. Using a Salt Bucket again is the way to keep them. On a hot day they would last an hour or two with ice packs placed inside the bucket. If you have an air pump in there aswell they will last a full day. The key is to keep changing the water every 2 hours and keep cool as the water clouds with their own “bodily functions” and this can kill them very quickly.

Ragworm/Lugworm

Favourite amongst anglers! Best kept in a tray with 1/4″ of seawater. Place in a bait fridge. If they are healthy they will wriggle like mad when put in the water. Need to change the water every day or two with fresh collected saltwater. For just a few days dampen some newspaper with collected saltwater and wrap up the worms in 5’s or 10’s and keep in the fridge until ready to use. Another good way is to get some Vermiculite you can get a bag load of it from a local garden centre. Put the worms in a sealed Rag and Lug Tub with air holes and a small handful of Vermiculite. Spray the worms with saltwater just to keep damp not soaking and place in the fridge. It is important to remove any dead worms if any daily as this will kill all of your worms due to toxins leaching out from the decomposing worm.

What Lures, What Fish?

admin — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 00:14:11 +0000

Spoons

Considered the most simple of all other lures, they got their name because they look like the head of a spoon. They act for the bait fish by doing a flickering and wobbling movement or action. Spoons are excellent for starters in lure fishing; easy to use and very affordable.

Spinners

The spinner is basically a blade wherein it does a rotating action on a spindle when being retrieved or taken back through the water as well as it gives off a flash as light is being reflected on the revolving blade, characterizing the bait fish’s scales and movements. This is a lure that is flexible because only can one verify and know the retrieve depth by the period or time frame one leaves before one starts a retrieve, one can also alter the speed of the revolving blade around the spindle, by either speeding up or slowing down one’s retrieve. For the Trout and Mullet, a smaller size is recommended, and a larger spinner with the pike liking, along with the treble hook in a red wool.

Surface lures

These lures are used on the water surface and considered to be the most explosively thrilling of all lures as one could actually see the fish taking the lure, and the anticipation and the expectation of one looking forward of the take is an exciting experience. The fish can be completely seen exiting the water when they send off at a surface lure. Since these lures are being retrieved on the surface of the water, they can be a good choice in areas that have a lot of weed.

Suspending plugs

Having neutral buoyancy and resistance, when the plug has dived or dropped to the required depth and left alone, it will continue on being suspended to that depth. For this reason, this type is perfect for pursuing your prey hidden near the weed beds, rocks or banks. When yanked in order to imitate life to the plug, it causes some crashing attack from your target.

Floating drivers

A necessity for all lure anglers, they cover a wide scope in diving depths; beginning from just beneath the surface up to fifteen feet or more. The diving depth is established on the point of view of the vane or fin to the body of the lure. The lesser the angle to the body of the lure the deeper it can dive. The shape as well as the size of the vane and the lures body contributes to the movement of the plug in the water.

Sinking plugs

These are excellent for deep water fishing, wherein the retrieve can start soon as the preferred depth is reached. This is accomplished by counting down before one starts the retrieval process. Therefore, the same depth will be reached whenever one casts. The distance that the lure has sunk down in a particular time, will give a suggestion of how deep or how far down the fish are situated when they strike; thus this is called the sink rate of the lure.

Soft baits

This is soft rubber bait that comes in various shapes and forms, with matching sizes and colors. These are commonly used for sea and fresh water fishing, which can be used on a weighted jig head handled in the same manner as the jerk bait, being managed as a plug is used.

Jerk baits

Having no movement of its own when in the water, the angler gives life to this lure; whenever the rod trembles or shakes or jerks, this lure can appear to have life. This lure for the most part, mimics an injured or wounded fish that the prey fish find tempting, and be compelled to thrust or lunge at.

Winter Fishing

admin — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:48:59 +0000

Winter Fishing is for those who can simply bare the cold. Here’s a bit of advice from someone that has some experience in the sport during the colder time of the year.

Winter fishing is a bit more difficult than fishing during other seasons. At this time of year the the fish are not all that hungry because they have been gorging themselves on all the whitebait and small bait fish. What they are probably more interested in, is probably snack food. After all, would you like to have a large roast meal and then five minutes later have another one. Personally, I would be far tempted with an after dinner mint straight after a large meal. So next time you go out for some winter fishing try the following.

It may be against the popular belief that winter fishing should be done with large pieces of bait as fish will only go after bait worth the effort. But, I only use a small piece of bait to resemble a very small bait fish or whitebait and use smallish hooks. Also try using shorter traces to give the baited hook a quicker movement in the water and add a 5cm length of lumo tubing and lumo beads to the trace. It’s worked for me so It’s worth a shot, right?

Dressing warm and all that winter seasonal tips I will leave to you as people have different tolerance for this type of weather. Besides, I find that what you are wearing will not really effect the winter fishing experience. Just try to put on more than you think as you can always take stuff off if you get too hot. Plus, watch what gloves you where as your hands will need as much flexibility as possible; hand warmers would be a nice touch for the trip.

I will leave you with this however, bring a friend and thermostat full of hot chocolate (or tea or coffee or whatever you prefer to warm up your insides). And, have fun as winter fishing has it’s own set of beautiful scenery and serenity.

Bay Fishing For Dummies

admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:06:02 +0000

Inshore fishing, especially in quiet bays, does not require the expensive high-end equipment that true ocean fishing does. Before I start, let me say that my recommendations are what has worked for me over the years. It may not be the best or only choice available.

For inshore fishing, you really need two set-ups. One for light duty fish like snook, redfish, flounder, pompano, speckled trout, Spanish Mackerel, and smaller fish.

The second set-up is for larger, more aggressive fish like sea bass, striper, tarpon, tripletail, cobia, bluefish, dorado, small to med. sharks, and other bruisers you might come up against.

For the light rig, you want a reel that can handle the abuse that salt-water fishing can dish out. Your favorite bass-fishing Ambassaduer reel is not going to work in the salt.

You need one constructed of stainless steel, graphite, or anodized aluminum, with 3 to 6 stainless steel bearings. The more bearings, the smoother the reel operates.

You will need a gear ratio of at least 5 to 1 up to 6.2 to 1, and beyond. Look for a spool that is longer than the short, stubby freshwater types. This will allow you to cast light baits farther.

The reel needs to be able to hold at least 150 yards, or preferably 250 yards of 12 pound monofilament.

Rod length is your choice, but if you are fishing from shore, or a pier, a long rod is not necessary. A 7-8 foot, Med action graphite rod will do nicely. Just make sure it has Fuji guides and a strong reel seat.

For the heavy set-up, the same reel specifications apply, only now you need a larger reel that can hold 350 yards of 20 Lb. test monofilament. If you use a level-wind reel, make sure you get one with a bait clicker. The rod construction still applies, only now you need a Med-Heavy action. A 7-1/2′ to 9′ rod is plenty.

If you are going to troll, you need a good selection of jigs and saltwater lures for the species you want. In a nutshell, most of what you want will be imitations of squid, shrimp, mullet, eel, and cigar minnows.

You might want to purchase a ’spider’ rig for your boat, to allow you to troll with several evenly spaced rods.

For bait fishing from a boat, pier or shore, you will need wire leaders, saltwater barrel swivels, hooks apropriate for the species you are fishing for, and a good selection of pyramid, egg and bell sinkers.

Most bait fishing in bays will be bottom fishing with a double hook rig, For speckled trout, oftentimes, you can get your limit with a double jig set-up rigged under a popping cork.

You can wade fish in some areas, especially along the Florida coat and the Keys, but you need to be aware of the hazards this type of fishing involves.

First off, be aware of the times of incoming tides. This brings larger predatory fish like sharks and barracuda closer to shore. If you are fishing near breakers, watch out for undertows. They can be deadly.

Making Homemade Carp Baits – Successful Mixing Rolling and Binding Ingredients and Methods

admin — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 14:01:32 +0000

Making your own secret catfish or carp baits is exciting and fun! It can result in catches you only ever dreamt of!

But many fishermen resist making their own baits. Unfortunately, they give up before they have even started. This is due to having been given the false impression that it’s to complicated, and that it’s only for expert fishermen, when the reverse is true!

In fact, when you make good homemade baits, you can catch loads more fish than other anglers of your experience level. Now you can learn so much more, faster, because of your improved catch rate that you soon become ‘an expert’ yourself!

The discouraged anglers are often doomed to a lifetime of missing out on many extraordinary catches and peak fishing experiences, because they rigidly stick to shop baits that are already known to catch fish. They do not fully appreciate that bait’s main advantage is that it has not been used yet, and has not hooked all the big fish in advance of the majority using it.

Using a particular shop bought baits is like entering a race, where you generally only get the best from them, when they are used for the first time on a water and where the fish do not associate them with danger yet.

After they have been used for a while successfully, results become standard for everyone using them again, and only the very most talented anglers will still achieve outstanding catches on them, as they will again have lost that competitive edge of being new and different.

There is also that unique sense of joy and satisfaction at catching a personal best fish or perhaps lake record fish, on a bait you personally have designed and made yourself. This is something that makes for some very special moments in your personal archive of special fishing memories!

Making and mixing dry dough baits and boilies:

(There’s more great information for more experienced anglers later in this article, so please bear this in mind!)

To make things much easier for everyone, let’s start by using a ‘standardized starting measure’. Often it’s easiest to bring a combination of dry flours, meals and ground materials together, to form one dry powder mixture. You can then add this to eggs or water, to make dough bait, paste bait, or so-called ‘boilie’ baits.

Boiled baits are most often small round dough bait balls, with eggs included. When these dough baits are dropped into boiling water for a minute or two, then a tough resistant skin is created around each bait, and this helps them last much longer on the hook, or on the specialist carp ‘hair rig’.

This is a short line loop (attached to your hook) of perhaps half an inch in length. A boilie bait is slid onto this loop, using a special baiting needle. The bait is held in place using a small piece of grooved plastic or rubber to hold it in place. Such baits can effectively last on this rig for over 24 hours in the water, if necessary.

A typical homemade ‘dry ingredients base mixture’, is usually divided into 1 pound weights or 16 ounces. (Approximately 500 grammes.) By doing this you can design your bait by listing it’s ingredients in individual ounces. You can use your fishing scales and a plastic bag to help you do this!

You may prefer to use kilograms, as your ‘reference weight’ if you are making very large amounts of bait. Either way, this makes everything else easy, because you always know how much water, or eggs, or actual ingredients of which type you have put into your mix.

It is very important to make notes of each ingredient and the amounts used in your bait base mixes. Also any liquid attractors like flavours, amounts of eggs used too, as this will save you much head scratching, and unnecessary mistakes later. Making detailed records is the key to successful bait making and makes everything easy!

A simple but effective beginner’s dry ‘base mix’ for example, is the following:

* 6 ounces of ground-up trout or salmon pellets or fish meal powder.

* 5 ounces of Semolina or ground rice flour.

* 5 ounces of ground-up soya beans (or flour.)

Start by placing your dry ingredients into a big strong polythene bag; it may be quicker and easier to mix up perhaps 6 to 10 pounds of powders at a time. (3 to 5 kilograms). Blow some air into the bag and tie up the top securely. Shake the contents very well until the powders flow and have mixed thoroughly and the mixture is an even color.

You can weigh out 1 pound or 1 kilogram batches of powders, and put these into sealed labelled individual bags for storage, for later use. It’s a good idea to weigh out a 1 pound of powders and put this into a container that holds approximately this amount.

This means that from now on every time you make bait you can quickly just fill that can with any new base mix powder and you know you will have about a 1 pound dry mix to start with; to add to your liquid ingredients and eggs, etc.

Mixing your bait:

Put some powders into a large bowl or pan, e.g. one pound of dry mix, ***** 4 to 6 hen eggs into another large bowl and add your other liquid ingredients to them. (Some may require accurate measuring using a needle-less syringe.)

Examples of additives to put in at this stage might include sweeteners, liquid molasses, squid extract, sweet garlic oil, liquid amino acid compound, liquid betaine, flavor components, honey, yeast extract, anise extract etc.

Beat these very well until the consistency and color are even.

I tend to over flavour with an alcohol based flavour if I’m making baits to be fished as purely lone ‘attractor baits’ with no free offerings being used.

Add the dry powders, small amounts at a time, until the mixture forms a moldable dough. (It’s sometimes good to leave the mix in a sealed bag somewhere cool for 2 to 3 hours, and even leave the ‘soaking’ paste dough in the fridge overnight. This allows the liquids to penetrate into even the least soluble ingredients and really helps bait performance by maximizing its water soluble liquid attraction!)

By weighing any dry mix in a bowl, you can find the weight of dry mix required for each further 4 to 6 egg mix. Please note that every base mix you design is different and needs refining for the best mixing, rolling, digestibility, attraction, and water solubility ratios and properties you require for your particular fishing circumstances!

Roll the dough (like in bread making) to release air. You have many choices at this stage, like perhaps use a rolling pin to flatten the dough on a bread board, and then cut your dough into many odd shaped pieces. (A very quick bait making method, and a proven one for excellent catches!)

Or perhaps squeeze small pieces into dense blobs, or roll dough into sausages and create cylinder shaped pellets or flat cylinder shapes, or flat discs. (Ideal for weed and silt etc). Or chop dough into pieces and hand roll them into balls of varied sizes. (And even chop these pieces in half for another alternative shape!) A little vegetable oil on your palms will help if your baits are sticky.

I aim to create baits that will really look, act and feel different to the regimented commercial baits that the majority of anglers slavishly use predominantly these days; doing this is well worthwhile; how many carp don’t see perfectly round shaped boilies these days and don’t know how to avoid the hook where these are used most frequently?

Never forget that we anglers are training the carp to danger when we really need to keep re-educating them into thinking what we are offering them is safe! Well at least until they’ve been hooked!)

Prepared paste will ideally feel like a moldable bread dough without being sticky, this is very quick and easy to make boilies with minimum trouble, mess and time!

Try placing sausages into an empty, very clean mastic gun with the end nozzle cut to a diameter of e.g. 15 millimeters, and extrude smaller sausages to put onto a bait rolling table (a dual half round grooved device that chops and rolls simultaneously producing many round baits very fast!

I like to roll out sausages of various diameter and boil these, chopping them up when dry. I also make molded hook baits between thumb and forefinger, some with specially added cork granules to make them buoyant.

Put on a large pan of boiling water (when boiling I add sweeteners like molasses, honey, brown sugar, black treacle, and liquorice extract and sea salt. This really gives your boiled baits ‘different’ extra attraction despite having the usual firm skin).

I will often spike my hook baits or cut pieces off them to ensure their surface releases attractors much faster and can also absorb bait soaks more efficient. This really produces noticeably faster too at times. I’ve even caught fish to mid twenty pounds ‘on the drop’ straight after casting the bait in the water.

Put some bait into a sieve or chip fryer, and boil the baits for up to an average time of 90 seconds. (The less the better to retain the nutritional qualities of your bait.) Don’t forget that with using alcohol based flavors, these are boiling away into the air as vapors with every second!

Milk proteins should have the minimum boiling, or you’ll reduce their nutritional attraction and benefits, by damaging various amino acids in the proteins, (some much more than others!)

Smaller baits can take less time than e.g. 18 millimeter ones. Whatever you do, remove them from the boiling water the moment they start floating.

Lay the skinned baits to dry on cloths on wooden fruit boxes or cardboard boxes or bread trays and keep turning them over to dry and cool evenly. Leave them to dry, usually from a few hours in warm room temperatures to 3 days or more depending how hard or dry you want them!

As they dry, your finished boiles will shrink and harden and absorb any strong smells or odors nearby, so ensure you dry them in a clean environment away from chemicals, paint, cleaning products etc that may be left around inadvertently and may taint your baits with fish repellent fumes!

To preserve your baits there are many preservatives to mix with your dry bait mix before mixing, many are great for winter baits as they replace eggs which could affect results in colder water temperatures.

Put, for example, a pound of finished boilies into individually marked freezer bags, with the date and mix and attractors or flavors clearly written. Or carry on drying them until they’re 95 % plus dry, and store them in air-drying net bags, paper potato bags or similar, somewhere dry, away from rodents!

I like to put about 30 to 60 milliliters of natural attractors additives and amino acid compound with boilies into freezer bags before freezing and shake the baits to distribute them. This can more than double your catch rate! For winter, try adding a favorite ‘raw’ undiluted flavour, like “Tutti Fruitti,” “Scopex,” and “Megaspice” etc.

For waters with excessive bait robbing fish or crayfish for example, use higher levels of casein in your dedicated hook bait mix, and after boiling and drying, leave your baits in a sealed container full of sugar. This is a very effective way to harden your baits and make them effectively last much longer!

To calculate the finished weight of prepared boilies from eggs and dry mix in advance of production, the eggs, (usually large hen’s eggs) are 30 to 40 % (average) the weight of the finished bait per pound.

To make my baits different from many shop – bought, uniform shaped, machine rolled boiled baits, I boil my baits over a various range of times, e.g. short 10 to 90 seconds (with nutritional baits) up to 5 minutes with carbohydrate baits with overloaded attractors.

For a useful quick bait tip for short range hand thrown or catapulted baits for example, or in a bait delivery ‘spod’ cast out at range, use dough rolled flat and chopped finely into bait pieces. I even leave portions of this procedure un-boiled as paste pieces, to be used as free baits, and in water soluble polyvinyl alcohol (‘P.V.A.’) bags, and dry these separately.

This gives baits of varied size, shape, consistency, texture and density, allowing for much greater attraction to carp, making it very much more difficult to detect the hook bait. This is very worthwhile and many of my biggest fish have come through using these types of techniques!

Floating or ‘pop-up’ boilies:

As you are rolling all your paste into balls before boiling, put aside, e.g. 50, for buoyant hook baits. They can be great fished on their own over weed or silt, or as a ‘snowman’ when used on the hair or hook with a normal sinking boilie.

You can incorporate cork or small balls of polystyrene into these or even use a high amount of cork granules in a dedicated base mix, to adjust the amount of buoyancy you want. These are available from the commercial companies. The advantage with these is that your hook baits are identical in nutritional make-up and signal leak – off to your ‘free’ or ground baits.

Another method is to put a small number of smaller, normal baits on a plate, and microwave them in time increments of, e.g. 20 seconds, removing them before they begin to burn. These are soaked in attractors before use, to maximize attraction.

Another method is to adjust the level of ingredients until you arrive at a floating test bait. I’ve also had this happen by accident, and not design while experimenting with more buoyant ingredients like sodium caseinate, shrimp and krill meals, even some egg biscuit based bird foods, for example.

I use casein as the base with sodium caseinate and then other ingredients, as this offers great nutritional signals, while being a harder more resilient bait. You can buy ‘pop-up’ base mixes from many commercial suppliers. These baits are best left to soak in a mixture of natural attractive extracts and flavours, with an added amino acid compound for example, to harden and preserve the baits and maximize their carp attraction qualities.

Such baits fished just on their own on hard fished waters can be very productive, especially casting immediately to carp seen bubbling or ‘rolling, and ‘head and shouldering’!

So, why not give bait making a go; you really can have your ‘cake’ and eat it this is the tip of the ice-berg!

The author has many more fishing and bait ‘edges’ up his sleeve. Every single one can have a huge impact on catches…