I’m sure most carp anglers start off their specimen hunting days using shop bought ready-made boilies. These baits are very convenient, relatively cheap in small amounts and effective fish catchers. The number of different manufacturers and flavours found in tackle shops illustrate just how popular boilies are.
Once anglers have started catching consistently on boilies I think they start looking at how they can improve their boiled bait, I know I did. This inevitably leads down the path of rolling your own baits.
Making your own boilies means you get more baits for your money and you have the opportunity to give your baits that individual touch. You can customise your own baits and produce more nutritional baits than ready-mades, which have to balance instant attraction, nutritional value, longevity and cost.
I am going to list a few base mixes and flavours that I have used successfully in the past. I am limited in my fishing so just because a bait company or flavour is not listed here doesn’t mean it is not as good. There are many base mixes out there that you can experiment with. Most of my carp fishing is done at day ticket waters, mainly on short sessions. Some of my fishing trips are only a couple of hours long so I need to have a bait that is of instant attraction but will be acceptable over a long period of time. Most ready-mades are highly-flavoured for instant attraction and have low nutritional value so once the fish have picked them up a few times they may recognize them as a poor quality food source and not be as willing to feed on them.
The baits that I list here are what I believe to be a combination of instant attraction plus an acceptable level of nutritional value. Most of the flavour combinations are my own ‘concoctions’ although the winter flavours have been taken from Paul Selman’s writing, who is a well-known Nutrabaits user.
The Peach
Any bait of mine that has included Nash Peach Oil Palatant has been a winner. Within an hour of casting out a peach flavoured boilie I caught a carp on the bait. If I had to be restricted to just one flavour for the rest of my life it would be Nash Peach Oil. My confidence in it is that high. I have always preferred fruity flavours and the Peach Oil smells perfect.
I have combined the success of Peach Oil with Nash Amber Attractor Mix. This mix is regularly used by Terry Hearn, former British Carp record holder. If that doesn’t give you a clue as to how effective Amber Attractor is then nothing will!
The Amber mix is a birdfood basemix which sits well over silt and has good leakage due to its coarse texture. It also rolls really well, a bonus if you are making lots of the stuff. The Amber combined with Peach Oil would be my choice for a general all-round bait for all seasons and I always have some made up in the freezer.
The full flavour combination I have used is:
5ml Nash Peach Oil Palatant
2ml Nash Sweet Cream
1 tsp Nash Fruit Powdered Palatant
½ tsp Nash Subtle Sweet Enhancer (or 1ml Intense Sweetner)
Yellow bait dye (for Amber, none for S-Mix)
Recently I have also added:
10ml Nutrabaits Multimino
1g Nutrabaits Betaine HCl
The flavour combination is mixed to 4 eggs and approximately 12oz Nash Amber Attractor or S-Mix(Squid (All Season)) base mixes.
To follow on from using the Amber basemix and produce a slightly different even better quality bait I have added The Peach flavour combination to Nash Squid Mix. This can be complemented well by the use of Nash Peach Squid Ball Pellets and Micromass.
Autumn Flavours
This next flavour combination is called ‘Autumn’ simply because that was the time of year I started using it. I make no apologies for including Nash Peach Oil. I am being totally honest in detailing baits that have been effective for me and I’m not trying to sell you a full set of products from a certain range. I have no sponsorship or commercial links. (Although I’m open to offers!)
The flavour combination is:
4ml Nash Big Strawberry
2ml Nash Peach Oil Palatant
1ml Nash Intense Sweetner
1 tsp Nash Fruit Powdered Palatant
Mix to 4 eggs and approximately 12oz Nash Strawberry basemix.
Winter Flavours
This flavour combination is suitable for use all year round but is particularly suitable for winter. The combination of the Clove Oil and acidic fruit flavour is a renowned bait for winter use.
4 drops Nutrabaits Madagascar Clove Oil
3ml Nutrabaits Guava Nutrafruit
20ml Nutrabaits Multimino
1ml Nutrabaits Sweet Cajouser
1g Nutrabaits Betaine HCl
(1/2oz Nutrabaits Kelp – optional)
Yellow bait dye
Mix 5 eggs and approximately 16oz of Nutrabaits Four Seasons Mix, Nash Strawberry Mix or Nash Amber Attractor. I will normally add the kelp to the Nash Strawberry Mix to improve its nutritional value.
MULTIMINO, KELP POWDER ET AL
I’m no bait buff but the addition of certain ‘goodies’ to your basemix or flavour combination can boost the pulling power of a bait and make it stand out from the crowd. Nutrabaits products such as Kelp Powder, Dried Seaweed or Robin Red can give your bait extra attraction and add to the individuality of your bait. The addition of these low level attractors can help increase the longevity of a bait’s life and help put more fish on the bank.
Other notable additions to a bait can be one of the liquid foods such as Multimino, Nutramino, Corn Steep Liquor, Liquid Kelp and Liquid Molasses. The addition of Betaine has been well-documented and I can’t envisage a time when this will not be added to my bait at the moment.
DON’T FORGET
Remember making your own baits means you can move away from the norm and produce square or cylindrical baits much easier. I find that fishing with a selection of different shapes and sizes is a simple yet unusual approach. Dare to be different.
I’ve noticed that when using Nash flavours it is better to use the attractor levels lower than recommended, especially for the instant attraction baits. I’ve found that the recommended levels for instant attraction baits are too overpowering.
AND FINALLY
I like to do a bit of floater fishing, although normally unsuccessfully! I’ve found some cracking dog biscuits to use. Go looking in your pet shop for the Beta range of dry dog foods. I can’t specifically remember which sort I got but I’m sure it was Beta Chicken Recipe. They are a combination of 3 colours, sizes and textures of biscuit. I like to use the darkest the best, as they take longer to be spotted by the wildfowl and are less conspicuous than other floaters. This can act as a bonus for the angler too as the fish may act less warily. I’ve never seen people recommending these baits before so if they become as successful as chum mixer then I, and Anglers’ Net, want to take full credit and go down in carp fishing folklore!
I usually add a couple of mils of Nash White Chocolate Oil. I’ve used White Chocolate in boilies and it never seemed to work but combined with the dog biscuits it seems deadly. I’m not sure whether it is just the dog biscuits or a combination of the two but it’s a case of fish with whatever makes you confident and you’ll fish well.
Martin Salisbury
