What's a Boilie and Why Should I Use Them?
Anyone getting into European style fishing for carp is eventually going
to come across the boilie. The boilie to the European's has an almost
magical quality. To be honest, much of the magic is built on advertising
hype. Boilie's are big business in Europe and bait companies make
serious money selling their wares. Simply put,
boilies are pastes or dough, mixed with eggs and boiled so that they have
a hard outer skin. Boilies shouldn't be looked at as a magical bait that
will instantly boast your catch rate, but rather should be looked at as
another weapon in your carp fishing arsenal. To avoid the hype, lets look
at the
original reasons people staring using boilies in Europe.
Prior to boilies Europeans carp anglers typically used three types of
baits, particles
(corn, beans, nuts), soft pastes (sort of like a doughball), and 'natural
baits' (bread, potatoes, maggots, worms). The boilie came around to
overcome some of the inherent deficencies in the above baits. They are
pretty much selective for carp (other species don't eat them), it can stay
in
the water for a long time without breaking down and was still be
attractive,
and they can be chummed into the water at long range with a catapult
(slingshot) or throwing stick.
These qualities also make boilies an attractive bait in North America.
For example, anyone who frequently uses sweetcorn knows that this bait
isn't selective to carp, just about any fish that swims will take
sweetcorn. The sweetcorn user also knows that chumming at long range
(without a spod), is out of the question. Another example would be the
doughball, these baits, while tremendously attractive to carp, break down
in the water and can also be broken up by other species.
Another advantage of using boilies in North America is that in certain
situations they can be selective for larger carp. I have found that the
bigger carp tend toward bigger food items. If your interested in making
the trade off of not catching as many fish but having the fish you
catch be of above average size, boilies may be the way to go.
Yet another advantage of boilies is that they are dry, which allows you to
use PVA strings and bags in your presentation. Shelf life boilies, such
as the Kevin Maddocks baits sold by Eurotackle will last indefinately,
which is more that can be said for doughballs or an open can of sweetcorn.
The main disadvantage of the boilie is that they are relatively expensive
to buy if you buy readymade boilies, and while not quite as expensive if
you make your own, making your own can be a time consuming process. The
process can be quickened quite a bit with the purchase of a Gardner
rolling table and sauage gun or sausage table. Lets see how to put these
to good use.
How To Make Boilies:
Base mix, are the sum of your dry ingredients, you can use just about
anything in here but the important thing is that it has to bind and has to
roll. You can take the guess work out by purchasing your base mix from
Eurotackle. Semolina and soya flour are terrific base mix ingredients,
you can usually
find these at the grocery store or the local health food store. I use
these two flours at a ratio of 5 to 3, (ie 5oz. of semolina to 3oz. of
soya) this is handy as my grocery store sells semolina in 40oz bags and
soya flour in 24oz bags. For each pound of semo/soya I add 1 oz of
another dry ingredient, such as cornmeal, dry milk powder, baby
formula, non-dairy creamer, brewers yeast, paprika, curry
powder, etc.. If your not going to use a liquid sweetner also add some
sugar at this point if you want a sweet bait, a 1/2 oz of sugar is usually
sufficent. Once you've got all your dry ingredients gathered up, pour
them
into a dry bucket with a lid. Shake well to thoroughly distibute the
ingredients. Typically I make up a bucket of 40 oz semo, 24 oz soya, 4
oz of baby formula, and 2oz of sugar.
Once you've got your dry ingredients together mix up some eggs, I usually
make up 6 egg batches which makes about a pound of bait. To the eggs you
add your flavor and liquid sweetner, if you want a sweet bait and haven't
added sugar to the dry ingredients. Also if you want to color your bait
add food coloring. For flavors I'd recommend using one of the European
flavors which are tried and tested on carp, the Kevin Maddock's flavors
sold by Eurotackle are timeless classics that have been the downfall of
many carp in both Europe and North America. Mix the eggs and other wet
ingredients together. Then add dry mix into the eggs until you've formed a
stiff paste.
Once you've got your paste together you need to make sausages, use a
sausage gun or a sausage table. Finally lay out the sausages on the
rolling table and roll away. Once you've got your rolled baits it's time
for boiling (they don't call them boilies for nothing!) Get a big pot
going full of boiling water and use a strainer. Boil until the boilies
float (about a minute and a half). Don't put the whole lot of bait in the
put at once, only do a handful at a time so you don't take the water off
the boil.
Once your done boiling lay out the boilies on newspaper and allow to dry
overnight. In the morning put the boilies in zip lock bags and place in
the
freezer. Alternatively you can try your hand at air drying, which takes a
few days. If you have a dry area in the house (ie not the garage) lay the
boilies out on a metal mesh rack for drying, dry for four days, don't let
the boilies touch one another and turn after two days. After four days if
the boilies seem to have lost all moisture put in paper bags with a little
uncooked rice (to absorb moisture) and store in a dry place for up to
three months.
How To Use Boilies:
Because of their hard skin, boilies should always be fished on a hair rig,
look around this Web site for information on hair rigs and baiting
needles.
Depending of where you're fishing, boilies might require a little
prebaiting. In waters where carp typically feed on larger food items,
such as crayfish, boilies are often taken without hesitation by carp. In
waters where the carp subsist primarily on smaller food items, such as
bloodworms, boilies might require a little bit more prebaiting.
One way to get around throwing hundreds of dollars worth of bait into the
water to get the carp used to it is to prebait with a particle (such as
field corn/maize) that has been flavored with the same flavor as your
boilie. For example, if you've made up a few pounds of Tutti Frutti
boilies, you can flavor a bucket of maize with Tutti Frutti, bait the area
you wish to fish for a couple of days in advance, using a few pounds of
the flavored corn and a pound of boilies a day.
Another trick to try with boilies is to fish them in conjunction with
particles but on the outside of the baited area. Establish a decent bed
of particles and then fish a boilie five to ten yards away from the bed of
bait, use about a dozen boilies around your hookbait. This method often
accounts for the big fish of the day. I'll also occasionally use a PVA
stringer with this method, fishing half a dozen boilies on the stringer.
In conclusion, I hope this brief look at boiled baits goes some way toward
demystifing the boilie and puts interested anglers on their way toward
making their own boilies.
By Pat Kerwin
