What flavour Carp boilies are best. so many to choose from!!!!

[Sam Jones]

hi every1 i have got quite confused over what flavour boilies to use i have had an idea about strawberry casue my mate who has been carp fishin for about 10 years say there good and scopex cause i was fishin about 1 week ago and there was 4 of us and the only person that caught something was using scopex boilies.what size would be best i was thinkin about 12mm.

thanks for any of ur help Sam Jones.

[*Ant*]

My advice would be to use the size and type that you know have been catching on the water you are fishing. A favourite of mine that I turn to on unknown waters is Richworth Tutti-Frutti's, preferably the 14mm frozen variety, a well proven bait especially during the colder months.

Remember to match your hook size to the size of bait i.e. 6-4 for 18mm, 8-6 for 14mm or even a 12-10 for 10mm boilies and you can't go far wrong.

I'd also advise you go for a high quality boilie from one of the big bait companies.

 

All in all, go on your session with a variety of baits, don't rule out particles, meat, etc. Have fun, experimentation with baits and rigs is all part of the appeal of carp angling.

 

Ant

[RobStubbs]

Sam,

Don't get fooled into the notion that a specific bait is best as 8 or 9 times out of 10 it just isn't the case. Sure get a decent bait, find one that has been catching wherever you're fishing and ask in your local tackle shops.

 

At this time of year stick to smaller baits, fruit type flavour and generally stick clear of fishmeals. Scopex are good as are tutti fruttis. One other word of advice is don't keep chopping and changing. Find a bait and try and stick with it - if it's a reasonable bait and you fish the right spots, it will catch.

 

Rob.

[me]

i prefer 14mm strawberry. I've only caught a couple of carp on them. But when iuse them i'm usually quite suucessful!:-) :-]

[Peter Sharpe]

There is no commercially made boilie that is conclusively the best. It would be more productive to avoid some of the cheap and nasty ones.

[Gaffer]

Peter Sharpe:

There is no commercially made boilie that is conclusively the best. It would be more productive to avoid some of the cheap and nasty ones.

I totally agree with that.

 

Sam, a flavour is a flavour and nothing more. A flavour is a signature and will not convey the actual nutritional value of the boilie to the carp. Cheapy boilies tend to be loaded with flavours and have a cheap semolina/soya base mix, these are commonly refered to as 'Attractor Baits'. Attractor baits are fine in the short term, or in the winter when carp aren't so hungry, so a boilie loaded with flavour might entice a not-so-hungry carp.

The trouble with Attractor Baits is that it's not long before the carp wise up and realise that they lack nutritional value.

 

Basically good long term boilie will have a base mix using milk proteins or fishmeal (or both), which are high in nutritional value and will have enough flavour to leak off as a signature. These baits are more expensive, but will out catch cheapy baits in the medium to long term.

 

Use Attractor baits, or baits with milk proteins sparingly in the winter, and save the fishmeals for the summer. (Fishmeals contain oils, which lock in flavour and attractors when cold. In the winter they are harder for the carp to digest.)

[chesters1]

whatever you decide on the day sods law says the carp will be in a feeding frenzy on the anglers different flavour in the next swim

[RobStubbs]

Chesters,

It may appear that way but in all but the rarest of situations it will be down to the fact that they picked the right swim and spots to fish.

 

Rob.

[bubbles]

yeah i tend to agree with rob...have you checked out the bottom with marker floats and such alike...finding features can sometimes matter as much as the bait itself.... so first find out where your placing your bait....and then worry about bait!!!.... if your using three ..rods what i tend to do is especially on a new water..is use the same bait on 2 rods applyed in 2 different methods...then on the third rod something completely different...i.e. a large cube of meat..or 4 peices of sweetcorn on the hair.....or something like that.... always trying to be different

[terryk]

Quote from Gaffer:

Sam, a flavour is a flavour and nothing more. A flavour is a signature and will not convey the actual nutritional value of the boilie to the carp. Cheapy boilies tend to be loaded with flavours and have a cheap semolina/soya base mix, these are commonly refered to as 'Attractor Baits'. Attractor baits are fine in the short term, or in the winter when carp aren't so hungry, so a boilie loaded with flavour might entice a not-so-hungry carp.The trouble with Attractor Baits is that it's not long before the carp wise up and realise that they lack nutritional value.

 

Basically good long term boilie will have a base mix using milk proteins or fishmeal (or both), which are high in nutritional value and will have enough flavour to leak off as a signature.

 

Gaffer, I'm not sure if I'm reading the above correctly. Are cheaper semolina/soya boilies likely to have different flavour additives to the protein/fishmeal types? I have read that carp are more likely to go for the higher nutritional boilie, but could never work out how they would know what is and what isn't.

 

Your comments: "A flavour is a signature and will not convey the actual nutritional value of the boilie to the carp", and ".....high in nutritional value and will have enough flavour to leak off as a signature", seem to contradict each other. I'm not trying to be contentious, just getting my head around whats what.

 

Regards........Terry