have shelf - life boilies had their day?

[Dante]

I have been on frozen baits this year after umpteen years on shelf lifes and so far they have been doing well, i keep my bait in a washing (socks)bag that i picked up from a local pound shop so from the moment they have thawed out they are starting to air dry (stops them splitting when used in a throwing stick if they are slightly toughened) then when i get home i continue the process by hanging them up in a room somewhere out of the way this serves several purposes

 

1)no waste (i'm tight)

 

2)if i am going fishing for a short session (3-6 hours) i'll take air dried baits, i'll also add air dried baits to my spod mix as freebies.

 

3)the baits end up rock hard and as such the carp need to get it to the back of thier mouth to crunch it therefor a better chance of hooking them (in theory anyway)

 

At the end of the day though it all depends on what you feel confident using, shelf life baits are very good quality nowadays and easy to store, frozen baits are more work but i am convinced that the lack of preservatives is an advatage and that is what swung it for me.

[fantasticfisherman]

all this talk of people keeping their frozen boilies in bags and pillow cases to keep them dry has got me wondering, what i do is take however many i need for a session out of the freezer the evening before i go and put them in a large butter tub over night in the fridge to thaw out(obviously a fridge is cooler) is this ok?

[Dante]

fantasticfisherman:

all this talk of people keeping their frozen boilies in bags and pillow cases to keep them dry has got me wondering, what i do is take however many i need for a session out of the freezer the evening before i go and put them in a large butter tub over night in the fridge to thaw out(obviously a fridge is cooler) is this ok?

Yes thats fine, my long time fishing partner does the same he recons they stay fresher longer but i have noticed he is quick enough to nick mine when he wants to chuck some out with a throwing stick

[fantasticfisherman]

Dante:

 

Dante:

all this talk of people keeping their frozen boilies in bags and pillow cases to keep them dry has got me wondering, what i do is take however many i need for a session out of the freezer the evening before i go and put them in a large butter tub over night in the fridge to thaw out(obviously a fridge is cooler) is this ok?

Yes thats fine, my long time fishing partner does the same he recons they stay fresher longer but i have noticed he is quick enough to nick mine when he wants to chuck some out with a throwing stick

lol.probably so fresh he used to many and ran out of them!

 

[ 20. August 2005, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: fantasticfisherman ]

[Dante]

yeah more than likely tbh mind you we are both on the same bait and always seem to take about a kilo of the stuff with me just in case the fish go on a right feeding binge another reason for air drying whats left over

[mad frankie frazer]

i have used both frozen and shelf life they both seem to work about the same.

my bait of choice is large pellets they work on most waters i fish

[fantasticfisherman]

mad frankie frazer:

i have used both frozen and shelf life they both seem to work about the same.

my bait of choice is large pellets they work on most waters i fish

never tried large pellets for carp yet although i do have some. i bought them mainly for barbel fishing. well, it's nice to know what other people think of using using both kinds of boilies. now i can have a bit more confidence in the bait i'm using!

[Common 40]

I agree that large pellets work well, I use them for cats mainly..But I tend to fish boilies and use boilies as a free offering too, theoretically I feed the same as whats on my hook where possible especially on pressured waters. If I was to adapt the same approach with 21ml pellets not only would it cost a fortune but overfeed IMO. If you ever have the pleasure of watching Jim Shelley fish for Carp he fires in boilies by the barrow load and gets brilliant results, I doubt that would happen with the donkey chokers??

 

Pellets certainly have there time and place if used correctly again IMO

[Dante]

Common 40:

I agree that large pellets work well, I use them for cats mainly..But I tend to fish boilies and use boilies as a free offering too, theoretically I feed the same as whats on my hook where possible especially on pressured waters. If I was to adapt the same approach with 21ml pellets not only would it cost a fortune but overfeed IMO. If you ever have the pleasure of watching Jim Shelley fish for Carp he fires in boilies by the barrow load and gets brilliant results, I doubt that would happen with the donkey chokers??

 

Pellets certainly have there time and place if used correctly again IMO

I must confess i use a different approach to yourself there Common i will using a smallish spod place small patches (maybe 10-12 at a time) of all sorts of bait all with different breakdown times in my swim everything from boilies (multiple flavours and colours), sweetcorn or maize, maples, along with various pellets (3-6mm) and then i will use a pva bag of betain/bloodworm/??? pellets along with 6 boilies (broken and whole) of the same type as i am using on the hair the theory behind this tactic is to confuse the carp by allowing them to find all sorts of bait in the swim and never really being able (one hopes) to determine which is attached to the hook, this method is also totally different to what the other lads are doing on the lake in question (baiting with the same bait as is on the hair), also using the little but often approach ie maybe a dozen spods round my swim every couple of hours builds the swim up nicely and also makes the carp work at finding the food and hopefully increases my chances of them finding my hookbait.

 

And yes Jim Shelly is an exceptional angler but in all fairness there arent many in his possition ie able to use a barrow load of boilies for a weeks fishing, he did a reported (by the lake owner) 150k of boilies in a week (about 22 kilo per day) on a 3 acre norfolk/suffolk lake last january, he pulled off the lake the day before we got there, no wonder they wernt feeding when we got there they were all bloated tbh i am not sure i would have confidence in that tactic myself but it works amazingly well for Jim so hats off to him.

 

Bottom line we all fish differently and use methods and baits that we are confident will work for us and we only get that confidence by time spent on the bank trying different approaches and finding hat works for us.

 

After that marathon waffle lads (hope it made a little sense) ... happy fishing

[Common 40]

i totally agree with your comments andi

 

Jim will admit to you that he has used this method for years, like you say we are not sponsered and could not afford that tactic.

 

He is also a first class surface angler too, if you read about his recent visit to Horton his catch was amazing most (including "THE PARROTT") coming off the top. Jim adapts a similar method with a spod and mixers with kilos of the stuff going in.

 

Allthough I agree with you on the little and often approach, theres certainly lessons to be learnt in other anglers tacticts.