River boilies?

[Fours]

I decided to try my hand at making my own boilies in early summer, purely for Carp on lakes.

Just wondered if anyone had ever had any success using them on rivers for other species.

Are they a bait that the fish need prolonged exposure to?

It was a buzz to get a take on something I'd literally cooked up myself, and also a damn sight cheaper than paying the ridiculous prices in the tackle shop!

[larsagi2010]

I decided to try my hand at making my own boilies in early summer, purely for Carp on lakes.

Just wondered if anyone had ever had any success using them on rivers for other species.

Are they a bait that the fish need prolonged exposure to?

It was a buzz to get a take on something I'd literally cooked up myself, and also a damn sight cheaper than paying the ridiculous prices in the tackle shop!

 

Although I have never used my own Boilies I have recently made myself some.

 

My recipe:

 

Dry Mix:

4oz Wholemeal Flour

4oz Seed and Oat flour (Primarily used for those seeded buns)

1 oz of Protein mix (Used by bodybuilders) ''Casilan''

 

Wet Mix:

1 Medium egg

a blob of red food colouring

A dash of liquid Scopex spray

 

Make sure the wet mix is slowly stirred. You don't wan't too much air (Fluffyness) in the mixture as it makes the boilies weaker.

 

Simply mix the wet/dry mix together. Roll into balls and then drop into boiling water for about 40 seconds.

 

The boilies come out looking pretty good. They were not perfectly round, and they did dry with a floury coating on them. This was best resolved by dunking them into the Scopex Spray. I found this dyed the flour bright yellow and enhanced the look of them. The smell was also reasonably strong which I liked!

 

I never used them, they eventually wen't mouldy after 2 weeks (Not quite like the shop ones!) so I would imagine freezing them or making them as you need them would be best.

 

So.... That is how I made some reasonable looking ones. I personally would not make them again though, too much effort involved for something I cannot put much faith in! I never really use them for baiting, just as hookbaits so £8.99 for a large bag often lasts me a couple of years anyway (Probably cheaper than maggots!) as they dont keep falling off the hair rig

[AddictedToScopex]

I use boilies an awful lot on the river when I am after barbel and big chub with static baits. I have enjoyed a lot of success on them and would definetly give them a go. I usually go for a spicy flavour, even more so with the weather getting colder. Having spoken to a lot of the other anglers down where I fish I know that most people down there use pellets and I like to be different so used an exotic flavoured boilie instead. On a lot of occasions I would walk back home and ask how people had done and a lot hadnt caught anything whereas I had caught quite a few. It can be good to break away from the norm as the fish might not know to associate the flavours of something different with danger. All you can do is try them and see how you get on. They certainly worked for me.

[larsagi2010]

I use boilies an awful lot on the river when I am after barbel and big chub with static baits. I have enjoyed a lot of success on them and would definetly give them a go. I usually go for a spicy flavour, even more so with the weather getting colder. Having spoken to a lot of the other anglers down where I fish I know that most people down there use pellets and I like to be different so used an exotic flavoured boilie instead. On a lot of occasions I would walk back home and ask how people had done and a lot hadnt caught anything whereas I had caught quite a few. It can be good to break away from the norm as the fish might not know to associate the flavours of something different with danger. All you can do is try them and see how you get on. They certainly worked for me.

 

Did you need to introduce the Boilies to the river before the fish became confident? Or do they just tend to take them based on the fact they are there and smell good?

 

I have some Peach Boilies with Maplecream but hear that the fish only take them if they are used to seeing them? I have never tried them on the River, but I am really considering giving them a go. The problem is as I fish near a Weir (The higher side) and although the river is very wide/deep/slow moving it does get pretty aggressive most days on high tide and therefore would probably take my boilies upstream by a good distance if they had not been eaten before the tide comes in....

 

The stretch of river is not a ''Known'' Carp spot and although they are supposed to be there in good numbers, they have not really saw boilies before.

 

Would you recommend hitting it with Boilies? or sticking with the Corn or Worm approach?

[AddictedToScopex]

Did you need to introduce the Boilies to the river before the fish became confident? Or do they just tend to take them based on the fact they are there and smell good?

 

I have some Peach Boilies with Maplecream but hear that the fish only take them if they are used to seeing them? I have never tried them on the River, but I am really considering giving them a go. The problem is as I fish near a Weir (The higher side) and although the river is very wide/deep/slow moving it does get pretty aggressive most days on high tide and therefore would probably take my boilies upstream by a good distance if they had not been eaten before the tide comes in....

 

The stretch of river is not a ''Known'' Carp spot and although they are supposed to be there in good numbers, they have not really saw boilies before.

 

Would you recommend hitting it with Boilies? or sticking with the Corn or Worm approach?

To be honest I am not too sure which approach I would support as I haven't seen your river in person and the river section i fish is very different to yours by the sounds of it. It does however occasionally have a strong flow to it in places. I usually put 10-15 boilies on a string (in warmer weather) and cast in and then let nature do its thing. I am confident that they reach the bottom along with the hookbait and then the flow will scatter them about a bit which is pretty much unavoidable. I don't mind though as it will make a larger patch for the fish to find and then home in on my hookbait. What you should also bear in mind is that the current at the bottom of a river is not usually as turbulent as it is nearer the surface and tends to move much slower so your bait may not be as affected as you might imagine.

 

I have steered clear of bright coloured boilies such as the orange ones you have as in my mind they are a bit too alien to try without a lot of prebaiting to get them used to them. The ones I use are often a dull brown colour so as not to stand out too much and either a fishy or meaty flavour with some spicyness to them. The ones i have found to work the best are Dynamite Baits spicy tuna and sweet chilli and also spicy chicken if you can find them are particularly good for carp. They are really great and they stink. On my very first day of the season with absolutely no prebaiting I had 4 Barbel in about 2 hours. A few days later I took 8 barbel and 2 chub on the same boilies. Fish seem to go mad for them. Including the carp in a commercial i used to fish.