Mahseer and boilies

[Ken L]

I've just had an e-mail telling me that a mate has found a decent Mahseer fishing spot and inviting me over.

His biggest problem is that it's a good jaunt to the fishing and he tells me that Raggi paste (whatever that is) starts going off just half an hour after it's been mixed up.

He has suggested that I bring over boilies but it strikes me that they're likely to be very bulky and probably to small if they're designed with carp in mind.

 

Assuming that flour, eggs and milk powder are available localy, what other ingredients would I need to make boilies from scratch in India and how would I go about mixing and preparing the bait ?

[Elton]

Hi Ken,

 

Take a look at Gaffer's guide:

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/elton23.htm

[Ken L]

I guess that just about covers it. So, with the exception of any specific flavours we might want to try, everything can be made up from local ingredients and hand rolled before being cooked and hair rigged on a 6/0 !

 

Many thanks to both Gaffer and Elton.

[jeepster]

you want to speak to old mr boote about raggi paste

 

for my part, i've caught a surprising amount of fish on fishmeal boilies and pastes, all over the world, so maybe worth taking a pack or two

[Andrew Boyd]

You'll also find that live and dead baits work well. Dependant where your going look out for the Gharial and Muggers!

 

Good luck, be intrested in hearing your experences on your return.

[Paul Boote]

you want to speak to old mr boote about raggi paste

 

Less of the "old" - I still have more hair (and it's mine, and still not grey, or dyed) than most of you!

 

Flavoured, steamed or boiled ragi-flour paste, used in South India for MANY hundreds of years as both human food and mahseer bait, is THE ORIGINAL BOILIE. Locals flavour the paste with "somph" (the aniseed-smelling seeds often handed out in better Indian restaurants, post-meal, to clean your palate); "hingu" - asafoetida - that goes into many stronger curries and stinks like the devil; and others.

 

Do NOT take commercial boilies with you. Merely take some flavours, as I do. Strawberry. Walnut. Aniseed. Seafood / lobster / crayfish type. Almost anything. But don't overdo them.

 

TIP: Use SMALL (0.5- to 1-inch), hard, steamed ragi baits (side-hooked, not on hairs). The fish have seen far too many egg-sized baits and much much larger (I've used things the size of cannonballs) over the years...

Edited January 13, 2006 by Paul Boote

[Paul Boote]

Less of the "old" - I still have more hair (and it's mine, and still not grey, or dyed) than most of you!

 

Flavoured, steamed or boiled ragi-flour paste, used in South India for MANY hundreds of years as both human food and mahseer bait, is THE ORIGINAL BOILIE. Locals flavour the paste with "somph" (the aniseed-smelling seeds often handed out in better Indian restaurants, post-meal, to clean your palate); "hingu" - asafoetida - that goes into many stronger curries and stinks like the devil; and others.

 

Do NOT take commercial boilies with you. Merely take some flavours, as I do. Strawberry. Walnut. Aniseed. Seafood / lobster / crayfish type. Almost anything. But don't overdo them.

 

TIP: Use SMALL (0.5- to 1-inch), hard, steamed ragi baits (side-hooked, not on hairs). The fish have seen far too many egg-sized baits and much much larger (I've used things the size of cannonballs) over the years...

 

 

PS - Ragi is a naturally glutinous millet grain. When made into a paste then steamed or boiled it hardens - without any need for eggs / whatever. Vary your cooking times for batches of baits. "How do I cook them?" you ask. You get yourself a large, iron, water-boiler pot that you can place on a base of stones surrounding a campfire. Half fill the pot with a few gallons of water, then tie a square of hessian sackcloth over its mouth with a length of hessian / jute twine or light rope (NOT plastic twine, for obvious reasons). Place the balls of soft ragi paste onto the sacking 'bowl', then place a piece of sheet iron / whatever on top of them to act as a lid. Cooking time: five or so minutes, up to an hour...

 

Tip: Take some uncooked and partly, very lightly cooked paste with you to the river. Sometimes the fish will want a softer bait.

 

Vary your bait sizes. From small (as directed above) to huge...

 

Don't get me started on fish, fig and crab baits........

Edited January 13, 2006 by Paul Boote