Mixes

Making your first home-made boilies could be the start of a long and arduous journey that could lead you into the realms of amino acids, additives, flavours and colours... be careful you don't turn into a scientist rather than a carp angler!

A simple basic 'attractor' mix to start with:
(The 'dry' ingredients are all available from the supermarket/health store, the flavours, sweeteners and colour you get from your tackle dealer)

These are the base ingredients, mix them thoroughly together in mixing bowl...

7oz Semolina, 4oz Ground Rice, 4oz Soya Flour, 1oz Cornflour (this along with the eggs, helps bind the ingredients together)

Crack two large eggs into a measuring bowl and give them a thorough mix...

Add to the eggs:
10ml Scopex, 5ml of Cranberry flavour, 2ml Intense Sweetener, 1 teaspoon of red colouring.
(The actual amounts can vary, check the manufacturers instructions). You can use different flavours if you wish.

Once you have added the flavours, colour and sweetener to the eggs, give it a good mix to evenly distribute the ingredients.

Now add the dry base mix powder to the eggs a little at a time, keep stirring the mix with a fork as you keep adding.
When the mix is too stiff to use a fork anymore, tip it onto a work bench and start to knead it with your hands. (Yes your fingers will turn red from the colouring, so wear rubber gloves if you've got them!)
If the mix is too runny add a little more of the dry ingredients until you get a firm consistency that you can roll into boilie shapes.
(Boilies are only made spherical in the shape so that they will catapult accurately. If you're fishing close-in or with hookbaits only, there's nothing to stop you rolling the paste into sausages, then cutting them up into cylinders with a knife. Don't be frightened to experiment with the final shape)

Don't turn all the finished paste into boilies - save some - so you can wrap it around your boilies when you are fishing. This will break down in the water quite quickly - giving you even more attraction!

Save any unused dry ingredients for your next mix.

You now need to boil your baits.
Bring some water to the boil in a pan and add about 20 boilies at a time.
An old chip pan with a wire basket is good to use as it lets you lower the baits in and out safely.
Don't add too many so that the water goes off the boil.
After about 1.5 minutes take the baits out of the water and let them dry on a clean towel or cloth, keep turning them so they don't develop flat spots. (If they are too soft, boil for a little longer)
Leave them to cool and dry on your cloth.

After the boilies have dried for at least half an hour, bag them up and they are ready to use.

Microwave
If you microwave the boilies for a few seconds, it totally alters the characteristics of the boilie, experiment to see what happens to the hardness and 'floatability'
Only microwave in 15 second intervals or until you see 'burn' marks appearing, be careful, boilies can burn very quickly - and burnt boilies smell awful!!

Please remember to be careful when boiling your baits, you don't want to scald yourself. And boilies straight out of the microwave get very hot!