What We Sell
About boilies
Boilies are boiled baits that were originally introduced to carp fishing in the UK in the late seventies with the sole purpose of preventing minnows from eating the bait presented to the carp… although there were a few anglers which before sometime in the sixties when they started experimenting with different paste baits and boiling the ingredients to make them hard.
Boilies were very simple baits originally made from eggs and wholemeal flour or semolina with an added flavoring. These baits were formed into balls of various sizes and then boiled to harden the outside of the bait. Carp anglers started catching bigger fish with these lures and the word started to spread quickly among the carp anglers.
In the late seventies and early eighties additional ingredients such as sweeteners and preservatives were added, these baits then began to be manufactured commercially. Both fishery owners and anglers alike found that their catch rate of larger fish seemed to increase. It was also observed that the fish were gaining weight at a much higher rate than before the introduction of these new baits.
The original Richworth "Tutti-Frutti" was a boilies that caught the attention of the UK quickly; with many fish caught on this new "miracle bait"... There have been many theories over the years regarding boilies, their use, nutritional value and the importance that the angler immediately added to his bag. There is no doubt though…. The right boilies seem to separate the bigger fish and have accounted for many carp. If you have never fished with boilies before, it can be a life changing event when you see the difference!
Boilies come in a multitude of flavors, floating - pop-ups, colors and sizes, sinkers often used in the nadir, but also as hook bait, soluble boilies and hard boilies with nutritional values. We mention this because over the years there has been a great deal of debate about the importance of the "nutritional value" of boilies and the correlation between "how good" the bait is to the fish and the "success" of its catching abilities. We'll think about that a little later…
Wafters
Critically balanced lures: wafters .
Like floating baits, critically balanced baits are easily absorbed by carp. Apart from wafters, which are similar to pop-ups (the degree of buoyancy differs), the other categories of baits are somewhat intended for a more selective fishing.
Wafters may look like a pop up, but it will sit differently underwater. Basically, it has the same attractive properties: color, visibility, aroma. So it will work similarly, being meant to be sucked up by any carp that pass by the mount.
Conversely, critically balanced boilies, or in combination with a pop-up or an artificial corn kernel, are baits that can be avoided by smaller carp in the cold season. Thus, if we are chasing a selection of carp we can successfully use these baits.
However, when we rely on small diameters, e.g. a critical balanced 14mm boilies, or a small snowman with 14 boilies and 8mm pop-up, we can catch cirton without problems. If floaters and wafters are only attraction baits, crits and snowmen are both attraction and nutrition baits and are highly sought after by carp.
Pop - ups
WHAT IS A POP-UP?
As you would imagine from the name, pop-ups are floating baits and can remain suspended just above the lake or river bottom.
Most commonly, pop-ups are made from either a very attractive mix, known as an ‘airball’ mix, or from a thin layer of regular boilie mix moulded around a cork ball and then boiled. Alternatively, there are cork dust pop-ups, these have very small pieces of cork rolled into the boilie mix itself and are then boiled in the traditional way to give extra buoyancy to the hook bait.
White pop-ups are a popular choice
Pop-Ups are usually round, to mimic loose feed boilies which are often positioned around it. Nowadays some bait companies also produce pillow-shaped, barrel-shaped or even dumbbell-shaped pop-ups to give variety to anglers.
You can of course make your own custom-shaped baits by cutting down and whittling your own shapes from a regular round pop-up. This produces something a little bit different to what other anglers are offering and can trip up the more wary fish.
As with other artificial baits like imitation sweetcorn, maggots and nuts, some tackle companies now produce artificial pop-up boilies made of plastic, just like regular pop-ups they can be flavoured too.
WHICH COLOUR SHOULD I USE?
Brightly coloured pop-ups help the carp visually locate and home in on your hook bait. The two most popular colours that carp anglers use are white and pink, although any colour can have its day.
Washed out and pastel colours give the impression that the bait has been sitting in the water for a while, but don’t discount baits that match your free offerings too! It’s worth experimenting with different colours across your rods until you find the one that’s working on any given day, you can then switch your other rods onto the colour that’s catching!
Hand-sharpened hooks can give an extra edge when bites are hard to come by
WHAT ARE BOOSTED HOOK BAITS?
A common tactic used by anglers to provide their pop-ups with some extra attraction is to add further flavourings to them. This is done by either soaking or ‘glugging’ hook baits in a flavour solution or by coating them in a flavour spray just before casting them out.
There are even now liquid products that dissipate off the hook bait in a plume of colour and flavour; this plume rises up through the water column, drawing down any carp patrolling in the water layers above.
Again, it is worth experimenting with different concentrations and soak times to tweak your pop-ups. In many waters, a subtle flavour level will be more effective than a heavily glugged bait. The buoyancy of your pop-ups is another important aspect to consider, the buoyancy of your pop-ups may be affected after they have absorbed the liquid. This can be compounded by the fact that once a pop-up is out in the lake, it will take on water around it, negatively affecting its buoyancy further.
As a result, it is a good idea to test your pop-ups at home to see how your they perform when immersed in water, especially if you intend to leave them out overnight or for several hours at a time. There’s nothing worse than reeling in and finding out that your pop-ups have lost buoyancy overnight!
Just as using a pop-up with an alternative colour to the loose feed boilies surrounding can be effective, so can using a different flavour, consider doing so if the fish aren’t biting!