Carp fishing baits - are boilies the best carp bait?

A boilie is basically just a piece of paste that has been boiled so that it has a harder skin on the outside and is able to stay in one piece in the water for a long period of time and resist the attentions of nuisance fish.

Boilies were a progression of the paste baits that had been used previously and which featured all sorts of ingredients, such as milk proteins, bird foods and fishmeals, that were mixed with eggs – the albumen in the egg white is what makes the bait go hard on the outside and forms a skin when it is boiled – plus any liquid flavours and attractors, and then boiled for a few minutes.

Back in those days carp anglers used to make their own baits, often from scratch, and sometimes having to source ingredients from the food industry, prior to the advent of bait companies which provided anglers with ready-made base mixes that just needed the addition of eggs and flavours, and then rolled into the desired size of bait.

Boilies tended to be round, either rolled by hand – which was obviously very time consuming – or via the use of a bait gun and rolling tables, which produced perfect round baits of a consistent size, depending on which size of rolling table was chosen, and typically anywhere from 10mm to 24mm.

Of course, things are very different these days and it is possible to buy a good quality boilie in freezer bait form from one of the many companies, such as Mainline, which will work well straight out of the bag – and is favoured by our own team Korda anglers like Danny Fairbrass, Darrell Peck, Tom Dove and Neil Spooner, who all use baits such as Cell and ISO Fish straight out of the bag and which are exactly the same as you can buy yourself in the tackle shop.

For those who don’t have the freezer space, shelflife boilies are very different these days and are generally of a better quality than what we had in the past, which were often full of preservatives.

Different types of boilies

Whilst the flavour of your bait and the attractors that go into it are very important, in most situations the actual ingredients and their nutritional value and also the way they behave in differing water temperatures are also a big factor.

A type of boilie which works very well during the summer months, such as something that is fishmeal based and contains higher levels of fish oils, often won’t work anywhere near as well in the winter, although there are baits such as the Cell which work well all year round and are well balanced in terms of things such as protein levels, fat, and digestibility.

A fishmeal type of bait, and especially the fish oils contained within it, becomes less active in cold water – think about what happens if you were to put a bottle of olive oil in the fridge, and how thick it would become, solidifying in parts, and that is exactly what happens to fish oil in cold water, and means that attraction can’t leak out of the bait to anywhere near the same extent as in warmer water.

Other baits that are more carbohydrate or birdfood based tend to work much better in cold water, providing a fat content that the carp can actually utilise in lower temperatures and are far more digestible, meaning the fish won’t feel full as quickly and are more likely to feed again sooner.

Cost also comes into it as well, as a bait that is full of high quality fishmeals and milk proteins is going to cost a lot more to make than one that is based around carbohydrates such as soya flour and semolina – which in some circumstances can still produce a good bait that carp like to eat, and can save money.

Flavours and attractors

Whilst flavours in boilies are designed to be attractive to the carp, they also act as a signature for the boilie, so that a fish that has eaten it before can quickly recognise it again.

If the fish like the taste of your boilies and also find them good nutritionally, then attaching a particular smell to that makes it easy for the fish to seek out more of the same bait.

This is especially the case where you are fishing a water regularly and can keep some bait going in, so that the fish are finding it and eating it often.

In some situations high attract baits, which tend to have quite high levels of flavourings, can work, and especially if you are just looking for a quick bite and aren’t too worried about the longevity and getting the fish to recognise your boilies, and aren’t planning a longer campaign on the water.

If you are using something too highly flavoured though it can actually become repellent to the carp or they quickly become wary of eating it.

When it comes to actually choosing a flavour of boilie, a lot comes down to the personal preference of the angler, and most people end up choosing something that smells right to them, or that they know works well from other anglers who use it.

Attractors in boilies are a bit different, as they are more than just a flavour and can often contain various amino acids or similar, which act as an appetite stimulator to the carp and actively get their attention and makes them aware of a food source nearby.

Some attractors need to be used very sparingly and can easily be overdone, whilst others can be used at much higher levels and will still be attractive.

The good thing these days with well known baits is that you know that they work and that everything in them is at levels that has been carefully tested, so you don’t have to think too much about what is actually in your boilies, just that you know they work and that carp like to eat them!

Different sizes and shapes

Ready rolled boilies, either freezer bait or shelf life, used to come in a very limited choice of sizes – often just a choice of 14mm or 18mm – and in the form of standard round balls.

These days a much wider range is available, with sizes as small as 10mm and covering situations where you want to be fishing with lots of smaller baits, such as when part of a spod mix and looking for a more particle approach, but with the use of boilies.

At the opposite end of the scale, you have baits of 24mm, or even 26mm, which are aimed at anglers fishing abroad where other species are an issue, and sometimes the angler will be using a double hook bait on their rigs.

You also have more choice with the shape of your boilies these days as well, and it is no longer just a case of picking the type of base mix and flavour you want to use, but you can also find baits that come in other shapes, such as dumbbells, chopped baits or the like, and behave very differently in the water when compared to how a round bait appears and behaves.

Hardness of your boilies

Generally, to create a harder boilie you need to boil it for longer which causes the albumen from the egg whites to form a harder, thicker skin, or even to boil the bait all the way through.

The disadvantage of this is that – like with a lot of food – that the longer you boil the bait for, the more it de-natures and you are essentially boiling a lot of the goodness out of it.

If a really hard bait is needed, then you can add ingredients that will give you this, but without needing to boil it for any longer than normal – this usually means adding something like extra egg albumen or whey protein, although it is worth remembering that this will also change the texture of your bait and make it more rubbery.

A general rule of thumb is that you want to boil the bait for as little as possible, just enough to make it hard enough for the fishing situation you are in, as a bait with a shorter boil time will retain more of its natural goodness and will also leak off attraction much better – the thicker and more rubbery the skin on the outside, the harder it is for flavour and attractors to leak out as effectively.

These days some bait companies don’t even boil their baits at all and rely on other methods such as steaming and drying to create the same finished product, but without de-naturing it to the same degree.

The only thing freezer baits and the like don’t give you though is any control over how hard that bait is, but most out of the packet have been made so that they are suitable for most angling situations and baiting techniques and won’t fall apart, but at the same time still remain soft enough that they don’t just become like flavoured balls of rubber, in terms of texture. Some types of boilie will naturally have more of a crumbly texture when broken open, due to the ingredients that have been used, such as fishmeals.

You can also air dry boilies - the Compac range includes special bags for doing so - and this will make your baits much harder, as well as also helping them to last longer before going off, as all the moisture has been removed. It will also make them a lot lighter as well though, which is a consideration if trying to use a throwing stick to put them out at range, and they may not be heavy enough after air drying.

Baiting up with boilies

One of the biggest advantages with boilies is how easy they are to use, and you can literally just take one out of the bag and attach it to your rig, and then bait up around your spot with freebies, and without any hassle or having to prepare anything.

You also have the advantage that barring species such as crayfish being present, your bait will last a long time, so if necessary you can leave your rig in position for 24 hours or even more if the situation dictates that to be the best option. You aren’t sat there wondering if you even still have a bait on the hook.

They also have the advantage of being very versatile when it comes to loose feeding them around your rig.

Depending on the size you choose, they can be catapulted at longer distances, certainly up to around 80 yards with larger baits, and multiple baits can be fired out at the same time, creating a nice spread of bait on your spot, depending on the type of catapult being used.

If you need to get them even further than that, then as long as they aren’t too soft – they will split if they are – then a throwing stick such as the Korda Eazi Stick is a great option for putting out single baits, or even multiple ones at a time, as can often be seen with Danny Fairbrass and his two-handed method of using one of these sticks.

For anything closer range they can be thrown in accurately by hand, either as whole baits or crushing/breaking them up.

Boilies are also ideal for spodding where you need to be more accurate or conditions aren’t right for baiting up via another means. You can feed them on their own, but they often work well when mixed with other baits such as hemp, pellets, corn and tiger nuts. Spodding also means that you can more easily add liquid attractors and soaks to your boilies – such as the Mainline Smart liquid, or other additives that would be too messy to use, and would negatively impact accuracy and distance, if you were trying to catapult or throwing stick them out.

There is no reason why you need to stick to using whole boilies either, and half baits can be very good, especially in certain situations such as fishing over silt or weed as they are more likely to settle on top of it, or if you are just looking to offer the carp something different to a round ball.

The easiest way of halving boilies is to use one of the Korda Kutters, which come in two sizes – for 16mm or 20mm baits, but slightly different sizes can also be used, as long as not too big or small (they either won’t fit in the tube of the blade won’t cut them properly in half). This Kutter makes short work of even halving larger amounts of bait.

Boilie crumb is another option, which is basically grinding your baits down into a crumb/powder – how chunky this is depends on how it will be used – which can be added to spod mixes or fished in solid or mesh PVA bags, and which leaves a carpet on the lakebed, much like groundbait, but smelling and tasting exactly the same as your boilies.

The Korda Krusha, which comes in two sizes, makes it easy to create your own boilie crumb when out on the bank (although if doing larger amounts of it then putting your boilies through a food processor at home really speeds things up), and also to dictate how fine that crumb is. The Krusha can also do the same with all sorts of other baits, including pellets and nuts.

So, boilies are far more versatile than just feeding hard round balls, and can be used in all different sorts of bait presentation, and in conjunction with other baits.

Adding attractors to boilies

Boilies also have the advantage that they are quite good at taking on liquids, or even powders, if you wish to boost the attraction of them by adding these sorts of things to them.

Or some anglers even go in completely the opposite direction, if they think the carp are wary of stronger smelling baits compared to those that have been in the lake for a day or two, and may be seen as ‘safer’, and actually soak their boilies in lake water to soften them, and to also wash out some of the smell and colour.

Most of the time anglers are adding more attraction though, and this can be in the form of all sorts of liquids and glugs, including fish oils, which the baits are left soaking in. Baits that have been soaked can also have powders added to them – such as krill powder for instance – and which will then adhere to them, creating something resembling a bonbon, especially if you allow the powders to dry and set onto the baits.

When it comes to the type of liquids that you can add to your boilies then the options are almost endless and can be anything from something simple designed specifically for fishing, such as Korda Goo or Mainline Smart Liquid, or you can incorporate all sorts of things, especially with the help of an immersion blender, to turn it all into a liquid bait soak.

You will have seen Danny Fairbrass on some films preparing a liquid to soak his bait in, which can include things like tinned tuna, Sriracha chilli sauce, fish sauce, and Bailey’s, depending on the type of boilies being used – often the fishier liquid is used on baits such as ISO Fish, whilst sweeter things like Bailey’s he tends to use more often on baits like Cell. Making your own bait soak liquid is maybe taking things to the extreme, but you can be pretty sure that nobody else will be using exactly the same thing!