Bait Making
Making your bait...
- Clear yourself a decent sized space in the garage, shed or kitchen (Wife allowing!) and make sure that your mixing bowls, spoons, measuring cylinders, etc are all nice and clean before you use them.
- Decide on the recipe you wish to follow and write it down before you start. Make sure you’ve got all elements of this recipe close to hand and that they’re all well within ‘use by’ periods. If you’re not sure which recipe to go for take a look at the recipes listed elsewhere on this site.
- Put your eggs into a mixing bowl and beat thoroughly. If you’re not very experienced at making bait start with 6 egg mixes until you get more proficient at the process.
- Add your liquids and mix thoroughly. Any powdered ingredients should be mixed with the base mix prior to adding into the eggs. To do this simply weigh out a pound of base mix (when using 6 eggs) into a carrier bag and add the GLM, Betaine, etc. Inflate the bag by mouth and then shake until evenly distributed. You will find that a 6 egg mix uses more than a pound of base mix but if you want 1 tsp of GLM in each 6 egg mix this is the easiest way to do it, and then to top up with further base mix as required.
- Add the powders slowly until you get to the stage where the paste reaches a plastacine type consistency. Once you’ve got the tackiness you require then place the ball of paste in a plastic bag to stop it from drying out and changing.
- Put this paste in a boilie gun, using the correct size nozzle for the rolling table and start by squeezing out one sausage across the rolling table. Roll the table back and forth 3 times and you should have perfect baits. You will know if you’ve got the right consistency of paste if it rolls without splitting (if it does it’s too dry) or sticking to the tables (too wet). Getting this part right is the toughest part of the process and once you get to know the right consistency it makes bait making far easier.
- Roll all the paste out into baits and place them on a piece of old newspaper. Get a pan of water to the boil and drop in about 20 to 30 baits – timing them for approximately 80 to 100 seconds. Once done scoop them out onto the newspaper and leave to dry. Try to keep the water boiling. Repeat until all the baits are boiled. For larger baits you may need to boil for longer to get the firmness you require.
- Leave the baits to dry out for an hour and then bag them up and place in freezer. It’s easier to bag the bait up in session sized bags at this stage.
- Practice makes perfect and before long you’ll be confidently producing kilo’s and kilos!
Tips:
- ALWAYS add powdered additives and attractors to Base Mix. ALWAYS add liquid attractors, sweetners etc, to eggs.
- ALWAYS keep flavours and attractors out of reach of small children.
- ALWAYS use a stainless steel or glass mixing bowl. A plastic one can retain odours from previous mixes.
- ALWAYS wash hands thoroughly with unscented soap before making any bait. NEVER smoke while making bait.
- ALWAYS cut nozzles to suit the base mix being used. All mixes are different, i.e. some sausages expand more than others, if you are having problems getting your baits round, it's sure to be because your nozzles are either too big or too small.
- ALWAYS make sure that the water in the pan is boiling before putting the baits in.
- ALWAYS follow recommended boiling times.
- ALWAYS follow recommended levels of attractors and additives.
- If possible, let finished boilies stand on a dry towel for several hours before bagging and freezing.
- NEVER use a food processor, whipping air into mixes causes bait to float.
- NEVER try to boil too many baits at once.
- ALWAYS measure flavours and additives accurately, never be tempted to add too much flavour. A Pipette is best for measuring small amounts of liquid attractors.