Just had to try a new bait made from Birdfood.
Its round like a boilie*, but there are no eggs in the mix, so no need to boil the bait.
* well round-ish anyway

A few years back I began to get a bit concerned about the use of eggs in my baits. They were the one constant in virtually every boilie turned out at that time, that and the hardness of the little round baits. So I wondered if the Carp were getting wary of the background taste of the eggs, and the texture that they imparted to my baits.
When I read an old piece about using Birdfoods as a method paste, made up without the eggs, I thought "ay oop cock, thas on to summat 'ere", as one does you know. :D

Was it possible, I thought to make up a firm enough paste bait using my old birdfood base, some natural flavouring ingredients, and just water?
There was nothing for it but to give it a go.

Now I have used a fair bit of Vitalin as a method mix over the years, and there is no denying that the stuff sets like concrete, especially if you make it up at home the night before, using hot water. However it breaks down too quickly to use as a Carp hook bait, if I just rolled it into small balls.
I felt I needed something that was more water resitant, yet was more pastelike in its final presentation.

Today I started with the basic mixture, adding some oils, a flavour, and just hot water to a pound of last years winter base mix.
Well there is good news and bad news. The good news is I can say that it does roll. The bad news is,..... but only by hand. :wave:
It is a nightmare! :angry:

Instead of knocking up a couple of kilos of the stuff in an hour and a half, which is my current experience. I was "all on" to make up a single pound in that time, and the quantity of water to dry ingredient was absolutely critical.

The only trouble was I hadn't measured how much I had put in. :rolleyes:

So I have some very odd, shapes, vaguely boilie-ish to look at, currently air drying for 24 hours or more, (maybe much more).



But no idea how I got to that stage, and no hope of making them exactly to that recipe again.:(

Aint life grand .............NOT!

BOF ;)

This recipe has been a bit of a disaster.

Simply put its a case of good news / bad news.

The good news was the fish were on to them very quickly. :D

The bad news was, they were mini-Breamlets. :rolleyes:

The worse news, they didnt take the attention of the mini Bream for more than a couple of minutes, before they were ripped off the hair. :angry:

So its back to the drawing board, and maybe try again using either Soluble Whey Protein in the mixture, or Polyfilla. :lol:

BOF ;)

Have you tried using some whey gel ccmoores state it is used as a replacement for eggs in the food industry? :big:

Not yet John, but I have ordered some last night, online. :)

I will get this right eventually. It just may not resemble the original mixture very much.

BOF ;)