Boilie Fishing Theory

What dictates whether you opt for the boilie-only approach over particles?
“I generally use particles and mixed size boilie pieces in the height of summer on weedy lakes—lakes where I am trying to open up spots and create feeding areas. Carp can be very hard to catch if they are just browsing around in weed, feeding naturally. If I see random bubblers all over the lake at dawn, on a weedy venue, I will try heavily baiting with particle on a regular basis in one spot and try to condense the feeding activity by offering them a bigger and easier meal. I did this to great effect on St Ives when I was chasing Colin, the big fifty-plus mirror. I ended up catching a fair percentage of the lake’s big fish from heavily baited spots using particles and a small amount of chopped boilie over the top.”

 The usual method every writer/angler suggests when using a boilie-only approach is to feed across a wide area. Would you agree with this, or do you often feed in a similar manner to particles—i.e. in a tight area?
“To be honest I generally fish particles in a wider area than boilies, to try and strip spots out as I have mentioned already, and particles hung in the weed are more likely to achieve this.

“As for spreading boilies over larger areas, this is really only a tactic I employ if the bottom is very regular, flat and weed-free, such as large silty areas. If I am finding hard spots or gravel and sand areas, then I bait as tightly as possible. I went through a period last autumn on K1 of shunning the spod and using a standard marker float and catapult approach. The idea was to reduce baiting noise but also to bait up incredibly accurately with multiple bait in the pouch. Ten boilies at once in a large pouch all peppering the float and I knew I could create a nice tight feeding area on a specific spot. The method worked really well for me and I caught some good fish in this way.”

What percentage of the time do you use freebies straight out of the bag, without treating them to a glug either before freezing or after thawing? Do you change the make-up of the liquids you glaze your baits with throughout the year, and does that extend to hookbaits too?
“Most of the bait I introduce is treated in some way, in fact probably all of it if I am honest. I don’t tend to change the liquids very much throughout the year, although I often add a bit of Baileys Irish Cream to my Cell dips in winter. This helps to thin it out a bit and it has always served me well in the past so why change a winning formula?”

 You often talk about air-drying your boilies and then rehydrate them in one of the Mainline Hookbait Enhancement System glugs. However, do you ever rehydrate them in a different liquid, such as particle (maybe hemp) juice, and have you found this extra effort has repaid you?
“Occasionally I may tip all the boilies into a bucket of particle and add a bit of lake water so that the baits soak up all the particle juice. I particularly like hemp and tiger juice. Whether this makes a big difference is hard to say really; I don’t tend to fish the sort of waters where you can assess this by the number of fish you catch in a day. I like the effect it gives on a personal level though, and confidence is a major part of successful angling.”

Do you often use just boilie crumb—surely that’s got to be way more attractive than just using standard boilies?
“No, not really, as I would always be fishing a boilie on the hook, not a piece of crumb, and I wouldn’t want my hookbait to stand out as the one different item of food. Crumb helps to keep fish rooting around on the spot and small bits of crumb get blown about to increase the baited area, but I always have a fair amount of quarter, half, and whole baits out there as well when I am fishing in this style. The crumb and the liquids may well help in the initial attraction, but I want there to be a decent amount of actual food out there when the carp arrive.”

 What are your thoughts on boilie size? Do you buy into this whole ‘different sizes baits to keep them guessing’ thought-process?
“I do to some level. I often fish with 18mm, 16mm and 10mm baits, but if I am restricted by distance and not using a Spomb then I will also happily use all 18mm baits. I think it’s dependent on a lot of factors: how pressured the fish are and the difference between the seasons and the way they feed, for example. Most of my mixed size bait fishing, including crumb, is during the colder months. I always maintain that, if you can get carp feeding on just 18mm boilies then your rigs become less important and the ratio of hook-ups to pick-ups will go up. A simple Hair-rigged large bottom bait is a very effective method indeed.”

How important do you think it is to do something completely different to the other guys when angling on a really pressured venue?
“I don’t. I have made the mistake in the past of bucking the trend on pressured waters, only to find that the going method and bait had become just that for a good reason. I have always maintained that, if every angler on the lake used the same bait, that lake would do more overall captures than ever before. I think rigs can make a bigger difference if the fish have become used to dealing with certain presentations though. I wasted two months on Kingsmead chasing a new method of my own—it was only when I conformed to the tried and tested approach that I started to catch well.”

Critically balanced hookbait or straight out of the bag? And does your answer to this differ depending on any particular circumstances?
“I would guess that 90% of my angling is done using some form of specialised hookbait, however, when fishing in silt I always use a bottom bait straight out of the bag. I know this is the polar opposite of what most anglers would do but fish feeding in silt are actually emerged in the stuff, often feeding way below the actual lakebed and this is where I want to present my hookbait; the same place as my free baits are ending up.

“As I mentioned earlier about tight baiting with boilies, this is also my approach when fishing in silt. I like to bait as accurately as I possibly can and fish a standard bottom bait in amongst it. Every year I tell myself to fish more bottom baits than wafters or pop-ups as, every time I try it, I seem to catch well. It’s very easy to fall back into the trap of using a balanced bait to make the rig work better; in fact, that is the main reason I use them.

“If I do fish bottom baits, then I use the simplest of rigs with a fairly long Hair. It’s a very good method that gets ignored a lot of the time nowadays.”