CARPology Bait 28-09-2017 08:47:00

Why you should supersize your hookbaits

Keep the tench, bream and millions of crayfish at bay...

The lake that I have been fishing is full of tench, bream and millions of crayfish. I found myself being up all night catching them on 20mm baits and it was beginning to wear me down. I had to come up with a plan to eliminate the problem, but still fish boilies and have a chance of catching a carp or too.

I had a good think about it and eventually came up with the idea of using supersized baits. It meant rolling them myself and making them huge, between 40-50mm in size. At first they looked massive, but when I visualised the carp I am targeting and the size of its mouth, it wasn’t that big at all.

After switching to them I caught on my first session, then my second and my third. I had caught carp from 18 to 35lb and not a single tench or bream. I knew from a previous capture that it had been caught on a big bait too, which made me confident that these bad boys were going to be the edge.

The Krill is loved by all fish, but by using a huge hookbait he can use it in confidence and no he won’t be hooking a bream or tench

The crayfish can be a nightmare, so he uses a shot instead of putty

How I do it

To make the baits I get both the Krill and Manilla Hookbait Kits and I weigh out 200g of each one and mix them both together. I then crack three eggs into a bowl and add 15ml of each liquid that comes with the pack. I also add 10-15ml of the CAP-OIL and then whisk it all into the eggs.

Once all that liquid is blended in to the eggs, I add six scoops of the cork-dust. This is just a rough guideline and I will add more later on in the process if I need too. Once the liquid has been mixed into the cork, I leave this for half an hour to let it all absorb into it.

Then I begin to add the base mix. Little and often is the key and once it is too stiff to do with the fork, I get the hands in there and do it like that. I keep adding until I get to a dough consistency and this is when I make a ball up and check it in some water. If they sink straight down, I add some more cork. I keep doing this until the bait goes down slowly and then rise back up just as quick. This makes them slightly balanced and once they are boiled they will be slightly heavier. I don’t want them sitting off the bottom, I want them to be able to lift up without the carp exerting too much pressure.

Once the paste is done, I wrap it in some clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for an hour. You have got to get them rolled quickly, as the paste will begin to crack. I roll them up into the appropriate size, which at the minute is anything from 35 to 50mm.

I boil them up for four minutes and then air-dry them for a couple of days. Once they are ready, I soak them up in some CAP-OIL and roll them in Krill Powder. This gives them a real kick and I’m not fussed if the tench and bream come in as they can’t get hooked.

Background feed
I have been baiting with a mixture of maize, broken boilies and 24mm Krill baits. The maize, chopped and crumbed boilies do attract the smaller fish, but I am sure this helps pull the carp in too. Maize is really cheap, so I can bait really heavily with it when I know that there are lots of nuisance fish on me.

By using a good length of Hair, a size 4 hook and a monstrous bait, I haven’t hooked a single bream or tench since using them and as I have mentioned before, I’ve landed six carp, which for the lake I am fishing is good going.