Air drying bait.

[anglerpaul]

I have never tried this before how do you go about air drying baits and is there any probs with the bait after??
Do you need to beef the baits up before use (dip or soak them)??

[BUDGIE]

Once I have boiled my baits I lay them out on a large towell to cool off.After around 4 hours I transfer them to some old wire office "in trays" that I have.I like to make sure that the air can get all around the baits.I leave them for several days checking them regularly.After a few days I transfer them to my old wire livebait cages that I then hang up in the loft.After a week or so I put them in to air tight plastic buckets.I check these (especially as the weather starts to warm up and the loft get warmer) on a daily basis for around two weeks then weekly after that.This is to make sure that there is no moisture at all left in them.If there is they will start to "sweat" in the bucket and can go mouldy.If they are "sweating" then simply put them back out in the trays to dry more.If they have got a bit of mould starting to form (normally a chalky white powder) you can wash them off and start the drying again.

When you use them you can "glug" them if you wish or use them as they are. I tend to "wash out" my baits more on harder waters than add more flavour but on easy/hungry waters soaking them in a flavour and "over flavouring" them can also work well.I never do anything to the baits Im going to feed with.

Ive found that birdfood and fishmeal bases air dry better than some milk protein bases.Ive never found the need for adding any preservatives to the base mix.

Hope that helps a bit?

[longshank]

I agree with Budgie, if you aint got an office tray mate try using a chip pan basket, either one will do the same. If its a good bait mix your after then I see no reason you wont catch on this... First get a bowl...

Mixing bowl:
Whisk.
A large saucepan.
A chip pan frying basket.
The following ingredients is to make 1 kilo of Boilies.
10 eggs.
5ml of caviar flavour.
5ml of salmon elite flavour.
10 drops of n-butric acid.
10ml per egg of trigger liquid.
1 kilo of trigger base mix.
Method : -

Place 10 eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth, add your caviar, salmon elite and trigger liquid to the now whisked eggs and stir in well. Now add approximately1/2 of your trigger base mix to your eggs and mix it all together, once you have done this leave it to stand for 5 minutes to let the base mix soak the eggs up. Now its time to to get your hands sticky, add the rest of the contents of your base mix and knead it until it is like a putty consistency, once this is achieved you can start to roll you Boilies either by hand or by a boilie rolling table.
Now you have rolled all your Boilies, you need to place them in boiling water to do this I would recommend you use a chip pan basket, it's easy and safer.

Do not over fill the basket, try placing about 20 Boilies in at first to see how you go on this of course depends on the size of your basket. I usually leave my boilies to boil for about a minute and half, this makes the boilie quite soft and helps to release the flavour more quickly, Note the longer you boil the boilies the harder they will get. Below is a picture of the finished product they smell great and work really well.

To store these baits either use a air dry net or just use right from the frezzer and yull be

I hope it works for you like it has for me.

Keep fishing and Spinning Spools.

Andy