Boost Your Boilie Attraction!

Make your kilo of boilies go the extra mile!

A kilo of boilies certainly doesn’t sound a great deal in this modern carp fishing world we live in, with anglers seemingly using more and more bait each season, but, with a little extra thought, attention and consideration, a kilo can go an awful long way! As we approach spring, the water temperatures begin to rise once again, and the carp are expelling energy as a result. Even with the slightest warmth in the air, it can feel like spring has well and truly arrived, but reality is that the carp are only just waking up and their need to feed is still relatively low. A big mistake a lot of anglers make in the spring is going in with far too much bait, rather that considering the conditions, fish behaviour before making an educated decision. In fact, during the spring time, a kilo of boilies can go a long way if applied correctly. This mini insight looks to shed some light on a few ways of making that bag of goodness go further…

Mixing it up

Pretty much all anglers use boilies at some point during the year and at least 90% of those use one size and one type. 15mm seems to be by far the most popular and with that, many anglers will stick to one type of bait, be that a fishmeal, milk protein etc. When the fish become to see that single food source as a threat, they will simply feed with a great deal more caution. To swing the odds in your favour and outwit those finicky feeders, a mixture of baits and sizes can be extremely effective. This will ensure that when the fish are feeding on your spot, they simply cannot regulate which food items may be a hookbait, thus lowering their guard and feeding harder. Dumbells are particularly effective at picking off those wiser fish that have the ability to suck and eject round baits, as these cylindrical food objects are much harder for the fish to eject with ease. It will certainly pay to find out what others are using and go against the grain a little; 10mm’s and dumbells are massively underused but as a result, could quiet easily give you that edge over others on busy, pressured venues.

Oilin’ em up

Another way of boosting the attraction of small volumes of bait is the inclusion of oil; by soaking those baits and fully saturating them, each individual boilie has the ability to leak off attraction up through the water column. In this type of situation, a light spread of boilies with a throwing stick can be particularly effective, with each of the baits emitting food signals effectively. Another great edge is to apply slightly warmed oil to your baits, this will vastly increase the solubility and attraction into the swim.

Turbo charging baits

Imagine if you could double the attraction while using half the number of baits, well you can! Turbo charging baits is a tactic a number of anglers have been doing for some time, vastly increasing the individual attraction of each bait. The technique of achieving this is simple, but by slightly tweaking the boilie with liquid and powder, you are able to create a beautifully crusted bait with incredible attraction and pulling power! These baits can be applied in small quantities with a catapult or in the form of a three-bait stringer, without the need for excessive amounts to draw the fish in. 

Boilie crumb

Boilie crumb and chopped boilie is certainly not a new tactic, but the effort it takes to achieve a perfect consistency of crumb is often too much for many anglers out on the bank. Although, the effort certainly makes up for the effectiveness of crumb, offering not only a visual cloud of attraction when introduced via the spomb, but the food signals emitted by the crumb vastly outweigh standard boilies straight from the bag. Crumb is highly effective in small amounts, spreading out nicely when spombed to a spot and perfect for creating small bags of pulling power. A few handfuls of boilie can go a long way when transformed into crumb. Boilie crumb also makes the perfect stick and PVA bag mix, protecting your hookpoint and ideal for casting to showing fish or bubblers during the spring period.

Boilie mush

When the carp are slowly coming out of their winter state, their metabolic rate is yet to rise, with water temperatures still being considerably low! Liquids are very effective during the spring, but to go one step better, boilie mush works as a catalyst to not only deliver liquids effectively into the swim, but all of the valuable nutrients and stimulants boilies boast. The one main benefit of boilie much is that it doesn’t ‘fill’ the carp up, more so drawing them in and provoking a reaction, tempting them to take your hookbait among the cloud. Boilie mush is best delivered into the swim via a spomb, topping up every few hours with minimal bait in order to keep the scents and visual element alive in the baited area. 

Boilie halves 

Not only do you double the quantity of baits in your bag, but boilie halves serve as a great way of presenting baits in a variety of situations. The reason for this, unlike conventional boilies, is they have the ability to settle more effectively on top of weed and silt, due to the fact they flutter down through the water column much slower. The halved baits are also great at baiting at close quarters and making little disturbance, perfect for when fish are already present in an area. 

These are a few ideas to get more from your kilo of boilies this spring, try to think outside the box a little and go against what others anglers are doing. Instead of picking up your usual bag of 15 millers, why not try some dumbells or 10mm’s for a change. Adapting your approach and trying something new may get you those extra bites as we move closer to a great period in the carp fishing calendar.