Self-made pastures and boiles
The art of self-made
Flour, bird mash, extracts , flavorings , powdered spices , hydrolysates, supplements, dyes... in a word: self-made. Doing self-made in the world of carpfishing means creating, bringing to life your own idea of a bait, respecting the nutritional needs of the carp, enhancing that endless wealth of experience that every angler accumulates over years of fishing trips.
Have you ever been fishing with a bait and thought that probably by substituting an ingredient in the mix, changing the flavor/taste profile, or changing the nutritional intake you could have achieved better results? If the answer is yes, you are in the right section of our catalog. Your project here can take shape, and thanks to Molino's ingredients you can bring to life YOUR bait, the very one you will carry with you on the banks of every waterway in the future.
Self-made: passion, expertise and responsibility
When approaching the making of a bait we must always keep in mind the use we are going to make of it. There are anglers who are satisfied with just one bait, the classic "all season" bait to take with him on each of his sessions, or there is the more demanding carp angler who depending on the season and the body of water he will be fishing in will try to formulate a recipe with a specific nutritional level, proper mix mechanics and a specific balance of aroma and taste.
Before studying a mix to make a boilies, we must keep in mind that we are not just creating a bait for us to fish with, but we are inventing a recipe to create feed that the fish will feed on anyway. So here's why, before we start, it is always good to ask ourselves a few questions:
- What level of experience do I have?
- Am I able to develop a bait on my own?
- Should I ask someone for technical/practical advice?
We at the Mill are always available and always try to provide all the necessary information to everyone who wants to try their hand at creating their own bait.
Anatomy of a balanced mix for making your own self-made boilies
Giving universally valid advice on how to make your own mix is a virtually impossible task, because every self-made enthusiast has to approach the recipe based on his or her own experience, keeping in mind the goal he or she has in mind and the conditions under which he or she will be testing the product. A few basic pointers, however, we want to try to provide them, starting of course with what is our approach to self-made, in the hope of giving some interesting hints. After that, free everyone, because after all, unleashing one's creativity to feed our moustachioed friends in the best possible way is the very essence of self-made.
When we approach a new mix, we generally first formulate a base of plant-based flours (60/80% of the recipe), such as soy flour, semolina, rice flour, corn flour, and wheat flour, and we also include powdered milk among the basic ingredients. On this base we then go on to add complementary ingredients to balance taste, flavor and nutritional values depending on the different situation we will be fishing in. Green light then to animal flours, supplements, mash (20/40% of the recipe), all the way to spices and colorants that finish our mix.
The right mix for every season
The secret to a successful mix is definitely its ability to meet the food needs of the carp according to the season and to release the right signals into the water that the carp will interpret as the presence of food, all this in relation to the water temperature.
Hence, to fish in cold winter waters, for example, it is recommended to create a bait characterized by high solubility. We will therefore use little fat, which tends to close the bait and does not facilitate the sponge effect, while we will priviligate basic flours and protein supplements (e.g., animal hydrolysate, L030). To then make the bait more stimulating we could make judicious use of birdfoods, but preferring the dry type, because they are not supplemented by high-sugar products such as honey.
In spring the water still tends to be quite cold, the carp are beginning to wake up from hibernation, and they do not yet need too much fat. We will therefore go for an extra boost on the aromatic side to tease the awakening of our whiskered friends, working a lot with the more sugary birdfoods and on the flavoring front.
In summer we will not have solubility problems, so green light to animal flours such as herring, tuna, salmon, liver etc.. We will, however, have to be careful not to overload the bait nutritionally, because in the great heat the fish will be a bit apathetic and we would not want to run the risk of satiating them too quickly.
In autumn, on the other hand, since carp are preparing for a "metabolic hibernation" and tend to stock up on nutrients, we could aim for much more nutritionally loaded baits, using more heavily fattened animal flours.
