I think I was more than a little lucky with my boilie making the first time round. My very first attempt produced a good few nibbles but no solid takes, so with this in mind i made the original mix a little stronger and then tried again. Success came with my first 20lb+ a beautifull Mirror Carp by the name of "Twin Bellies", which after being told by the balif that no-one was catching well that day came a great vindication of my perseverance.

Now the weather is getting colder I am looking to produce a good winter bait to use through the harsher months. My prototype was a Maple, Garlic and Chestnut boilie, I made this thinking that chestnut is a good natural food stuff readily available in the winter months and also a high source of protein, so should be a good attractant. The M.G.C. failed miserabley, so it was back to the drawing board. Having noticed that a good few winter baits have birds seed in them, i have opted to mix the two, settling for a Chestnut and "Toasted" birdseed boilie. Toasting seeds is an old chefs trick used to push the oils to the surface of the seed producing more flavour and also releasing those all important oils. I then blended the oily seeds to a coarse flour to be mixed with the other dry ingredients. I have to say the resulting boilie is good looking bait with a very pleasant toasted smell to it. I shall be trying this new bait out at the weekend so I will let you know how it fished.

Frustrating as it is, carp fishing is awesome. Carp are really good at sucking in and blowing out suspicious baits. It’s such an excitement to see the whole action in a fraction of a second as you hang on for dear life while the reel is trembling with a loud noise.

Carp happily devour on the surface as long as you keep the pellets, biscuits, chic peas, bread and sweetcorn coming in, and these are inexpensive baits as well. Just attach them to the hooks, most preferably the bread. Have the biscuits softened by dipping it in the water for about 2 minutes, then, place them in a sealed sandwich bag for about an hour. Since different brands have different textures, just experiment to know which is firm enough to cast. Another way to hook baits is super gluing the pellet into the shank.

It only struck me whilst fishing a local day ticket water last week, what a competitive sport carp fishing has become. I have fished the venue concerned on and off for about 20 years seeing 2 owners, the lake being dug larger and now being backfilled to 2/3 of its size. Throughout the day I had the usual stream of anglers walking past and it surprised me how many asked the same question, "Had anything decent mate?". The way I have fished for as long as I can remember is that a bad days fishing is better than a good days work!, it really does not matter what size the fish are. In fact I don't even take scales or a camera for 90% of my UK fishing, I am more than happy to smile and return the fish from the net rather than put them through the ordeal of weighing etc.

Making boilies is not as difficult as some anglers would have you believe. Although ready-made or shelf life boilies are extremely effective and do catch a great number of carp, making boilies will improve your catches, save you money and can be fun. Many serious carp anglers would not consider using ready mades and insist on making their own. Their argument being that by using only fresh ingredients, which will be more acceptable to the carp, your catch rates will increase dramatically. The other argument in favour of home made boilies is of course cost. Making a reasonable sized batch of your own boilies, especially if you share the cost with a friend, can save a good deal of expense, and once you have some of the basic tools and flavours in stock, they become increasingly cheaper with each batch.