How to make your own boilies

Ever wondered how to make your own boilies for your carp, barbel, catfish or even tench fishing? Well here's everything you need to know about making your own bait set out in easy-to-follow steps.
Following these steps is not only easy, but believe us when we say that catching your first big fish using boilies that you have made yourself really takes some beating.
Yes - you'll need a few extra items in order to make producing your own boilies easier and faster, but if you intend to create your own baits regularly, you will quickly make up the cash that you have laid out on the rolling table and other equipment.
Not only will you quickly save cash, but you'll have the flexibility to create rock hard baits for those long sessions, or very soft baits for when bites are really easy to come by. You could create your own bait flavours, you could place cork balls within the rolled boilie mix to create pop-ups, and you could save some of the mix for paste - great for wrapping around your boilies to give them even more attraction.
Enjoy!


1. All of the items that you’ll require to make your own boilies. Eggs, base mix, flavours, mixing bowl, saucepan, sieve, measuring spoons, rolling table, stove. 2.Break six eggs into a large mixing bowl		.

3. Add all the flavours you’re using – powdered or liquid – to the eggs and mix it up well. 4. Add your chosen base mix a little at a time, again mixing well with the egg.

5. Add enough powder to mix in order to produce a smooth paste. 6. Leave paste to rest for 30 minutes, then tear off small balls and roll them into sausages. Place them on the rolling table like this.

7. Now roll them to form small balls, or mould them yourself in your hands. 8. Place finished rolled balls into boiling water for up to two minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

7 top boilie making tips
1 When preparing winter baits, use ethyl alcohol-based flavours. This is a highly water-soluble solution, ideal for adding an instant flavour hit around the bait.
2 10ml to 20ml of fish oil added to your bait not only adds extra attraction, but also makes the baits easier to roll.
3 Make your baits bright with the addition of a powdered colour. Carp will first be drawn to a food source by its appearance, just like humans.
4 Make critically-balanced baits by using approximately 60percent bottom base mix and 40percent pop-up mix.
5 Add a palatant to your bait mixture. These bring out the best in your chosen base mix and flavour combination.
6 Use different shaped baits like squares, tubes or triangles, rather than standard round balls.
7 Don’t just use tackle shop flavours. Experiment with things like curry or chilli powder, oyster sauce or even shrimp paste.

Helicopter Rig

OK a bit more advanced and fiddly involving all manner of small rubber objects ( so definitley Euro ) is the Helicopter Rig. So called because the leader is attached to a swivel on the mainline causing the leader to rotate about the line on casting like helicopter blades.
Why bother? Well it’s a good long range, anti-tangle set up. Again I’m not going to debate the merits and variations ( as usual there are slightly different ways to skin this cat ), rather illustrate how it’s tied and leave the debate for another time.
This rig can be bought in ready to assemble kits and I would recommend these as they’re usualy safer. However I don’t think its so bizarre and specialised that it can’t be made without the custom made components either.
The kit I’m using here is by Korda. Here are the components.

1. Rig tubing
2. Lead weight
3. Buffer bead
4. Rubber bead
5. Swivel bead ( a wide bore swivel will do the job as well )
6. Tail rubber
7. Leader ( stiff leaders work best – I’ve used coated braid here ) Apologies – the leader shouldn’t have a swivel on it
Step 1