Inexpensive Base Mixes - 1

If you recall some time back I wrote a blog about my 'Magnificent Seven'. That has proved to be very popular so here are a few more inexpensive base mix recipes that will help you make great carp baits without breaking the bank.

Birdfood-based boilies are very effective as they a highly nutritious, being high in hat and with a good level of protein.

In my preceding blog I outlined a one-method-fits-all step-by-step procedure for making boiled bait. In case you missed it, here it is again. You can use this method for all the recipes that follow:

• Place the dry powders in a bag
  • Blow into the neck of the bag to inflate it and then twist the neck of the bag to form a seal
  • Shake the bag vigorously to blend the dry powders together
  • In a bowl break four large eggs and then add any liquid attractors such as flavours, essential oils, liquid foods etc
  • Whisk to blend the eggs with the liquid attractors
  • Add the dry powders to the eggs and use a fork or your hands to create the boilie paste
  • Roll out to the desired size and shape (round boilie, boilie chops, boilie pizza etc)
  • Boil for the required time depending on size and shape.

I use a cheap and cheerful coffee grinder to reduce the size of the granules and I can turn, say, 500g of any one of our headline products into a find ground powder in much less time that you would imagine to be the case. One of the best binders for a base mix is egg biscuit in all its guises. If you've read any of my previous blogs you will know that I put great store in egg biscuit especially when it is ground down to a fine mesh, say 30-40 mesh size. We offer some great base mix ingredients that all contain egg biscuit, namely, Nectarblend, Red Factor Canary Food, Softbill Food and pure Egg Biscuit.

This is neat Red Factor on the left with the ground product on the right.

And this is Nectarblend ground down.

You can use the grinder to blend ingredients together. Here Robin Red is ready to be blended with neat Nectarblend.

Load the ingredients into the grinding chamber of your coffee grinder.

This photo shows the finished blend.

You can create a perfectly acceptable base mix simply by blending together Semolina and Red Factor. Use the polythene bag method to mix the two ingredients together.

After shaking the bag - sealing the neck first! - you will have a simple base mix that can be completed with your favourite flavours, then rolled out into sausages or round baits and then boiled for 3-4 minutes.

This simple recipe can be enhanced in a number of ways to add still further to its attraction. For instance you could add 20% of our top quality fishmeal.

Egg biscuit is granular in form, which tends to make the finished base mix rather crumbly on the rolling table. It's for this reason that I suggest you use it ground down in a coffee grinder. However, you can also add Whey Protein Concentrate, which adds considerably to the overall binding qualities of the base mix. You can buy WPC in bulk but as you are likely to use it at a level of just 10-15% of the overall mix, as a result you may not be able to justify the price of a bulk bag. There are lots of outlets on the 'net.

Alternatively why not try a little known yet highly effective protein, Blood Plasma Powder. This performs the same task as Whey Protein but has a different structure and nutritional profile. It is fully soluble, 80% protein, and together with the ground Red Band it will aid the binding properties of the base mix considerably so you can cut down on the boil time considerably. I get mine from a company called Feed Stimulants. Why not give it a go?

https://www.feedstim.com/protein-base/blood-plasma-powder-232.html - /weight-1_kg

So now we have a very simple recipe comprising just two or three ingredients, one of which includes our low temperature fishmeal. Plus additional binders to reduce the boiling time and thus protect the protein content from heat-degradation. All that remains now is to give the bait a signature by adding liquid attraction. This can be in any form you like, maybe a chilli sauce or perhaps an oriental fish extract.

Here are a couple of highly effective liquid additives, also from the Feed Stimulants range. You can use them both together in the same mix or separately as you prefer. I suggest that if you are using the base mix that contains fishmeal then use the SuperStim: If you are using the base mix without the fishmeal, then in order to say costs use the Amaretto. Or if you are feeling flush, use them both.

So to complete this Blog lets summarise the full recipe:

• 100g ground Red Band
• 100g Semolina
• 200g Fishmeal
• 100g Blood Plasma Powder or Whey Protein Concentrate

Plus Liquid Attractors (Optional)

• 25ml Hot Chilli Sauce
• 25ml Thai Fish Sauce
• 10ml Feed Stimulants' Amaretto Flavour
• 10ml Feed Stimulants' Super Stim

Instructions:

• Mix the dry powders thoroughly using the polythene bag method.
• In a bowl break four eggs and add the optional liquid attractors.
• Blend with a whisk of eggbeater.
• Add the dry powders to the eggs.
• Form a ball of paste
• Roll into sausages using a bait gun.
• Use a rolling table and bait roller to form boilies.
• Boil for 3 minutes.
• Strain and allow to dry on a clean towel.
  Use or freeze the finished baits as required.

Next time I'll be looking at some more Haith's ingredients (and a few under the radar ones!) that can create another simple boilie mix that will work from the off and will have a long and productive catching life.

Until next time…Tight lines!

Written by Ken Townley