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Features >> TIM CHILDS - Roll the perfect hookbait

TIM CHILDS - Roll the perfect hookbait

ROLL THE PERFECT HOOKBAITS!

Walk into any well stocked tackle shop and it soon becomes clear that there are literally hundreds of different kinds of pop ups available. These come in a whole range of sizes, shapes and colours some to match individual companies bottom baits whilst others are there to catch the angler as much as the fish. Whilst all should work to some degree or another it soon becomes clear that some pop ups are more effective than others.

I’ve caught plenty of fish over the years on shop brought pop ups, but these days I find my own home made specials are usually my number 1 choice. I’ve being happily rolling pop ups for myself and close friends for almost 10 years now and over this time narrowed down a handful of recipes that have caught carp for myself and others from a number of waters up and down the country. Recently I starting making a few special hookbaits for fellow Richworth consultant Martin Clarke and on his first trip out with them at the back end of last year nailed a 40lber!

Richworth sell a wide range of pop ups in both 14mm and 18mm and in a range of flavours and colours and all are excellent when it comes to catching carp. As well as these though they also sell a variety of pop up mix’s, individual ingredients like lactalbumin for hardening baits as well as natural additives and liquids like betaine, green lipped mussel powder and Minamino.

For me nothing beats tinkering around, experimenting and creating your own individual pop ups and hookbaits. These can be tailor made to suit your free offerings or can be made to be totally different offering the fish an alternative hookbait and one that could be totally unique to you. As a general rule I tend to carry a variety of bright attractor baits with me, these being ideal for fishing single hookbaits or to offer something different over your free offerings and a pot or two of special hand rolled food bait hookbaits to match my bottom baits. 2011 will see me once again using the excellent XLR8 for the majority of my spring/summer and autumn fishing and my matching hookbaits will be based on the Richworth fishmeal pop up mix, XLR8 liquid and the XLR8 base mix. I always try and keep to a standard formula when rolling and have hardly changed the way I prepare my hookbaits since I started way back in 2001.

What follows is a step by step guide to rolling your own pop ups and wafters (very slow sinking hookbaits) utilising a number of Richworth’s products and flavours. Whilst this is a guide obviously feel free to experiment with different additives and flavours of your own choice, you never know you may just come up with that special hookbait of your own.

STEP 1. Make sure you have all the right ingredients that are fresh and dry and enough flavour, additives etc and your workspace is clean and uncluttered.

STEP 2. Crack one large fresh egg into a large mixing bowl.

STEP 3. Whisk with a fork or spoon.

STEP 4. Add one at a time all of your required flavours, powdered and liquid additives and sweeteners, use precise measuring devices and log everything down in a note pad. At this point and if you require hardened hook baits a teaspoon of egg albumin will help give the finished baits a nice tough skin, ideal for summer fishing when nuisance fish etc maybe a problem

STEP 5. Now add your chosen colour, in this case a lovely golden yellow, perfect for the spring when carp are on the look out for something bright.

STEP 6. Once the flavours and colour are mixed together, start adding your pop up mix a little at a time, mixing with a fork as the liquids turn to a sticky form. Richworth sell a variety of pop up mixes in plain, yellow, orange, pink and fishmeal varieties.

STEP 7A. Keep adding slowly until a sticky paste is achieved.

STEP 7B. MAKING WAFTERS. If you require slow sinking wafter hookbaits now is the time to ditch the pop up mix and add your bottom base mix, for this I generally use Richworth’s 50/50 bottom bait mix. Despite popular belief you only need a small amount of bottom base mix to create your wafters, generally a split of 80% pop up mix/ 20% bottom bait mix will give you perfect balanced baits. Remember more than 20% and the baits won’t be buoyant enough to hold the hooks/rigs weight and will sink too quickly.

STEP 8. Keep adding a little mix until the paste becomes to stiff for the fork, now is the time to get your hands in the bowl and knead until a firm but smooth paste is achieved.

STEP 9. Now is the time to split the paste in half transferring one half to a sealed plastic food bag, this will help stop it drying out. Once the paste is split into 2 or 3 pieces you can take your time as a little care and attention will help produce perfect finished baits.

STEP 10. Although at this stage I prefer to hand roll my hookbaits you can of course use a bait gun and rollerball like the once sold by Gardner Tackle, the choice is yours.

STEP 11. Roll or gun out into long sausages and either cut into the required size or transfer to your rollerball.

STEP 12. Roll the paste into round balls and transfer onto a suitable flat plate or tray.

The reason I prefer to hand roll at this stage is so that each bait is nice and round with a consistent texture all the way through.

STEP 13. When you’ve rolled a few into the required size, boil some fresh water in a large pan, I actually use a deep fat fryer (one that’s never had oil in it) with a purpose made cage for ease of removal.

STEP 14. When the water is boiling transfer the rolled baits into the water and boil for the required period, 90-120 seconds is usually sufficient.

STEP 15. Remove baits and allow them to cool down on kitchen roll for a couple of hours.

When the baits are dry you now have the choice to either freeze or to air dry for longer periods and perhaps add a extra boost of flavour. This is again down to each individual but as a guide I tend to leave to dry for at least 48 hours and then transfer to a pot and freeze. This extra drying time allows the baits to loose their moisture so they don’t go mouldy but still stay needle friendly and not to hard. I’m more than happy with the results and remove the pots from the freezer at the start of each session. These are then returned to the freezer when I get home. The freezing-thawing-refreezing process has no detrimental effect on the hookbaits. I always use screw or press seal pots as apposed to food bags as for some reason the bags when frozen leave a plastic smell on the baits and the flavours seem to transfer to the plastic.

Points to remember. Keep all of your ingredients fresh and sealed in a cool place, log down in a note pad all flavour levels used, take your time when rolling.

There you have it a simple guide to producing perfect hand rolled pop ups or wafters, now go out and give them a go.

Tim Childs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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