Air Drying/Rehydrating The Alternative View

[hnv]

I have no qualms about air drying bait. I prefer to use fresh of course, but I have used air dried a lot in the past when I was short of freezer space. I don't bother to rehydrate them, just fire them out as musket balls! Depending on the basemix, they revert to 'normal' in les than an hour.

You are not losing any attractors whilst air drying, just water...

[cyborx]

i like to heat my boilies up, i put a kilo bag in a bucket and pour boiling water over them, add a good dollop of tuna or whatever you fancy oil and put the lid on.

swish the bucket for a bit then leave for 20-30 mins, the liquid should be all gone and the boilies swelled to at least 50% bigger. give another coating of oil and they will be ready to ooze all that flavour out on the lake bed.

my one excursion into freezer baits are now acting as ammo for keeping the next door cat away from my lawn

[yonny]

I think there's a place for partial air drying in order to prep baits for over-hydration i.e. saturation - to prevent the on-take of silt on very silty waters or spots.

Also for salt curing hook baits.

I'd rather air dry/re-hydrate for a long trip than use shelfies.

As long as you know what to re-hydrate with the losses of attractors (which I do believe happens during air drying) doesn't really bother me.

[salokcinnodrog]

I think there's a place for partial air drying in order to prep baits for over-hydration i.e. saturation - to prevent the on-take of silt on very silty waters or spots.

Also for salt curing hook baits.

I'd rather air dry/re-hydrate for a long trip than use shelfies.

As long as you know what to re-hydrate with the losses of attractors (which I do believe happens during air drying) doesn't really bother me.

Yonny,

I think you prefer frozen baits wherever possible, but do you think shelfies are nearly as good as frozen now?

 

Some baits from various manufacturers are exactly the same recipe from frozen to shelf life, is it just the preserve 'dip' that makes them different?

In fact some bait companies release some baits in a shelf life only. What are your thoughts on these?

 

Some glugs, like Marine 17 will coat shelfies, as well as frozen.

[yonny]

do you think shelfies are nearly as good as frozen now?

 

I hear they are fella, but I haven't bought/seen shelfies in years myself. In fairness that's just me being stubborn I guess.

 

Some baits from various manufacturers are exactly the same recipe from frozen to shelf life, is it just the preserve 'dip' that makes them different?

In fact some bait companies release some baits in a shelf life only. What are your thoughts on these?

 

See for me that's not a shelfie bud. IMO a shelfie contains preservatives that allow the baits to be stored in the boot of the car for a couple of years or more. The above is a fresh/frozen bait with glycerin coating - I wouldn't trust that for prolonged periods. A decent bait has to be active, and a glycerin coating shouldn't be enough to stop that activity.

 

I know of at least one bait company that adds preservatives to both their shelfies and frozen baits, some think it's the same recipe.....

[newmarket]

Opening up an old thread , I tend to use a mixture of Air-dyed and rehydrated boilies , whatever I have available really .

This year I’m rehydrating my B5 and Black Snails using B5 liquid Carp food and a sprinkling of stick mix over them .

One question , I’m sure it’s just a matter of preference but when your boilies are rehydrating, do you keep the lid on your bucket/container or the lid off ? 
 

I wouldn’t want them to be TOO soft if you get what I mean …

[Carpbell3]

Keep them frozen myself, the best bait I have used is the Ecton Berry I literally picked it up the day it was cooked no freezing and no drying tore the lake up gave me my largest mirror and a few others.

JB swears by it fresh out the pan cooled and used obv its tricky to do so I have a nice little stockpile in the freezer.

I do glug before use most times even if it is just salmon oil. Will be using butter nut cell from aabaits.

[newmarket]

58 minutes ago, Carpbell3 said:

Keep them frozen myself, the best bait I have used is the Ecton Berry I literally picked it up the day it was cooked no freezing and no drying tore the lake up gave me my largest mirror and a few others.

JB swears by it fresh out the pan cooled and used obv its tricky to do so I have a nice little stockpile in the freezer.

I do glug before use most times even if it is just salmon oil. Will be using butter nut cell from aabaits.

It’s freezer space that is my problem tbh but not too much of a problem , air drying for me is purely to solve storage issues .

I air dry em in 2x 5kg bags till they’re like musket bullets and store em in buckets .

20kg does me for the year but half go in the freezer until she moans about space.

Im rehydrating baits at the moment as an experiment as much as anything else but I’m never sure how long to leave em in liquid or even how much liquid as I want em catapultable if poss , every forum and/or video tells you their own preferences rather than any hard and fast rules and the one thing I don’t have is lake water 😊.

Im usually in Nick’s camp and sling em in as bullets .

Never seems to have failed but then how can you not have confidence in one of Mike Wilmott’s baits however you apply it ?

[salokcinnodrog]

3 hours ago, newmarket said:

Opening up an old thread , I tend to use a mixture of Air-dyed and rehydrated boilies , whatever I have available really .

This year I’m rehydrating my B5 and Black Snails using B5 liquid Carp food and a sprinkling of stick mix over them .

One question , I’m sure it’s just a matter of preference but when your boilies are rehydrating, do you keep the lid on your bucket/container or the lid off ? 
 

I wouldn’t want them to be TOO soft if you get what I mean …

Put enough liquid in the bucket to go about ¼ of the way up the boilie. That way you are limiting what they can take in. Just don't forget to give them a shake every now and again so the whole surface is covered.

Lid on, cos of the smell...

 

1 hour ago, newmarket said:

usually in Nick’s camp and sling em in as bullets .

Air dried I'm positive take on water faster than frozen or shelf life, so give the impression of 'older' bait. 

I tried various basic liquids, hemp juice, mixed particle juice, even stale sweetcorn juice.

None worked any better than boilies straight from the air dry bag. At Earith I was catching over them either way, and the frozen version.

 

[elmoputney]

7 hours ago, newmarket said:

Opening up an old thread , I tend to use a mixture of Air-dyed and rehydrated boilies , whatever I have available really .

This year I’m rehydrating my B5 and Black Snails using B5 liquid Carp food and a sprinkling of stick mix over them .

One question , I’m sure it’s just a matter of preference but when your boilies are rehydrating, do you keep the lid on your bucket/container or the lid off ? 
 

I wouldn’t want them to be TOO soft if you get what I mean …

I leave the lid on just incase of mice or anything, 

If I was defrosting I would add just one or two cups of boiling water to frozen then add liquids to that give them a good shake let it all soak in for 24 hours and you have nice washed out baits oozing with liquid goodness, I found they absorb liquids quicker if it is was thinner, there are plenty of other liquids that are thinner though you could try which would be a good thing, bottled water can be used in place of lake water too 

If you have plenty of time in advance I would just add a bit shake it up and keep adding a little more each day then maybe finish off with a dusting of powders or stick mix. 

Ps I like my baits to be quite soft as I only do short sessions I want them to appear like they've been out there for a while, you can also add some pellets to soak up any excess liquid 

 

[dalej2014]

Interesting topic. Here's my thoughts. No science behind this other than common sense. Imagine your bait is a bath spnge, when it's fresh out of the pan. Full of water, but also freshest. That's a fresh boilie for me.

Now imagine you leave it a few hours/days whatever until it's dry. If you rehydrate with water you're back where you started, almost. Of course with a boilie the ingredients are not quite as fresh, but with MPG or similar, close enough.

Here's where it gets interesting though. What if you don't use water, but instead another liquid? You can now introduce no end of variety as you re-hydrate. Even better, if done hours or days before fishing it's going to look washed out, but is pumping out more attraction than the fresh boilie.

So I think the last option best of all given time and opportunity to do it. Air dryed, then rehydrated with added attraction. If you do that several times and introduce powders when the liquid is still moist you're boosting your bait even more, to my mind anywy. There are a number of anglers and baitr companies doing this now. Good use of time and energy or gimmick? Time and captures will tell I guess.

[elmoputney]

I've just glugged some up for tomorrow, ooosh they smell nice 

[salokcinnodrog]

19 hours ago, dalej2014 said:

Air dryed, then rehydrated with added attraction. If you do that several times and introduce powders when the liquid is still moist you're boosting your bait even more, to my mind anywy. There are a number of anglers and baitr companies doing this now

Years ago I used to whisk an egg or two and drop the boilies into it, then take them out and roll in additional base mix. 

You can get a nicely skinned boilie with an outer shell that breaks down around the bait.

[dalej2014]

13 minutes ago, salokcinnodrog said:

Years ago I used to whisk an egg or two and drop the boilies into it, then take them out and roll in additional base mix. 

You can get a nicely skinned boilie with an outer shell that breaks down around the bait.

I like that idea. Clever 🎣😁