Small boilies

[Mattn750]

Afternoon guys. Curious to know if people bait up with smaller boilies ( 12mm) whilst fishing bigger hookbaits. Is this a common methods? I have always used the same sized freebies as my hookbait.

Would this work is the sense as more boilies to get the carp feeding but won't fill them up as fast? Or won't it make much of a difference? 

Thanks

[yonny]

6 minutes ago, Mattn750 said:

Afternoon guys. Curious to know if people bait up with smaller boilies ( 12mm) whilst fishing bigger hookbaits.

I know a chap that always fishes an 18 mm hookbait over little 10 mm baits. He does well.

7 minutes ago, Mattn750 said:

Would this work is the sense as more boilies to get the carp feeding but won't fill them up as fast? 

Carp cannot become full buddy. They have a digestive tract rather than a stomach. It all passes straight through them.

I personally think guys overthink bait size. A good bait is a good bait and if you can create a feeding situation you'll catch fish. I'm not fussy about freebie size and only drop hookbait size if I'm fishing over small baits intended to compete with naturals.

[Mattn750]

27 minutes ago, yonny said:

 

Carp cannot become full buddy. They have a digestive tract rather than a stomach. It all passes straight through them.

Much like my Labrador then?.😂🤔

 

Thanks for the reply. Iv haven't managed to get to much time on the bank and have a 48hr coming up and was looking at how to best maximise my chance.

I have seen a lot of videos lately with the anglers using smaller boilies in their mix and thought there was potentially a reason for this.

Thanks

[elmoputney]

I tend to base boilie size on nuisance species present, but I will happily use 12mm baits as freebies and fish bigger hookbaits, or smaller hookbaits and bigger freebies, 

My main adversaries at present are rudd so small pellets, particle, and crumb just get destroyed by them, I am mainly feeding 17mm pellets and whatever boilies I get out the freezer

quite like using 1 size of freebie as it's less faff, but a mix of sizes isn't a bad thing, I tend to have a selection of 12/15/18mm in the freezer and generally will use any of them quite happily, 

If I think I might be fishing at range (6 wraps +) then i may need the 18mmers to hit the target, big pultin isn't for everyone  😂🎯

 

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by elmoputney

[ouchthathurt]

I make all my own bait and I routinely use baits between 8-12mm, hookbaits are 11-12mm pop ups hand rolled on 10mm cork balls. Like Yonny said, size isn’t my main concern. I’ve got confidence in my own mix, it does the business, I use these sizes as I get more baits out of a mix! I have hand rolled much larger baits, but I’ve not really noticed a difference in catch rates over the sizes. To bait up at distance with smaller baits, I’ll use stringers routinely and a spomb to hit the spot. To be honest, I often fish marginal spots so it’s just a case of nipping round, baiting the spots then casting the hook bait to it. (Never the other way round if fishing alone) 

[B B]

57 minutes ago, elmoputney said:

My main adversaries at present are rudd

I fished a lake that had a big population of fair size Rudd they would devoured any soft baits we called them Ruddy Piranhas we found if we air dried our boilies so they were hard as marbles it gave the carp a chance.

[elmoputney]

4 minutes ago, B B said:

I fished a lake that had a big population of fair size Rudd they would devoured any soft baits we called them Ruddy Piranhas we found if we air dried our boilies so they were hard as marbles it gave the carp a chance.

Thanks that's a good idea I might try that thanks  👍

[salokcinnodrog]

19 hours ago, B B said:

I fished a lake that had a big population of fair size Rudd they would devoured any soft baits we called them Ruddy Piranhas we found if we air dried our boilies so they were hard as marbles it gave the carp a chance.

I found meshing baits would keep rudd at bay. 

I used to prebait with 18mm baits and fish 15mm on the hair. The theory was that the prebaits would be harder for tench, rudd and bream to deal with, carp would happily take them and the 15mm boilie when actually fishing. 

 

This worked fine on most waters, but big (8lb plus) tench and bream would happily eat 18mm boilies on some. 

Fishing loads of groundbait and particle where bream are present will attract them if on their route; even tiger nuts and big boilies will be taken. 

I do tend to fish one size boilie now, whether 15 or 18mm. If the carp will take bigger baits I'm happy to fish them, even 2 18 or 20mm boilies or an 18mm and 15mm pop-up on the hair. 

22 hours ago, yonny said:

22 hours ago, yonny said:

good bait is a good bait and if you can create a feeding situation you'll catch fish. I'm not fussy about freebie size and only drop hookbait size if I'm fishing over small baits intended to compete with naturals

 

 

A lot of my fishing now is trying to get carp feeding, over particles, hemp, maize and a occasionally a few tigers with a boilie hookbait, 15mm with an 11mm pop-up either Monster Crab or a yellow pop-up, (the yellow to look like maize with no fake baits allowed). 

 

Sometimes even with fish feeding on naturals they will still take 18mm boilies. 

As @yonny says, sometimes we over think it

 

[Carpbell_ll]

to do my own i have the fourteen mm rolling table on route also going to get the 8 mm table and either the eighteen or 20 mm will also be trying some of the haithe's clo base mix to roll loose feed catapult pingers and bulk feed baits do it with the hook bait and rig area bait flavours from john baker.

while we are on boilies and to save starting a thread, is there any reason why milk baits are not as popular as they once was, there's no denying they are just as good as a anything else, would it be too tricky and costly to get a milk hnv in a retail freezer bag?

as I'm doing small batch hook baits  a bit different to how advised, I don't want a one egg mix of just pop ups or wafters as I will be using cork dust I will need to make up a dry mix with no cork, a mix with a wafter amount of cork and pop ups  don't really want to do three separate one egg mixes. ten of each bait will be fine for hook baits thinking of one large egg plus flavours split into three portions and the same for the dry mix with varying amounts of cork in each mix or a less than one small egg for each mix. plus i will be rolling a stack of fourteen mm baits with the milk n honey mix i might do a video blog on it for you tube, that site could defiantly do with some more bait videos.