Unfreezing boilies

[Whitstable Jack]

I generally unfreeze the day before, in an air tight bag, moving the baits around every few hours as they thaw.

I've been reading that air drying on towels and air dry bags is a good way - but with this you top the flavours up. Sounds like a faff to have to re-add flavour, and could over do it. WHereas surely all the flavour that's already there gets sucked in during the thawing process in a bag?

I understand there can be damp patches that leads to baits going off quicker.

Also, I don't fish far out, so I don't need rock hard baits with a throwing stick.

Any thoughts on here?

Cheers

[salokcinnodrog]

19 minutes ago, Whitstable Jack said:

I generally unfreeze the day before, in an air tight bag, moving the baits around every few hours as they thaw.

I've been reading that air drying on towels and air dry bags is a good way - but with this you top the flavours up. Sounds like a faff to have to re-add flavour, and could over do it. WHereas surely all the flavour that's already there gets sucked in during the thawing process in a bag?

I understand there can be damp patches that leads to baits going off quicker.

Also, I don't fish far out, so I don't need rock hard baits with a throwing stick.

Any thoughts on here?

Cheers

For years I have taken baits out of the freezer as I pack my gear into the car.

I've rarely gone to the 'faff' of adding extra liquid or defrosting a day before.

I'm not saying defrosting before use does not work, but I have caught on baits that have been put on the hair still part frozen, and sometimes within minutes of casting in.

 

[kevtaylor]

I find the various liquids preserve the bait as they are salty.  If I put the food source glug and some liquid krill on the boilies a couple of days before the session in a bucket they defrost, take some glug in and last for ages, I left them in the sealed bucket between session by accident and they were absolutley perfect still 2 weeks later.

I don't air dry baits any more as that seems a bit pointless, I've also thrown in frozen baits and had no worries about that - why would you they defrost in the water.

Edited April 17 by kevtaylor

[elmoputney]

I got into heat treating frozen boilies for a bit, straight into a bucket from the freezer, tip a couple of cups of recently boiled water on them and some hydro liquids and give em a good shake, as they defrost they soak in the liquids leaving you with a nice soft washed out looking bait full of sexy liquids, I found these could help with getting quicker bites, 

Haven't bothered since switching to shelf life though, maybe I should still 🤔

[framey]

6 hours ago, Whitstable Jack said:

I generally unfreeze the day before, in an air tight bag, moving the baits around every few hours as they thaw.

I've been reading that air drying on towels and air dry bags is a good way - but with this you top the flavours up. Sounds like a faff to have to re-add flavour, and could over do it. WHereas surely all the flavour that's already there gets sucked in during the thawing process in a bag?

I understand there can be damp patches that leads to baits going off quicker.

Also, I don't fish far out, so I don't need rock hard baits with a throwing stick.

Any thoughts on here?

Cheers

Take them out even longer before you go and just wash them out in a bucket of water about 3 days 

some stupid carp think they are safer as they have been in the water longer…..

 

[yonny]

23 hours ago, Whitstable Jack said:

.... unfreeze.....

.... air drying.....

Different concepts with completely different objectives mate.

If you want your baits to last, or become rock hard, air drying is the one.

If you want to boost them, just coat them as soon as they're out of the freezer (they will absorb liquids as they thaw).

You can of course air dry then rehydrate with liquids if you want to completely saturate them (to prevent them from soaking up silty substrates for example) but it's a lot of faff.

Under normal circumstances you don't need to do either imo, and when bites get harder to come by on boiled baits I'd sooner switch to something else entirely rather than attempt to make them more attractive using little tricks.

[salokcinnodrog]

5 hours ago, yonny said:

Different concepts with completely different objectives mate.

If you want your baits to last, or become rock hard, air drying is the one.

If you want to boost them, just coat them as soon as they're out of the freezer (they will absorb liquids as they thaw).

You can of course air dry then rehydrate with liquids if you want to completely saturate them (to prevent them from soaking up silty substrates for example) but it's a lot of faff.

Under normal circumstances you don't need to do either imo, and when bites get harder to come by on boiled baits I'd sooner switch to something else entirely rather than attempt to make them more attractive using little tricks.

@yonny

Nicely said.

One thing I noticed when air drying baits to get them rock hard, is they took on water (or other liquids) and got softer  quicker than baits straight out of the freezer. It meant they could actually have a faster breakdown time than frozen or 'normal' boilies, which could be an advantage at times.

 

 

22 hours ago, framey said:

Take them out even longer before you go and just wash them out in a bucket of water about 3 days 

some stupid carp think they are safer as they have been in the water longer…..

 

Ah, the washed out baits concept, supposedly making the carp think they are safe as opposed to freshly introduced.

 

I never noticed an advantage over freshly introduced straight from the freezer, although I did occasionally have a fish that took a bait that had been in the lake for 2 days untouched, unmoved and left in place, fish that I think were wary of new bait, even the disturbance of putting any bait on the spot.

One particular example was on a 3 day trip to Brackens Pool where the left hand rod produced 4 or 5 fish to 20lbs, all on stringers fished to the treeline opposite. 

My right hand rod produced only 1 fish, a 30lb mirror that was previously uncaught at that weight, but I had left it alone for 48hours after lowering it in to the tree line to my right.

 

Now mixing @framey and @yonny's quotes, when bites come hard to get on your food bait boilies, it can help by increasing the amount you prebait, or put in at the end of the session. 

I think carp can get used to and avoid just a few baits and getting hooked  on your hookbait. By increasing the amount of prebait, and potentially the free bait when you fish, you reduce the chance of them inspecting and checking every one.

 

That inspection of baits is why rigs get developed or changed, because the carp can learn to avoid a particular situation.

Some is because we simply can't afford to put in more bait every trip, so need to come up with other answers.

The more you can afford, the more the fish rely on it, and a basic inefficient rig will still catch.

 

 

 

[Whitstable Jack]

23 hours ago, yonny said:

Different concepts with completely different objectives mate.

If you want your baits to last, or become rock hard, air drying is the one.

If you want to boost them, just coat them as soon as they're out of the freezer (they will absorb liquids as they thaw).

You can of course air dry then rehydrate with liquids if you want to completely saturate them (to prevent them from soaking up silty substrates for example) but it's a lot of faff.

Under normal circumstances you don't need to do either imo, and when bites get harder to come by on boiled baits I'd sooner switch to something else entirely rather than attempt to make them more attractive using little tricks.

Hi Yonny, great feedback, thank you.

And to the other replies too, thank you. 

It has sorted in my head exactly what I need to do.

[framey]

22 hours ago, salokcinnodrog said:

@yonny

Nicely said.

One thing I noticed when air drying baits to get them rock hard, is they took on water (or other liquids) and got softer  quicker than baits straight out of the freezer. It meant they could actually have a faster breakdown time than frozen or 'normal' boilies, which could be an advantage at times.

 

 

Ah, the washed out baits concept, supposedly making the carp think they are safe as opposed to freshly introduced.

 

I never noticed an advantage over freshly introduced straight from the freezer, although I did occasionally have a fish that took a bait that had been in the lake for 2 days untouched, unmoved and left in place, fish that I think were wary of new bait, even the disturbance of putting any bait on the spot.

One particular example was on a 3 day trip to Brackens Pool where the left hand rod produced 4 or 5 fish to 20lbs, all on stringers fished to the treeline opposite. 

My right hand rod produced only 1 fish, a 30lb mirror that was previously uncaught at that weight, but I had left it alone for 48hours after lowering it in to the tree line to my right.

 

Now mixing @framey and @yonny's quotes, when bites come hard to get on your food bait boilies, it can help by increasing the amount you prebait, or put in at the end of the session. 

I think carp can get used to and avoid just a few baits and getting hooked  on your hookbait. By increasing the amount of prebait, and potentially the free bait when you fish, you reduce the chance of them inspecting and checking every one.

 

That inspection of baits is why rigs get developed or changed, because the carp can learn to avoid a particular situation.

Some is because we simply can't afford to put in more bait every trip, so need to come up with other answers.

The more you can afford, the more the fish rely on it, and a basic inefficient rig will still catch.

 

 

 

Absolutely put something they want to eat where they want to eat it and the rig can be anything

just need a sharp hook..

 

Don’t forget you can make a kilo of boilies go an extremely long way if you crumb them up so then it can become “relatively” cheap 

a sack of groats are about 20£ a sack and easy to prep even for a beginner.

and can help to make a kilo of boilie go even further and add some cloud into the water to give the fish extra confidence 

Just need do what you are happy doing 

confidence breeds success 

[elmoputney]

3 hours ago, framey said:

Absolutely put something they want to eat where they want to eat it and the rig can be anything

 

confidence breeds success 

That is the key, nowadays if I blank it's because of location, I know everything else will work.