DIY Petfood Boilies Advise Please

[salokcinnodrog]

On 21/04/2025 at 13:16, Barney2 said:

Nothing binds like eggs, I tried loads of fish in a mix before and it ends up too soft. I don’t want high liquid content I don’t like soft baits and don’t want to start messing around with endless powdered hardeners

There are plenty of hard baits that don't use eggs as a binder, and there is a very simple basic addition that is used in many pellet manufacturing processes, and has been known for years, gelatine. 

There is a big point being missed, although @nutty squid and @hutch did mention it. Dry dog foods contain less protein than wet dog foods, typically around 18% compared to 30% +, and animal protein is better able to be utilised for growth than vegetable proteins, due to the amino acids. Not every essential amino acid is available in vegetable protein, leading to a shortfall of growth rate. Have a high protein rate of vegetable ingredients with limited amino acids and the bait may be totally wasted. 

If you are blitzing an already 'low' protein content to add other ingredients you are lowering the protein content even more. Dry dog foods are already a mix of grain, rice and beet pulp, then processed meat, or fish. That processing takes the protein content from 65% down to 20's, then add the binders and ingredients you are around 18%. Adding extra semolina and other wheat products and it could drop to a couple of percent.

If it doesn't give off 'eat me' signals, not enough valid food attraction and is basically just a ball of carbohydrates it may need extra attractors, be that a flavour or the soaking in of hydrolysates.

Carbohydrates are of limited use to carp, their natural food contains very little. The main foods are just protein and fat, and the main protein source is animal, presuming snails, bloodworm, flies and mussels are animal, although they will eat some weed. 

The baits I made using a dash of garlic oil, liquidised mackeral, herring and chapatti flour were rock hard, with no eggs. The chapatti flour was a maize and wheat flour mix. Boiling time 1minute and 30seconds, and a 24hour drying time. 

The other thing is mixing, mix ingredients together properly, it can take a while for dry ingredients to take on liquids. Gradually add powder to the mix, not add liquid to the powder, keep working it until it is only just too wet to roll and then allow to stand for probably 5minutes, then roll into sausages. Through a bait gun gives a totally different texture to a rolling table!

On 22/04/2025 at 12:52, Barney2 said:

I ditched it in the end

mix really annoying texture, hard to form, roll and bind despite being very well blitzed with over 20% semolina and 10% albumen.. pet biscuits are strange formulations, never mind

I got tired of making bait and never got on great with it despite being a highly confident experienced cook

So I just bought some really nice frozen boilie paste instead which I will custom roll how I want it

 

On 22/04/2025 at 19:49, elmoputney said:

Would it have worked better if you used less dog biscuit crumb and more of something else do you think ? 

 

On 22/04/2025 at 22:02, Barney2 said:

Trouble with DIY is it’s easy to make something rubbish, heavy and unsuitable for carp

That conscientiousness tended to spoil my bait making adventures

 

On 23/04/2025 at 09:27, Barney2 said:

I also got tired of blitzing pet biscuits in my beautiful Ninja processor

they are hard work once you reach a certain stage they mound up and the powerful blades are quickly spinning dry

I will if anything be using flours and meals already done in future

but it feels a bit pointless there are so many excellent pastes out there to try which are already scientifically and/or artfully designed for catching carp plus TESTED like mad

 

 

 

21 hours ago, nutty squid said:

In the early 90's, I used boilies made of mostly ground go-cat.They air dried rock hard, and were also hard to hair rig. I caught a few

carp and tench on them, but shelf lifes got the better of me. Now I still sometimes use powdered cat biscuits, but at no more than 25%

of a base mix. I only fish short sessions, so a softer bait suits me.

 

 

1 hour ago, Barney2 said:

Its not going to be the best carp nutition, although quinoa is very high in protein

I did say I was maybe using it very sparingly indeed mate - like a third of a kilo over 72-96 hours sparingly

If I use it which is a doubt

I don't know much about carp nutrition mate, but do know that a lot of pritein in baits is wasted on them and posh HP baits are too rich and overrated (no I don't mean brown sauce : )

 

49 minutes ago, hutch said:

Your right to a degree, some baits are probably to high in protien, although there isnt massive amounts of information out there regarding carp and protein utilisation its more widely known tha the magic number is around 38% protein in a bait/mix other ings are more functional eg.. binding, texture etc.., the dark rabbit hole is the conception that because an ingredient is high in protien that protien's AA make up may well not be suitable for a bait.

 

[Barney2]

Fair play Im not really into bait making I just get excited by ideas sometime

carp adore dog biscuits so there must be something in their makeup which switches them on

they are high tech and very scientific serious money and research goes into petfood, I think you dumb them down a little more than what they are really about/deserve.. closely guarded secrets and good stuff.. subtle feeding triggers which are needed to get fussy or I’ll pets to eat properly

carbs.. well some old fishing gurus reckon some lakes are carb deficient and high carb baits can score

Its not my area 

The rods are out and I sadly spooked a big fish when I cast out I had no idea he was there but I have the whole night and am sitting up through all of it