Elmo's DIY journey begins.

[elmoputney]

I decided to start making bait for myself recently, now I've got a lot of the bits I needed I thought I would start with some hookbaits. Not perfectly round but good enough 😂

1egg, liquid preserve, 5ml creamy scopex, Betaine, milk B and butterscotch sweetener. Pop ups are mainline polaris dyed yellow and wafters are AA Baits pink wafter mix + a bit of tropamino basemix as I run out of wafter mix whilst mixing. I think the wafters turned out better  and actually came out fairly round, both do what are they meant too when attached to a rig so that's good, now air drying and will give them a splash of extra flavour once they are dried,then all I've got to do another time is match the hatch hookbaits and start rolling kilos and kilos of  boilies. 

Don't think I'll buy polaris again though will get some AA Baits pop up mix next time. I've also been using Copilot to make up loads of recipes, I've got 20kg of tropamino basemix to use up first though. But I've started down the rabbit hole. 

[greekskii]

Will say having used a couple of pop up mixes in the past, the best I found was BAF before they stopped selling it. AA would be my choice if I ever make any more though. 

[elmoputney]

2 hours ago, greekskii said:

Will say having used a couple of pop up mixes in the past, the best I found was BAF before they stopped selling it. AA would be my choice if I ever make any more though. 

I've used a few AA Baits products now and they all seem decent so far. The fishmeal tropaminamino base mix smells like a real carp catcher. Adding the fishmeal base mix to the wafter mix made it a much stiffer mix and while I may have lost a little buoyancy from adding it they still waft a bit and will act more naturally than a traditional wafter I  think and have a slightly more open texture. 

 

[emmcee]

I always used the richworth pop up mix when I rolled bait. Not sure if its still available but it was good in my opinion.  

[elmoputney]

6 hours ago, emmcee said:

I always used the richworth pop up mix when I rolled bait. Not sure if its still available but it was good in my opinion.  

Just had a look on their website doesn't seem to be on there. I didn't realise Richworth were still going tbh not seen them in a shop for years. 

 

[crusian]

Hi Elmo .

I would offer to be a field tester for you , but that would mean I have to get off my bum and actually go fishing 😁 .

Your pink boilies look very tempting .

😃

[elmoputney]

I just went out to smell them, I mean move them about so they continue dry well. The scopex is strong in the garage. I think they should work well. 

I'm not selling them though, I barely have time to make my own. 

 

[greekskii]

21 hours ago, elmoputney said:

I've used a few AA Baits products now and they all seem decent so far. The fishmeal tropaminamino base mix smells like a real carp catcher. Adding the fishmeal base mix to the wafter mix made it a much stiffer mix and while I may have lost a little buoyancy from adding it they still waft a bit and will act more naturally than a traditional wafter I  think and have a slightly more open texture. 

 

I use a lot of AA products to be fair. Hydros or liquids mainly. Decent value on pellet too. 
I do rate them as a brand, been around for years and trusted by a lot of bait makers for ingredients. 
 

youd probably be better splitting some basemix with a pop up mix to get a better wafter tbh. 
you’ve still got the matching waters and pop ups to make too!! 

[elmoputney]

1 hour ago, greekskii said:

I use a lot of AA products to be fair. Hydros or liquids mainly. Decent value on pellet too. 
I do rate them as a brand, been around for years and trusted by a lot of bait makers for ingredients. 
 

youd probably be better splitting some basemix with a pop up mix to get a better wafter tbh. 
you’ve still got the matching waters and pop ups to make too!! 

It wasn't a deliberate choice to add the fishmeal, more a happy accident tbh, I thought I would have enough for a 1 egg mix but it was still like angel delight when the bag run out. So to make something other than a mess I added a handful of basemix😂.

I am going to do match the hatch ones, I want the option for once I've got them on the bait. I've got some cork dust for those wafters and will probably use the AA Baits fishmeal pop up mix for the pop ups as people have added 30% basemix to those  successfully, I might try 50/50 and add cork dust if required. I don't want to make cork balls 

What essentially will probably  happen is that I will make a load of hookbaits to add to the collection of hookbaits I will probably never use 😂

 

 

[salokcinnodrog]

On 25/01/2026 at 06:51, greekskii said:

Will say having used a couple of pop up mixes in the past, the best I found was BAF before they stopped selling it. AA would be my choice if I ever make any more though. 

 

On 24/01/2026 at 19:48, elmoputney said:

I decided to start making bait for myself recently, now I've got a lot of the bits I needed I thought I would start with some hookbaits. Not perfectly round but good enough 😂

1egg, liquid preserve, 5ml creamy scopex, Betaine, milk B and butterscotch sweetener. Pop ups are mainline polaris dyed yellow and wafters are AA Baits pink wafter mix + a bit of tropamino basemix as I run out of wafter mix whilst mixing. I think the wafters turned out better  and actually came out fairly round, both do what are they meant too when attached to a rig so that's good, now air drying and will give them a splash of extra flavour once they are dried,then all I've got to do another time is match the hatch hookbaits and start rolling kilos and kilos of  boilies. 

Don't think I'll buy polaris again though will get some AA Baits pop up mix next time. I've also been using Copilot to make up loads of recipes, I've got 20kg of tropamino basemix to use up first though. But I've started down the rabbit hole. 

 

On 25/01/2026 at 10:07, emmcee said:

I always used the richworth pop up mix when I rolled bait. Not sure if its still available but it was good in my opinion.  

I used to use the BAF and Richworth pop-up mixes, they were consistent and worked, whereas the Mainline Polaris was not consistent, you could get a good batch that popped up brilliantly, or another tub that was awful.

 

Those baits do look like good baits, but you may need to test and redry them before adding the dash of extra flavour.  

 

I found a single egg mix usually gave me enough hookbaits for a season. The other thing with hookbaits is you can get away with higher flavour levels, the same amount of flavour in a single egg as you would use for a 4 or 6 egg mix.

[elmoputney]

They are still drying now as it's cold in the garage. The scopex comes through a little more each day but will probably make up a little scopex bait spray at some point. Definately more pleased with the wafters this time they should work just fine for my pva bag, I might add some black pepper as i think it's missing something. I have planned to add this previously but forgot to buy some 

I have gone with 5ml to start with in the hookbaits and thought i might start with 3ml a kilo in the feed baits. As I will be adding plenty of liquid hydro. 

[elmoputney]

Co pilot is brilliant for this sort of thing 3 minutes and bang I've got a recipe. 

[greekskii]

11 hours ago, elmoputney said:

I might add some black pepper as i think it's missing something.

You’d be 2/3 way to my pop up combo then! I use banana, scopex and BP Oil. Think it’s a great combo. Also added fructose as a sweetener. I did think maybe adding fine ground black pepper powder to gives some flecks in the finished mix.
 

Black pepper is great, I used to get mine from mother natures goodies but I don’t think it exists anymore. There’s a good place for EOs called oils4life which do 100% pures (also great bulk beard oils). 
 

I think the more you make, you’ll end up like me and move away from just the pop up mix, dye and flavours, you start to tinker with extra additives and things. Some nice toffee and vanilla powders out there which would compliment the scopex nicely.