Predigested fishmeal is a rather expensive technical ingredient. I dealt with the various types of animal meal in the dedicated chapter of my book The Bait Guru, if you haven't read it I suggest you download the free PDF form which, although limited in content, deals with the topic of animal meal.
(click here to download the book in PDF for free)
Basically there are two types of product on the market: the Chilean predigested and the CPSP (concentrated fish proteins) with different costs depending on the quality and the processes used to obtain the finished material.
Unfortunately, the exit of England from Europe has made it difficult to find this type of products through conventional channels and in any case, companies with the possibility of trading on the European continent have significantly raised their prices to cover the higher expenses.
For this reason, many have begun to ask me if they can be obtained through the wrong way.
Let's say that the Chilean origin of the acid hydrolysis product does not cover trade directives that are easily exploitable for us Italians and that we are therefore forced to submit to duties and parallel imports.
But I want to relaunch with a suitable solution to our extreme self-maker habits ready to replicate any production process in the home environment!
In fact, I have already explained to you how to predigest small fish with a homemade method called "Garum" that many have already successfully applied to obtain an excellent liquid food at no cost!
Famous is the example of that carp angler with friends who compete in trout fishing in the lake, which every week provide him with a few kg. of competition trout that he transforms at no cost into liquid food with exceptional fishing yield!
(click here to read how the predigestion of homemade fish is done)
You must think that even the powdered fishmeal you buy are born from a liquid food because the phases of fermentation and acid hydrolysis, or enzymatic, are practiced on a mash of ground and blended fish, which then become flour.
At this point it is easy to understand that from our beautiful and ready garum we can obtain two distinct products. predigested fishmeal powder is a very liquid super concentrated liquid food.
The system is very simple, just blend the garum well and then filter it through a gauze filter of those used for the production of beer.
it is a very resistant bag with a thin weave where we will introduce our liquid food mash that we will filter by creating a good pressure by rolling the bag itself strongly. From one end a more transparent liquid than the starting slurry will drip, which represents the concentrate of the juices and the taste of the fish and which will prove to be a powerful attractant to be dosed from 30 ml. per kg. of mix to rise, while the fibrous, protein and nutritive part of the garum will remain in the gauze sack, in the form of a dense and moist paste.
To obtain the flour it will be sufficient to roll out this dough on a pan with a maximum thickness of one centimeter and then leave it to dry in a dry and ventilated place (you can use an electric fan for this purpose) or, speeding up the process, placing the pan in a ventilated oven at 50 degrees until everything dries.
At this point we are going to roughly break this crust that has been created, subsequently micronizing it to the preferred extent using a chopper or better the grain mill.
obviously you can directly dry the garum, spreading it on the usual pan in a maximum thickness of one centimeter and putting it in a ventilated oven at a maximum temperature of 50-60 degrees C for the time necessary for complete drying (obtaining a predigested LT), but I like it more idea of creating both flour and dedicated liquid food. You decide...
And here is our pre-digested self-made fishmeal, very nutritious, digestible and tasty.
Useful for making fishmix baits that work very well even under the fateful threshold of 15 ° C of water.
a base could be a light fish mix as follows:
30% Biskò bird food
25% predigested fish meal self made
20% roasted soy
15% wheat germ
10% skimmed milk powder
Simple, digestible and tasty!
To be rolled with a good dosage of our concentrated fish sauce, say 40 ml. per kg. 40 ml. of propylene glycol to keep the baits soft and hydrated (essential in winter with cold water), 20 ml. of pomegranate vinegar (acidic ester attraction, the fastest in cold water) and a good acid fruity aroma to be dosed at half the amount indicated by the manufacturer, all sweetened with a minimum dose of NHDC.
I leave you in the gallery the photos of the garum, the filtered liquid and the steps.
