Every carp angler's dream is to set his bait on a fine sand or gravel bed, in water that is crystal clear and oxygenated to the depths.
Often this condition, which is characteristic of very clean lakes and rivers, remains a dream in the drawer, or is relegated to particular periods of the year.
On the other hand, it happens quite often (according to your many questions) that you have to fish in fairly clean waters, but with acidic bottoms, with decaying material, or covered with a layer of anoxic slime.
For purely chemical reasons, normal boilies, especially those that are very acidic as an attraction, are INVISIBLE to fish as soon as they are covered with a light layer of acidifying slime.
The fish will still feed by sinking its snout into the soft layer, but will struggle to find the individual bait, while it exploits the amine (basic) traces of the natural food.
The main practical solution to the problem, when it is not too pronounced, is to fish slightly in suspension with pop-up boilies, perhaps very visible, by contrast, with the colour of the bottom.
The solution we want to analyse in this pill is of a more complex nature and will include the mechanical component of the bait, the chemical component, the attractive component and the surrounding bait.
In this first episode we will analyse the surrounding bait, that is to say the bait placed near the terminal.
We have realised that throwing handfuls of bait pumped up with liquid food and acidic flavours does not do much good. it is practically a useless expense which does not improve performance or fishing yield.
it is better to prepare very simple boilies, based on medium nutritional mixes, such as many of the bird food or bird fish presented on the website (or the eco versions of the latest guru pills) rolled without liquid food, only with eggs and with 50-100 grams of shrimp meal added, in order to make the specific weight slightly higher than neutral, to avoid them sinking into the slime.
The percentage of this ingredient will obviously have to be verified with a few tests carried out on small quantities, so as not to risk bait that is too light!
During the mixing stage, we will add a medium dose of basic flavouring, the same as the baits of course (the choice falls on squid, the most suitable flavouring for these bottoms, combined with citrus essences, but we will talk about this in the next pill), a stevia sweetener and black garlic, a slightly alkaline attractant.
But the boilies will only be a supplement to the real bait, which will have a "buffer" effect, i.e. it will stabilise the pH of the water. This will have a "buffer" effect, i.e. it will stabilise the pH of the portion of the bottom subject to our action.
It will be a method composed of bread, corn flakes, clay and bicarbonate.
The recipe will be composed as follows:
-30% corn flakes
-30% dry bread
-30% powdered clay
-10% bicarbonate of soda
The bread will obviously be micronised and mixed with the other solid ingredients, which will then be kneaded on the fishing site, directly with the water from the lake.
We will make balls of bait the size of an orange and inside each ball we will put a spoonful of citrosodine, effervescent Brioschi or hydrolitine, also in tablet form which are easier to integrate.
These ingredients, placed in the centre of the ball, will promote disintegration, buffer acidity and create a column of attractive micro-bubbles.
Our action will be extremely targeted, creating a square metre of sector, using about ten balls per primer.
The effervescent substances can also be placed in a pva bag containing the bait and the crumbled bait boilie).
In the prepared area we will complete the feeding stimulus with a few handfuls of bait boilies.
Having analysed how to create the right bait ground on which to place our strategic bait in the midst of anoxic, putrid and acidic bottom, let's look at how to create a technically flawless boilie.
Our pellet will be structured to absorb as little as possible of the putrid smells of the seabed and for this to happen, there must be a high potential difference between the inside of the bait and the environment.
This will be achieved by working on the structure of the bait and the basic combination of its primary attractors and taste buds.
In addition, as mentioned in the previous pill, the bait will be neutral in terms of specific weight, or pop up at your discretion.
The solid base of the project will be the 50/50 mix, with the addition of calcium caseinate, agar-agar and calcium powder, to create a light structure and closed to the entrance of the stinking acid miasmas.
the base:
-800 grams 50/50 mix
-100 grams of calcium caseinate
-70 grams of calcium powder
-30 grams of agar-agar powder
As a flavour component we will use garlic cream, (I prefer black garlic which is a fermented form with a particular taste), which we will mix with propylene glycol to make it more liquid.
The aromatic component is provided by the squid aroma, which is composed of aromatic amines and therefore very basic, combined with citrus oleoresins.
We will also include vitamin C in the form of calcium ascorbate, a non-acidic product.
To further buffer the bait, we use liquid products intended to increase the pH in aquaria, or pharmaceutical ammonia (30% solution).
THESE BAITS ARE HOOKBAIT AND AS SUCH ARE NOT USED FOR FEEDING THE FISH.
This is why we can afford operations that would otherwise be potentially dangerous if used in bait that is used in abundance and eaten by fish.
Finally, we sweeten with concentrated Stevia, a sweetener that is not too acidic.
For the liquid part, dose for 1 kilogram of mix:
-100 grams cream of black garlic
-30 grams calcium ascorbate
-50 ml propylene glycol
-12 ml squid flavouring
-10 ml stevia sweetener
-3 ml. mixed citrus essential oil
-2 ml. 30% pharmaceutical ammonia
We mix the ingredients very well and then knead them with the kilogram of mix until completely blended.
Then add one egg at a time until it reaches a consistency suitable for extruding and rolling.
Let the rolled balls rest for a few hours before baking, which must be done by steaming for at least 5 minutes, in the 20 mm size.
It is advisable to freeze these bait balls after they have dried for a few nights to preserve their characteristic porosity and softness, which is very important for fishing efficiency.
As they are balanced by the weight of the hook they can be made to pop up simply by creating a snowman with a small diameter commercial pop up squid.
Ingredients in the gallery
In my book Boilies you can find specific recipes for these bottoms.
