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corkball making guide
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Karlos

Posts: 13060

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#35

11 Sept 2023 at 10.37am

You will need:
Flour sieve, egg albumin, eggs, base mix, flavours, corks, oil, mixing bowls and fork, small bowl of sunflower oil, a tray, boiling pot, drying tray, patience!

Base mix preparation:
Get a flour sieve, and sieve your mix thoroughly, helping the mix through the sieve with your fingers. Chuck out what remains in the sieve (i.e. the big bits). Add egg albumin at 5% (so 50g per kilo) – with nut mixes it helps to also add whey at 2.5% (25g per kilo) as well as the albumin. You can go higher than 5% for a really hard bait, but you'll find they are more prone to cracking

Cork ball preparation:
Pour some cork balls into a container (empty ice cream tub is ideal, that sort of size). In a cup, crack one whole egg, then crack another egg but only put the yolk in the cup, discard the white (or save it for making the paste, see “paste”). You then have a whole egg plus a yolk in the cup. Whisk with a fork, really well. Tip SOME of this mix over your cork, and stir well. The right amount will leave all the baits well coated, without a great big puddle. Set this aside while you make your paste (this gives time for the egg to partially soak into the cork). Remember for 16mm baits you will need 12mm corks, for 14mm baits 10mm corks.

Paste preparation:
THE MOST IMPORTANT BIT of the whole process so take your time and get it spot on. This volume of egg will give you about 150 – 250 baits depending on the mix and the level of liquid flavours included.
Break two eggs (whole) into a bowl. Add the white that you saved from the cork ball prep, or crack another egg and carefully only add the white. You now have an egg mix that is naturally “heavy” in albumin. You can go even further and use 50% whole egg and 50% white, this will give a really hard bait but they will be a little more prone to cracking.
Add your flavours to the egg. As a general rule
- To match your free baits, use normal levels plus a half (so if it is 1ml per egg, use 1.5ml)
- For extra strong hook baits, use 3 to 5 times the recommended level (works well with fruitier flavours in particular)

Now add a LITTLE bit of oil (with the exception of B5 or a bait that is naturally oily, in which case use no oil at all). A teaspoon full (5ml) is plenty. For fishmeals use either salmon oil, or sunflower oil. For nut use sunflower, rapeseed, sesame. Mix well with a fork.

Add your base mix to the egg mix, slowly, until it is sloppy. Now leave it, for at least 10 minutes, to absorb. Go back to it, and continue adding mix until it is sticky, but you can form it into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and leave for another 10 minutes. I can’t stress enough that you must leave it to absorb, if you don’t it will be absorbing liquids while you are working with it and drying too quickly. A good paste will be nice and soft, but not overly sticky, certainly a little softer than if you were rolling "standard" paste.

Go back to your cork balls, give them a stir. They will have darkened a bit and absorbed a bit of egg, if you need to add a bit more of the egg mix to them to really coat them, then do it.

Get yourself organised, you will need a lightly oiled try to put the rolled baits onto prior to boiling, a normal tea try is fine, just give it a wipe with a cloth with some sunflower oil on it, this will stop the baits sticking to it. Also get a small pot of sunflower oil, this will be used to lightly coat your finger tips and helps stop the paste from wanting to stick to you and not the cork ball! Get your boiling pot on the go.

For a 16mm bait, you want to “nip” a bit of paste off the ball of paste you have made, that is almost exactly the same size when rolled round as the 12mm cork ball itself. The easiest way to do that, is to break a piece of paste off, roll it into a sausage that’s about 12mm in diameter, then chop it with a sharp knife into little pieces. Roll one of the pieces up – if it’s the same size as the cork you’re laughing. Work in small batches, keeping the rest of the paste clingfilmed until needed. Take one of the pieces of paste, push your cork (soaked in egg) into it, then carefully pull the paste round it, trying to get a nice even coating of paste all the way round. If you find the paste is sticking to you as you are doing this, and pulling off the cork, start again with a new bit but oil your fingers lightly first.

You will find that the egg on the cork does two things…firstly and most importantly it allows you to slide the paste nicely over the cork without it leaving the cork and letting air in. Secondly it sticks the paste to the cork nicely. The hardest bit is the closure, i.e. when the paste is almost all the way round and you need to join it up to seal the whole lot. Be careful to squeeze any air that you have trapped out at this stage, ideally as you close up you will see the liquid egg off the cork ball be pushed out of the gap, that is perfect if you can do it. Now you have 2 choices, either roll the cork ball by hand, between your palms, until it is round then carefully put it on the tray for boiling, or roughly form it into a ball, and then finish it on a rolling table before boiling – that is better by far.

When you have enough baits, drop them into boiling water for 60 seconds, stirring constantly to keep them moving – if you don’t do that they will not cook evenly at all. Don’t be too disheartened if some of them distort a little when boiling, as long as they don’t really “blow up” you’ll be fine….if they do “blow up” (you will notice a huge bulge appear in the paste) your technique is wrong and you have trapped some air between paste and cork when you are making them.

Finishing:
Right so you have your rolled baits. Now you need to dry and finish them. Drying is best carried out in a decent air dry tray (speak to your local farm shop and ask if they have any of th

runneil

Posts: 1758

#34 8 Sept 2023 at 9.47am

In reply to Post #33
I've often thought about adding a bit of fish oil to my cork ball pop ups, but always thought it would eventually go off / rancid, especially in warmer weather . Same as fish sauce etc.

chrispfox

Posts: 408

#33 13 Apr 2021 at 11.33am

In reply to Post #32
Having followed Matt's guide I left my fishy corkball pop ups to dry for a week. Then began soaking them in fish sauce and adding a few other little bits. That was a while back and they are fine. Did some harder hookbaits as well from the same paste.

bigappleslice

Posts: 521

#32 13 Apr 2021 at 7.12am

In reply to Post #29
you can soak them in VG (Vegetable glycerin) once dried for a week. this will keep them preserved.
personally once dried i just use them out of the pot.

Hudson

Posts: 1360

#31 12 Apr 2021 at 8.50pm

In reply to Post #29
Want to know the answer to this myself.

Anyone?

carpysmithers

Posts: 68

#30 24 Feb 2021 at 9.39pm

Just bought one of these to improve my cork ball rolling. Had a go tonight, awseome, perfecto pop ups every time!

https://www.ccmoore.com/cork-ball-pop-up-roller-p-2458.html

HG_CARPING

Posts: 133

#29 6 Feb 2021 at 1.41am

In reply to Post #2
Any idea how to preserve them? Was thinking of just air drying untill rock solid then re hydrating in hydro and once the hydro is nearly all the way soaked in to coat the baits with various powders. Or would i be better off leaving them in a pot of salt/rice?

jhhilton1983

Posts: 1648

#28 23 Dec 2020 at 2.54pm

In reply to Post #27
POP UPS

You will need
Flour sieve, egg albumin, eggs, basemix, flavours, corks, oil, mixing bowls and fork, small bowl of sunflower oil, a tray, boiling pot, drying tray, patience!

Basemix preparation
Get a flour sieve, and sieve your mix thoroughly, helping the mix through the sieve with your fingers. Chuck out what remains in the sieve (i.e. the big bits). Add egg albumin at 5% (so 50g per kilo) – with nut mixes it helps to also add whey at 2.5% (25g per kilo) as well as the albumin. You can go higher than 5% for a really hard bait, but you'll find they are more prone to cracking

Corkball preparation
Pour some corkballs into a container (empty ice cream tub is ideal, that sort of size). In a cup, crack one whole egg, then crack another egg but only put the yolk in the cup, discard the white (or save it for making the paste, see “paste”). You then have a whole egg plus a yolk in the cup. Whisk with a fork, really well. Tip SOME of this mix over your cork, and stir well. The right amount will leave all the baits well coated, without a great big puddle. Set this aside while you make your paste (this gives time for the egg to partially soak into the cork). Remember for 16mm baits you will need 12mm corks, for 14mm baits 10mm corks.

Paste preparation
THE MOST IMPORTANT BIT of the whole process so take your time and get it spot on. This volume of egg will give you about 150 – 250 baits depending on the mix and the level of liquid flavours included.
Break two eggs (whole) into a bowl. Add the white that you saved from the corkball prep, or crack another egg and carefully only add the white. You now have an egg mix that is naturally “heavy” in albumin. You can go even further and use 50% whole egg and 50% white, this will give a really hard bait but they will be a little more prone to cracking.
Add your flavours to the egg. As a general rule
- To match your free baits, use normal levels plus a half (so if it is 1ml per egg, use 1.5ml)
- For extra strong hookbaits, use 3 to 5 times the recommended level (works well with fruitier flavours in particular)

Now add a LITTLE bit of oil (with the exception of B5 or a bait that is naturally oily, in which case use no oil at all). A teaspoon full (5ml) is plenty. For fishmeals use either salmon oil, or sunflower oil. For nut use sunflower, rapeseed, sesame. Mix well with a fork.

Add your basemix to the egg mix, slowly, until it is sloppy. Now leave it, for at least 10 minutes, to absorb. Go back to it, and continue adding mix until it is sticky, but you can form it into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and leave for another 10 minutes. I can’t stress enough that you must leave it to absorb, if you don’t it will be absorbing liquids while you are working with it and drying too quickly. A good paste will be nice and soft, but not overly sticky, certainly a little softer than if you were rolling "standard" paste.

Go back to your corkballs, give them a stir. They will have darkened a bit and absorbed a bit of egg, if you need to add a bit more of the egg mix to them to really coat them, then do it.

Get yourself organised, you will need a lightly oiled try to put the rolled baits onto prior to boiling, a normal tea try is fine, just give it a wipe with a cloth with some sunflower oil on it, this will stop the baits sticking to it. Also get a small pot of sunflower oil, this will be used to lightly coat your finger tips and helps stop the paste from wanting to stick to you and not the corkball! Get your boiling pot on the go.

For a 16mm bait, you want to “nip” a bit of paste off the ball of paste you have made, that is almost exactly the same size when rolled round as the 12mm corkball itself. The easiest way to do that, is to break a piece of paste off, roll it into a sausage that’s about 12mm in diameter, then chop it with a sharp knife into little pieces. Roll one of the pieces up – if it’s the same size as the cork you’re laughing. Work in small batches, keeping the rest of the paste clingfilmed until needed. Take one of the pieces of paste, push your cork (soaked in egg) into it, then carefully pull the paste round it, trying to get a nice even coating of paste all the way round. If you find the paste is sticking to you as you are doing this, and pulling off the cork, start again with a new bit but oil your fingers lightly first.

You will find that the egg on the cork does two things…firstly and most importantly it allows you to slide the paste nicely over the cork without it leaving the cork and letting air in. Secondly it sticks the paste to the cork nicely. The hardest bit is the closure, i.e. when the paste is almost all the way round and you need to join it up to seal the whole lot. Be careful to squeeze any air that you have trapped out at this stage, ideally as you close up you will see the liquid egg off the corkball be pushed out of the gap, that is perfect if you can do it. Now you have 2 choices, either roll the corkball by hand, between your palms, until it is round then carefully put it on the tray for boiling, or roughly form it into a ball, and then finish it on a rolling table before boiling – that is better by far.

When you have enough baits, drop them into boiling water for 60 seconds, stirring constantly to keep them moving – if you don’t do that they will not cook evenly at all. Don’t be too disheartened if some of them distort a little when boiling, as long as they don’t really “blow up” you’ll be fine….if they do “blow up” (you will notice a huge bulge appear in the paste) your technique is wrong and you have trapped some air between paste and cork when you are making them.

Halfcentury

Posts: 1284

#27 28 Mar 2020 at 7.47pm

In reply to Post #23
Unless you are going into business that is, forgive me for saying, an awful lot of balls.

HG_CARPING

Posts: 133

#26 28 Mar 2020 at 5.26pm

In reply to Post #2
Hi looking at making corkball pop ups. can anyone give me a mix for corkball pop ups?

AJM123

Posts: 557

#25 12 Aug 2019 at 3.04pm

Has the Corkball Guide been removed?
I can't seem to find it and would of liked a read before attempting to make my own.

Boycie

Posts: 6408

#24 5 Jan 2019 at 10.18pm

In reply to Post #23
You don't want the cheapest, you want the best quality.

yellowpop-up

Posts: 25

#23 5 Jan 2019 at 10.29am

In reply to Post #1
Where is the cheapest place to buy corkballs from please. 8 +10mm I have been on eBay .depending on price I want 500-1000 off each cheers

Boycie

Posts: 6408

#22 4 Sept 2018 at 1.19pm

In reply to Post #21

snowman01

Posts: 525

#20 21 Jun 2017 at 11.40am

In reply to Post #1
Cheers mate. Made my first batch of 20 monday, turned out geat!


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