Was hoping for a few peoples opinions/advice on this mix. Not sure if I should drop the fish meals to 40% but then don't know what I'd use to fill the 10% gap with. Maybe additives as currently I'm just working out my 1kg mix without including them and then adding them on top?

Squid meal - 100g
Sardine & anchovy meal - 200g
LT94 - 100g
CPSP90 - 100g
CLO - 200g
Lamlac - 90g
Acid casein - 50g
Rennet casein - 50g
Lactalbumen- 40g
WPC80 - 20g
Kelp powder - 30g
BAF ultimate Spice blend - 20g

Without including liquid and powdered additives that works out at £6.55 per kg which should roughly translate to £4.40 per kg of rolled bait. Though I had considered the option of substituting the expensive milk proteins for 75g each of soya and semo and an extra 10g of lamlac to reduce cost to £4.25 (£2.90 per kg of rolled bait)

This is going to be my first time rolling my own bait. Just want to get a solid base that I can then alter flavours, oils and additives as I go along and find what works best for me. Thanks in advance

In reply to Post #1
Its not bad and everyone will have there own ideas but this is what I would do for a first mix. As a first mix expect to bin some to start off with, a bit of trial and error is needed to get it useable. With that in mind I would look at starting out with lower cost, maybe drop the milks to start off with (or just try one casein and build it up after test mixes)?

Squid meal is very variable in supply so I don't use it. Nothing worse that getting your bait sorted and then the next batch is totally different

For a first mix I would tend to just stick with one fishmeal (LT94) at 30% not two, the difference is tiny and again saves cost as you will be buying more LT94 and might get to the next price break

For a similar reason to Squid meal I don't generally use CLO, it changes from supplier to supplier and batch to batch. However its not a bad place to start. Depending on what supplier you use 20% might make the bait very course or might not...hence I don't use it. I went to my local pet shop and looked at loads of different bird foods, found one I liked the look of and got a 10Kg bag...much cheaper than CLO with 'carp tax' added. The bird food I use can go up to 35-40% in a mix without any issues.

Kelp powder comes in different coarseness, just like CLO! If you CLO/bird food is not too course you can go higher on the Kelp, I have used up to 6% in a bait that worked really well for many years.

You should include the addictives in the total and don't add too many, the mix already has a lot of attraction in it.

Don't be worried about adding 'bulk' ingredients. The mix you have is probably higher in nutrition than a carp can fully digest....so you are sort of throwing money away. Semolina, Soya, Maize meal all have a place even in a really good bait. Personally I find fish love the taste of maize meal and it can bring a mix together at the rolling stage.

Add a vitamin supplement, 5-10g/kg os Selenavite E would be my choice.

Approach it all as a bait that will need to be developed. It will not be right first time. Once you get it right stick with it, I have several mixes I make and one I have used for well over 10 years with no changes.

In reply to Post #2
Thanks I appreciate the advice, will have a a reshuffle of things and include my powdered additives and post the updated mix. Selenavite was soemthing I'd considered as I was sure about the vitamin content, does it have any taste/smell to it?

A lot of the main ingredients will be from BAF as they're about 5 mins from house, claim they have the original sluis CLO recipe so will probs stick with the 20% for now. Although it is more expensive from them I rate them highly.

Am I right in thinking maize meal with semo instead of soya meal?

And has anyone had any experience using silkworm meal? Can't find much about it online but it is quiet expensive

In reply to Post #3
I have been playing with a combo of semo, maize flour and micronized soya as the binders in a mix and its nice to be fair...and very cheap. The micronized soya is coarser than the flour so it gives a nice bit of texture. Whack in some fishmeal and some Lamlac and it'll catch any carp that swims

In reply to Post #4
I would only use 1 fish meal with a predigested fish meal and certainly only one milk powder. Great advice from smurf

I was told by someone I won't name but who knows what he is talking about that there is not a commercial bait on the market that costs more than £2.50/kg. in raw materials. Therefore it's not difficult for a home rolled bait to be superior to a commercial bait. You just have to decide what sort of bait you need for your water/ circumstances and the quantity of bait you think you need to introduce to gain an advantage. Not all variables are the same for every water or at all times of the year.

My only other worry was solubility as my understanding is that you want 25% max and some of the milk proteins are classed as part soluble so I wasn't sure if I'd of included or not.

I'm not overly worried about cost and are happy to up to £6 per kg of rolled bait (I get my eggs for free) if I feel it's worth it and is an edge over stuff off the shelf especially as that's still considerably cheaper than shop bought bait

In reply to Post #6
Thats a very good point about the price of frozen readymades but they buy tonnes of each ingredient at a time and this will bring the price down considerably compared to what we pay for 5 or 10 kilo's of fishmeal or whatever. But i do agree most well thought out homemade baits will be far superior. I do wonder sometimes if we are just overcomplicating it all though.

In reply to Post #6
I'm not from UK but my homemade bait for “massive” baiting (feeding boilies) is regulary under <2,5£
It is simple, Carp love it and I'm happy with that
In my hookbait boilie I put some better stuff and it is under 4£ and catch Carp regulary
If someone want I can write recipe

In reply to Post #7
Personally I'd stick to 20% solubility for a ceiling unless fishing a pond free of nuisance fish!

Also, if I were you, id give that mix a go, there's no substitute for experience and you only get that by giving it a go yourself.

In reply to Post #9
Interested in your mix mate

I've posted it on here countless times but this is a simple, very effective bait that is cheap and is easily tweaked:

40% LT94
20% Lamlac
20% CLO
20% Semo/ semo and maize flour mix

BAF spice blend is a good addition to this, along with a nice glug of fish/ krill hydro If you like you can substitute some of the Lamlac for CPSP90 but IMO the cost outweighs the advantages. I've also had positive feedback from a few guys on here who have tried it - a simple mix that covers all of the bases.

Going to be going back to a variation of this bait myself next year

In reply to Post #10
Thanks for advice, current water has no nuisance fish but will probably still aim for around 20-22% to be safe. Is there anyway to accurately calculate the solubility of a mix when it's contains certain semi soluble ingredients, that's the bit I've been struggling to get head round.

The mix I've got together now after the advice on here is as follows but I'm not 100% sure on its solubility, I think it's to high.

Shrimp meal 150g
LT94 150g
CPSP90 100g
CLO 200g
Early mentioned milk protein combination 160g
Lamlac 90g
Yeast 40g
Chicken liver 40g
Kelp 30g
Selenavite E 15g
Spice mix 20g
Betaine 5g
- Total £4.65 per kg of rolled bait (not including liquid attractors)

I'm not fixed on the shrimp meal I just know I don't want only LT94 and I don't want krill as that's in everything. Something like shrimp, squid, silkworm, poultry or feather meal to be different depending on liquid attractor package.

In reply to Post #12
are you making wafters with 150g shrimp? what is wrong with just LT? There isnt carp swimming that will turn away from lt...

In reply to Post #11
Yeah I like that a lot, simple but seams to have most things covered and as you said is easily tweaked. I'm still not 100% on the inclusion of milk proteins as I've seen so many mixed opinions on them.

Soemthing like that but 10% pre digested for 10% lamlac and then maybe reduce LT94 by 10% for powdered additives?

Think im going to end up rolling 2 mixes with same attractor package Just one with the milk protein blend and one with soya/semo/maize as substituting for it and then fish them off against each other over the season and compare.

In reply to Post #13
There isn't a problem it's just wanting to do something different from the norm and what's stocked on every shelf.

I've seen that shrimp is a light meal but was just going to do test batches an alter the shrimp to LT94 until it's sinking well. Only the same as krill and crayfish meals I believe in as they are light as well

In reply to Post #13
Agreed, I think that may float and not roll too well. I'd keep Shrimp at max 5%. If you really like shrimp at that high level, you may need some oyster shell or limestone flour to add weight.

In reply to Post #16
Here is one of my boilie recipe for massive baiting “feeding boilie” or prebaiting on my lake
IT is simple and cheap
10kilo mix and 70-80 eggs

2kg crushed halibut pellets (put in machine and make flour granulation from pellets)
1kg sardine anchovy meal
500g predigested fishmeal
500g Soya flour
1kg vitamelo
1kg blended crushed Bird seeds or hemp flour
2kg crushed pellets for small birds or pigeons(contain main seeds in agroculture with vitamins,minerals and yeast)
2kg semolina
Oil,sweetener and flavour (most use AAbaits) best one monster mulberry,squid plum,squid e12,monster shellfish sense appeal,...
Most od this I buy very cheap, for example vitamelo and sardine meal about 1£/kg

In reply to Post #6
Think your missing the economy of scale factor out, as in they will be producing say 10 tons of Sticky Krill so will buy in bulk on raw ingredients and which will be hugely cheaper per kg compare to a home roller buying 10kg from BAF.

I can agree with the statement though - £2.50 on raw materials, plus the usual overheads on top sounds about right per kg. Could possibly be a lot small then that for the likes of Mainline, Sticky, Nash.

In reply to Post #15
Krill and LT94 are more digestible than crayfish meal, which can have a lot of Ash content in it.

I came to the conclusion a while back that's it's almost as cost effective just to buy a base mix such as the trop' from BAF, compared to buying all the separate ingredients and incurring multiple postage costs and potential wastage.

In reply to Post #15
The problem with putting together a bait with contribution from others is that you end up with a bait the same as all the others, your bait will catch fish, no doubt, but try to think beyond the physical form of bait with what you are trying to achieve and you could go one better..

In reply to Post #21
If you look at most base mixes put online
Most go for pre digested fish meal , glm, liver etc
Basically we are drawn to what we read works , so add the ingredient
Maybe use a base of fillers and add one or two key ingredients and see
Where this takes you
If you are lucky enough to be able to offer carp the feed whilst not fishing
And observe there reactions , so much the better

In reply to Post #11
@bristol

Very good base mix indeed. Very similar to my standard mix, instead of Lamlac I use Acid Casein and instead of CLO I use megablend or PTX.

Chuck a bit of Fenugreek and Brocacel in their with a few other spices with a hydro of your choice and you got a great carp catcher!

Very adaptable too...