Evening chaps,

Hope some of you helpful lot will be able to give me some guidance. I roll my own fishmeal bait which is an old mix I was given a long time ago and have used to great success. It is super soluble and goes soft and swells very quickly in the drink. Which is great for attraction purposes but not great for hookbaits! I've never been 100% happy with the durability of my hookbaits, cork balls especially. I've tried the woman's tights thing but once in a while I find it can catch on the hook which is no good for me, plus more faffing around. I hear you all shout add some egg albumen and whey gel! Well I'll tell what I do currently and hopefully someone can point me in right direction. I sieve the basemix as it's very coarse. I then add 800g to a bag and then add 100g each of whey gel and albumen and then mix. In the feed bait I used vecon and belachan but had to drop that out the corkballs and I found this gave them some more life but still with the hardeners and dropping the soluble pastes out I still find after 12hrs in the drink the corkballs skin has swollen and is very soft, so if I get picked up by birds I'm always paranoid the baits come off!

The mix has lamlac in it, is there a milk I swap in place of for a hookbaits only mix. I have wheatgerm in the mix as well, would it be worth dropping out as I understand this makes baits swell? What about the old school wheat gluten, that used to turn baits to rubber!? And tips for giving my hookbaits more longevity would be much appreciated

Regards,
Mike

Sounds like the Pete b base mix.

When I was on it years ago I added 10 percent egg albumen.

Did the trick.

In reply to Post #1
There's a few things that you can do Mike.

The first would be to change nothing whatsoever. Just go and purchase a finer sieve. Most people take a sieve from the kitchen cupboard, most sieves inside kitchen cupboards are far too large for sieving base mix. This for a start will make a big difference.

Second thing to do without changing your base mix, would be to soak the dry cork balls in egg white over night. You want enough egg white to soak them throughly, and for them still to be wet. Roll them around on some kitchen towel to remove excess egg. Place them straight into a bowl, and sprinkle egg alb all over them. Cover the bowl with some cling film, and put them back into the fridge. What you are looking for is a shiny sheen on the outside of the cork. This is a very strong glue. When you start rolling your cork balls, the moisture in your paste will reactivate that glue, without it all just blending together and becoming part of your paste. That's why it is important to dry the glue mix out in the fridge first. What this will do, is glue your mix to the cork. Do it properly, and if a coot attacks you after 24 hours, all that will come off of your hook baits is a tiny section of skin.... Not the whole lot as is happening now.

If you need to start playing with the base mix after that above. Forget whey gel, why would you want to turn your great bait to rubber? You might as well just go and buy some crappy pop up mix pop ups.

Try not to bind your mix up too much with egg alb. You can make your cork balls absolutely solid.... But also absolutely useless too. The solubility in your bait is a big part of what makes it work.

Get some blood powder or blood plasma from CC Moore. That will go far better with your fishmeal bait. Replace the wheatgerm with blood powder. This will harden them, without turning them into insoluble egg bound balls.

If that still does not get the desired effect, add egg alb up to 20% as a last resort.

In reply to Post #3
Very generous advice 👍🏻

In reply to Post #3
Evening chaps,

Thanks for the replies. It is the old cv mix from mr boughton. As I said in my first post, I use 10% albumen and 10% whey but they still don't last as long as I'd like. I didn't mentioned originally, I use blood plasma already at 5% in the feed bait so I can get it out in the stick!

Some nice tips TC, thank you. I shall look out for a fine sieve, as you are correct I just use the one in the kitchen! I already use your corkballs soak method and I roll them in albumen, I swear I got that from yourself in the past. The whole skin doesn't come off, just chunks as it's very soft but as I'm old and set in my ways I always floss my baits so they could get pulled off quite easy after 24hrs in the drink. As much as I'd love to keep the mix the same as the bait unfortunately I'm going to have to tweak it, just unsure on which ingredients are best for it

In reply to Post #5
I'd forget the liquid egg white and just use damp corkballs maybe soaked in your attractors and then dabbed dry and rolled in a small amount of egg albumen. I've done this for years now and trust me the paste sticks to the corkballs like shi* to a blanket. Instead of sieving the mix, blitz it in a coffee grinder or nutribullet, you'll break down all the lumps and have added attraction to boot.
Are you just hand rolling the baits? If so try using one of the presses available and a rollaball to finish them off, it will compress the paste much better than hand rolling them

In reply to Post #6
Hi Hadrian,

Thanks for your reply. I use a press mate, then finish them off on a table.

As other have said, ground down the normal base mix then add 10% egg albumin which should work. If that is still not enough then maybe up to 5% Blood Plasma (not Blood Powder, that will change the bait quite a bit) as well as the albumin.

In reply to Post #5
Try using a blend of egg alb - 1.5%, maize flour - 5%, wheat gluten 1.5%, whey gel (HG80) 2%. All % are of total dry mix, and will depend slightly on the solubles being used, getting the balance takes time so keep testing in your kitchen..

Pestle and mortar the dry ingredients for at least 5 mins before sieving helps too,

In reply to Post #3
excellent info, i'll give it a go next time i make me popups.