In reply to Post #18
Nutrabaits n-butyric acid smells very similar to EEE squid. Same cheesy sour rancid smell so I'm sure it contains at least some NBA. Got three original tubs of EEE powder left, so could make a direct comparison.

In reply to Post #45
Awesome thanks Ken. Sounds like a worthy ingredient for sure. I see many potential uses for it. Ingredients like PTX are sold on having insects in it. It seems a lot more effective just using pure insect meal now it's easily available. Savoury seed mixes, milk protein mixes all sound good matches. Perhaps at 10% in a fishmeal bait wouldn't be a bad idea either.

In reply to Post #43
How do you rate the pulling power of the silkworm meal?

In reply to Post #123
123 posts from members all encouraging each other to short cut a British inventor and patent holder in favour of some Chinese thieving scumbags.

Embarrasing moment for the forum

In reply to Post #77
If you are having trouble with the bm1 being too soft for your particular application, I would recommend swapping the soya flour for rice flour or maize flour. This made the necessary difference in a basemix I have used for quite a few years to good effect. 2-3% blood powder seriously firms up the bait (I would think whey gel or blood plasma is comparable). Another simple trick is to sieve the mix for the hookbaits and boil those 30 secs longer than normal. Usually makes them a bit firmer for bit longer.

In reply to Post #68
So basically you are saying get your protein/nutrition requirements from a quality fishmeal source with a degree of solubility and bulk it out with other functional ingredients to get it to roll?

Yes basically, but also keep an eye on things like hardness of finished baits, fat content, density, attraction and price. For instance, baby powders are very high in fat, which can be both good and bad. For instance, if you rate the attraction powers of fish oils above those of cow fat you should keep baby powders low or out completely. If you plan on using it in winter time, they'll solidify and you should consider skipping them as well.

Btw. it makes little sense comparing blood powder and robin red imo. They are two totally different meals with completely different purposes. Robin red wont harden nor bind a bait, it's main purpose is to attract. Blood powder is usually added to harden a bait, and how attractive it is questionable depending on who you ask. I personally think it's nice in quantities <5%, but don't like it at higher levels.

What's important is that there are many ways to achieve the same things, and one approach can be as good as another. However, the cheaper you can achieve the same quality the more free you are to use the amounts needed at any given time, and that will catch you more fish in the long run.

In reply to Post #65
Yeah, I meant that I would totally skip concentrated milk proteins like whey, casein etc. in a bait that already have such a high protein content and also up the predigested and lower the Vitamealo.

All of the functional milk proteins can be easily substituted using much cheaper and equally function ingredients (for the that function). For instance, whey gel binds and hardens, but so does gluten and blood powder together. 30 mesh hardens a bait, but no more than polenta or coarse rice or semo flour, costing a fraction... some people believe that carp love the taste of milk proteins, if you're one of those go for it. I don't put particular high faith in the attraction properties of most milks - maybe with the exception of calcium caseinate, and that's only because Hutchie have praised it no end. Even Rod attributed the effectiveness of CaCas to it being soluble, not necessarily because of it's inherent taste/smell.

Vitamealo is most often used to increase the solubility of a bait, i.e. increasing the leakage of food signals.
I haven't been able to do a fair comparison between milk powders like Vitamealo and predigested fish meal, as the lakes I fish these days are extremely low stocked with few takes per season. But my intuition and general experience with bait making tells me that a soluble predigested would beat Vitamealo easily. I plan to try using 20% predigested. Can't see why it should only be used at such low levels - unless of course you need a hard insoluble (less attractive) bait for some specific purpose.

In reply to Post #54
I usually don't use much more than 3% blood powder as it starts dominating the bait, and the powder I use will make the bait extremely dark at higher levels. It stinks horrific but is one of the best and cheapest hardeners around.

Wouldn't bother with low levels of milk proteins with all that fish protein in already and I would up the predigested to at least 10% at the cost of Vitamealo. It's a question of solubility and I'd rather have that from predigested fish meal than from milk powders.

You should also consider trying other fishmeals out. LT94 is a good fishmeal yes, but it's way overhyped with totally ridiculous claims about it being head and shoulders better than others. It seems to be used in 90% of fishmeal based baits, so if you wish to stand out use something else. I have tried many equally good mealsl my favorite being sandeel meal - brilliant!

Don't rate soya flour as it makes the baits go soft imo. Will rather stick 2-3% of gluten in there if it wont roll. 10% of polenta is included in most of my recipes as it aids rolling, hardens the boiled baits and makes baits easier to break down by the carp.