What's a Boilie and Why Should I Use Them?

Anyone getting into European style fishing for carp is eventually going to come across the boilie. The boilie to the European's has an almost magical quality. To be honest, much of the magic is built on advertising hype. Boilie's are big business in Europe and bait companies make serious money selling their wares. Simply put, boilie's are pastes or dough, mixed with eggs and boiled so that they have a hard outer skin. Boilie's shouldn't be looked at as a magical bait that will instantly boast your catch rate, but rather should be looked at as another weapon in your carp fishing arsenal. To avoid the hype, lets look at the original reasons people staring using boilie's in Europe.

Prior to boilie's Europeans carp anglers typically used three types of baits, particles (corn, beans, nuts), soft pastes (sort of like a dough ball), and 'natural baits' (bread, potatoes, maggots, worms). The boilie came around to overcome some of the inherent deficiencies in the above baits. They are pretty much selective for carp and tench (other species don't eat them) although Bream have been known to fall for them, it can stay in the water for a long time without breaking down and was still be attractive, and they can be chummed into the water at long range with a catapult (slingshot) or throwing stick.

These qualities also make boilies an attractive bait in North America. For example, anyone who frequently uses sweetcorn knows that this bait isn't selective to carp, just about any fish that swims will take sweetcorn. The sweetcorn user also knows that chumming at long range (without a spod), is out of the question. Another example would be the dough ball, these baits, while tremendously attractive to carp, break down in the water and can also be broken up by other species.

Another advantage of using boilies in North America is that in certain situations they can be selective for larger carp. I have found that the bigger carp tend toward bigger food items. If your interested in making the trade off of not catching as many fish but having the fish you catch be of above average size, boilies may be the way to go.

Yet another advantage of boilies is that they are dry, which allows you to use PVA strings and bags in your presentation. Shelf life boilies, such as the Kevin Maddocks baits sold by Eurotackle will last indefinitely, which is more that can be said for doughballs or an open can of sweetcorn.

The main disadvantage of the boilie is that they are relatively expensive to buy if you buy readymade boilies, and while not quite as expensive if you make your own, making your own can be a time consuming process. The process can be quickened quite a bit with the purchase of a Gardner rolling table and sausage gun or sausage table. Lets see how to put these to good use.

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