| AIR DRIED BAITS – WHY AND HOW By Big Rik and Stuart Dennis Stu: I think to start with I’d like to comment on the amount of readily available baits in the marketplace. If anything there is far too much and although having a choice is normally a good thing, the baits on the market today can leave the angler confused and sometimes unconfident.
Tip number one: select a good quality bait that has a good pedigree and reputation or, better still, one you’ve had results with. For the purpose of this exercise both Rik and myself will concentrate on baits that have put us in good stead and that have resulted in some excellent catches for us both – that’s Mainline for me and Mainline and Dynamite for Rik. Why Air Dry? Before we start, let’s take a moment to understand why we would take this approach over and above fresh baits and shelf life. I think for me the first is always having a bait to hand no matter how short notice my visit to a water may be. In addition, the fact that you can prepare in advance and glug for hookbaits is another advantage but, more importantly, I am able to incorporate the rich smell of my baits into my surrounding pellets and, of course, vice versa. Rik: Air drying has been a part of my boilie fishing regime for many years. The idea of air drying a bait is to remove the moisture content from the bait so that it is unable to go mouldy, but without resorting to un-natural preservatives. It started for me when I would come home after a short session and didn’t want to re-freeze my bait, so I started experimenting with air drying. It began with baits on towels, in paper bags, old tights, bowls of sugar, rice, wheat…… and so the list went on, until I tested them in trout pellets and then smaller pellets and found that to be the best option. Both Stuart and I use the term air-dry, but we don’t actually air dry our baits. We wick the moisture away with the aid of pellets. I currently use 2mm Trout pellets, but previously I used my PVA pellet mix which is a conglomeration of different sizes, shapes and flavour of pellet. Stuart still uses this as he is keen to take advantage of the flavour transfer between the two baits.
I prefer the 2mm pellets for two reasons, firstly I find I can separate the boilies from the pellets much quicker this way by using a maggot riddle. (see pic) Also, my PVA bag mix has hemp and CSL pellets in it and they tend to worsen after coming into contact with damp boilies. How to Air Dry Stu:The first step is to take your baits out of the freezer and place them onto a dry towel. Rub away all the frosty pieces and then roll them around in the towel to take the worse of the exterior moisture away. The longer you leave them, the more moisture will be removed before the dunking into pellets commences. You’ll find that a couple of hours is more than sufficient. Take a large container such as a bowl, bucket or a big plastic freezer box (you could use a plastic dustbin if you wanted to bulk dry) and cover the bottom with about two inches of pellets. Place your boilies one at a time onto the pellet bed with a good two inches space between each one. The reason for the spacing is that you want the pellets to absorb the moisture and flavour from the boilies as well as the boilies to suck in and take advantage of the drying benefits of the pellet. The space between the boilies will allow the benefits of both to really kick into play. Follow this procedure again by covering with another two inches of pellet and then repeat the whole process until you have covered all your baits. How to prepare your Hookbaits As you come to the last handful or so boilies you wish to air dry, (or pellet dry), cut a piece of line about one meter long and tie a loop in one end. Do the same with the other end and double up on the knot. The reason behind this is that when you pull your boilies onto the line one by one, they hit the double knot leaving a pre-prepared hole which will come in handy later when you want to place them on your hair rig at the lakeside. Trying to push a standard boilie needle through an air dried bait will result in either a quick visit to the hospital to remove a barbed needle from your thumb or a snapped baiting needle.
Dependent on the size of the container you are drying your baits into, lay the whole line of boilies (again two inches apart) across the top of your pellets and again cover with another two inches of pellets. Cover the container with a lid or cardboard and then leave to stand in a dry, damp-free place such as a garage. Or if you need permanent fishing time away from the wife then perhaps leave them in the bottom of her wardrobe! I normally leave them for about two or three weeks in which time your baits should be totally moisture free. This means that they will last indefinitely. Rik: Hookbaits should be removed from the ‘necklace’ they were drying on and placed in a suitable glug pot. These will absorb a lot of flavour and can be used as ‘attractor’ hookbaits. Advantages Another great advantage to drying baits is that you can now re-hydrate your boilies.
This can either be performed with a glug for over-flavoured baits or with lake water for that washed-out look. Other things to try are hemp water, sweetcorn juice, the juice from your particles, flavoured water, etc, etc, etc. Anything is worth a try. The main advantage of air dried over standard frozen baits, is that of availability.You can have baits on hand, in the car or garage, ready to go, without taking up freezer space. The advantage over shelf life baits is the same continuing arguments about giving the fish a good food source without the addition of preservatives or bulking carbs. So, in essence, you have the convenience of shelf life baits, but with all the advantages of fresh, frozen boilies. Try it initially on a small scale to see if you can use it to your advantage! |
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