Niblet’s Tourist Boilie Recipe
Well, I made it to Melbourne okay, and I’ve just whizzed up my first batch of bait. Travelling with made up boilies can be a huge problem when flying. Over the years I’ve had all sorts of dramas with their importation into Australia, as well as trying to take them on fishing trips within the country, either by road or air. In Europe and the rest of the civilized world boilies are not treated as if they are ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ which, unfortunately is how they are viewed down here in the Antipodes. A somewhat uninformed opinion I feel, and one that is all too frequently encountered when attempting to bring them in the country or cross state borders with them.
Boilies, or “fishbait,” as they are termed here by AQIS (Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service) are treated with the utmost suspicion and disdain, due to their ‘animal product’ ingredients. The importation of dodgy animal products I can understand, when diseases like bird and swine flu are on the rise. But being aware of this fact, I still can’t see what possible threat a humble boile would present; WMD – I don’t think so!
It is for these reasons I have long since given up trying to import pre-made boilies or pop-ups. Flavours, sweeteners etc are another story, and obtaining them via mail-order and carrying them in your luggage doesn’t seem to be a great issue. Which is how I devised the below recipe, based purely on trying to produce a half decent bait with these restrictions in mind, as well as the problem of not having the availability of any ‘off-the-shelf’ base mixes here either.
...boilies on the run!
Nothing original here I admit, but I can walk into any Aussie supermarket and pick up these very basic base mix ingredients easily.
For a 6 egg mix:
500 grams of finely ground Purina One Salmon and Tuna cat food
125 grams approx of polenta (maize meal)
125 grams approx of fine semolina
6 large eggs
8 – 10ls Solar Squid and Octopus Koi Rearer flavour
1 – 2mls Solar Liquid Candy sweetener
Boil for around two and a half minutes, or until they float in the pan. From this mix I get 150 x 20mm dia boilies, nothing super technical, but they work well. The only word of warning I’d emphasise here is: don’t use them if they are turtles present in the water – the ‘Ninja’s’ love them!
Happy hippo hunting 
Niblet
would go nice deep fried with a serving of chips
How ya going buddy. Is it cold in the ethnic capital of Oz.
Great Website mate………Good to have you down here for a fish Andy.
Will knock up a few of these and will give them a go over the coming months
Speak soon
Tight lines
Hadleigh
Thanx Hadleigh, all going well so far. Just in the process of whacking on a couple of updates on the site re the latest captures!!!
ATB
Niblet
hey andy great site
really enjoyed it
Good bait! S&O is a classic, me, Im still on Scopex, its never going to get fished out here is it!
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your comment, sorry I’ve been slow in replying but I’ve not had much time to spend on a PC for a while. Over time the site will get bigger and better, more articles, loads more photos and some video clips etc.
All the best
Andy
Hi Grimper,
Yeah, you are right about the flavours, they’re not going to get flogged here in our lifetime! I used scopex on this same lake last year, bottom baits and pop-ups, but the stinky old koi rearer had it pants down. I did catch on the scopex, but I had far more on the fishmeals. I found the same thing happened when I fished the Murray River in 2007, with the vast majority of fish choosing the fishmeal baits over scopex, toffee/caramel and strawberry boilies. Yet to contradict myself here, I caught bugger all on the koi rearer’s in Morocco, not a sniff of a take as the fish were preoccupied with the maize for the most part I think?
Cheers
Andy
Hi Niblet, how do you crush the cat biscuits…mortar and pestle?
Hi Steve,
The easiest method I’ve found is to put about a small teacup full at a time through an electric herb and coffee grinder. K-Mart & Target sell them for about $12. Sounds laborious but it’s surprising how quickly you can get through a 1kg bag of Purina. Then just sieve the mix to remove any big chunks which can be re ground to maintain the consistency.
ATB
Andy