Reader’s Query: Flavouring Artificial/Plastic Baits
Ian Hillier:
Hi my question is, let me give you some background. All of my winter captures have come on plastic sweetcorn (no slur on your bait Shaun ha ha) and I read a back article from your site about plastic baits and how they take on flavour. Are these the type of boilie that enterprise tackle sell the ones you sell on your site? If so will they take on the flavours of glug you sell? Any tips you can give.I want to fish the top 18 inches of the water during the afternoons before I start surface fishing in the evenings.
Many thanks Ian
Shaun replied,
Hi Ian,
The plastic boilies we sell are the same ones as the Enterprise Tackle ones. I have used these on and off since they were very first released and have now caught many fish on them. When we started quest Baits I wanted to offer everything I use myself - not just small selected items - thus the artificial baits being included in the range.
They will take on both the Glugs and the Dips which we sell. The Glugs will darken the colour of the plastic baits a little so if you wish to retain the bright colours you are better off flavouring them with the Boilie Dips - these are much stronger in flavour too so you won’t need to use so much.
You will find however that once you have flavoured the artificial baits you will have more of a problem getting rid of the flavour than actually getting it to stick on in the first place.
When flavouring the artificial boilies which I often use as a sight bob above a conventional bait I pierce them three times (top and sides before leaving them to soak in small glug/dip pots (we offer four empty ones in a plastic tube for £5.49) this ensures the flavour spreads deep inside.
Hope this helps - best fishes
Shaun Harrison
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Tags: angling, artificial, bait, boilies, carp, Dips, fishing, Flavouring, france, Glugs, plastic, queries, query, Shaun, tackle, techniques, tips
Hi Ian
Shaun gave me a tip off about using artificial baits several years ago and now I rarely fish without at least one rod on a snowman set up - with a real boilie underneath a bouyant artificial one. It seems strange to me that no one thinks twice about fishing fake corn - either on its own or on top of a real bait as as ’sight bob’ - yet most people still prefer a bright ‘real’ fluoro pop up to using these enterprise plastic boilies. If you read Shaun’s articles on the Quest website about artificial baits you will see they offer many advantages over fluoro pop ups. I have consistently caught so many fish using them I don’t even give it a second thought now.
I always leave my ‘plastic’ (they are more like rubber really) baits soaking in a small screw top tub of boilie dip or glug. Personally I always prefer a flavoured liquid food source rather than just a flavour on its own. I have kept mine soaking for years at a time and just put them back in it at the end of a session. The Quest glugs and dips work brilliantly but before they came along I have used liquid foods and flavours from other bait companies as well as genuine liquid bloodworm extract. It’s amazing how they retain flavour and smell even after several days in the water. I have never found that it matters at all that the flavours on the artificials don’t match the boilies I am using as freebies or as hookbaits.
If you are going to use them on a zig rig be aware that while they are buoyant, the smaller sizes of Enterprise corn or boilies might still sink under the weight of the hook. In that situation I would always prefer the much more buoyant foam which I cut into rough squarer shapes and leave them to soak in flavour - I’d avoid ‘obvious’ spherical shaped baits in that situation.
Good luck!
Elie G
Hi Elie
Thanks for the feed back it was most welcome, not quite so sure about the zig rig bit i never had a take on one maybe im doing it all wrong, much rather use a fox inline bubble float and a balanced bait with a fluorocarbon hook link. I can change to a floating bait then without much hassel. You say you had yours for years how long does it take for the flavour to take then ? Like you i try to avoid round baits when you trim a plastic bait does it still stay bright at the site of the trimming ?
Thanks again for the feedback
Ian H
Hi Ian
Your welcome.
Yes the baits are the same colour all the way through so there’s no problem with trimming. But to save you the hassle there are a range of artificial baits - tiger nuts, chum mixers, bread flake etc, all of which work fished as bottom baits - the mixers are great on the top too. That means you have a whole range of shapes and sizes to choose from.
The artificial baits take on flavour/taste/smell pretty quickly, just a matter of days is more than enough. When I said I had mine soaking for years it’s just how I keep them stored. I take out baits as I need them, then when I reel in I take out a ‘fresh’ one from the tub and put the one I’ve used back for another time. The flavour will stay on them out in the water for days - try it and you will see. I’ve had baits out for three days and they come back almost as they did when I cast them out.
Cheers
Elie G
Probably worth mentioning here that I always used to flavour my artificial baits before use but now don’t bother. I guess it’s another one of these big confidence things. I always incorporate ‘proper bait’ with them on the same hair (snow man style or half a bait and half a plastic).
This is a personal thing but I do feel I should always use what I sell and preach about so there will be a bait ommitting natural attraction into the water from the same area as the artificial bait.
I stopped flavouring the plastic baits after I found I couldn’t wash the flavour back off (perhaps someone can teach me how). Because of the situation I am in having to constanly try different baits and ingredients out whilst working on the baits for 2009 and 2010 I found I was needing to purchase new artificial bait all the time and was ending up carrying more variations around with me than I really wanted. I stopped flavouring them and my catch rate has never altered.
I look at artificial baits very much as sight bob’s and use them as stated above in conjunction with ‘proper bait’. You will catch carp on plastic on it’s own I have on many occassions but I do like to have proper food with it.
Best fishes
Shaun Harrison
Hi Shaun
Have been experimenting over the last few months with the site bob method and real popups fished side by side flavor used was liver b8 with the plastic bait soaked in liver b8 glug results were pretty much even until i used a smaller amount of the plastic bait with a larger food bait ratio this had a dramatic effect the liver b8 took one of my club waters apart, i do know this water well and can usually winkle out a fish or two even when things go off the boil a bit, don’t get me wrong this is not a runs water with 4 or 5 fish in 24 hours a reasonable catch when on song but i took 7 fish in 12 hours 6 to 1 in favor of the reduced plastic site bob method, at this stage i must add the largest fish fell to the real popup mix. More experimenting is needed ( the wife will be pleased ). I also wish to thank yourself and Elli for your help and honesty with the plastic bait issue i am sure you know what i mean being a bait producer so i will say no more. Thanks again
Ian H
Hi Ian,
Thanks for the kind words. The chopped down bits of plastic can be a massive edge and gives the whole concept a new lease of life. I try and keep all hook baits as far removed from a round shape as I can. My boilies get set about with a knife or scissors and the plastics as well as conventional pop-ups get similar treatment.
Best fishes
Shaun