Boilies, But Better!

Nor folk - based big - fish angler HARRY WAYEBARKER takes a closer look at the boilie, a fairly simple bait but one that with thought and consideration can be used to great effect.

- Harry Waye-Barker

To the majority of anglers out there, a boilie is just a boilie. Okay, it is to a certain extent; a round nutritionally packed source of human-made food that the carp simply love. There’s no doubt about it, the humble boilie has been catching carp for decades and will continue to do so as baits develop and more fantastic ingredients become available. For most anglers, a boilie is a convenient way of getting bites; a simple case of hair rigging one straight from the bag onto the hair and away you go.

For me, a boilie is a tool, and an important one at that. It allows me to offer varying presentations and bait up accordingly depending on what I believe is suitable for the given lake. I strongly believe that I can use the boilie to my advantage, with so many ways of utilising a bag of bait to add edges to my fishing armoury. This feature outlines some neat ways of using boilies to your advantage, to create baiting situations, allowing you to present effectively and, most importantly, helping you put extra carp on the bank!

To me, the boilie simply outweighs all other baits in terms of year-round attraction, speed and convenience. I run a group of well-established lakes and a reserve around the Norfolk area, most notably Taverham Mill just outside Norwich. A busy work schedule often means that I don’t have the chance to spend hours preparing various baits, and grabbing a bag of baits and a tub of pop-ups before I leave the centre is often the case before heading over to the lake. Boilies are a vital tool for me and if used correctly can create positive feeding situations that will inevitably lead to more bites.

BAITING SITUATIONS