“Tiny homemade hookbaits have transformed my fishing”
TIM JACKSON – SPECIMEN BREAM HAUL
“LAST year I lost confidence in shop-bought boilies but using my homemade baits I’ve enjoyed my most productive season to date – landing 45 carp and 12 bream to 18lb 2oz. It all started at the end of 2019 when I told a friend about my poor season on my syndicate lake.
“My issue was with the commercially-made boilies I was using, as I couldn’t buy a bite on them. He gave me some advice on rolling my own baits as well as a few ingredients to try, and that winter I got to work making a mix.
“With a bit of experimenting I developed some hand-rolled fishmeal boilies that I was happy with. They smelt great and I couldn’t wait to start my carp campaign after lockdown was lifted.
“My first few sessions on the lake were as though a switch had been flicked, as I caught carp from the off. On one occasion I received a twitchy bite on a 12mm homemade boilie which definitely wasn’t a carp, and after some plodding around I landed a stunning bream of 15lb 4oz.
“From then on I just became infatuated with the bream and switched my attentions away from the carp completely.
“I’d already caught one bream on my homemade bait, so I made some special 6mm, 8mm and 10mm-sized boilies to see if they’d single them out and deter the carp.
“The ploy worked and through the summer I banked a string of double-figure bream while other anglers were struggling. There was something in my bait that the bream just wanted.
“By August I’d developed a successful approach which was fishing three rods over silty areas at distance with helicopter rigs and 8mm or 10mm boilie hookbaits.
“Over each rod I also fed half-a-kilo of flattened and crushed boilies with a Spomb.”
“The last five weeks have probably been my best on the water and I’ve landed the biggest bream in the lake twice at 18lb 2oz.
“Most of the time I’d only catch one in a trip but during my latest session I managed three of 12lb 14oz, 15lb 8oz and 15lb 10oz.”
“I just became infatuated with the bream and switched my attentions away from carp”