CARP FISHING BAIT

A great bait is key to catching carp, especially the big guys. Any angler knows that without a tasty bait you are not going to get a bite, even if you sit by the lake for a week. At British Bait, we supply the best carp baits and fish bait additives available.

If you are looking for boilies, hookbait, additives, or groundbait, we have you covered. We stock everything you’ll need to get that monster catch.

We started British Baits as we are keen carp anglers with decades of experience attempting to catch the big one.

We know how capricious carp can be when it comes to what, where, and how they eat, and how a top-quality bait can make all the difference between a victorious fishing trip and an unsuccessful one. The brands we stock result from many years of research and development, plus field-testing, so you can have faith in them and expect the desired result every time.

One problem beginner anglers face is that there are too many baiting options to choose from. At British Baits, we stock a wide range of carp fishing bait for anglers of all levels. As one of the UK’s leading carp fishing bait companies, we stock carp ground bait, carp boilies, hookbaits and additives from leading manufacturers. There is no need to stick to one. You can combine products to get unique, distinctive mixtures that carp find irresistible. Alternatively, you can use the tried and tested formulas that we know from experience will deliver excellent results time after time.

CARP BOILIES

In the UK, carp boilies are the most popular choice of bait for carp anglers due to their high catch rate. Boilies are cylindrical-shaped balls packed with nutrients and the attractants to draw the fish to your swim. You can make your own homemade boilies or save yourself the trouble and opt for our best-selling shelf-life or freezer boilies. Both types have advantages and disadvantages.

Dedicated big carp anglers generally prefer the freezer variety over the shelf-life type. This is because freezer boilies have plenty of fresh ingredients that make them immensely nutritional and appealing to fish. The major disadvantage of freezer boilies is you must keep them frozen until you are ready to use them and defrost them at the optimum time. That’s fine if you plan a short trip close to your home, but things become more complicated when you want to enjoy a long session.

The freezing and defrosting procedure can produce condensation, which means you will need to air dry the freezer boilies before use. Despite these disadvantages, the freezer version is more potent than shelf-life boilies, and carp fishers devise ways of keeping them cool in thermal containers to get the most out of the bait.

Traditionally, hardcore carp fishers considered shelf-life boilies as subpar and less effective than the frozen variety. However, advances in food manufacturing technology mean in recent years, shelf-life boilies have comparable potency to their freezer counterparts, with the benefit you can store them anywhere. Nowadays, shelf-life baits are a prevalent choice for both novice and dedicated anglers.

You can use boilies in several ways. You can crush them and include them as a groundbait ingredient. Another method is to use them as loose bait to attract the fish into your swim. Alternatively, anglers use boilies as hookbait attached to a rig or as a hair rig bait

There are many ways to deliver boilies as hookbait, depending on your rig and how you connect it to your hook. Boilies offer great success as hookbait to breaking down gradually.

Boilies come in many sizes, from 10mm to 24mm-plus. A 14-16mm size is ideal for carp fishing, as it is best to choose a size based upon the fish size you hope to catch. As large boilies are too big for small fish to eat, go for smaller sizes if you’re fishing for smaller species.

If you’re aiming for a bigger fish, consider using a larger size. You won’t get so many bites, but smaller fry won’t take your hookbait.

We stock both boilie types in an assortment of delicious flavours. The flavour an angler chooses depends on the season and fishing spot. In general, during warmer months fishers will tend to use a more aromatic, fishmeal-based bait. These have a higher oil content than sweet flavours. The oil helps spread the flavour through the water, which attracts the fish to you. If you use this type of bait as a loose bait, the fats and nutrients will fatten and help the fish to grow.

A sweeter boiled fishing bait with a milk-protein base is often the best during colder months. Sweet flavours disperse better than oily fish-based varieties in colder waters, so they are more useful attractants in these circumstances. Fish eat less in the colder months, and oily sticky baits will fill your fish, causing them to exit your baited area. Sweeter boilies also tend to have a lower fat content, ensuring that you don’t over-feed fish in the winter.

POP-UPS

Pop-ups are a type of bait that you’ll usually find included in the boilie section when shopping for fish bait. Pop-ups are baits infused with a material to make them float, often cork. This makes the bait float above the lakebed, which is advantageous in certain situations. Pop-ups will prevent your hook from snagging if you fish in a lake with a weedy bed. Vividly coloured pop-ups are very visible to carp, so the bait is more likely to be seen and taken. 

Wafters are another type of pop-up with buoyancy in between that of a bottom bait and a pop-up. Wafters counteract the weight of the hook.

You’ll also find boilies shaped like a barrel, giving your hookbait an advantage over other types of freebie bait. 

HOOKBAITS

Hookbaits are boilies popular in specific fishing situations. They have a stronger flavour than standard boilies, so they are more attractive to fish, giving us an improved chance of a catch. Anglers will often use regular boilies as freebies to acquire trust and then catch the fish with the same flavoured hookbait.

However, you can use hookbait without standard boilies. Some fishermen think casting a single hookbait without free bait is a waste of time, as the fish will not find it, but this is not true in our experience. 

To improve your odds with a single hookbait, use a flavour that engages the fishes’ sensory system. The aroma of the bait impacts your chances, so choose a strong, pungent hookbait. It doesn’t matter if it is fishy, meaty, sweet, or spicy, as long as it leaks plenty of attraction.

GROUNDBAIT

Groundbait is one of the most popular choices for coarse fishing as it has a significant effect in match fishing. In match fishing, you aim to weigh in more than your competitors. 

Groundbait is milled to create a fine granular feed. Anglers add additives, particles, and other attractants to groundbait and mix them with water. The mix is shaped into palm-sized balls and thrown into the water. After floating to the venue bed, it will break down, creating a pile of free bait as an attractor to your hook bait. 

Other ways to use groundbait include compressing it with pellets to create an excellent feeder mix for your fish. You can use a small ball of groundbait on the line above your hook bait.

Groundbait can contain fishmeal, hemp seeds, bread, sweet corn, and oils. Some ground baits are coarse, while others are fine and powdery. 

When the bait disperses in the water, it creates a cloud in the water column or a pile on the lakebed. 

CARP PELLETS

Fishing pellets are made with a mix of raw ingredients like vegetable matter and fishmeal. Once combined, the mixture is squashed into narrow sausage-shaped tubes. Steam heating hardens the mix, and once cooled it is cut into small pellets. As such, pellets are essentially compacted ground bait. In the water, they quickly disintegrate to form a light layer of pulp on the lakebed.

Pellets are a well-liked alternative to boilies. There are several fundamental differences between the baits. Pellets come in more sizes than boilies, from 3mm to 21mm. You can buy pellets in bulk bait bundles in the same size or a mixed selection. Like with boilies, the best size depends on your personal preference and the size of your target catch, so if you want to catch smaller fish like barbel and tench, go for a smaller size.

The other distinction between boilies and pellets is how fast they break down. As a compressed groundbait, pellets dissolve into a mush when placed in water. This makes them better than boilies in feeder fishing. 

Pellets have a high oil and protein content and are attractive bait for the summer months. They keep the carp feeding for hours and are relatively cheap compared to other baits, which makes them suitable as free bait. 

Like boilies, pellets come in a vast range of flavours, but most of the pellets available are meat or fish flavoured, rather than sweet or fruity.

The most significant advantage of pellets is their quick breakdown, but this can also be a disadvantage as you might find yourself changing your hook bait often, which can disturb the water and fish.

LIQUID ATTRACTORS

Flavoured glugs, dips, and sprays are bait additives considered a necessary component of fishing tackle by serious carp anglers. These are liquid attractants used to improve the strength of baits, enhancing flavours. Liquid attractants are commonly used on hookbait to make it more attractive than your freebie baits. 

Using liquid attractors is easy; all you need to do is add the liquid to the hook bait making sure the bait is fully covered. However, it is important not to oversoak the hookbait, as this will cause it to break down. Glugs and the like dissipate as soon as your bait enters the water. Liquid attractor with artificial bait is incredibly popular, as it gives your fake bait the smell of natural bait.