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Anyone using milks this winter?

Ray Heath said:
So what flavours do people use in their milks mix
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I’ve always kept supermilk really simple and often caught with it as it comes straight out the bag. If I do add a little enhancement to it then it’s in extremely tiny doses and one of the sweet JB liquid flavours like plum, milky1, caramel etc but this was more at my experimenting stages and I’ve not noticed a benefit in increased catches by doing so. The real trick if your making boilies is NOT to over boil milks . You’ll just render the benefits of it being a high protein bait useless if you do. A decent sized bait of say 14-18mm doesn’t want any more than 45-55 seconds on the boil. They will come out firm enough at that to survive a good while in the water.
 
Milky and creamy flavours like Scopex and John Baker's Milky1 seem to compliment milk protein base mixes but I know that the late Tony Miles always used to use Ala Salar in his milk protein baits (JB Supermilk) on the Ouse when he was after barbel and chub.
 
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Nutrabaits Cream Cajouser, at low levels. The quality of the bait should provide the attraction. The flavour is more to add a label to the bait so the fish associate that with something that they know is good grub!
 
There is another train of thought concerning milk proteins and flavours - in Phil Smith and Stef Horak's book 'Magic Moments' there was a section by Ian Welch who used a milk protein bait (a modified version of Nutrabaits Hi-Nu-Val) as single baits with very high levels of attractors. If I remember correctly he used 2ml of black pepper essential oil and 1/2ml of cream cajouser per egg! He explained that the barbel could recognize his bait as soon as it was in the water and continue to recognize it for a long time even after he hadn't fished the river for months.
Take from this what you will as I've always used milks with low levels of attractors but it worked for him.
 
Hi men ,

I chatted to someone who I won't name who was using milk baits , similar to mine . I used a ready made base mix , with elevated level of casein ( gritty texture) . This was done by simply adding 4oz to the basemix , then using eggs with black pepper oil , and garlic . I never boiled them , but did roll a few which skin hardened through drying out , most of the time it was just bits of paste rolled as I sat in the swim and put in soft . I found out the other angler was using elevated levels of the attractor , and catching well , made me think that with some attractors they can be experimented with a fair bit . Ok on a prolific water where you can test things out , but as things are now you need a tried and tested setup . A blinding flavour I used was Temeseven Crustacean , and used it at high levels on pellets , and ground pellet paste . In fact it was my go to bait for a long time , but iv run out 🙁.

Now there are so many good readymade carp baits out there with highly soluble attractors , including the C-stim from Baitworks iv mentioned in the flavouring meat thread ( very soluble liquid , and dusting powder ) , and things like soluble crab liquid , tuna , etc there are easier options .

Hatter
 
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Peter Hayes said:
There is another train of thought concerning milk proteins and flavours - in Phil Smith and Stef Horak's book 'Magic Moments' there was a section by Ian Welch who used a milk protein bait (a modified version of Nutrabaits Hi-Nu-Val) as single baits with very high levels of attractors. If I remember correctly he used 2ml of black pepper essential oil and 1/2ml of cream cajouser per egg! He explained that the barbel could recognize his bait as soon as it was in the water and continue to recognize it for a long time even after he hadn't fished the river for months.
Take from this what you will as I've always used milks with low levels of attractors but it worked for him.
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Hi, makes me wonder if any recognition of the milks was overshadowed by the high level of attractors and would a simple 50/50 mix would have given the same results, were the barbel just homing in on the attrsctors not the hnv mix ?
 
Chris Thomson said:
Hi, makes me wonder if any recognition of the milks was overshadowed by the high level of attractors and would a simple 50/50 mix would have given the same results, were the barbel just homing in on the attrsctors not the hnv mix ?
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Who knows Chris but not something I've experimented with although I've used very high levels of attractors in small pop ups for chub with great success.
 
Chris Thomson said:
Hi, makes me wonder if any recognition of the milks was overshadowed by the high level of attractors and would a simple 50/50 mix would have given the same results, were the barbel just homing in on the attrsctors not the hnv mix ?
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I would guess that most quality boilies would work without any form of attractor included. At least where artificial flavours are concerned Chris. In fact I think you could repel more than attract in many situations.
 
Peter Hayes said:
50% Fishmeal ( probably Sardine & Anchovy )
25% clo
15% Scottish pride 80 mesh Acid casein
10% NZ lactalbumin
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Thanks Stephen - I probably should have added "at the time", it absolutely took waters apart being very different to anything else being used (on the waters I fished at least).

My fishing buddies and I went on to produce our own bait using fishmeals, milk protein and some bird food - it evolved each season and we used to all meet at my flat every Easter weekend to mix it all up and mass produce our bait for the year (not hookbaits). I remember it being rather stressful by the end of the long weekend when we were all sick of it and each other - and finding enough friendly freezers to store it was never easy, as you can imagine!

Happy days indeed.......
 
Stephen Hurst said:
I would guess that most quality boilies would work without any form of attractor included.
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Well that's just wrote off 99.9% of the boilies on the market then! There are very few bait company's around these days who, in my opinion, make anything close to a quality boilie. Certainly none of the big names are anywhere near.
 
Peter Hayes said:
Well that's just wrote off 99.9% of the boilies on the market then! There are very few bait company's around these days who, in my opinion, make anything close to a quality boilie. Certainly none of the big names are anywhere near.
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So what off the shelf boilie would you recommened then Pete?
 
It's a curious situation with small companies striving for success by making better quality boilies, and have them tested and endorsed by well-known (on Facebook, at least) anglers; and the larger manufacturers applying the principle of economies of scale to produce average (but probably adequate) quality boilies for less money. I guess the secret is to either roll your own, or find something top-quality and keep schtum! :)
 
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