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Hardened hook baits

Julian Griffiths

Julian Griffiths

Senior Member & Supporter
If using boilies, how do you guys harden your hook baits without the use of additional hardening ingredients like egg albumin etc...

Is it OK just to air dry hook baits for say 20hrs to harden them off after making them?

A mate if mine just keeps using the same boilie on the hook time and again on multiple sessions and only wraps a smidgen of paste over it before he fishes, and the boilie is like a bullet, as its been immersed in water then stored away on multiple trips. 👍

***Another bait maker told me to simply keep on the move & don't sit on a baited area & keep on the move, as you'll never stop boilies from being destroyed by cray fish no matter how hard they are! 🤔
 
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They will go harder if you air dry them longer.

Freezing them makes them harder aswell as it dehydrates them.

Extend the boil time slightly

And of course as you know egg albumen
 
As Rich says; the longer you dry them the harder they get. Salt (or even rice) would help pull the moisture out.

But, if you are going to use a paste wrap why do you need a boilie underneath ? A bit of plastic, cork or whatever will do the same job. You could even soak the plastic etc in flavour if you really feel it will make a difference.

My fishing is short sessions and regular recasts -so I don’t use hard hookbaits - I prefer (soaked) soft ones or even just paste (moulded around something solid). Chub fishing last Winter I used paste moulded round a piece of fake maize and it worked really well. My alternative hookbait was a really small 10mm wafter (Handcraft). Sometimes I used a cut down wafter and put paste round that.

My boilie supplier makes hardened hookbaits - but I’ve never felt the need to buy any. Maybe I’m just lucky that most of my venues aren’t crayfish strongholds……
 
Tim Marks said:
As Rich says; the longer you dry them the harder they get. Salt (or even rice) would help pull the moisture out.

But, if you are going to use a paste wrap why do you need a boilie underneath ? A bit of plastic, cork or whatever will do the same job. You could even soak the plastic etc in flavour if you really feel it will make a difference.

My fishing is short sessions and regular recasts -so I don’t use hard hookbaits - I prefer (soaked) soft ones or even just paste (moulded around something solid). Chub fishing last Winter I used paste moulded round a piece of fake maize and it worked really well. My alternative hookbait was a really small 10mm wafter (Handcraft). Sometimes I used a cut down wafter and put paste round that.

My boilie supplier makes hardened hookbaits - but I’ve never felt the need to buy any. Maybe I’m just lucky that most of my venues aren’t crayfish strongholds……
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My venue's are infested with the blighters, the fish within these are low in numbers and very nomadic, so although I'd agree with regular recasts, I wouldn't want to do this on my waters as numbers of fish are low & wouldn't want to disturb the swims just in case I happen to be ontop of one...

Great idea on the ruce/salt by the way, I forgot about that little idea. 👍😊
 
Richard Isaacs said:
And what happens when you lose the bait?
Something comes along and eats it covered in plastic.
Ridiculous idea from an irresponsible tackle company.
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V unlikely unless of course your hooklink breaks - if you thread through the plastic with the baiting needle it wont come off even if the boilie within breaks down / gets picked out etc. Its the same as using Arma mesh (which is a better product IMO) to keep meat intact and nuisance fish from wittling it down - theres always a risk. Have a pot of wooden balls steeped in Amino and N-Butyric that is over 20yrs old; crayfish proof boilies that get the odd outing on infested waters . . .
 
As anglers, unfortunately it’s inevitable that we sometimes leave bits and pieces where we don’t intend to but shouldn’t we at least do what we can to minimize this?

Plastic baits, I get and use myself and yes they get left lost sometimes and I’m sure they are spat out as quickly as they are picked up being nothing like the real thing inside the mouth but to rap a real food source in plastic I’m not so keen on and if some bright spark was to rap it again in paste and lose it, I’m almost convinced that would definitely get swallowed.

I think there’s other safer ways to protect hook baits like the road that Julian is looking into …. Ie making them harder
 
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That wrapper thing is the stupidest idea I’ve ever seen, and I really don’t understand why… to me the best way to protect the bait is to make it harder, and to avoid the cray fish, I tend to bait a few more swims with pig liver to attract the cray away from where I am fishing.
 
I’m still baffled that the likes of pike pro still sell long lengths of foam to stuff inside dead baits to make them buoyant.
Makes me cringe every time I see them on the shelf.
Ffs how hard is it to connect a poly ball to the hard ware. At least if it’s pulled off doesn’t end up getting swallowed.
 
I used to harden baits by microwaving them. Place about 10 baits on a piece of kitchen paper and microwave for 30 seconds at a time and let them cool and move them between heating. Obviously the amount of time can vary but 4 x 30 seconds with the delays used to harden 15mm active 8's . You do need to make sure they are separated --if they touch they can burn. I used to keep them in a box with the wheat ? edible packing nugget like foam that gets used by carp anglers to put over hooks to stop them getting caught in weed.
 
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I always thought microwaving baits made them buoyant as for making baits super hard by what ever means I would have thought you would lose 80% attraction with little or no leak off at all … I like to use baits as fresh as possible but that would be absolutely pointless if I was then going to boil the life out off them …. The only way I can see using hard baits is to rehydrate them but there are certain basemixes where you would be just coating them … as Chris says if you push the needle through the plastic there’s virtually zero chance of that coming loose
 
I fish cray infested rivers like many on here and I use hard hookbaits that have been long term in a pot with the associated glug, I always have various sizes on the go.

As I mainly use fluro hooklinks, the hair knot acts like a hair stop when pulled into hard hookhaits so the little sods have nothing to pick at but I'll sometimes use a stop if using heavier weights but very rarely.

I always paste wrap and there will aways be a hookbait once the paste has dissolved etc and they barely scratch the boilie/dumbell.

Nice and simple and works for me.
 
Thanks for contributing to the posts guys!

I will give the rice idea a go, such a simple idea that I'd long forgotten about.
I use to place grains within my lure boxes to help dry things out a bit.

The sprinkling of salt is also an interesting one. So yes, some great tips there for us all... Cheers guys! 👍
 
Leaving hookbaits in with your pellets will speed up the drying process or alternatively a glycerine based glug will have them rock hard after a while. Glycerine is extremely hygroscopic so will literally suck the moisture out of your baits, just make sure to make holes in them first😉
 
You will never harden fresh baits enough to deter or defeat crays; they will devour anything and everything hence the various wrapping / meshing solutions; however for rivers where you are generally re-casting a whole lot more than in carp fishing and therefore constantly checking your hookbait and rig, a wooden ball might be a little OTT; they will pull hardened hookbaits off braided / mono hairs with stops so in this instance a D-Rig on a stiff fluro hooklink with a bait screw for the hookbait might be a better solution?
 
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