The Magic Mix - Astaxanthin boilies

[Richard Dawson]

I've started rolling my own boilies as per this thread over on maggotdrowners forums:

The magic mix

I don't know how many make their own boilies and groundbait, but it's as exciting to me as catching the fish themselves, will my own concoction result in a monster fish at the end of it? :eek: I've ordered some ingredients to make my own river groundbait, i'll also make some boilies eventually...

www.maggotdrowning.com

I read about Astaxanthin and how it was the magic ingredient in the orginal (orange coloured, oily looking) Elips / Ellipse pellets of old so thought i'd acquire some and have a go at rolling it into boilies. I've had a lot of success on them ever since. I'm a novice angler that would usually blank 9 times out of 10, but i must have had 7 or 8 Barbel in the last month alone, mostly on the low stocked and tricky lower Derwent where runs can be few and far between. But also had a brace on the Trent at Fiskerton (BDAAS stretch)


The exact recipe is included in that thread for anyone who wants to roll some, it would be nice if others could give them a go and see what results you get. Expensive though with freeze dried powdered blackberry and Astaxanthin, but how much are you willing to pay to put Barbel on the bank? I've fished them side by side with Sticky Krill active boilies and Source boilies and i just can't get a fish on those off the shelf boilies, tried upstream rod, downstream rod, nearside crease, farsdie crease, out in the flow and my home made boilies are the only ones getting me fish at the minute.


Finished product, the sausages are for cutting up into pellet sized pieces:

My recent fish:

Brace of 7lb+ from Fiskerton

Brace of just under and just over 11lb from the lower Derwent

And current PB of 12.5lb from lower Derwent.

Even if you can't be doing with rolling your own boilies, you can add astaxanthin to your groundbait or even make a glug by adding the powder to some hemp oil and glugging your pellets / boilies. Hope someone gives it a go

 

[Deleted member 2708]

astaxanthin. I did a Google search myself as I was intrigued by yet another "wonder ingredient" for our baits. Found this ......

"Xanthophylls – These are oxygen-containing carotenoids and usually have a yellow pigment. Astaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin are good examples. Foods rich in xanthophylls include pumpkin, egg yolks, avocado, summer squash, spinach, and kale."

So if fish recognise its anti-oxidant properties they may also notice the eggs as well. Does astaxanthin alter the flavour/smell differently to eggs used in boilies?

What quantities of astaxanthin are you using, where do you source it and at what price?

From what I have seen so far it's several pennies too far for my pocket!

Like those barbel though!

 

[Richard Dawson]

Bought in bulk it can be gotten for about £70 a kilo from aliexpress, I mix 50g per kilo of basemix.

If you do get some make sure it's the 10% variant.

 

[Alex Warren]

I’m usually quite sceptical about ‘magic’ ingredients and ‘wonder baits’, but from what I’ve read and heard about the hallowed original Elipse pellets containing astaxanthin (a bit before my time, unfortunately), they certainly seem to have given anglers a perceived edge.

From memory, the reason the products were discontinued was due to a massive price hike in the astaxanthin itself, making it commercially unviable.

I’ve heard and seen carpy types discussing fishmeal based boilies that they’ve tested and had amazing results with, but added the caveat that the baits were too expensive to realistically be produced. One of the posts (from Instagram if memory serves) showed a photo of the baits, which had quite a pinky/red hue, which I believe is synonymous with astaxanthin, as it is derived from some kind of krill, I believe. Happy to be corrected there.

I suppose it all comes down to cost, what is unviable for carp fishing or mass production of pellet feeds may not necessarily be so for small scale bait makers knocking up single egg hook bait mixes. That sounds like a juxtaposition in terms of economy of scale, but if, for example my current single egg hook bait mixes were costing me £2 to produce, but an added x amount of astaxanthin powder increased the cost to £6, but got me and extra few fish a season, I reckon it would be worth an experiment. The OP’s results certainly look pretty conclusive.

 

[Richard Dawson]

If anyone wants some I'm willing to stump up for a kilo and then I can post out 50g bags for about £4 a pop, enough for a kilo of base mix or 1.5kg of finished boilies. Or you can try and make your own glug with it or even paste wraps.

It be nice to get other folks in on the experiment

 

[Richard Dawson]

I also read that the original Robin Red had this ingredient some years ago, likely removed due to cost though I think.

 

[Anthony James]

I'd buy a pot of shelf life boilies from you Richard! Just pot them up in a cheap screw top pot and sell them for a price!

 

[Richard Dawson]

I'd buy a pot of shelf life boilies from you Richard! Just pot them up in a cheap screw top pot and sell them for a price!

I was actually thinking of adding a preservative to shelf-life my next batch, keep getting moaned at for putting fishing stuff in the freezer

 

[John Care]

£70 a kilo!!! Ye gods!

 

[Anthony James]

I was actually thinking of adding a preservative to shelf-life my next batch, keep getting moaned at for putting fishing stuff in the freezer

Yeah my thoughts exactly, i'm not even going down that road of rolling my own. It's hard enough to get out of chores and on the bank if I start rolling my own boilies i'm in for a world of pain

 

[Richard Dawson]

£70 a kilo!!! Ye gods!

That would make about 30kg of finished boilies though

 

[Chris Belcher]

If anyone wants some I'm willing to stump up for a kilo and then I can post out 50g bags for about £4 a pop, enough for a kilo of base mix or 1.5kg of finished boilies. Or you can try and make your own glug with it or even paste wraps.

It be nice to get other folks in on the experiment

I'll have 50g off you please. . .sounds good enough to snort!

 

[Richard Dawson]

I've just ordered a kilo off AliExpress for £84 shipped, not the cheapest seller but its the same place I got my last batch from so I trust it. Works out £4.20 per 50g and should get it in 3-4 weeks so watch this space

 

[Derek Funcks]

P.M. for you Richard.

 

[Steve Kenchington]

Interesting topic and we all like the idea of a “magic” bait that will give us the extra edge on tough rivers. I had a look online and, wow, this stuff is expensive but as Alex said if it gets you a few extra fish it is probably worth it. What about using the powder to dust luncheon meat ? As I think about it I am wondering whether it is an attractant in its own right or does it work like a flavour enhancer ? I.e. you may need to introduce free offerings to get the fish interested and searching around for more of the same which is ideal for boily fishing but probably less effective using single bigs baits like meat with a roving approach. Thoughts welcome. All the best everyone. Steve.

 

[Richard Dawson]

Interesting topic and we all like the idea of a “magic” bait that will give us the extra edge on tough rivers. I had a look online and, wow, this stuff is expensive but as Alex said if it gets you a few extra fish it is probably worth it. What about using the powder to dust luncheon meat ? As I think about it I am wondering whether it is an attractant in its own right or does it work like a flavour enhancer ? I.e. you may need to introduce free offerings to get the fish interested and searching around for more of the same which is ideal for boily fishing but probably less effective using single bigs baits like meat with a roving approach. Thoughts welcome. All the best everyone. Steve.

It's something to consider giving a go

The Astaxanthin powder itself has no smell to my nose, but that's not to say the fish can't detect it (Betaine Anhydrous or HCL salt has no smell either for example)

When I'm fishing my boilies I'll also cut 3 in half and stick them in a pva mesh bag on the hook and seems to work, also put a pinch of pellets in to stop the bag drifting off downstream before it melts

 

[Tim Marks]

There are at least 10 ingredients in your bait mix…..are you (and the rest of us) sure that the astx….. is THE magic ingredient?

 

[Richard Dawson]

There are at least 10 ingredients in your bait mix…..are you (and the rest of us) sure that the astx….. is THE magic ingredient?

One way to find out, I'll make a one egg mix without the Astaxanthin and fish them side by side for a while

I'm pretty confident though as it was supposedly in the original Elipse and Robin Red.

Only other thing it could be is the blackberry powder which itself is the most potent fruit for antioxidants (and also expensive) all the other ingredients are pretty run of the mill and included in lots of commercial mixes.

 

[Tim Marks]

One way to find out, I'll make a one egg mix without the Astaxanthin and fish them side by side for a while

I'm pretty confident though as it was supposedly in the original Elipse and Robin Red.

Only other thing it could be is the blackberry powder which itself is the most potent fruit for antioxidants (and also expensive) all the other ingredients are pretty run of the mill and included in lots of commercial mixes.

Exactly…..

 

[Neil Blood]

Back in the day when ALL pellets came from the aqua feed industry, astaxanthin was used to to turn the flesh of farmed salmon pink. It’s true that it was omitted due to cost and I’ve no idea what it was replaced with?

This said, last time I looked, you could still by a sack of pellets from Skrettings, which included astaxanthin?