First Winter Session

So last weekend Aoibheann and I went fishing.  The picture above shows the swim we settled on after doing a complete circuit of the Dobsons Lake which again is part of the Newbury Angling Association.

It took us about an hour to circuit the lake and get set up with all of our stuff.  At this point I thought I had left the maggots at home which would have been a disaster so after checking the bags AND the car I phoned my wife to check the fridge and by the front door.   Hmmm still no maggots so after re-checking my bags I finally found them in the barrow bag section.  Phew.  Once we had the maggots I then plumbed the depth just by the overhanging tree to the left of the swim.

Once I had gotten Aoibheann up and running I setup a basic ledger system and cast out.  Somehow I managed to hit the top of the tree on the island infront of Aoibheanns chair in the picture to the right.  After unsuccessfully trying to free it I had to break the line.  So I re-set up and cast out using the boilies Aoibheann and I made in an earlier blog.



I was very surprised that after a couple of hours the boilie still smelt the same as when I cast out :).  Unfortunately neither of us caught anything but it was a stunning day for it if not a tad windy.

Blog Later.....

Aoibheann and I making Boilies

So Friday afternoon rolled around and I had finished work so I thought I would pop over to Swindon to have a look around Hinders.  My local tackle shop doesn't really have a lot of choice when it comes to making your own boilies.  Aoibheann and I jumped in the car set the nav man and off we went.

Hinders you may recall was often seen on the Matt Hayes fishing program "Total Fishing".  Whenever they did a particle section it was normally at Hinders which is where I had heard of it and swindon being quite near I thought a pop over was in order.

When we arrived I was pleasantly surprised with the about of choice for the home made boilie enthusiast.  I purchased a few different flavours etc and left.  Friday night after the two younger children had gone to bed Aoibheann and I started to make our first "Batch".  The recipe we used which is completely made up is listed below:

Dry mix:

• 5oz Gluten & Wheat Free Flour - Mainly due to not finding any Soya Flour at Tescos,
• 4oz Semolina,
• 4oz Maize Meal,
• 2oz Super Krill,
• 1 teaspoon salt

Liquid mix:

• 4 x medium hens eggs
• 5 ml Mega Tutti Fruiti Nash,
• 5 ml Scopex No.1,
• 2.5 ml Intense Sweetner,
• 15 ml New Grange from Mainline.

Firstly add all the dry mix contents to a container.  Then mix these gently to ensure consistent mix.  Some people use a bag to shake the contents but as I did this with my 4 year old we used a bowl and spoon.

After you have mixed thoroughly add the liquid mix together in a separate container.  Ensure you do not whisk the egg as you do not want lots of air bubbles.

Once mixed you can slowly add the liquid mix to the dry mix in small increments.

When you have added the mixes you should have a ball which is malleable but does not stick to your hands if it does leave it to stand for a few minutes of add tiny amounts of the dry mix again.  We had to leave ours for about 15 minutes then it was fine.

Then as described roll out into roughly the desired diameter so in our case we rolled it to about 10 mm thick.

Then cut into lengths.  We only used the width of the knife I was using.

 

You can then start to roll them by pulling off the ends of the sausages and rolling them in the palms of your hands.  Once complete simply boils them for about 2 minutes and thats it done.

For some reason though ours seem to be pop-ups!

Not sure why any advice welcome I am going to try the recipe again but with Soya next time see if that makes a difference :)

The main thing is that Aoibheann enjoyed it.

Blog Later....