TIP OF THE MONTH

Air-Dry Your Baits

It’s the best way of keeping your baits fresh on your travels…

One of the biggest problems faced by anglers travelling abroad is keeping their baits in tiptop condition. Apart from using shelf-life baits, which is an increasingly viable option these days, the best way is by air-drying.

Unless you’re planning on taking a ridiculous amount of bait, in which case you’ll need to do it maybe outside on an old bed sheet or suchlike, you just need a few air-dry bags; I’d suggest the biggest you can find. This is regardless of volume because the more space you can give the baits in the bags the better. Packing an air-dry bag to near bursting point defeats the object because very little air actually circulates the majority of the baits. 

If you’re really lucky, and the missus will let you do so, try hanging them in your airing cupboard at home (not recommended if you’re using anything crab based!).

If you are not able to get air-dry bags then I have found cardboard trays (I just cut cardboard boxes in half to make two trays) can be brilliant. Again, don’t overload the box, try and have the baits no more than two deep, single depth if possible.

Don’t air-dry your baits too soon before your trip, just a few days or, at most, a week is plenty. Once you’re happy that they are all dried out (no moisture left in them to go off) then store them in a cool, dry place until you go.

Once at the lake, you can just use them in their hard state or rehydrate them using a little lake water and any chosen liquid attractors. The juice from prepared hemp is particularly good for this.

TC TIP: If using two or more liquids to rehydrate baits, always combine the liquids first and then add the boilies.

DID YOU KNOW: Another way to dry out and preserve boilies is to cover them evenly in oily pellets.

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What’s That All About?

The hugely popular Fox Impact Spods are appearing on certain lakes in different colours, so I thought I’d check it out. I managed to get my hands on some, which certain Fox stockists have exclusively had limited runs made in their own livery. As a long-suffering Arsenal fan, I’m drawn to the Angling Direct version (red and white) but there are also great ones from Total Fishing Tackle (blue and white), Carp Scene (green and black, and orange and black) and also Brown’s (green and black). Check ’em out now, before they’re all gone!