ADVANCED CARP FISHING40

TACTICAL CARP ANGLER – Shaun Harrison

To Reply To Reply Highly-respected carpangler Shaun Harrisontakes up a right toreply on the subject ofrehydration and air-drying bait!

Air-Drying And Rehydration Of BoiliesAir-Drying And Rehydration Of Boilies

A Right A Right

Part of a recordMangrove brace, 32lb12oz of common carp

Part of a recordMangrove brace, 32lb12oz of common carp

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ADVANCED CARP FISHING 41

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Right To ReplyIt was with great interest that I read

the ‘Experience Talks’ section on air-dried and rehydrated boilies in theJanuary edition of this magazine. Icertainly don’t want to criticise any ofthe contributors’ answers as they all hadvalid points, although I did feel thatthere had been an awful lot overlookedon what is quite a complex subject in itsown right.

There were several mentions of anarticle I wrote elsewhere on the subjectbut having read the various views putforward I couldn’t help but think a lotof my original comments had beenoverlooked. Some of the big edges inrehydrating baits had not even been

touched upon.I guess it would raise a fair few

eyebrows among the readership if I toldyou that it is now several years since Ilast used a conventional, freshly-frozenor preserved shelf life boilie. What ismore, I can’t see myself usingconventional boilies in the distant futureeither.

All the boilie-type baits I use are air-dried then rehydrated. Why? Because Iget a lot more takes on them than I everdid on conventional baits!

So, give me a right to reply and I willgive you a bit of background into thereasons I go to such lengths in thepreparation of my bait rather than thesimple option of delving into a freezerand opening a bag.

Grey MatterAlthough I have messed around air-

drying baits in the past I must admit, likea lot of anglers before me, it was simplyto try and produce harder baits or tosemi-preserve them on a longish session,rather than use preservatives that I don’treally understand.

On the Mangrove and my confidence is sohigh that the weigh hook is at the ready

On the Mangrove and my confidence is sohigh that the weigh hook is at the ready

Loads of bait, drying out in thesun ready for a trip to France

Loads of bait, drying out in thesun ready for a trip to France

It wasn’t until I joined the infamousMangrove Syndicate in deepestShropshire that I came up with an ideathat I thought might just give me a bit ofan edge over the other members. I wasstruggling. Yes, I was catching carp, butnot as many as some of the othermembers. This is when my old greymatter usually starts to bubble away at itsgreatest capacity.

I was racking my brains for an edge. Ithad been years since I had last fished sucha silty lake. The whole of the lakebottom seemed to comprise deep silt inthe clean areas or mega-deep silt in theother bits.

To give you an idea of just how deepthis silt is, the first job I was given duringmy first work party was to go and cut afew willow branches of around 20ft andpush them into the silt around the edgesof the wooden platforms. As I set sail to

All the boilie-type baits Iuse are air-dried then

rehydrated. Why?Because I get a lot moretakes on them than I everdid on conventional baits!

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the far bank, I thought to myself:‘Someone doesn’t know how long 20ftis’.

I cut odd ones to around 12ft and 15ftthen dragged them out to one of thestages (wooden platforms). In around 18inches (45cm) of water I started to sinkone of the 12ft branches. When there wasonly around 18 inches of the willowbranch still protruding out of the water, Ithought I had better stop pushing. Yes, Ihad been told right. I needed 20ftbranches to actually reach any sort of firmbottom and still leave a little protrudingout of the water!

when first taken out of the boiling water.Alternatively, if you don’t actually make

your own baits, this is why theboilies swell up after being

cast out for a period.They are simply

drinking the waterup andrehydratingthemselves tofull level.I had quite afew kilos of air-dried FormulaOne boilies

prepared for aforthcoming

French trip. It hadsuddenly dawned upon

me that I had done noexperimentation to find out

how much liquid and how much time Ineeded to convert my air-dried baitsback to conventional-looking baits.

So, with air-dried Formula One boiliesin three separate buckets I introducedthree differing amounts of water frommy pond. (I never use tap water for anypart of my bait preparation be it cookingparticles or simply soaking baits.)

The following morning, the baits inbucket number one were still hard in themiddle. Bucket number two looked nodifferent than they had prior to beingair-dried and, finally, bucket numberthree looked as though they had been onthe lake bottom all day. I had overdonethe water in these – or had I?

Soak It UpBeing a northerner, I am naturally

tight. So, not wanting to waste theseexperimental baits, I took them alongwith me on my next Mangrove session.It was during the usual laborious two-hour drive to the old Shropshire merewith my brain jumping from one subjectto another when my thoughts tuned intothe waterlogged baits. Now, surely, if Iwere to force-feed my boilies intodrinking as much liquid as possiblebefore introducing them into the lakethen surely they would be less able totake on the surrounding silt smell. Themore I thought about it, the more Iliked the idea. Would more liquid in thebait alter their sinking rate as well?Would they sink faster or slower? Mybrain went into turmoil.

I guess I have now made the point thatthe Mangrove is thousands of years oldand is very silty indeed.

But what has this to do with rehydratingbait? Well, just bear with me a little longerif you will.

ConfidenceAs I didn’t know any of the mini-

hotspots that every lake has, I didn’tknow if I had fished the right areas or thewrong areas of each swim. One thing thatreally got to me though, was constantlywinding in baits that stank of silt.

I know the carp aren’t particularlybothered, but I was. It wasn’t doingmy confidence any good at all.I don’t follow the over-flavoured, in-your-faceroute (although I havebeen known to usein-your-facecoloured hookbaits), and it wasstarting to get tome that my baitswere becomingless detectable thelonger they weresat waiting for a carpto find them.

This was particularlyworrying, as all of my fishhad so far fallen on the secondnight of my usual 36-hour sessions (aday with a night tagged on either end).

Give YourBoilies A Drink

All boilies are dehydrated to a certainextent during the usual drying/coolingprocess. This is why they shrink a little

I don’t follow the over-flavoured, in-your-faceroute with hook baits(although I have been

known to use in-your-facecoloured hook baits).

Rehydrated baits atdifferent stages of soaking– soggy and standard

Rehydrated baits atdifferent stages of soaking– soggy and standard

Another confidentsession – note thewet mats and sacks

TACTICAL CARP ANGLER

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rendering your average self-hooking riguseless!

Once a lot of the hemp is cleared thenyou stand a better chance of pricking afish still browsing and truffling aroundthe area.

Anyway, I’m starting to get a littlesidetracked as I usually do while writing.So, back to the rehydrates. As you willhave gathered, I have great confidence inhempseed as an outstanding attractor tocarp.

shaped (10mm sausages rolled out on a15mm table) boilies would drink onepint of hemp juice and still look and feellike a standard boilie.

Formula One boilies with a third ofhemp content! I simply knew theywould work before I ever used them.

I had tried various forms of hemp inmy bait over the years but always endedup with rolling problems due to the oilynature of the stuff. If only it hadoccurred to me years before to introduce

I was right – my soaked baits took onvery little silt smell.

After returning from the sessionmentioned above I started to experimentby force-feeding my dehydrates withdifferent liquids. As you would expect,the thicker the liquid, the longer ittook to rehydrate the bait.

Hemp TalkNow, everyone knows the

effectiveness of hempseed. Carpabsolutely love the stuff. It is brilliant. Ihave definitely used more hemp over theyears than any other bait. The problem isthough, that it can be a little too good.Get the carp feeding on it heavy and itcan become frustratingly difficult toencourage them to pick up a larger hookbait and move off fast enough to prickthemselves.

I used to think that carp weren’tbothered about eating anything elsewhen a large carpet of hemp wasintroduced. I have now changed myview on this one though. I think it ismore a case of a mass of hempdiscouraging the carp to move off fastwhile hoovering and chewing bait, thus

Many companies have tried to cash inon this phenomenal bait but no-one hasyet come up with anything that attractslike hemp itself. The various hemp mixes– hemp oils, hemp flavours and so on –just don’t seem to live up to their names.

Yet, if I pour the oily water fromfreshly-cooked hemp into my pond athome the carp seem to be instantlytriggered into feeding mode.

Big HitterNaturally, one of the first liquids I

experimented with on completely air-dried baits (rock-hard and dry all theway to their centres) was the waterfrom a freshly-cooked batch ofhemp.

The results staggered me. Ifound that two pints ofair-dried Nash BaitFormula One barrel-

it afterwards! It was at breakneck speed(okay, I know I drive a Land Rover butI do have a writer’s licence) that I droveto the Mangrove for my maiden voyagewith my beautiful little hemp barrels.

This session was to turn into my mostproductive since joining the Mangrove.What is more, I even caught on the firstevening. I had only introduced theoversoaked baits the first evening and by

the second evening I hadmade sure that I hadpresoaked the restof my bait. With carp of

Now, everyone knows the effectiveness of hemp-seed. Carp absolutely love the stuff. I have definitelyused more hemp over the years than any other bait.

The mirror of38lb 4oz, theother half of

the recordbrace

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TACTICAL CARP ANGLER19lb, 29lb 12oz, 22lb 4oz, 32lb 7oz(Conan), 16lb, 25lb 4oz, 19lb 14oz and24lb 12oz, as well as losing a fish, it hadturned into quite a hectic session for me– nine chances in 36 hours on a newbait!

The last two takes came with thebuzzers packed away and the rods layingon the deck. I had to leave a swimful offeeding fish to start the two-hourjourney back to work. A ‘satisfyingsickener’ I guess. I obviously had analternative presentation to start workingupon and developing further.

yet to take a step back and use aconventional boilie. The hemp juice isstill the most effective rehydrating liquidI have used. To be honest, it has beenthat good for me that I have hardlymessed around with anything else.

Dehydrate AndRehydrate

In its infancy on the Mangrove, myfishing either experienced multiplecatches or absolutely nothing at all. Whenthey were on the bait they simplycouldn’t seem to get enough down them.

I am certain that the odd blank Iexperienced was simply down to mecocking up the location of the fish orsimply being unable to get on them.

You can have the best bait in theworld but you ain’t going to catch thecarp if they aren’t there.

During the lead into winter that firstyear (pre-Christmas), I was still catchingover big beds of bait. This was at a timewhen others were seemingly onlygetting takes over minimal bait.

So, why do my dehydrated/rehydratedbaits work more effectively for me thanconventional baits and what conclusionshave I come to after their continued use?

I don’t think I can narrow it down tojust one reason.

I started off by simply trying to fillthem with liquid so as to try and keepthe silt smell/taste out. This in effectgives a bit of a washed-out texture.

A lot of the unsafe baits carp comeacross are pretty dry in the middle.Leave them a couple of days and eatthem when the angler is gone and theywill be soft and wet in the middle. So,I am giving the baits a relatively safetexture.

I have tried speeding the baitpreparation process up by simplyadding hemp liquid to conventionalfrozen boilies. Yes, they drink a littlebit of the juice, but they don’t takeon anywhere near as much as theydo if air-dried first.

These baits have caught fish forme but not in the same numbers oras consistent. This would indicateto me that the hemp juice itself is

The last two takes of the sessioncame with the buzzers packedaway and the rods on the deck

A stunning winter thirtycaught on the rehydratesA stunning winter thirty

caught on the rehydrates

I certainly don’t want to turn thispiece into a ‘look what I caught’ article,so I won’t carry on listing the numerousmultiple catches which were to followthis first one – other than to say that myfishing took a complete turnround fromthis day on.

Suffice it to say that three nights in aswim in France produced 44 carp to43lb on their debut outing.

Back in England an invite to fishanother incredibly silty lake produced a36lb mirror, a 31lb common and acouple of twenties the very first time Ifished the place (whoops! I wasn’t goingto go on about what I have caught.Sorry).

This was the summer of 2001. I amwriting this in January 2004 and I have

The hemp juice is still themost effective

rehydrating liquid I haveused. To be honest, it has

been that good for methat I have hardly messedaround with anything else.

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not, surprisingly, adding to the baitsoverall attractiveness. For what it isworth, the subtle Formula One smellstill shines through the hemp juice. Bothcomplement each other.

The baits I have had the most success

tench but having those feeding in yourswim isn’t necessarily a bad thing.Feeding fish attract other fish. Drop oneof these baits in the edge and they spitout rings of oil for ages.

As far as baiting up is concerned, you

been used on the water you are fishing,then you could be in for a treat. Arehydrated bait is so different in so manyways to the things that carp have, inmany waters, become paranoid about –that is dry-centred boilies.

AfterthoughtDehydrating, then rehydrating your

baits is also the perfect way of sinkingheat-damaged flavours such as the ethylalcohol-based ones into your bait. Lots ofattractors are destroyed at the boilingstage, so why put them in?

After all the plus points, I will end witha couple of bad points to watch out for.I’ve found that rehydrated boiliesgenerally go sour/off much quicker thanconventional bait. You don’t really wantto be using them much more than 48hours after rehydration. And finally, if leftin liquid and in the sun, then they willstart to float after a couple of days. Well,my Formula One’s do! Similarly, ifboiling hemp water is used forrehydrating then the baits again

sometimes float.I boil my hemp in the evening,

then leave it to cool overnightand then I pour the liquid

over the bait thefollowing morning.Twelve hours later andthey are ready to use.

Give it a try, I did!Shaun Harrison

The softer I have made these baits, the better they seem to have appeared to work.

with were air-dried for a full 12 months,so bait life is not an issue here. I haveused all of those now and it wouldobviously take me another year toduplicate that scenario.

TextureThe softer I have made these baits, the

better they have appeared to work.These days I completely water/hemp-log my baits rather than try to revertthem back to a conventional boilie.Ideally, I like to be able tosquash my baits betweenthumb and forefingereasily.

I guess nuisancespecies ought to be anightmare on mysoft, paste-like baitsbut they don’tappear to be. Yes, Icatch the oddbream and

will obviously struggle with a throwingstick. I use the spod, a bait rocket or acatapult.

Many anglers air-dry baits for foreignsessions in order to be able to carry morebait and preserve them at the same time.Most then introduce them into the lakein an air-dried state.

I have done exactly the same in thepast and have caught carp remarkablyquickly while doing so. The carp willcrunch up air-dried baits. However, theywill take an awful lot of lake water/smellinto them, thus masking any flavour thebait may have once had. If you go to the

trouble of rehydrating them first,even with just a little water andyour chosen attractors, then I canassure you your baits will workmore efficiently.The beauty of rehydrating is thatit allows you to use so manythings that you would usually

struggle to use in a bait. Ifthey have never previously

Give it ago, you

just neverknow

The results of myfirst session onrehydrated baits

The results of myfirst session onrehydrated baits

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