Top carp fishing baits are rarely made from ‘purely’ milk protein ingredients these days. But there are many very attractive reasons to make your own very unique and powerful homemade baits using them.

It is rare to find any of your ‘competing’ fishermen using these and so they really do offer a massive and ‘different edge.’ Carp really love them and these baits will often ‘select’ bigger fish too…

One of the most successful homemade baits of the 1970s and early 1980’s era, in the UK, was what was termed, ‘the four milks’. This consisted of equal amounts of casein, lactalbumin, sodium caseinate plus a product called ‘FinnStim,’ which contains purified crystalline betaine, and was best optimized with added amino acids.

Apparently, this was one of the kinds of bait that made carp angling guru, Kevin Maddox, famous and he comes from a great era of widespread milk protein usage bringing to mind the use for example of baby milk, ‘Vitamealo,’ ‘Lamlac,’ ‘Complan,’ ‘Casilan,’ etc etc…

With a slight change, Rod Hutchinson recommended this formula to me, in one of his very helpful letters. It really helped me to ‘compete’ against much more experienced bait making anglers, who were using very high quality milk protein and fish meal based baits at that time:

4 Ounces of 90 mesh acid casein. (Or a combination of rennet casein too.)

4 Ounces of sodium caseinate.

4 Ounces of lactalbumin.

4 Ounces of soya isolate.

15 Milliliters of ‘Regular sense appeal.’

3 To 5 milliliters of ‘Scopex’ flavour. (Or other flavours.)

1 Teaspoon of ‘Sweet appetite stimulator.’

5 Milliliters of ‘Intense sweetener.’

Four large eggs.

This bait was excellent! (And still is!) Other proprietary mixes and recipes followed, which recommended combining: a milk protein base: ‘The Milk Protein Mix,’ the amino acids based: ‘Black Juice,’ the spray-dried fruit juices based ‘Minglefruit,’ a ‘sugars’ based mix: ‘Sucre Blend,’ and a spicy yeast bait ‘Ultraspice,’ blended together.

For example, in simple 50 % combinations like ‘The protein mix’ with ‘Sucre Blend, or ‘Black Juice,’ with ‘Minglefruit’ and I’m sure some of his present proprietary mixes were born using this idea! (And they have caught me countless big fish over the years too while experimenting and ‘playing’ with baits and different versions and combinations!)

There was also bait mentioned, based on mixed spices and herbs, which was similar to:

4 Ounces of 90 mesh acid casein. (Or a combination of rennet casein too.)

4 Ounces of sodium caseinate.

4 Ounces of lactalbumin.

4 Ounces of soya isolate.

1 Tablespoon (or more,) of mixed spices and herbs.

15 Milliliters (or more,) of Regular Sense Appeal (or ‘Spice’ or ‘Fruit Sense Appeal.’)

3 To 5 milliliters of ‘Ultraspice’ flavour. (Or other flavours.)

1 Teaspoon of ‘sweet appetite stimulator.’

5 Milliliters of ‘Intense sweetener.’

Four large eggs.

With these as my ‘control’ boilie baits, I could experiment with other ingredients, like body-building powders, individual herbs, spices, animal feeds, other natural extracts, and so on, and continue catching carp with confidence!

A ‘control bait’ is essential, to measure results against your new bait creations when experimenting! As a special note, make sure you make these baits ‘damper’ than usual and store them in cool conditions between mixing into a dough and rolling in to baits, as they have a great tendency to go hard and dry out fast!

The author has many more fishing and bait ‘edges’ up his sleeve. Every single one can have a huge impact on catches.

By Tim Richardson.