Let’s all agree from the start, boilies are the ultimate carp bait. Fished correctly nothing catches more carp around the UK and Europe than boilies and hook baits.
But with so many available how can you know which are the best boilies on the market?
Here’s my guide to my bait and how to best fish it, it’s broken down as follows (Scroll through to what you are looking for)
Guides – Covering shelf life and frozen
- Small boilies (12mm and under)
- Mid to large size (14mm+)
- Popups
Best boilie guide
Small boilies
As a day session angler I’m really keen on smaller boilies and have used loads of different ones. Smaller boilies are a killer bait for winter carping. I always carry some 12mm boilies and hook baits on day sessions – they can be good for getting a bite if it’s a quiet day. My Casual Carper 12mm boilies come in two flavours with matching popups in 12mm.
For me it’s all about the 12mm white chocolate and orange popups!
A pot will last me a few sessions and I generally fish them over a stiff bag or small bed of broken boilies. When fishing the bottom baits I’ll use them in a method or pellet feeder (See my guide to the best feeder pellets here). I always get great results at the lakes I fish with the boilies and they are my go to bait.
Tip – Due to the size I prefer to drill before you hair rig as this stops them splitting like they can do if you just push a needle through them. I think they’re best fished on a Korum quick stop size 10 hair.
My PB on these is a 13lb 7oz mirror with these, which is still the lake record where I fish.
Best full size boilies
I’m saying full size for anything 14mm+ as I class anything under that as a small boilie. This section is basically what I think is the absolute ultimate must buy boilie.
And the winner is…
Casual Carper – Spiced Krill Boilies
It’s fair to say my Spiced Krill boilies are my favourite boilie and these have accounted for some big carp! These include UK 40s and some monsters from lakes in France too – Check out my Instagram account @casualcarper to see the latest catch report on these baits!
I have these boilies available in my shop in 12mm, 15mm and 18mm. There’s a whole range of add on products you can get too –
- Matching Popups
- Balanced wafters
- Pastel wafters
- White popups
- Fluro popups
- Snowman heads
- Boilie glug (The best carp liquid IMO)
These boilies are a killer combination of liquid krill flavour with an added strong spice kick that is quickly released. These boilies can be fished all year what ever the conditions.
The bag mix is fantastic for your PVA bags and it create a good area of attraction around your bait to create a cloud or attraction. There’s not many others on the market that combine these flavours and the difference gives you a good edge on harder waters rather than fishing the same baits everyone else is using.
If you want the best bait to catch more carp then I’d say you cannot go wrong with these – in summer, winter, autumn or spring!
Best popups
I could have done a whole separate page on pop ups with the amount of weird and wonderful baits there are no the market. I’ve tried fishing with the odd fluro mixed colour ones but just find they don’t work, well they didn’t for me anyway. Ones like this are not making the list!
I’m sure some one out their loves these baits but it’s not me.
My favourite pop ups are – CC Moore diary supreme pop ups, washed out pink colour. What I love about these is the colour and strength. The elite range can stay in the water for up to 24 hours and work really well with the matching glug. The 12mm is a great bait for the cooler months and is my preferred bait around March and April. I’ll then switch to the larger sizes in the summer months.
These can be fished effectively on their own or over a bed of bait and work best with an added glug or bait spray booster. The 12mm version make great baits for a snowman rigs over a size 18mm/ 20mm boilie.
Here they are under water and getting eaten by a nice carp!
Keep watching to see the carp.
Best Cheap boilies
Important – when I say cheap I mean ways to find good value quality boilies, I do not mean the £3 a kilo crap off eBay.
1 – Starmer baits – Starmer baits have a good range of quality boilies but with a bit of searching you can find 5KG bags of their off cuts and over runs at a great price – Check for stock here. With off cuts you’ll never really know what your getting until they arrive and from experience you’ll get some odd shapes and the occasional sausage in there. These are great boilies for feeding and mixing up how you fish. I’ve had some decent sessions on these.
2 – Premier baits – Randoms – Premier baits are one of my favourite frozen boilie manufactures and for the best value freezer boilies you will not beat these at £17.50 per 5KG* (*Price correct at time of writing this blog, shipping is extra). These are again overruns from their main line and are excellent boilies.
Again you don’t know what you’re fishing with and will have a mix of boilies on the lake bed but at this price for the quality you cannot go wrong. If available you’ll find them in the left hand menu of the premier baits website.
Best freezer boilies
For big carp fishing and long sessions you simply cannot beat freezer baits. The quality of the baits are instantly noticeable and with a little prep and an air dry bag (I use this one) then you’ll soon see the benefit of these baits.
1 – Premier Baits – Matrix Plus
What a bait the matrix is, I’ve caught loads of fish using these baits and where allowed I’ve some mates who take them to France every time they go. The Matrix plus is an advanced version of the original Matrix which is even more potent and too 2 years of testing before launch to make sure it was perfect.
The smallest amount you can buy is 5kg which comes in at a very reasonable £40 (Correct at time of writing and subject to change). Sizes go from 14mm up to 24mm and if you order 20kg or more then you’ll be able to split sizes. At a maximum you can order 50KG for £290 which works out at just £5.80 a kilo – which is great value.
