These are to hold your bait on the hair, they thread through a loop on the end of the hair. They are little pieces of plastic and can be really fiddly – you may also opt to use a piece of stiff grass, but the boilie stoppers
are more durable and dirt cheap. Ill show you the easiest way to thread these on later… some people cut one off then struggle for ten minutes to thread it through… don’t do this, it’s a waste of time, there’s a better way.
Don’t break one off at a time and then struggle with it, break a whole line off, feed one through the loop, tighten the boilie against it, then break the others off and put them in your tackle box.
They also come in different colours, shapes and sizes to suit the colour of your bait. Do I think it makes a difference what colour they are? No…… they are pretty flipping small and virtually unnoticeable, some may disagree.
Last Updated on September 10, 2026 by Shane Stanford
Shane Stanford has fished for carp for over twenty years, in the UK and in France, and currently fishes a private syndicate water in West Sussex. He writes Fishing Again to put the things he learned the hard way into plain language: location and watercraft first, then bait, rigs and gear. He is straight about which kit he has actually fished and which he has assessed on specification, and says so on the page.
