by Tim Richardson
Many schools of thought exist on making baits and so many ideas and
opinions contradict each
other. So how to find
the truth about what
really works?! Well,
for example, in creating
recipes for an instantly
attractive carp or
catfish bait, (these
very often work for both
species) people argue
over ingredients, and
how baits actually
trigger that crucial
fish feeding response.
A good sign when
designing your homemade
bait is that it
instantly attracts the
attention of a wide
range of species. This
might be great if you
want to target all these
others, but your bait
might be attracting
'bait fish' around your
hook bait that will
attract the much bigger
predatory, or curious
catfish, or carp.
Such baits vary from
just 2 ingredients and a
flavour, to tha most
advanced produced by
fish nutritionists and
biochemists. But for
each extreme, there are
ideas and principles
common to each, so let's
start by looking at what
makes a 'simple bait':
To begin with, the
simplest baits often
utilize cheaper bulk
ingredients as basic as
wheat or corn flour,
with a 'high energy
value' but a low protein
content. Such baits
may seem easy to
distinguish from the
'balanced nutritional
profile' protein based
baits, but things
overlap: Each type works
and seems to contradict
each other's theory of
why they should work at
all! And perhaps the
key is less to do with
the effort and energy
cost to the carp, of
eating your bait, versus
its bio - energy reward
for doing so. But more
to do with exploiting
methods of initial
feeding response
stimulation and initial
bait small, taste and
palatability. For
example, we all know
that food that is very
nutritious can be
repellant because of its
strong taste or smell;
some people hate fish,
or garlic, or certain
vegetables... So what
are the theoretical
origins of carp baits
made from 'humble' low
protein and economical
'carbohydrate'
ingredients, after all,
we all know sweet corn
is one of the greatest
carp baits of all time,
even catching a British
record or two, but is
primarily a sweet low
protein carbohydrate
food? Traditionally
the best known low
protein flavor attractor
'commercial bait' (used
world wide) is probably
is Rich worth's or Rod
Hutchinson's 'Tutti
Fruiti' flavor / boilie.
Fish love certain
alcohols / combinations
far more than others and
a cheap semolina / soya
flour base mix were
ideal to carry this
attractor label, and
work anywhere.
However, flavors were
originally used in baits
to change their TASTE,
when catch results
achieved on the low
nutrition baits were
slowing down, and NOT
because flavors actually
worked as attractors in
their own right!
(Although they have
evolved to become so
today.) There are
still many cheaper
flavors, sold as 'carp
attractors' that are
really only 'labels' for
your base mix, and do
not have much in them
that will trigger carp
into feeding on your
bait! Carp can be fooled
for quite a while
though; A very
successful UK angler
(Andy Little) who was
the first to land thirty
30 pound carp in a
season, did this: he
began catching by
feeding a high
nutritional value bait
into the lake (SAVAY),
and as time and catches
grew, his bait ran out.
So, he put the same
flavor label
(strawberry?) in a
cheaper, low protein,
high carbohydrate base
mix, and he continued to
catch successfully for
some time. The carp had
associated the flavor
'label' with nutritional
benefit, and were fooled
into carrying on eating
the new bait - despite
its lack of food
nutrition benefits!
This category of basic
dry mix consists mainly
of high carbohydrate
ingredients which also
roll and bind together
easily. A basic
combination of 50 / 50 %
semolina flour and soya
flour is the most
commonly used base,
although this has often
added nutritional
factors added like
vitamins and minerals,
cheap fishmeal, an amino
acid source like corn
steep liquor for added
attraction etc. These
baits are often highly
coloured with
'fluorescent' edible
dyes to get carp to see
them more quickly and
easily, black, pink and
white and background
contrasting colors are
often ones I've done
well on when I've made
these baits. You have
to ask how carp see
these colors in water at
different light
intensities, of day /
night, water clarity
etc, and to come to your
own conclusions. White
seems good as anything,
and I've caught plenty
of good carp on this.
Other ingredients are
added to give a
'variety' or initial
difference to the bait,
as a carbohydrate bait
can 'blow' very quickly
compared to high
nutrition baits on some
water, for example a
difficult, low stock
density, high natural
food / exceptionally
high water quality lake.
It can take much work in
pre - baiting for
example, to keep ahead
of the carp's natural
wariness having been
caught on these baits,
and even to get them to
eat such baits
initially!.. You can
change your bait
characteristics; type of
attractors, color, rate
of attraction leak -
off, 'crunch factor',
etc. Instant attractor
baits are often highly
coloured and 'over -
flavored' with sometimes
with natural juice
incorporated flavors;
solvent based flavors
(e.g., acetates and
similar groups of
chemicals), or alcohol
and oil based flavors
for example, and
attractive extracts like
that of fermented fish
/shellfish. Changing
the flavors, especially
of 'non solvent' based
ones, can keep the bait
working purely on the
basis of flavor
attraction. (Some say
these baits work by
'simulating' the carp's
natural food signals,
ionizing the area of
water around the bait
but there is far more to
this and it is a very
advanced area to really
begin to understand.)
Cheaper ingredients,
like ground cereals or
bean derived flours and
meals, make this style
of bait cost effective,
simple, and very quick
to produce. Years ago I
used to soak my baits in
a mixture of pure ethyl
alcohol flavors, oil
based flavor extracts
and liquid 'Robin Red'
extract. The main cost
was flavors and added
attractors and they keep
working when changed
regularly although I
always use a liquid
protein source as a bait
soak / and in the bait
as I have found carp
caught by doing this are
often much bigger!! I
recall the first time I
experimented with
overloading baits with
'raw' undiluted flavors
around 1980... I caught
all night, trebling my
catch rate at that time.
But I used this bait
only over 6 weeks, as 90
% of the carp were
smaller ones 6 pounds to
16 pounds. Very nice
catches despite this.
I tried this approach on
a giant water in the
south of France (Lac Du
Salagou) about 15 years
ago. I hooked a fish
only 15 minutes after
arriving. It was
gigantic too, and
emptied my reel, snapped
the line, leaving my
friends laughing, in a
mixture of amazed shock
and jealous relief that
I did not land it!!! I'd
gradually stripped off
down to my underpants
and waded out 30 yards
to chest deep water too!
(I wonder if the video
they took of the action
still exists - eh Mr
Grimes!?) I still wonder
about that fish....
Please be warned: Be
aware that highly
flavored instant
attractor type baits can
badly 'backfire on you'
and actually be
extremely repellant to
many big carp on some
waters, owing to high pH
factors etc, and also
where it has been used
on a water, by many
anglers, for quite some
time. The biggest,
most wary of fish can be
terrified of
overflavoured baits and
even the average
artificially flavored
bait simply because it
recognizes that signal
as related to danger!
You may wonder why you
almost never even hook a
bigger fish on such a
bait at certain waters.
Remember, the aim of the
bait is to get a carp to
pick up the bait as
confidently as possible,
as this gives the
greatest chance of
obtain a solid hook
hold! I took a
quality milk protein and
wheat germ bait to the
famous 'Rainbow Lake' in
France, and made a
terrible mistake by
putting the recommended
synthetic flavor in it,
instead of leaving it
out completely! This
bait produced NO takes
at all, and I ended up
catching fish around 50
pounds on other bait
with no flavor
instead!... The
Japanese and American
scientists have both
proven that carp
instinctively prefer a
protein instead for a
Carbohydrate based food.
In one of a series of
similar tests producing
similar results, a carp
diet was supplemented
with a carbohydrate
food. The carp regularly
ate this food for only
one week before
stopping. This
particular food was
ignored for a total of
26 weeks, but when a
protein based food was
then offered, it was
eaten immediately!
The Japanese probably
lead the world in
knowledge of carp
nutrition and carp
attractors, with over a
thousand years of
history in carp
breeding, testing and so
on. I've read that in
many tests carp are
induced into feeding
less nutritional food,
by adding PLANT EXTRACTS
and NOT SYNTHETIC
CHEMICAL FLAVORS. For
example, I've seen
fenugreek extract used,
and this is a component
of the extremely
successful commercially
produced 'maple' flavor.
You must assume that
these scientists are at
the top of this whole
game, so if they're
using it in tests as a
carp feeding trigger it
probably great to use in
bait! I also got the
impression reading about
the writings of the
famous milk protein bait
pioneer, Fred Wilton,
that these baits were
EQUALLY as effective or
perhaps even MORE so,
when synthetic flavours
were NOT used in them!
(So give it a go!)
Once, about 16 years
ago, I was catching some
good carp using very
successful instant
attractor baits, when
the carp started head
and shouldering, 'en
mass', straight out of
my swim, without
returning; someone had
just put out a large
quantity of his own
secret 'High Nutritional
Value' bait (based on
anchovy and sardine
fishmeal), and the carp
had shown their
preference immediately!
This taught me a BIG
lesson about the
advantages of really
understanding essential
carp nutrition in bait
and how carp feeding
behaviour can be
manipulated by using the
right bait at the right
time on a particular
water!!! In some
circumstances where
there is sufficient
baits of nutritional
quality, fish mass
population / density/
competition with other
species / natural food
supply etc, low protein
carbohydrate baits can
still continue to be
effective, and
consistently catch
almost all the fish in a
lake: The key seems to
be in, if enough large
quantities of a
particular bait are
introduced, and the
attractors, e.g.,
chemical flavour labels
are changed regularly
enough, then they will
continue to be
successful. One
outstanding example of
this happening on a
water where quality
protein and balanced
nutritional profile
baits had been used for
many years there, was at
the famous UK water;
Darenth. In one season
most of the waters
biggest carp were landed
on a carbohydrate bait
based on full fat
semolina and soya flour.
It may seem surprising,
but then perhaps the
fish treated it as a low
energy cost food source
as over 1 tonne was put
in and it was used
consistently by the
majority of the anglers
on fishing the at that
time! Only when the
anglers' fashions
changed and they tried
other types of baits in
large quantities did
this trend in results on
'instant baits' reduce.
They do work well
however and on a bait of
a similar design, the
old French "Rainbow
Lake" record carp of 76
pounds was landed in
2006. There are
increasingly more
countries and waters
where 'carp bait
selectivity' is now a
common occurrence owing
to intensive fishing
pressure on carp; they
can eat foods
selectively while
ignoring or preferring
certain baits above
others! Worldwide
carp do seem to
literally eat almost
anything used as bait.
Overall, however, the
majority of the heaviest
carp caught in the UK
seem to be caught on
nutritionally based
baits, but questions
still arise concerning
those captures by
'instant attractor
baits' and why they can
'trip - up' many of the
biggest carp at times...
after all, carp are only
conditioned by anglers
and THEIR habits and
preferences! By Tim
Richardson N.D.C.H. The
'thinking man's fishing
author' and bait guru.
About the Author
For more information
see:
http://www.baitbigfish.com
google
Contact Tim at:
http://info@baitbigfish.com Tim Richardson is a leading big fish angler
with many incredible
catches to his name. He
is also a nationally
recognised carp and
catfish bait guru in the
UK. His best selling
bait making manuals are
used by members of the
elite "British Carp
Study Group" for expert
reference. This
comprehensive
information and research
can h
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