Tag Archives: Bait Fish

Tips on Lake Fishing for a Great Outdoor Experience

For many years, lake fish have been classified under three general heads: game fish, food fish, and forage or bait fish.

The bass, trout, pike, pickerel, muskellunge, pike perch, etc., have been generally known as game fish because of their sporting value.

On the other hand, carp, suckers, some of the catfish, yellow perch, etc., have been considered as food fish. While this latter group has not been considered as furnishing the sport that the so-called game fish do, nevertheless, it has a real economic and recreational value.

Generally speaking, in lake fishing, words are really inadequate when it comes to describing the correct procedure in casting. The best way to learn how to cast is to go down to the beach, watch an expert at work, and try to do likewise.

Nevertheless, lake fishing can really be fun and the novice will quickly master the correct form in lake fishing. Therefore, to further harness their craft, here are some tips that could help the anglers on their lake fishing activity.

1. In lake fishing, as with other forms of fishing, a smooth, snappy stroke is required but not as snappy as when snapping a whip. This type of stroke will cause the loss of many flies.

2. Anglers should remember that it is the line that is cast, not the fly. The fly is but a passenger, which is attached to the leader.

3. Proper timing is an important factor on both the backcast and forward cast.

4. Know the fish habitat and the kinds of fish that inhabit the lakes. Some of them are the sunfish, and the small mouth black bass.

These kinds of fish can usually be found hiding near some submerged log or stump, or among the plants.

5. When catching big fish in the lake, it is best to use big, sturdy rods. Big fish like the bass usually attain a weight of 12 pounds, which usually inhabits the lake or pond. The reason why they grow really big is that in lakes or ponds, the food is both abundant and very rich.

Hence, to handles these sizes, the ideal length and weight of the rod is 8 ½ feet in length and from 4 to four and three quarters of an ounce in weight.

Indeed, the fundamental principles in lake fishing are not difficult to master and with little patience and practice, the novice can become a successful angler in the lake.

Submit your articles and get a PR4 backlink to your website! Submit Articles! We provide free articles and information. Check us out at Free Articles!

HOW TO MAKE CARP AND CATFISH BAITS Using Bait Flavours That Catch More fish!

If you are looking for easy ways to improve your catches then flavours and their creative uses really need to be explored further – but flavours are far more than just smells, tastes or labels but a whole world of different irresistible factors when used in combination in readymade or homemade baits! To maximise flavours to catch many more fish read on now!

 

If you think that flavours are nothing more than a smell they have really come a very long way and are incredibly diverse in effect, quality and fish-catching properties. Many flavours contain bioactive compounds, essential oils and their components plus other factors including metabolic stimulants of various kinds, and many other things besides that turn fish on in multiple ways on different levels. Some flavours attract fish to the proximity of your bait and other substances in your baits should ideally trigger strong reliable instinctive feeding responses. (Natural feeding triggers are a huge part of CC Moore bait design for instance like so many bait companies large and small.)

 

Not at all things about flavours used in modern carp fishing are anything to do with what we in human terms call smell or taste! Specifically-designed and carefully scientifically chosen fishing bait flavours offer many varied effects and impacts on fish these days; far more than the old fashioned solvent-based cake flavours for instance!

 

Solvent based flavours improve bait solubility. For instance glycerol and alcohol based flavours are hygroscopic which means they attract water into your bait. This produces a diffusion effect so that flavour and dissolved bait substances pump out of your bait – so increasing the performance of your bait, and hydrating it more making it more digestible than drier un-hydrated baits yet to become water-packed.

 

Solvent based flavours also act to a great degree as solvents, although water is the greatest solvent of course, many flavours can to a degree help emulsify ingredients, additives, liquids and other elements of your baits so they pass out of your bait and into the water column more efficiently –and even help make your baits that bit more digestible.

 

In one carp magazine a couple of years ago someone used a headline stating to the effect that flavours do not work! Some people have even said that flavours sell more anglers than catch fish. Flavours do more than just attract, or incite or even repel in some cases! Flavours do so much more in a bait when used in combination with many bait ingredients, extracts, liquids and so forth. They are like amino acids and enhancers – they can add to, enhance and multiply the effects and impacts of all kinds of factors in baits as a whole!

 

To simply test a neat flavour in any concentration or pH of water in a tank of clean water using usually juvenile carp is extremely misleading – with endless variables not covered at all.

 

To state that in a range of tests that a certain flavour did nor stimulate feeding does not mean at all that that flavour cannot make a very big difference in a bait. Flavours are about so much more than triggering feeding. They can illicit a change in the behavioural modes of fish even if that happens to produce curiosity and stopping the fish from just carrying on doing whatever (as if your bait were not there at all!)

 

It’s just the same when testing amino acid combinations in different pH water, different temperatures and so on in a tank. Think about it; natural lake water is alive with all kinds of micro-organisms, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and suspended particles and minerals and so on.

 

When you realise how extremely powerful fish senses really are in comparison to humans you tend to consider that almost anything, even inert plastic and rubber baits carry some kind of signal no matter how insignificant. Each and every ingredient and liquid in a bait has flavours even on the extremely finite scale so think about it! Carp can detect certain molecules in water down to as little as one part in a billion. In that way they are like sharks that are well known to detect just one drop of blood a mile or more away down current!

 

I say down current because one of greatest effects of flavours is to not only disperse quickly themselves in the water column, but also crucially assist the dispersal of other bait materials in solution, in suspension and so on which make it far easier and quicker for fish to detect your baits and get hooked faster!

 

I’m not electrochemist or whatever but I do know that baits are very much about the passage of charged particles impacting upon variously evolved receptors, proteins, signalling pathways and brain receptors and so on. This leads to amino acid and hormone releases that directly cause changes in behaviour in us – and in fish. It’s like the old Bisto gravy advert where once you get a whiff of it carried in the air you instinctively want to follow the source – or in the case of fish, the concentration gradient of that signal in the water, issuing forth from your baits!

 

Many many tricks and tips and sound scientific facts can improve your catches when it comes to flavours. For instance cutting a successful flavour with maybe another, or a liquid food, or sweetener or enhancers etc to give a bait a new signal when fish maybe are wising up but still want the nutrition within your bait’s base mix. You can make your own flavour recipes very easily if you have the know-how. I find the ripening processes of fruit and flavour developments in meats, fermented fish, and cheeses and so on fascinating – and very useful and effective when applied to homemade bait making!

 

You might cut a concentrated flavour with a liquid food, or syrup or sweetener, enhancer, natural soluble extract, oils plus a high potency high PC liquid emulsifier, and so on to boost effects and impacts on fish to make them even easier to catch! You can also do the opposite; i.e. cut a flavour so it is less recognisable and produce something new to get around carp wary of familiar over-used flavours.

 

One trick anyone can do is cut one solvent based flavour with others so for example you might make your own pineapple flavour using 3 different brands of pineapple flavour or Scopex flavour or chocolate malt flavour for example.

 

You might source some of your own special flavours that are not on familiar solvent bases at all but are natural – and use these to mix with natural ester based flavours and perhaps an unusual solvent based flavour. Many flavours are natural extracts in an alcohol base, but you can easily make your own unique homemade versions with a little thought! My ebooks are filled with this stuff.

 

I’m not against soaking baits in neat flavours and other substances. You might think this will put fish off. But it’s all about context. Think about it. If you are fishing for many days, you can certainly put flavour-soaked free baits out to alert fish of their presence- very strongly! Then you can be crafty and not fish that area for a number of days, knowing that a good number of wary fish will creep back onto your baits when they have washed out and appear safe. This is the kind of thing I and countless others have been known to exploit.

 

You might consider that you can make extremely potent natural flavours with no solvent bases whatsoever. So many powdered ingredients and additives etc are soluble. But soluble does not just mean in water, but in a variety of other substances. For instance, you might make unusual flavours based on condensed milk totally packed full of added soluble milk fractions and extracts.

 

Another example could be hydrolysed casein liquid with liquid yeast concentrate with added enzyme-treated yeast and intense sweetener with liquid glucose and malt extract. You might want to use pre-digested fish, oleoresins, liquid lecithin, terpenes, Manuka honey and Talin.

 

You can even make baits that are flavoured with a weak flavour mixed with Molasses and Minamino for instance or anything – maybe fresh liquidised crab or crab paste plus a crab flavour for instance, or real liquidised pineapple plus a pineapple flavour and liquid betaine for instance. I class betaine as a flavour, just like glycerine and honey or Marmite or Belachan in warm water in solution for instance.

 

On easier waters using flavour-soaked hook baits and free baits can significantly improve your catch rate. Think about it. Why do hook baits over-dosed with concentrated flavours at 1000 to 1 concentration or whatever incite fish to snap at baits or suck in baits; even going beyond the point of having their receptors in their lips burnt and resulting in hooked fish?

 

Concentrated flavours solvent-based flavours are extremely complex in not just their components but the entire diversity of their designs, properties and impacts on tastes and perceptions. Even if you sampled 10 different brands of pineapple or Scopex or strawberry you would find at least one or 2 that stand out from the rest. Flavours really are a matter of experimentation.

 

If you doubt this and just want to stick to the big brand names and labels that you have heard of previously then consider this; the big companies are not the only ones who use the services of professional flavorists and scientists in various fields to produce fishing bait flavours and additives and so on that are extremely potent in their effects. Many of the products from really small companies can be very advanced indeed and I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending them for your own testing.

 

It is very easy to test flavours. Just one way which is not very scientific but will show you instantly what works on any individual water is to soak your hook baits in 3 different brands of a flavour with the same name, such as banana, blue cheese, condensed milk or whatever, and fish each brand on a different rod for a period long enough to see if one flavour really out-fishes the others, then test the best against more flavours of the same name from different companies until you find an even better flavour. It works because I have done this many times over the years! But the best bit is then you can play with the best flavours you can get even more creative and add effects to them that boost impacts on fish senses and physiology etc even more potently. It takes a bit of reading of my ebooks to put this into practice but literally anyone can do this!

 

You will really benefit from using such variations of many kinds in applications varying from homemade boilies, shelf life and frozen boilies and homemade and readymade pastes, to readymade and homemade particle mixes and preparations, ground bait preparation, spod mixes, pellets, stick mixes, fake baits and even natural baits like CC Moore frozen mussels and bloodworm etc! Revealed in my unique readymade bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information – look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!

 

By Tim Richardson.

Now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with these unique fishing bibles: “BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!” “BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!” And “BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!” For these and much more now visit

http://www.baitbigfish.com

Proven homemade bait making readymade bait success secrets bibles, unique bait secrets articles by Tim Richardson! FOR FREE VIDEOS SEE:http://www.youtube.com/user/BAITBIGFISH7KAIZEN#p/u/1/eUbFBwq6l9w

Homemade Carp and Catfish Baits – How to Make Them Instantly Attractive!

* Many thoughts 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 the 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 repellent 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 over flavoured 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!

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

By Tim Richardson.

For the unique acclaimed expert bait making and secrets ‘bibles’ ebooks / books:

“BIG CATFISH AND CARP BAIT SECRETS!”
AND “BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!” And ” BIG FLAVORS, FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CHEMORECEPTION EXPLOITATION SECRETS!” SEE:


http://www.baitbigfish.com


Tim is a highly experienced homemade bait maker big carp and catfish angler of 30 years. His bait enhancing books / ebooks now help anglers in 43 countries improve their results. See this bait and fishing secrets website now!

Enjoy Carp Fishing In France

France is the best and most popular place for tourists interested in carp fishing. Since there are many public and private lakes, carp fish found in abundance. These fish grow fast depending on the quality of food available in the lake. Carp fish can grow up to 60lbs. However, the common sizes found in the lakes vary from 40lbs to 50lbs. Considering the huge size, one should have the perfect equipment to tackle the fish. The carp fish is not very vigorous but it is master of its territory. Hence, to catch them prior knowledge is essential. The angler has to use his acumen against the fish to trap it. The knowledge of the place of availability of fish is required. The carp may not eat your feed, thus it is essential to learn which type of bait carp fish of the particular lake prefer. Carp fishing in river Mosselle is an excellent experience. It is a slow running river, which flow from France into Germany. Carp fish is immensely available in Loraine. The valley has many gravel pits where big carp fish are found. Another area located between Thionville and Nancy hold lot of carp fish. However, to lure a flock of carp fish proper bait has to be laid and the fish should be attracted to the food. Crete lakes is the suitable place for fishing. It is a private lake covering 60 acres and is located in the North east of France. Big fishes are found here. For two decades, the lake left untouched. Therefore, the carp matured on the natural environment. Crete lakes is an excellent venue for carp fishing which will make you excited and will remain a memorable day of fishing. Recently, in 2010 March they have introduced, coaches to travel to the location. You will feel excited with its surroundings and facilities. They give, restaurants to eat, shower block, toilet facility and the package include everything required for carp fishing. UK tourists are taken care in the package for to and fro journey They have Bailiff’s to care of your baggage and bring them safely to Crete lakes. For an angler the deal costs around 495 pounds and for others it is 195 pounds, only. In Spring and Autumn you are offered discount. However, April to October is finest period for carp fishing.

To enjoy carp fishing in France visit us in our website for booking at cretelakes.com

Carp Fishing And Bait Recipe Secrets For Big Fish Success!

Did you know you can tickle carp and make them go into a trance?! Why is this and how can such things help you catch carp? Carp can see in the near infrared and near ultraviolet ranges and are far more sensitive than the average human! Also carp hear extremely well too and they can hear sounds in overlapping frequency range to humans (which means what you hear they hear including 10 decibel bite alarms contacting your line!) Carp learn to fear due to instinctively programmed negative associations so anglers must beware of all they are doing! Now read on to discover more about fish senses and how to use them to your advantage to catch more fish!

Did you know certain carp retinal (eye) cells are sensitive to things like caffeine and other substances? I knew a young kid once who drive me nuts because all he kept saying all the time was did you know. I asked myself what he was trying to prove by doing this – he was only learning on the fast-track! Then it struck me that the biggest lesson for me here (that I had long over-looked,) was the fact that so many of us adults pretty much stop asking questions all the time – and that means we are missing out on loads of good stuff to help us catch many more fish!

For instance, why does a carp mind if you throw lots of free baits out to him but then object to you plonking a 5 ounce lead on his head – I don’t know! It seems to me he would appreciate all that free food and in response kindly jump on your hook by way of thanks. But then maybe he also does not particularly like hearing the vibration of your tight lines in the water sending out vibrations like so many wind turbines on your doorstep. Or maybe he would prefer a more musical melody coming down your fishing lines from your bite alarms set at full volume!

Maybe a Mozart or Beethoven symphony instead of a boring single note alarm sound would produce more fish bites by stimulating their mood better – who knows! This might sound too far-fetched to be true but carp can hear the vibrations of plankton and chose between areas of different concentrations of them in order to feed on them with much more energy-efficiency; carp are really sensitive creatures.

In fact if you think carp are simple rough types that like their alcohol and rough mating (a bit like many more hirsute macho-appearing beer-swilling rugby fanatics,) just remember appearances can be deceptive. Carp are renowned for biting your balls off and sucking your maggots dry without even getting hooked – they are that sensitive when playing with your baits that is!

The truth is that carp sensitivity makes certain they keep on adapting (and surviving,) and in fishing their sensitivity is their greatest strength against us (if we do not keep adapting and exploiting their sensitivity back against them!) Remember that we sensitise them when we condition them in every way by actually being there on the bank and fishing for them!

We humans as long-lost descendants of ancient teleost fish such as carp still have strange habits and behaviours from the past that help us adapt or fit in faster; so giving us better chances of survival. Here is a strange thing; how is it this possible: The very first utterances that a deaf human baby ever speaks can have the local accent of its mother. Is the liquid environment of the womb significant here in pre-learning before birth?! Of course larval stages of all kinds of creatures do things that only instincts and genetics appear to explain! What do crustacean larvae do in respect of tides, what do baby fish immediately do when hatching out of spawn and what stimulates such behaviours anyway?

Now just because you can see a fish and he seems quite happy and contented it does not mean he had not noticed you creeping along the bank in your Realtree one piece sniper outfit. A carp can see into near infrared so when at the surface or slightly out of the water do you think there is half a chance your own body heat will give you away like you were dressed like a luminescent Ronald MacDonald?! Mr Carp in all likelihood would know all about you in ways you have no conception of and that science has yet to discover.

We like carp are over 95 percent water. Good clean water is getting more difficult to find and even water from reservoirs still needs reverse osmosis treatment and subtle energy treatment to make it far less tainted; the average home water filter is just an inadequate joke. Adult carp take a lot of punishment and can even survive in quite low oxygen conditions and can thrive despite certain pH and salinity conditions, but even they have their limits! We humans are creating carp fisheries but our consumption is gradually poisoning waterways one way or another.

Remember we are what we eat and drink as are carp. The water quality of so many carp fisheries is a very big problem when hot conditions occur and this is something every carp angler needs to investigate to reveal to themselves the reasons why this is. All this can help you make better catches, make better baits and improve conditions for carp and improve our own personal health; carp nutrition is a great teacher of what is great for humans to consume also – so take note!

Now science is arrogant enough to think it knows so much for certain, and yet it does not know what came first – the chicken or the egg. Did a bigger human brain and the ability to walk and talk or make tools come first? Does our ancient reptilian brain used in fight or flight mean we were originally like reptiles, mammal or chickens anyway mammals were present on the scene before dinosaurs appeared and crocodiles were there before dinosaurs too!

There is evidence that some dinosaurs had feathers because that helped energy efficiency, but of course there is no point carp having feathers because they are cold-blooded and are the same as the temperature of the water they live in but a winged and feathered big carp would probably give a really good fight in the water (and in the air too!) See more on chicken in carp baits and their digestible protein later.

In regards to carp, chickens, humans and dinosaurs, maybe things evolved this way: The carp originally hatched amphibious mutant humans and chickens simultaneously (which kind of solves the chicken and the egg conundrum and probably explains why some dinosaurs and mammals went back into the water!) Then the chickens and humans discovered chocolate, coffee, vanilla, coke and chilli, and this mixture dwarfed the chickens and made them flightless, and made the humans high so they grew upright and tall and let us see the lions coming (and thus we became the king of the jungle.)

Then during a freak forest fire in the first rudimentary herb and spice garden (near a salt mine,) the humans discovered the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken which they were addicted to and so began to farm chickens (organically of course.) Then one day while the chickens were playing their favourite game of (you guessed it – chicken,) they hooked up a worm on a stick and a human found the stick, tripped up in a pond and hooked a carp that went for the worm – easy! Thus began traditional carp fishing without bows, arrows (or dynamite) approximately 450 million years ago give or take a week or two and thus the concept of fast food (though limited) it being fried, rare or live on a stick.

But now back to chickens; as you will see there is more to them in regards to carp and us that meets the eye! Science reckons (using the currently known genome,) that chicken DNA represents the closest match to the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Saying that T. Rex is the king dinosaur was a bit premature as in fact, he had bigger competition that looked very similar to him at different stages during dinosaur times so he was not the king at all. But science is not that exact really knowing only what it knows at any moment in time! Note; this applies to future carp bait developments too and the application of new technology and the potential to find new substances – maybe in the jungles of South America before they all get cleared to grow trendy soya beans, biofuels and coke!

Maybe chickens really are T.Rex in disguise and they are all just playing dumb to lull us humans into a false sense of security while we all laugh at all those why did the chicken cross the road jokes!

How about this; the majority of boilies and paste baits in carp fishing world-wide are based on the proteinous benefits and characteristics of common but humble chicken eggs! What does this tell you about the real power of chicken – because he gets everywhere! (Egg-bound boilies are the number one carp fishing bait right around the world!) Now chickens are produced to a great degree from special mutant stocks that make them lean mean thick legged big breasted roasting machines. Purely judging by the billions of chickens produced around the world every year, maybe T.Rex is on his way back and is intent on world domination again!

No kidding; did you know that probably the most viable successful sustainable (for now) protein products used in fish farming (instead of or to supplement fish meals, soya and maize protein,) is poultry protein meal. Chickens get everywhere; from China to South America in markets and fast food joints and get this; you are what you eat! (How things go full circle!) Added to this, chickens have indirectly created unrest, anarchy, mayhem, civil and world wars using their infamous battle cry of who are you calling chicken (humans love to mimic animals right!)

But seriously, you would think by now that the average intelligence male human being would have figured out that actually a chicken is not a chicken at all thus negating any suggestion of a man lacking testosterone fuelled abilities being a chicken. After all, chicken fights (or cock fights if you prefer,) have not been banned in so many countries just because chickens fight each other by tapping each other over the head with feather dusters (they are T. Rex dinosaurs in disguise right!)

Nutritionally-speaking it is reckoned that for all the effort you put into buying and drinking expensive high protein body-building powders based on whey protein concentrates (for all those lactose intolerant, fart-thumping, boob-blooming body-builders out there,) you might as well snack on chickens to get those big muscles you always dreamt of. (To get muscles like Arnold you will be needing steroids but maybe Paxo Super Booster (chicken gravy) will do instead!)

And what about the birds and the bees – what about those attractive birds guys are always calling babes and chicks?! Have you ever noticed the body language similarities between a guy on the pull in a club or at a bar, and a cockerel strutting his stuff with the hens (hilarious stuff or what?!)

Anyway, did you know that dead (chicken) chicks are proven catfish baits for leviathans? Those dead days-old chicks hook the monsters like a jumbo sized pellet never has; like I say, chicken is supreme! I promised you recipes so alongside your liver or fish meal or yeast or braised monkey nut ingredients, try adding keratin and poultry protein meal. Anyway, take your average white or brown fish meals; in a fight with Mr Chicken only the fighting fish tag team partnered with flying fish would stand half a chance! OK so it sounds like I am over-selling this chicken stuff but as fish stocks are terminally declining and English is not a chickens first language (or second language) they deserve a spokesperson!

In the UK chicken boilies etc have been plugged in the media so much by now. Maybe now carp anglers should all jump onto the Dynamite Bait bandwagon and just accept that chicken boilies have had their day, been fashionable and currently tuna is the new boy on the block?! (Note all those poor old halibut pellets that are floundering on the sidelines at the backs of fishing bait shelves now -ah how fickle fishing fashion is!) Do you see how much your perceptions of what is a successful carp bait are really in your own mind and not all based in objective reality?! And does this mean that carp sensitivities to your bait substances have anything whatever to do with your bait-choosing decision-making because I hope for your sake it is because a Tutti Fruitti or spicy tuna readymade bait will not always save you from a blank; it takes the power of thought too!

And if you are an readymade bait kind of guy, and you happen to have at least half a brain cell partly active after all the brand-conditioning adverts and advertorials you probably are not even aware of,) it is obvious that the best time to get on the chicken baits is when everyone else has jumped onto the tuna or other currently fashionable baits! (Have you noticed that wary big fish tend to like baits they have not been hooked on too much recently?!) I think I will bring out my own special unique cunningly-crafted scientifically proven in real-time (from the future) range of post space-age baits based on mutton (young sheep,) just to be different but the same just to please everyone!)

If you happen to have the urge to catch more fish than your average brainwashed fashion-copying modern carp angler, maybe you have realised that making your own homemade baits (made specifically to top all those standard format readymade baits) is a great way to save yourself a fortune. Super-boosted chicken baits are an ideal example to get you those freakishly good fish captures your mates will love to hate you for! But fashion-following brainwashed carp anglers are easy to beat anyway. They are far too fixated on the flashy magazine adverts searching for exciting new stuff to think of  asking how on earth their chosen new baits might actually work (or fail) when used by the less than average angler against talented anglers.

Anyway, when you consider all the carp out there with a developed palette from chomping on chocolate, strawberry, Scopex, cranberry, crab, pineapple and chilli bait flavours etc, why would carp not accept roast chicken juices as their brand new favourite boilie flavour?! You really can obtain this genuinely great flavour from my good friend Phil at CW Baits (online.)

Finally why not tip your weighing scale balance in your favour and make your boilies and ground baits different with white meat! Why not add more sustainable and economical poultry protein type ingredients to them? Plus everyone knows cats love eating birds – and if you want a Jurassic sized carp there is no better nor obvious choice than to exploit the power of a chicken (that old dinosaur in disguise!)

In that Hitchcock horror film called The Birds, all the real stars in it were chickens painted black and made to adhere to a strict diet and exercise programme to build them up and slim them down of course! Special effects helped make their beaks and faces look more symmetrical (and the odd feathers were air-brushed out according to Hollywood standards!) But even if you choose not to believe this, just consider that your local ostrich can out-run and out-kick you and makes a meaner bigger omelette than you too; so remember whatever you do – never call him chicken!

As you can tell by now this article was produced purely for entertainment and was written from the place where the chickens end up (after crossing the road,) but for a more practical gathering of truly valuable fishing bait information you need to read on a bit for my bait secrets! (For more seriously essential information see my website and biography right now!)

By Tim Richardson.

For the unique and acclaimed new massive expert bait making / enhancing ‘bibles’ ebooks / books: “BIG CATFISH AND CARP BAIT SECRETS!” And: “BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!” (AND “FLAVOUR, FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CHEMORECEPTION SECRETS”) SEE: http://www.baitbigfish.com Tim Richardson is a homemade carp and catfish bait-maker, and proven big fish angler. His bait making and bait enhancing books / ebooks are even used by members of the “British Carp Study Group” for reference. View this dedicated bait secrets website now…