Tag Archives: Big Fish

Fishing Tips

Carp Bait Recipes – Secrets Of Readymade And Homemade Baits For Big Fish!

You may be looking for a new edge and keep trying costly new readymade boilies, but you have the power to make your own awesome baits extremely easily and cheaply – and far faster than you ever imagined! Such baits are very effective indeed when compared to standard baits because they can be made different to normal – and being different is truly the biggest edge in carp fishing! So read on to discover how to be an even sharper carper and get ahead and catch loads more fish this year and many years to come!

Today many anglers either care very much about the nutritional attraction of their baits – or not as the case may be. This is whether an angler always uses readymade baits or makes his own or uses both.

Ultimately the angler is aiming to be different and offer carp something irresistible – that overcomes instinctive and angler-programmed caution to as great a degree as possible. But most anglers actually do not do this because the basic format of their baits is far too standard. I may be stating the obvious here but if a big wary carp has been dealing with boilies and pellets on round, barrel or barrel shapes for the past 40 years it is pretty obvious he is going to be that much harder to hook no matter how mind-boggling the nutritional profile or potency of the enhancer and flavours and extracts incorporated etc in a readymade bait.

It is very obvious that carp learn by experience and association and this is at an instinctive level – basically just like humans. Without these instincts and constant behavioural adaptations survival is just not going to happen! Most anglers are unaware that the firmness and surface feel of the vast percentage of readymade baits makes it very easy for very wary fish to detect baits that are safe and baits that are not. I would go so far as to state that these days if you always use boilies that have been cut down into odd shapes or simple squeezed in half and stabbed a few times and chopped a bout with a pair of sharp nail scissors, then such baits will out-perform perfectly round or barrel shaped baits consistently.

A very striking example of how easy it can be to double your catches or get more fish that much faster is this example. In the nineties I used to fish a water in Essex where it was very noticeable that anglers using fresh readymade boilies straight from the bag struggled to catch many fish and blanked approximately 70 percent of the time when doing sessions of 12 to 60 hours duration.

In this situation I being a resourceful type of angler who always tries to utilise what I observe to best effect came up with many innovative alternative bait options that worked tremendously well but I never publicised what I was doing because that would have given other lazy anglers an edge they did not deserve!

The biggest carp I caught during this period was a leather of over 48 pounds, which I did not photograph as I had no camera, no sack and no mobile phone – you will learn why in a moment! I happened to hook this incredible fish on a homemade catfish rod which was the only rod I had left after someone had stolen pretty much all my gear the previous week when I had generously offered to go to get some more supplies from a local super market for a new friend who turned out to be a thieving you know what! It appears that the moment I left he began packing up my gear putting it straight in his car for a clean get-away. (Therefore going back to that water the following week was very strange with only one rod – and I really deserved that big fish!)

Later around that same period I hooked the fish called the little leather at Darenth Big Lake but lost it at the net so getting photos of forty pound plus leather carp has yet to be achieved – but who knows what the future holds! All through my fishing ever since the seventies I have kept aiming to observe how fish are behaving in response to angling pressure and change tactics, strategies and thinking. Before everything else a change of thought is needed so trying to keep an open mind is an essential asset.

Years ago I noticed I would hook very little-caught commons on small square hook baits as opposed to the round boilies that were very standard at that time in the eighties. This really got my thinking and it became obvious that anything that made fish less suspicious would produce more fish. One excellent idea from the early nineties that I came up with one day while helping a beginner on an Essex lake was this:

I noticed few fish were being caught on whole round readymade boilies straight from the bag. I had been messing around with crumbed homemade boilies since the mid-eighties and this idea occurred to me to help this new guy catch much quicker than normal. All I did was cut a few round 21-millimetre boilies to remove their outer skins so the baits were about 10 millimetres in diameter and square in shape.

Removing the outer skin of a boilie is one of the very best tricks to improve performance as the entire bait can more fully interact with the water in pulling fish to your hook. The extension of this is of course to soak these small square baits in whatever additives you wish. I think in the case in point, to help this guy I had made up a soak using LT94 fish meal, Marmite, halibut pellet powder, and crushed betaine pellets, plus a little Nash peach and strawberry oil palatants.

People who have heard of me for my ebooks consider that I am a homemade bait fanatic but in fact I am just as passionate about innovatively utilising readymade baits and bait substances applied in creative new ways. Making readymade baits become super-charged with potency with impacts that fish will never have experienced in such ways before is an area I am truly passionate about – because it is within the reach of every single angler to very seriously improve his or her catch results by doing this!

Creating your own homemade bait soaks as opposed to just buying them is a very exciting thing because you are literally creating new unique baits immediately and changing their nutritional profile, smell and palatability – all of which can be massive breakthroughs in hooking those elusive big rarely-caught fish that all anglers dream of catching!

The result of applying this bait soak treatment for a few hours on the small square baits previously mentioned was that after I had helped the new guy set up his gear he shortly afterwards hooked one of the very few linear carp in the lake at a great new weight of 27 pounds – and he was not surprisingly over the moon with joy because apart from being a stunning fish it was a very rarely-caught fish and was a new personal best fish for him!

This example proves a point about the fact that wary carp definitely fall for creative new and alternative bait ideas that offer different features and characteristics to standard baits. Note that at the time of this capture other anglers using round or barrel shaped readymade baits straight from the bag and also in dips and glugs were doing very poorly – yet this new guy caught just 2 hours after casting out on a new lake for him.

Of course there is a massive number of further ideas and insights that could have been adopted at that time but it really was a case of doing something there and then that was quick and easy so that this guy could use the idea himself in the future – again and again with success but also adapt and customise the idea and create new ones for himself! This is where I am coming from because so many anglers ask me for a recipe or even readymade bait to improve their success when what it vitally takes is creative thought that comes from observing your fish and their responses to standard and alternative baits and baiting and methods, learning about fish senses and bait substances (and why they induce feeding behaviours of various forms,) and creating practical new alternative baits and bait formats and different refined methods to overcome fish wariness all to great effect!

Now you might think that soaking boilies or pellets is a neat trick and of course many anglers do simply soak their baits in neat Minamino or whatever. But I like to cover nutritional attraction especially in multiple ways by creating homemade dips that carp have never experienced ever before; some that have metabolic-booting effects, some that are particularly enzyme-active, or some that are far more prebiotic, or probiotic for instance. Some ingredients and bait additives have come onto the market just in the last 5 years that have tremendous impacts upon fish feeding and attraction responses but many are not sold by bait companies so you need and eye open and do your research like me!

Ultimately you do not need a degree in nutrition or marine biology to catch fish, but even finding out just one new bit of information that exploits an aspect of how fish detect bait or digest baits better or see baits or hear baits or suck-up baits better, will definitely make all the difference to your catches. Fisheries are getting more and more competitive all the time so you need to exploit any edges you can create for yourself because these will most closely solve the problems and challenges you are faced with on your water! It takes experience, ability, insight and imagination as well as a sound understanding of fish to do this and not just the convenience of simply buying newly advertised baits off the shelf!

The vast majority of readymade baits are massively under-performing due to many reasons including their actual format and adsorbent or absorbent capacities and ways they transfer water from outside the bait to the centre of the bait so pumping out bait substances.

For one thing commercially made baits have to make a profit so they just do not contain the levels of substances they really could potentially contain – to far greater impact on multiple carp senses! But in adapting your readymade baits in special ways or even making quite simple but massively potent homemade baits (and highly economical ones too,) you will multiply your catches like so many others for sure! 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 multiply your big fish catches for life with this unique series of fishing and bait secrets 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 the home of the world-wide proven homemade bait making and readymade bait success secrets bibles and more original articles!

Fishing Tips

How to Catch Carp Using ESP Fishing Tackle

Carp fishing is growing in popularity. More and more, those who are interested in fishing as a serious sport have begun to discover the challenge these “big fish” have to offer. They have also discovered the importance of using the right equipment. And E.S.P. Fishing Tackle is a brand preferred by many carp fishermen.

The first thing you should keep in mind when choosing equipment is that carp are big, heavy fish. You can expect to catch them with your garden variety fishing rod or fishing pole. No, if you try to catch a carp with something that isn’t strong enough to do the job, you can pretty much count on a broken line, and no fish to show for your efforts. So, if you’re after carp, you need a sturdy, high quality rod and reel with a 15 pound test line.

Another thing to keep in mind is that carp are fighters. Don’t expect to just catch one and reel it in. In fact, trying to do so is another way to get your line broken.

When fishing for carp, you have to look at it as a game. A game where patience is the best way to win. When you feel the carp at the end of your line, don’t immediately try to reel it in. In fact, the opposite. Let your line out as much as possible so the carp can run with it. This will lull the fish into a false sense of security.

Once you’ve let the fish run for a bit, start reeling it in. But do it slowly. If you do it too hard and fast, the carp will know it’s in danger, and will start fighting really hard. Not that you don’t want the carp to struggle at all. In fact, you want the fish to tired itself out, which is what will happen with you pulling in one direction and the fish trying to swim in the other. But, if the fish gets upset enough to really fight, you could end up losing them.

So just keep reeling in slow and steady. This will tire the fish out enough not to put up a real fight, and will bring him close enough for you to pull him out of the water.

Finding equipment strong enough to handle carp can be tough. Fortunately, E.S.P. Fishing Tackle has plenty of rods available that are more than strong enough to handle a 10 or 20 pounder.

Written by Glen Buchanan, Keep-Fishing.com, Carp Fishing with ESP Tackle.

Carp Fishing Basics

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…

Fishing Strategies

Carp Fishing Baits And Tackle Best Proven For Big Fish Confidence And Success!

You do not have to be a big name high profile angler to be able to offer advice – after all literally anything you have learnt, adapted or refined in your own fishing that has helped you catch fish can be passed on to others to help them – often to very great effect! Unique experiences, insights and understanding from decades of fishing is extremely valuable and just one tip can make a quantum leap in your catches – so read on now!

Many anglers on the bank are completely dependant upon using readymade baits but are frustrated because they still do not catch the numbers of fish they desire. Ready made baits have made a massive difference in carp fishing – a complete beginner can simply buy everything, from all the tackle he needs, to bait, fishing tickets and venue information and methods to fish venues etc. But even experienced anglers get fixated by their baits and definitely get into a mental rut about them – and this really limits their catches considerably!

Speaking yesterday with an experienced angler at one north Kent water yesterday gave me a fine example of how we can become the actual barrier to our own fishing success! This guy had explained to me how the particular water was hard. Well I never take much notice of that. Frankly it is up to each and every angler to think for himself and understand why a water is hard – usually it is because the anglers have conditioned fish to behave in certain defensive ways in response to their baits, rigs, methods of fishing and even sensitised them to almost every aspect of having anglers present on the bank – which the carp are highly aware of.

This guy was frustrated because he said that a few guys on the lake had banded together and were putting into the lake a quantity of popular readymade boilies – and they were catching good fish. He had tried the same bait and was struggling to catch moaning that he could not afford to put out much bait unlike these other anglers.

The mentality that this guy had formed meant that he had become fixated on what other anglers were doing and what bait they were using – and had completely stopped thinking like a fish – which is the most powerful mentality in carp fishing! (Far too many anglers I meet think like anglers – concentrating on what readymade bait they are going to be using and what new rig they will be trying that they saw in a magazine – and how beautiful their new spod rod and reel is – and so on!)

I was standing there on the bank when this angler I was talking to reeled in. He was fishing as stereotypically as possible. He had spodded-out into his swim a very standard mixture of whole readymade boilies and popular pellets and his rigs were round white readymade pop-up boilies on a rig of very standard material, dimensions and mechanics.

It was as if he had literally just finished reading a typical magazine article, and gone fishing copying the most fashionable parts of what he had seen and read – yet when I asked him why he was using what he was using as opposed to other tackle and baits his answer was basically that he had read and seen this stuff in the magazines – so it had to be good right! He did not actually understand what he was doing and why – therefore he was not maximising what he was doing to overcome the challenges the carp in the lake represented – because he was not actually solving problems and overcoming them – and so was not catching as many fish as possible!

Watching the lake it was clear that anglers were fishing in very stereotypical ways and were not assessing the major factors influencing fish behaviour on that very day. If they had been they would have been catching fish. The guy I was talking to told me that the water was hard. He explained to me that he wished he had the confidence to fish bread right next to the special duck feeding area that the public use to throw bread into the lake – and where carp are occasionally seen feeding knowing this is a safe no fishing area.

He expressed his frustration at not being able to simply put some bread on and cast into that area! In saying all this he was basically saying that he had very little confidence in his readymade boilies – and why should he when they were supposed to be so good, yet the carp could be seen feeding confidently in the safe area and yet fed much more cautiously over the boilies introduced!

I suggested it was not the bait that was the problem but the fact that this guy was fishing so stereotypically that the fish could very easily avoid his hook baits and avoid any suspicious baits with ease – while hovering up his free baits and moving on again! Much of this conversation really came down to a lack of confidence in the mind of this angler – because although he had the tackle and the baits he really did not understand what drove the fish behaviours – and how to get around their defence behaviours – or even re-programme new behaviours.

To be able to re-programme new fish behaviours might seem mad until you consider that anglers re-programme fish behaviours all the time by any and all aspects of their fishing activities. We have the power to re-programme fish yet the majority of carp anglers seem to be too focussed on copying other anglers and their baits and methods – that have already lost their edge by the time they get on them! Very often it only takes one negative experience with a bait for a fish to always be fearful of it – and this transmits to other fish too; this is no over-exaggeration!

Carp fishing magazines have a tremendous impact on the group mentality and perceptions of anglers as a whole. By that I mean that the majority take what they perceive to be the easy quick route to success by simply copying what they read – because that is human nature I guess – but in fact in carp fishing it is far more powerful to be unique in what you do and with the baits you use – and how you use them!

The most powerful starting point in carp fishing is not the bait or tackle but understanding the fish. When you understand in far greater detail what drives fish to behave the ways they do and why these behaviours change through a day,  a week, a season, you can really look at manipulating carp behaviours in your favour – and bait

substances can do this in an enormous range of ways! But of course a huge number of bait substances both well known and known by very few really do not get the attention they deserve in relation to the potentially incredibly powerful ways that they impact on water and on carp externally and internally do they?

Think about it – unfortunately because nearly every carp fishing magazine is a predominantly product-promoting vehicle that is where the focus of the articles is – or should I say advertorials, as the vast majority of anglers getting space in these magazines are so-called sponsored anglers! Magazines are a great way to learn but are also a great way to become totally confused.

So many different angling writers have different experiences, preferences and biased opinions about not only what tackle and baits to use but why and how to use them and this is to be expected because everyone is different. But having said that it seems that most anglers totally overlook that they are unique and different to everyone else – and appear to seek to fit in and do pretty much the same as everyone else. It actually would not matter if the topic of the magazines happened to be gardening, guitars, computer games or mobile phones, vintage car maintenance or whatever.

In many cases the writers insist that their justification for recommending certain products is that their products are the best – but all these things are of their time – and carp are constantly adaptive creatures that alter their behaviours when they get stressed by being hooked or simply get stressed by experiencing too much angling pressure.

I would really like to see far more focus on the fish again – in the early days before magazines proliferated the articles were certainly in many ways much more about the fish. I find it fascinating how individual carp develop and grow from unnoticed single and double figure fish and over the years begin to attract attention when their size or looks or other factors draw attention to them. Some fish are very interesting not for their size but for their behaviours. You might expect that the biggest fish in a water would be the hardest to catch but some of the smaller fish can actually be caught far less.

I consider that asking yourself why this is an extremely powerful method of improving your fishing success yet the answers to this question really revolve around all the major factors that influence fish behaviours.

When you consider that much bigger carp have far greater essential dietary requirements than smaller carp you can see how you can exploit this fact to your advantage. If fish are predominantly natural feeding fish then this can also be exploited – but of course you have to study your fish and get to understand this first to really make the most of it.

The guy I spoke to on the bank had shown his excitement when I mentioned some ideas in regards to adapting his readymade baits so they performed much more effectively. It is very easy to make a readymade bait unique and different enough to make fish feed far more confidently on them – as if you are literally the very first angler to use them on your lake – even if you are just about the last! One of the simplest ways to beat bait sponsored anglers is to adapt the popular readymade bait they are using so it become both a partially familiar but new bait at the same time.

Some of the lesser quick easy methods are using liquids. For instance you might soak your Mainline Cell boilies in CC Moore Feedstim XP liquid, or soak your Richworth Tutti Fruiti boilies in CC Moore Liquid Super Slop for instance. These are very mainstream ideas and I much prefer to actually change the nature and characteristics of readymade baits completely to form something new entirely.

For instance you might use a bait grinder to grind up some Solar Byt and Club Mix boilies, add to them some Richworth Salmon Supreme boilies and bind these up in CC Moore N-Gage base mix with CC Moore Feedstim XP and CC Moore Liquid Salmon and Krill Extract for instance. Binding materials can literally be anything but the point is that you will have created something new from popular baits that have a great track record.

But for me personally even doing this is false confidence but not because it will not be successful far from it, but this example is merely a totally random idea to offer fish something different. It does not take account of many factors that influence individual fish behaviours – because the starting point focus is products – and not the fish and their defensive behaviours.

For instance in the lake that I visited yesterday, the fish were very obviously fast approaching spawning time and were located spending much of their time filter-feeding on richly nutritional phytoplankton and zooplankton. Making very simple homemade baits using ingredients and additives related to such items such as seaweeds, spirulina, daphnia and vegetable extracts for instance is very simple.

Such baits will catch fish even if they contain just 2 ingredients – so they do not have to cover all nutritional angles at all! Think about it; a bait made from pre-digested yeast, peanut butter, LT94 fish meal and a little blood or blood plasma powder with CC Moore Liquid Red Venom for instance, is actually a very complex bait indeed when you consider what this bait offers nutritionally – and how it will impact on carp senses and how it will influence carp internally in your favour!

Bait texture is just one aspect you can obviously change at will to add different advantageous edges to your baits. For example why not try crushed mealworms and casters plus oat bran, whole rolled oats or even crushed or chopped sweets for example when making fresh baits on the bank? Such things really can make all the difference. How many baits do carp experience that are packed with crushed extra strong mints, chopped Liquorice Allsorts or chopped Haribo jelly sweets for instance?

Even a homemade bait made from ground catfish pellets bound with semolina, boosted with L030, pre-digested liver and concentrated liquid yeast for instance will be an instant winner – especially if you avoid using liquid eggs! If you need extra confidence when using pastes why not try using a percentage of ground CLO bird food and whole egg powder for instance (there are endless other possibilities) – use neat nutritional liquids maybe with additional blood powder to help binding and improve soluble impacts on the water surrounding the baits and increase impacts on carp sensory systems etc.

Making homemade baits to suit the day you fish is easy too and recipes can be very economical, fast and easy to make – so why not make your baits on the bank? Few anglers do this because it is not fashionable and because most anglers are just not thinking enough for themselves yet; but soon enough it will be fashionable. But why not do it right now – and gain vital competitive edges over carp and competing baits?

You can actually make very simple pastes that last over 20 or more hours immersion without any need for boiling, steaming or cooking of any kind – thus maximising nutritional attraction but just as importantly also boosting the impacts of unlimited bait substances diffusion into the water that seriously turns fish on! Read on to find out more! 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.

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