Tag Archives: Trout

Fishing Strategies

Making Easy Carp and Catfish Baits – 16 Expert Tips for More Fish

Have you ever wondered why one ‘lucky guy’ seems to catch the biggest fish again and again, while the majority of other fishermen just seem to get the average catches? Why is that?

Many of us would love to catch those big catfish, carp, bass, trout etc, every time we go fishing. It may just be that the guy is a genius angler, but real fishing success is often simply about using bait that is more effective than most other anglers baits at getting round fishes natural fears and resistance to eating it!…

But how can we achieve this? Well here’s a few of some of the best most proven methods of increasing your catches, especially for carp and catfish, but can be applied very effectively to many other species:

1. Try taking a look at the most popular baits where you fish and eliminate any similarity your homemade bait has with them. This especially applies to your own unique fishing bait recipe or formulas. This removes the fishes ‘danger reference points’. This gives your bait a massive ‘edge’ because the fish will not associate your bait with danger, anything like as much as with the baits everyone else are using – after all , the whole point of a bait is simply to fool the fish into taking a hook into it’s mouth!

2. Make your bait different sizes, odd shapes, density, colors, flavors, with different attractors and additives, the more different to the usual bait the fish experience, the more effective your bait will be potentially be. Making your own bait puts the odds back in your favor and the power back into your hands – literally!

3. Absolutely pack your baits with “powerful ‘free amino acids’ (the type bodybuilders use as a liquid protein food supplement.) Even if you’re making a proprietary bait using a ‘commercial base mix’ that anyone can purchase, this will really set your bait apart and make it preferable to fish!

4. Pack bait with minerals, vitamins and trace elements – get a health tonic supplement from your local drug store. Very few people realize that these are in fact amazing attractors in their own right! An astounding edge is to massively increase the attractiveness and soluble nutritional message leaking from your bait, by soaking your hook bait in a mixture if fresh liquidized sweet corn, molasses and liquid protein food (so-called ‘free amino acids.)

5. It has been proven that when tested carp were provided with a number of complete foods providing all their nutritional requirements, preferred the food that had been sweetened. E.g., try sweetening honey and molasses, fruit sugar (fructose), or saccharin.

6. Add Sea salt to your bait – this is one of the most proven and unbelievable fish feeding triggers, and a great nutritional taste enhancer full of minerals. Nearly every animal and fish cannot live without salt!

7. For many fish including catfish and carp, pack your bait with fresh good quality digestible protein – it doesn’t need to be a large proportion, no more than a third of your bait. Ingredients such as trout pellet powder, meat and poultry meals, blood meal, fish meals and shellfish meals and liver powder are great.

Add energy rich carbohydrates to provide balanced nutrition and binding. For example, soya flour, semolina, or even ordinary white or brown wheat flour. For carp try adding some wheat germ it has excellent properties!

8. Add a small amount of oil to your bait for a balanced nutritional value. For catfish this could be you favorite fish oil. For carp the best is probably pure cold pressed hemp oil; it’s natures ‘super food’ and is one of the richest and most healthy and nutritional oils known to man and fish!

9. Give your bait some protein that’s been ‘pre-digested’ or ‘hydrolyzed.’ This is easily achieved by adding a small amount of proprietary powder, like pre-digested liver, fish meal or shellfish extracts to your bait; available from bait companies all across the worldwide web.

This method is incredibly effective, improving the fish attractive ‘amino acid profile of your bait. Fish are extremely efficient at detecting and utilizing amino acids, and you may well find that with the higher the rate of inclusion of these highly fish digestible ingredients, your catches and numbers of bigger fish soar too!

10. Allow your bait to ‘cure’ for 3-4 days prior to use; this allows your bait to start to ferment and lets bacterial enzymes release alcohols, sugars and increase the level of pre-digested proteins in your bait; all amazingly extremely good fish feeding triggers and attractors. See the difference this makes to your catches!

11. If you use ‘boilies’ rather than paste or dough baits, try chopping edges off your hook baits as if other fish have been ‘playing with your bait and taking small chunks out of it; this can really make the bigger fish ‘feel’ safer when they sample your hook baits – try piecing your hook baits right through to release the maximum attraction even from the center of your bait; it really works!

12. Try wrapping your bait and your hook (except the point) in a paste or dough. Try a mixture of ordinary flour, marmite, parmesan cheese, garlic granules, curry spices, sea salt, eggs and liquid amino acids – this mixture is pure ‘dynamite’ and really makes them bite!

13. One of the most successful paste / dough baits of recent times is made from a mixture of fish meal and a couple of pre-digested ingredients like pre-digested, liver powder, fish meals, pre-digested yeast powder or pre-digested shellfish extracts. Try binding them together with just ordinary flour and loads of liquid amino acids / protein food supplement.

The addition of corn steep liquor powder or liquid, and pure betaine is a massive boost to the power of attraction. (But use no eggs, or water in the mix; just ‘liquid protein’ amino acids. (A body building supplement.) This can be used as bait ‘soaks ‘and dips for pellets and boilies too. Experiment with different proportions to get your dough / pate to hold and last on your hook for different times. When you ‘bait up’ or ‘chum your swim with free baits like this, to attract the fish – hold on to your rods!!!

14. Add natural ingredients to your bait, for example, bird foods contain all kinds of fantastic foods fish love, like insects, seeds, grubs and worms. Many times, these encourage smaller fish to find your bait, and these can lead the bigger ones to your hook. Spirulina is a great attractor that attracts natural aquatic animals to your baits. These gather and form a brilliant natural ‘free bait’ so attracting fish ‘naturally!

15. Add a ‘crunch factor’ to your bait – many fish have food detectors inside their gills, and allowing fish to experience eating your bait like it was natural food, e.g., like shrimps or snails or mussels, is a great way to ‘turn them on’ and get more confident feeding and more bites!

The ‘chitin’ in this hard material is also a massive natural dietary requirement for carp, essential for healthy liver function, healthy blood, and repair and growth of skeletal structures. It is also high in nitrogen; an important building block of protein, also essential for repair, growth and other processes and functions in carp.

16. If you use ‘boilies’ for carp catfish, etc there is a simple method of improving them: If you buy your baits frozen in a bag, then open them up and let them defrost and ‘warm up for 3-4 days in advance of fishing. This gives bacterial enzymes the time to start breaking down your baits and releasing very attractive alcohols, sugars and amino acids for example. It really works well for better catches and can even promote quicker bites!

Making and adapting your own and readymade shop – bought baits to make them different to the rest, and far more effective than normal is a science, and a very satisfying ‘art’. When you have armed yourself with a range of great baits, the confidence you feel is awesome and especially satisfying when you’ve designed them made your own homemade baits yourself; and they catch your next ‘personal best!’

I could show you many real life examples of how using edges like these and others, have resulted in fantastic big fish catches.

I love researching and writing about fishing bait because it is one of the fastest short-cuts to success! I am into bait in a big way, having even researched the subject with a Ph.D biochemist to reveal the reasons why and how baits really work to catch fish. I’ve found that a little bait knowledge can catch you more fish, but the more you know – the more consistent your catches can become – and the more big fish you catch!

The truly amazing thing is, ANY angler can achieve truly amazing catches with just enough of the right bait knowledge! Then other anglers will wonder what his ‘secret to success’ is…

The author has many more fishing and bait ‘edges’ up his sleeve. Every single one can have a huge impact in improving your catches…

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 Tips

Fishing Holiday Destinations Around The World

Fishing has grown into an extremely popular sport around the world. It has to be one of the most relaxing and satisfying sporting holidays to go on. There can be very few things more satisfying than taking a relaxing fishing holiday break in a peaceful location staying in a holiday home and participating in the sport that you love.


Scotland has some of the best salmon fishing in the world and a top fishing holiday destination. Many Americans come on vacation to Scotland to catch a Scottish salmon. During the day they fish in beautiful surroundings and at night many stay in a holiday cottage of farmhouse. That way the fishermen can get a taste of the local culture and cuisine, with many taking their caught fish back to their holiday cottage and cooking it themselves.


Trout fishing is popular in England with fishermen trying their hand at fishing a local river and staying in a rental cottage. Sea fishing has also become extremely popular in the U.K and many people now take their holidays down in Devon to go sea fishing. While fishing in Devon many fishermen bring their families with them and rent a holiday home to stay in during their vacation.


France has always been a popular tourist destination for its beautiful beaches, countryside and food. It is now also a favourite destination for fishermen going on weekend break fishing trips. Carp fishing is a popular French fishing holiday and some fishermen now go fishing to France on long weekend breaks. They find it a whole different world from the hustle and bustle of their normal everyday lives and find that it makes a relaxing holiday.


Many fishermen stay in local holiday homes and gites that are available to rent direct from their owners. When staying in these gites, they use them as a base to explore the rest of the countryside in the location that they are staying. There is nothing better than catching a fish in France and eating it with local crispy baguettes and locally produced French wine.


Europe provides many different types of fishing holiday and whether it be fly fishing, sea fishing or course fishing you are able to find a fishing holiday to suite your requirements and budgets. The beauty about staying in a holiday cottage or holiday home when on a fishing holiday is that you can pay as much or little money as you wish to secure your accommodation.


The more experienced fisherman looks for a different kind of fishing holiday. A popular location for catching catfish, char and trout is the French Rhone-Alps region and it is considered the kingdom of lake fishing, with slow, quiet water as well as rushing torrents.


The Ebro is the longest river in Spain and runs from the Atlantic coast in the north, to Spain’s Mediterranean coast, 130 km south of Barcelona. Many fishermen come here for the legendary fishing. They stay in holiday cottages and farmhouses and many combine the fishing with trips to the beach or cultural touring.


Iceland is also an extremely popular destination for fishing holidays. For those fishermen with a bigger budget for their fishing holidays, they may go on a fishing and safari holiday in South Africa staying in one of the holiday lodges. Others prefer to go to Yellowstone National Park in the USA gives and combine fishing with white water rafting. The truly adventurous fisherman may go fishing in the remote wilderness of Australia’s Northern Territory might appeal.

Andrew Gibson is MD of Direct Holiday Bookings. It is one of the fastest growing on line holiday home rentals websites. To see an example of why Direct Holiday Bookings is growing so rapidly have a look at Fishing holiday accommodation

Fishing Strategies

A One-Stop Guide to Fun and Exciting Fly Fishing

Fly fishing has been used for more than ages already. It is a unique and distinct way of catching trout and salmon. It the most known way of catching fishes and have been used also to catch a new variety of fish species like the spike, bass, pan fish, carp and a lot others as well as marine fishes like the snook and tarpon.

There are a growing percentage of anglers whose main agenda and goal is to catch many different species as possible. Many also accounted that they can catch other species other than their main target like Rudd and bream.

Fly fishing can be done in both salt water and fresh water. The latter can be divided by temperatures of the water. Coldwater fishes include steelhead and salmon, while the cool water fishes include pike and walleye and lastly, the warm water have the bass, catfish and chub. The bass oftentimes the real adventure of most anglers, they are the best type of fish especially in summer where your setting is the dirtiest of the pond.

The technique in fly fishing is that you use artificial flies and a fly rod and a line. The fly line which is most often coated with plastic nowadays is heavy that it can send the fly to the target. The fly line differs so much in spinner and bait rods which they use weight on the line to cast the bait and do other things.

Flies used in fly fishing can be made from different things like fur, feathers, hair and or other materials which can be synthetic or natural. You hook this artificial fly onto the hook with a thread. Synthetic materials are more used commonly these days unlike before where they used natural fly more often.

The flies are tied depending on their sizes and colors and you could make patterns to camouflaged and mimic the marine and aquatic environment, you should make them resemble natural bait for the species of your target.

Fly fishing uses a different method; it uses the technique of casting line than luring the bait. Other methods depend on the lure’s weight to pull the line when you do the forward motion of casting. The bait in fly fishing is too light to be casted in that way, so the secret is the casting the line properly.

Forward cast is the most used method of casting, although a lot of method can be used depending on the conditions you are in. you should be able to do the forward cast correctly to be able to get the fly to your desirable distance.

By drooping the fly onto the water and have it move subsequently on the water is the most difficult aspect of fly fishing. You have to cast the fly as naturally as possible so the fish can think and perceive it more as a natural prey.

So if you want to engage in fly fishing, there are a lot of things to learn. But is actually one great hobby for you. It is one way to do recreational things and yes-taste your award-cook that salmon fresh!

Fly fishing is a great sport everyone can enjoy! Check out more about fly fishing here!

Fishing Strategies

Carp Fly Fishing Is Not Your Average Sport

Although fishing with flies is most popular with trout and salmon anglers we also find carp fly fishing and fly fishing of an even tougher variety amongst deep and saltwater fishermen and women. Fly fishing for carp is not your average sport because there is nothing which is average about these fish.

It’s all about spotting the fish first and for this reason the correct tackle is required. The rod has to be able to make an accurate cast from 3 to 15 meters so the type of rod used is probably the most important piece of equipment. These fishermen have to be accurate and fast so a graphite rod of a 6 ‘ 8 weight which is between 8’6′ and 9’ is ideal.

It should have a medium tip and good backbone in the butt. The 9 foot rod would be a better choice if the water where you fish is snaggy and the carp weigh between 16 and 25 pounds.

A hard rod will not give an accurate cast and a soft rod will not stand up to the fighting vigor of a carp. They have a reputation for being notoriously dirty fighters, but this is obviously the reason why anglers enjoy fishing for carp, it definitely isn’t the delicate flavor.

Exposed rim reels of the larger variety are the best reels to use and this energetic and tricky fish will give the reel a workout. It needs to have disk drags, and approximately 150 m of backing line. Fly fishing for carp will see the reel’s maximum capacity put to use at times.

Micron or Dacron line of a 9kg or 20lb weight is best, push this up to 30lbs for snaggy waters. Use a 10 pound tip, tapered leader and get a feel for the amount of additional tippet you require. They are not that choosy about flies as carp are traditionally insect eaters, but experts find that they are easy to catch with wooly buggers of all the different colors, muddler minnows, Daves hoppers, and many more.

Because fly fishing for carp is about speed and accuracy, it is essential to wear polarized sunglasses. The brown or amber variety are recommended as these create contrast, while still completely blocking out glare off the water. But these lenses are recommended for all types of fishing and as this particular sport is about spotting the fish first, you won’t have much luck if you can’t see what is going on in the water.

Duncan is an avid Fly Fishing expert and if you are struggling when carp fly fishing or just looking for that edge then download his FREE 101 Fly Fishing Tips Ebook from http://www.Fly-Fishing-Revealed.com.

Carp Fishing Equipment

Family Fishing Holidays in France

France is a country that has a wonderful variety of fishing from the North through to the South and caters for fly fishing, course and game fishing on a wide range of rivers and lakes. Plus there is plenty of coast line for the sea angler to enjoy as well.

Carp fishing, cat fishing, not forgetting course and pike fishing are just some of the holidays that you can enjoy in France and whilst some places cater for the dedicated angler, others are more family orientated with accommodation and activities for the non fishers.

There are several types of fishing holiday available and for trout fishing, you would need to book from around the middle to end of March up until around the first week of September, which is the only time frame you are allowed to fish for trout in France.

In certain areas of France, salmon fishing is prohibited all year, so it is always best to check on the area you are going, prior to thinking that you will be able to get a licence for fly fishing, just like that.

Every country has numerous different regulations and France is no exception, with specific rules in place for what type of fish you can catch, when you are allowed to catch certain species of fish and what equipment you are allowed to fish with.

For some, this can be a daunting prospect, especially if you are not fluent in French, and although in some areas it will be easier than others to organise your fishing venue and licence, it is often easier to pre-organise your fishing holiday, so do try and get as much information as possible.

You must have a fishing licence to fish in rivers, streams and lakes throughout France unless these are privately owned or booked as a fishing holiday where the fishing licence requirements are normally included, but it is advisable to check this out before you travel!

If you need to obtain your own fishing permit, these can usually be obtained from the local fishing tackle shop or alternatively from the local bar or tobac. But if you are not sure on what is required then you can get advice from the local tourist information board, which can also provide maps of where you can and cannot fish.

If you are only going to be on holiday in France for a short time, then you can get what is known as The Carte de Peche de Vacances, which covers an angler for up to fifteen consecutive days and can be used between 1st June and 30th November. However, outside of these dates an annual fishing licence is mandatory.

An annual permit may be used for the whole year but bear in mind that this will only be for one department unless you get it stamped for different areas that you may go to and this is something that you will need for all fresh water fishing.

When it comes to catfish and carp fishing, you can get a licence to do this in the local rivers or public lakes, but the majority of people will want to opt for a carp fishing holiday on a dedicated lake. And when you go to a dedicated privately owned lake for carp fishing, cat fishing, etc, then you will not normally have to worry about getting your own individual licence as this will already have either been sorted out by the travel agency or the owner under their regulations.

Boats are allowed to be used quite a bit in France, but you may need to have a separate part to your licence to enable you to use a boat, even if it is only for baiting. But be careful if you have an echo sounder in your boat, as you are not allowed to have both this and your tackle in the boat at the same time!

Also, night fishing is prohibited in a lot of places in France, but when on a private fishing lake, or if with the correct licence on certain waters, this can be allowed. If not, then you can only fish half hour after sunrise to half hour before sunset. Some places on the rivers seine, rhone, mosselle, oise, madine and rhine, etc do allow night fishing, but there are many places that do ban the use of a bivvy or tent even if night fishing is allowed and you may only get away with a brolly!

Sea fishing off of the Atlantic coast is excellent and you will be pleased to know that a licence is not needed, and you can go out on a boat to catch bass, conger eels and even tuna or surf cast for sea bream to name but a few.

Fly fishing for salmon and trout is available in lots of public canals and navigable rivers but as with most countries, these will also contain other fish such as Pike, so beware! However some of the best places to try your hand at fly fishing are often owned by groups and in this case you would need to pay the owners for a permit to fish as well as having your licence.

Some of the best salmon fishing in France can be found in the Pyrenees Atlantiques and the river Loire is also a major salmon fishery for France.

Some of the best fishing in France is for course fishing where you will find lots of different species, but with carp, catfish and pike being in abundance, especially in areas such as the Dordogne, Lot and Charente Maritime. But if you like fishing for black bass, the river Rhone is known as a premier bass fishery, as is the river Saone.

The fishing dates and times do vary each year in France, so it is always advisable to check on these before planning your fishing holiday, and at the end of the day, forget about the headaches of the licences, just enjoy the whole experience and you too could be in with a chance of catching a fish that has never been caught before!

www.placesinfrance.com


Martyn Davis European Traveller, Author, Photographer and Business Development Manager, For all your French holiday needs and travel guide to France, with tourist information, landmarks and attractions – Family Fishing Holidays In France