Discover Boats

In these days of recession saving every penny helps and the great bonus with making your own fishing baits is they really can catch you as many if not more big carp ” for far less money spent. The vast majority of anglers really have no idea how their baits work in relation to the exploitation of vital carp senses and much of the discussion about baits in the past has often focussed on recipes and flavours, and more recently the first 3 limiting amino acids. But if you think you know it all; no-one does, so why not read on!

The growing numbers of anglers in the UK and all around the world reflect a movement towards the desire of anglers to take back control over every aspect of their fishing and the desire to understand more complete details about bait and actually how it works in relation to carp diet and senses etc that in the past has been largely ignored by the majority who have been dependant upon readymade baits! When I began carp fishing in the nineteen-seventies everyone made their own baits out of necessity and it really was a challenge to find appropriate and accurate information about what exactly made carp feed and what fulfilled their essential nutritional requirements that you could actually get hold of and use in homemade baits, but all this experience and knowledge has meant our homemade baits can hold their own and even out-fish popular brand readymade boilies. Homemade baits have always if so desired been a tremendously effective economical and unique edge in carp fishing, (being different is vital to constant success of course,) it is very easy to forget that the relatively few truly knowledgeable bait designers with the big bait companies all started out at home in their own kitchens or garden sheds!

Having banked twenty forty pound carp from UK lakes I realise many things have changed about carp fishing in the past 40 years and especially the size of carp now available, but it is very obvious you need to fish the waters with fish of the size you wish to catch ” I know anglers who have very few twenties under their belts because of the limited lakes they fish within a particular region of the country. Your fishing goals are very personal and weight of fish is very irrelevant in many aspects; your personal success can be measured in many ways beyond fish weights and any sponsored angler can sit full-time on any water until they catch all the fish in the lake (i.e. big deal!) It is best to measure your success by setting your own goals and exactly how you aim to achieve them and fulfilling those goals than by comparing just how many thirties or whatever you have caught in a year and catching them on your own homemade unique baits makes all the difference to and gives a far deeper meaning to catch results in my opinion!

Most of us have to compete with bait and tackle-sponsored anglers and having the ability to either top their baits or make your own is a very potent edge in such circumstances! Also the willingness to constantly adapt your thinking and develop your personal fishing skills and take risks with your fishing styles and approaches provides endless competitive edges that stuck in a rut carp anglers who follow fashions and the crowd miss all the time. The obvious answer to how to beat the herd is to be the first to do something different in terms of baits and methods; in making your own baits and developing your own approaches you always improve your chances ” permanently and you will be a true thinking angler and a genuine sharper carper!

Many anglers are concerned about making their own baits with no reason whatsoever; over the years I have caught big fish on well over 90 percent of my own experimental homemade baits and even the mistake ones always turn out to be excellent solutions for different fishing situations and challenges and when fished against competing ready made baits too! Mistakes in bait making are simply where the bait or results did not turn out as expected but the nature of such baits and there impacts on fish are priceless feedback that lead directly and very fast straight to awesome homemade baits for many more fishing situations and solve many problems many readymades do not address at all and the cost homemade baits always means you can over-boost with natural carp feeding triggers – which is a gigantic edge (see my unique bait making and bait design books at Baitbigfish for details and much more!)

The average carp angler has been conditioned by appearances to associate carp baits with flavours; many are still on the basic level of asking other anglers what flavour they are using and this is a great shame as these anglers are missing out on tremendously better catches if they knew more! The real key to long-term success for average-skilled anglers is the use of nutritionally stimulating baits seriously packed with optimum levels of nutritional substances carp need in order to survive. Many versions of food style baits are being offered commercially by countless companies, but the large majority of these baits are in effect wasted by the fish due to being indigestible to varying degrees ” but make no mistake, they still catch carp on many carp waters.

Of course flavours are such a popular subject for carp anglers, but most realise that the majority of flavours are just average or worse while a relative few are very potent by comparison to others and really do work, if not directly in effecting feeding responses, then indirectly helping enhance and improve ionising effects of other bait substances such as betaine and amino acids and so on etc! Some very most effective flavours are the type that by methodically testing against standard baits you can overdose and top standard baits so they catch far more fish at almost any water you visit than the very same standard bait from the same bag but with no extra added flavour, but please be aware that anything has a flavours of some sort even plastic and rubber baits, and carp can detect some substances to a few parts in a billion (this is fact.) Although chilli extracts are very popular few anglers rally appreciate the many aspects of their impacts upon fish senses, digestion and metabolism, long range chemoreception and lateral line sensitivities and mode of feeding they can induce and so on; it may come as a big surprise that carp actually enjoy the pleasure from the pain response initiated by the hot peppers ” just as we enjoy hot curries and spicy foods for the same reason (see my flavours and feeding triggers ebooks for more!)

In my opinion the best starting point in making homemade baits, is to get to really become familiar with many of the natural feeding triggers carp are most sensitive to, from monophosphates, amino acids, (and other amines) similes and analogues of natural substances etc; then seek out the very highest quality products available that contain these for bait use at a reasonable price. There are many hidden factors in sourcing ingredients, such as taste enhancers or squid extracts that have been cut with cheaper products and constant experimentation is the key to outstanding results; but this is the learning curve that literally everyone that makes new baits is on. It is very possible for the beginner to boost a simple homemade 50:50 soya and semolina boilie base mix by the addition of high levels of a additives or ingredients that will supply many potent feeding triggers; such as fermented shrimp powder, de-fatted green-lipped mussel extract, enzyme-treated liver powder, abalone powder, Ccmoore Feedstim XP powder etc; these will make all the difference, so do yourself a big favour and find out more ” and my unique bait secrets ebooks (at Baitbigfish) make very stimulating reading!

By Tim Richardson.