Friday, December 26, 2008

Rod Bending Carp Baits And Irresistible Fishing Ingredients!

By Tim Richardson

The most successful baits are different to ones that have caught them previously so the biggest point is to make your bait alternative and new to versions of baits which have been previously successful! All fish have a strong survival instinct and will relate baits they have been hooked on before with danger, with enough exposure. To keep using a bait just because it worked previously is not necessarily the best thing to do when your fish may already be feeding far more warily on it, making hooking them far harder!

The purpose of a fishing bait is not to smell like a banana, nor be an eye-catching colour, nor shine in the dark like a beacon, or taste like a banquet. It is merely to get your hook in the fishs mouths for the split second it tasks to have the slightest chance of hooking a fish. Everything else is secondary. But many fishermen seriously cut their chances by using baits many others have caught fish on before, not realising how much harder fish on such baits unfortunately can be to catch; having been hooked on them previously! (So many overlook this top priority warning!) It should therefore make absolute sense that making your bait different to previously successful baits is a big key to consistent big fish success.

Now it is true that much about baits is marketing and gimmicks to catch the attention of angler, just the same as a the flashy paint and spoilers of a car have bear zero impact on its function. However, the fishing bait industry provides us with numerous trustworthy substances to exploit to alter our baits to prolong their effective function and effect. But many of these get over-used and it is a top idea to find new and interesting other ingredients and flavors etc not currently sold for fishing purposes!

It has been said that even changing to a new flavor can improve results and this is true. Flavors are probably the most famous and popular but least understood fishing bait ingredients for thousands of fish species. They can be exceptionally varied in their contents and effects upon fish senses and how they work is often shrouded in theories and tank tests with little in common with real fishing conditions.

We can associate flavors with fruits and sugars of many kinds from oranges and pineapples to apples, pears, butter and cream, spices and herbs, molluscs and crustaceans, fish and everything in between and those besides. But many flavors are beyond what most anglers would even term flavors and have bitter, sour, salty, sickly, acidic, highly pungent even repulsive effects on us humans, but carp absolutely love them. It is an interesting fact that complete digestion of many substances occurs as a direct result of bacterial action to help break down food in the gut which enzymes alone cannot digest. In this example, this means that flavors and ingredients that are partially digested or even represent or mimic these can be super attractive to fish

Big carp can come from any bait from highly flavored ones to ones with zero added flavor including plastic and rubber baits and even artificial lures and live baits. Carp do go predatory at times and are programmed to detect exploit any potential suitable new food source. Various anglers argue the cases for using rubber and plastic baits and others recommend highly flavored instant attractor baits or balanced profile biologically beneficial food baits.

When you realise that carp will pick up anything between its lips to more fully sample and identify its potential a food you can understand why practically any bait will hook a carp at least once or never again. This means that fake baits are not the super baits many seem to think as over time these bait forms too will lose their initial advantages and edges through over-use and repeated capture conditioning of fish. Just by handling them you are tainting them with substances carp can detect and associate with danger if hooked on them and encountering them in the future.

Food ultimately comes down to the supply of energy and its efficient use in our bodies and fish are just the same. Any aspect of bait which can provide more efficient use of energy, or at least appear to can be fantastic to use in baits and many are waiting to be discovered and exploited. As big fish have a greater energy requirement it stands to reason that these respond to such substances rather well. If you consider that oils, betaine and even amino acids have a tendency to promote growth and have significant relevance in the use or supply of energy, it is not a surprise they are potent fish feeding triggers!

A great additive for big fish baits is betaine. This is a familiar substance for many carp anglers. But why is it special? So many substances trigger feeding or at least induce exploratory feeding behaviours. Well betaine occurs naturally in human diet and fish diet in natural foods. So it is no surprise that it is used for many vital functions roles and processes in our bodies and though not an a carp essential amino acid it is very important and vital to fish. In fact, so vital that its feeding triggering effects top that of the amino acid alanine which is a known feeding stimulant for very many fish species. The fish olfactory bulb receptor cells are especially stimulated by betaine. It was originally named betaine because it was first identified in the root crops beta vulgaris or beetroot, from which the very first sugar beets were derived from. (Sugars and sweeteners are potent carp feeding triggers.)

Betaine even rivals many essential amino acids carp require in their natural diet and its effects upon food palatability and synergistic interactions with amino acids in baits and in the carp body demonstrate how important this substance is in carp baits! Betaine is a bit like sugar and salt and even flavor components like malic acid which really intensify the effects and profiles of other substance like amino acids and other flavors etc at carp receptor sites all over its body from lips, face, fins, flanks, in the throat and gill areas and even in the gut itself. Yes betaine is a big fish substance for sure!

You can help your bait enhancing and bait making efforts enormously by looking at how the food we eat is formulated. The food industry go to great lengths to get substances in our food which make you eat more of it, even to the extent of training our taste buds with all that sugar, salt, yeast extract, and the vast number of other healthy and unhealthy additives hidden away in long ingredients lists. When I began writing books and articles many scoffed (please excuse the pun,) at my claims that there are many addictive substances to exploit for use in baits for big fish; just 2 clues are the capsaicin receptors found in carp, and the addictive effects of certain cereal gluten substances which release feel-good but addiction forming endorphins in carp brains! Fishing blends well with other outdoors recreation and sport activities like hunting, camping, boating and other such hobbies and but so knowing as much as possible about your improving your fishing baits will ensure you always have better results; guaranteed!

By Tim Richardson. - 16463

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