Article Surfing Archive

What about common carp? It does seem that if anyone had gotten their baits really right then many more of those 'un-caught monsters' in lakes etc would appear as if by magic instead of remaining un-caught for years. The full impact of DNA differences between many commons and mirror carp on catches are something that is mostly totally underestimated as well as the very subtle but potent effects of food item electrical fields which may or may not be present in fishing baits...

Apparently human adults can detect 30,000 smells and a child 10,000, which shows this chemoreception changes even with us. Some 'natural feeding' common carp may literally have no need to develop a capacity to detect other smells or tastes other than the natural. According to its DNA programming it may only need to detect perhaps 500 natural tastes or smells to fully exploit its natural food resources. It seems logical then that they will not be at all aware that our angling baits are food wherever natural live food is not used is bait. (In the past, silk weed has been known to catch fish, why should this be a surprise?) My personal results using live natural baits on a hook rig with conventional boilie baits gives a strong argument for using these natural baits as part of the approach to catch rarely caught fish.

The electromagnetic field given off by a bait may well cause response by changing the electromagnetic state of chemoreception and other cells which pass on this 'signal' directly to the brain possibly more by electromagnetism and not electrochemistry. I have personal experience of giving natural healing energy and studies have proven the 'Reiki' energy transfer actually changes DNA in positive ways, just as air pollution and water pollution does in negative ways in humans. This is fact.

Common carp having different DNA to mirror carp can easily have different requirements or parameters of electromagnetic radiation which they are evolved to detect emitted from their natural food. In fact it is very frequent that rarely caught natural feeding commons are hooked on a lobworm, bunch of red worms or on maggots such as the legendary 'Herman' of Warmwell UK fame. Why? Perhaps it's not just the amino acids given off or the movement of the bait which is detected with natural baits, but even more importantly, the living organism's electrical field emitted.

We are all 'batteries' as such, and have our own electromagnetic fields. Those closest to the physical body are the strongest, but there are other levels or layers like the layers of an onion which are far more subtle as we get further away from our bodies. One explanation of light, although it is far from being understood, is that it is electromagnetic radiation.

Now anyone who has had an 'aura photograph' taken will notice that the energy patterns surrounding you change colour, intensity and size according to your physical, mental and spiritual state at the moment the picture is taken. The Russians had for years been ahead of the rest of the world regarding this whole field and have extremely sensitive advanced technology for measuring these energies. Measurement is possible of mythical energies like 'orgone' 'chi' or 'prana' (life force or universal energy) as in those involved in 'natural healing' for example as in acupuncture, therapeutic touch technique, spiritual healing, Reiki etc.

Similar energy is also emitted very strongly when a talented person is attempting telepathy or influencing movement of objects using their minds. In this case the most ancient part of the brain are used which is the least understood, although many gifted psychics have developed their ability following head trauma involving the right frontal lobe of the brain. The amazing abilities of sharks use of electromagnetism and dolphins' use of sonic pulses in food's favourable detection demonstrate brains' amazing evolution and even unknown potentials.

But why should fish's attraction to electromagnetism in the form of luminescent coloured or light emitting boilies, pellets and plastic baits (and even lures) surprise us? Well perhaps there is much more than merely detection involving the 'curiosity factor.' What about the particular link to the fact that certain natural fish food items emit bioluminescence including bacteria in the case of shellfish for example and even certain types of algae.

In more physical terms, many known and unknown substances given off by anglers touching baits may well be significant. Due to our modern diets there is every chance that acids and such like are present in the skin in some individuals more than others as we excrete toxins and overloads of chemicals as our bodies are constantly trying to cleanse themselves. The skin itself is an organ interacting with our bodies and the environment after all. Is it possible that we can actually enhance bait attractiveness by boosting them with light emitting bacteria as well as butyric acid and yeast alcohols etc just by touching our baits? Does this mean certain individuals have more suitable diets or body chemistry for enhancing their baits more than other people as part of the complex equation in their success?

A major factor in fishing bait and fish farming food is its energy value after assimilation. (Remember that some food actually can generate stress, which is very energy draining.) Stress is indirectly one of the biggest killers of modern humans so diet and food purity and quality is very important to health and healthy energy levels.

Look what happens to fish which get hooked on particular compounds which affect their brain chemistry in negative ways for them. Both tiger nuts and peanuts can affect carp health and healthy nutrient intake, when eaten in virtual exclusion of other foods in certain fishing waters. These baits obviously make them feel good, but are bad for their health, much like the conventional human western diets which often are depleted and not high enough in essential minerals and amino acids for example, required to prevent many major diseases. Hemp affects the brain too but hemp is an amazingly nutritionally packed food ideal for both carp and humans. Many carp anglers will use hemp as a significant ground bait ingredient regardless of the water, conditions, natural food or anything else with good reason.

Like us humans, fish have evolved to be extremely efficient at extracting energy from the most available foods in our natural environment. The fish's entire body, ability to move, the eyes, digestive system and chemoreception mechanisms etc have all been extremely highly evolved and tuned for this purpose. Attempting to replicate live natural food factors such as amino acid profiles, vitamin and mineral content, live enzymes, proteins and lipids etc, will still not deliver to fish the same energy values of natural food. The energy field of such a bait will be utterly different too. In some aspects of aquaculture, fish are not even fed artificially, but are left to feed on the natural algae and other beneficial factors as results of correct sediment preparation and water characteristics in a raising pond.

So many reactions involve using energy to digest and assimilate the food ingested, with boilies and pellets no matter how much they are 'digestible' and pre-treated with enzymes, they may still provide less energy than natural food after assimilation. No bait has been discovered that truly solves the limiting effects of bait ingredients; the nitrogen and amino acids requirements and limiting effects of these artificial foods.

But this is obviously just the tip of the iceberg of important factors in baits to be taken very consistently over time. For example, fish like humans are very much composed of water and minerals. Perhaps the impact of minerals in baits and live food (including plant material) are far more significant regarding biological energy supply and electrical field type food detection than we yet know. For example, demand for live enzymes to promote efficient food digestion and assimilation, or calcium needed for fish scales in common carp...

Perhaps certain ingredients that improve the fish's ability to detect food item energy fields is more significant an edge than is currently realized. E.g. using astralagus root to boost the fishes' immune system and general health will improve detection performance. There is also the effects of anti-microbial compounds found in all kinds of plant extracts for example, which are seriously effective 'investigation triggers' in baits. Garlic and onion oil are famous for their healing properties and fish-catching record. Eugenol from clove bud oil for example, is highly recommended to anesthetize fish in transport and is a very well proven bait additive. Menthol is a special case too. There is certainly potentially more to bait than meets the nose!

CARP AND CATFISH FISHING BAIT FLAVOURS ' Natural and Synthetic Success For Big Fish!

Everyone seems fixated by fishing flavours. Commonly the question asked is 'What flavour bait are you using?' For most fishermen, what matters is that they like their smell of their flavour, which is an interesting point for debate... The fact is among the diverse multitude of flavours used in fishing baits are some which stand out more than others, but few fishermen know how or why this is the case.

It is easy to buy a cheap flavour at Wal-Mart or Tescos and us it in your bait. However, what you are buying is very often inferior to more expensive flavours. For example, vanilla flavour has a myriad of grades or levels of purity, freshness and various solvents may be added (even water) and extraction methods will vary. Pure vanilla bean extract is extremely expensive. The genuine extract depends on very many volatile components which help explain part of its success. But natural extracts also contain other very stimulatory compounds which are vital to a top quality flavour and are easily detected by humans and fish!

It is common practice for flavour producers to 'cut' pure extracts and natural flavours, using a solvent or solvents like glycerol or ethanol alcohol for instance. Many things can happen to a flavour! Indeed the 'aroma profile of a flavour, and its taste can be altered many times in many ways before it is bottled and consequently unleashed upon your fish as part of your bait. One aspect that might surprise you is just how bitter tasting many 'sweet' or 'fruit' flavours truly are. (Many flavours produced for fishing baits include an intense sweetener like Talin, or concentrated lactose or fructose.)

Flavours for the food industry are not all ideal for use in baits; their molecules often behave dramatically differently in water than in air so their effects on the fish will differ. Can you imagine sniffing in natural garlic extract in water? For a start you would not smell that distinctive garlic aroma as you would in air, as this is the result of a reaction with the air, not water. This also points to a deeper level of how many flavours or natural extracts work. They may also have hidden properties that you may not have realised. They sometimes have metabolism and circulatory stimulation properties, significant antimicrobial properties, preservative properties (low pH and alcohol for example), immunity stimulation, or even simulate or closely resemble nervous system or brain chemicals. (Even betaine HCL has antioxidant properties and citric acid has been used in many baits for years.

Yes, there's so much more to flavours than meets the nose! Leading bait manufacturers have had to get increasingly innovative and technical to keep the effectiveness and standard of their products high against fast expanding competition for market share from smaller companies. Flavorists and food nutritionists, even marine biologists and fish scientists are employed for their skills. The use of fermenting sugars and esters is common.

The addition of amino acid products, palatants, and oils of savoury and fruit extraction in combination with natural fruit extracts, with new generation flavour enhancers and sweeteners in combination make many modern flavours a different class to most from the food industry. Combining different fruit esters to produce attractive flavours is a common practice, these days other solvents and substances are often added.

Among other ingredients, various acids, nature identical and synthetically produced flavour components identical to natural ones are combined with synthetic flavour components to produce a preferable profile and taste. The funny thing is that many flavours may be initially synthetically produced with synthetic and nature identical flavour components and then have the natural extract added to give it a more natural smell or taste. The cost of natural flavors can be extreme compared to synthetic and natural combinations. Volatiles like aldehydes and benzoates and hexanoates are included in many flavours. Some 'volatiles' you'd normally not dream of putting into foods of any kind except poisons! Many of the so-called 'E-numbers' are included and many are linked to mood changes in children with hyperactivity and so on.

Fishing flavours are all about your own personal confidence and real bait testing. If you think you have the very best of a type of flavour, you never know, there might be one that will catch you even more fish. Commercially available fishing flavours are evolving at an incredible rate. Even the ubiquitous 'Tutti Fruitti' or 'Scopex' or Strawberry variations are being challenged by cranberry and pineapple today with good reason. It is interesting to note that strawberry flavour ingredients can be reproduced synthetically using all the 'volatile' flavour components in natural strawberry, but which now can be synthetically reproduced. However, the additional aspects of natural strawberry such as its healing properties among others, will be absent.

The flavour possibilities in fishing are endless. For example, when you investigate flavours that are used in combination with 'liquid food' additives, to boost the nutritional value and 'food' signals of pellets, boilies, ground baits and even meats and live baits like maggots and worms... These days even sweetcorn, hemp, bread, worm and bloodworm flavours are available and used to even boost the taste and attraction of the real thing and may include real extracts of that food too!

The author has many more fishing and bait 'edges' up his sleeve. Every single one can have a huge impact on catches.

By Tim Richardson.