Where I live there is a wealth of waters within a twenty mile drive that have resident large pike including Knipton reservoir where many years ago I first became acquainted and at first terrified of this amazing fish.  If my memory serves me correctly it was an angler called Chris Hutchings who featured in the premier fishing paper of its time the angling times.  Within whose pages all manner of fishing stories pictures and reports inspired many of us to try different styles of angling.

I can remember reading and rereading the centre page spread of Chris reporting when he caught a near forty pound pike.  To my eyes this looked like a monster all head and teeth the pictures showed this huge head blood red gills and olive green body.  It looked alien compared to my usual fare of fish like roach,bream,and tench.  I had not realised our waters contained such monsters.  I went on to read various books about the subject getting more excited when I read accounts of how the pike will not only eat fish but will also take small waterfowl and water rats. Then there was the story of how one day at a cattle drink a large pike ripped off the nose of a cow.  Boy was I impressed with that it certainly got my imagination going overtime.

One book I remember In particular was an old fashioned illustrated story book called Mr Crabtree goes fishing by Bernard Venables.  This book showed you how to catch fish in an informative but exciting way leaving you with the feeling you had been there.  This series of books remain to this day as classics of angling literature and have the honour of introducing and inspiring many young children to the joys of fishing.  If you can get a copy it is still a good read and a lot of the information is still relevant today.

The greatest edge with baits is being unique and that way the fish will be far less cautious in taking your hook bait in its mouth, giving you the run you want! Having fished homemade baits over 3 decades plus, I can tell you they work in any situation against any commercially produced bait providing you approach your fishing with the care and attention to detail that fishing for wary big fish deserves!

Many anglers really enjoy the satisfaction of catching carp and catfish on their own special baits. When you are catching well on your own bait, no-one else can come along and ruin your chances by also fishing with it in competition with you! Surely the real edge of a bait is over the impact and effects of other fisherman's' baits as much as anything else. So it pays to make them as unique as possible if you dream of catching strings of big fish!

You might be confused about making paste or dough bait or boilie base mixes, fish nutrition and feeding triggers, flavors and oils and other commonly mentioned items. Well I can tell you that no matter what you use that you would eat as a human, at least 80 percent of the homemade baits you make will be successful to various degrees. Some may be more successful on some waters simply because they are new and different and fish will be more willing to risk testing them inside their mouths!

Others will work because the flavors, ingredients and additives (usually natural extracts) will mean the pH effects of you bait on water and fish food detection cells are favourable to induce fish to identify it as potential food and at least mouth it. You bait does not need to be expensive to make nor time consuming either. Having made baits for decades I realise some bait formats like round boilies and even barrel shapes take time because you are adding to the number of steps involved, but this not necessary at all.

There are very many short-cuts in bait-making and you do not have to make your baits perfectly round and boil them or steam them to make them hard. You can make a very quick and easy paste or dough bait which will form boilies if boiled for 2 minutes a handful of baits at a time. You can add dry mixtures of flour or meals to eggs and liquid additives, flavors etc to form a stiff paste and use this fresh or store it in bags, label it and freeze it.

All you need is a mixing bowl, a spoon and a few minutes. The easiest way to start is put the weighed-out dry powders into a big bag and mix them thoroughly. Crack 6 eggs and add the flavors and liquid additives you may wish to use and whisk well. Add the powders a bit at a time to the liquids keeping a constant consistency so the paste has a putty or plasticine consistency. One very quick simple recipes is:

• 6 ounces semolina.
• 6 ounces soya flour.
• 4 ounces of yeast powders (deactivated.)
• 6 size average sized eggs.
• 1 teaspoonful of fine sea salt.
• 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil.
• 15 drops black pepper essential oil.
• 3 to 5 milliliters of a sweet or fruity flavoring.

Once you have your paste or dough ready, bag it up in plastic bags immediately. A 6 egg mix will produce about a pound and a half to a kilogram or more of bait, depending on various ingredients you choose to use. The thing about bait is you can look at what every other angler is doing and deliberately not copy it to achieve many very big competitive edges over them! This little bit of thinking is one of the great key to success; copying is fine but you learn far less and fast learning is what puts you ahead the easiest and quickest! Like anything in life, practice makes perfect, but then luckily, your fishing baits do not need to be perfect to catch big fish; in fact the opposite is the case in so many ways!

To form baits with your dough, you can obviously roll them into large or small balls of maybe marble or cherry size, or make them any size or shape you wish. If you leave them out to air somewhere warm for a day or 2, you can harden them which means you can catapult or use a specialist bait throwing tube or similar, great distances if required. When these baits land in water, they will leach out attraction and stimulation far quicker than ordinary boiled baits and pull in fish more quickly. If you wish to boil your baits, boil a handful of baits in a large pan of boiling water. Usually 2 minutes or less for most mixes will give them a resilient enough skin to deter many other smaller species of fish.

There is obviously far more to making baits than meets the eye - or the nose! The point is to be different and unique not simply to use a recommended nutritional formula, ratio, flavour or additive. The issue of using particularly nutritional ingredients in proportions which match a fish species theoretical dietary essential requirements is as complex as you want to take it and certainly not required for all waters or fish. But taking the step towards even doing this a bit makes all the difference in world to big fish catches on so many modern fishing pressured fisheries and gives you vital control over certain fish behaviours.

The question of which ingredients to use, how much to use to get them to bind together and so on really does come with practice although many formulas made public are a good guide, however your bait will be very similar to everyone else doing this. Taking the "risk" of putting together ingredients when you don't know how they will mix is never a waste; in fact the opposite! All feedback is worth its weight in gold and many of my very most successful best baits to date have come from being in such "unknown territory" and experimenting in the confidence that there will be a use for all the bait I make even; if as an highly effective new paste, ground bait, "stick" or "spod" mix, "slop mix" or soluble "PVA" bag or net mix etc... (A little imagination is all it takes!)

There is often a great difference in results between the catches of an average angler on a low nutritional bait, compared to an experienced talented angler on the same bait. This is to be expected as anglers' abilities are not equal. However, with a good personally unique bait, you can have "the edge" over both the fish and fellow anglers more experienced and talented than yourself. Over the years reading literally hundreds of articles and magazines provides a general impression of what works, but is still just theory until you actually try making bait for yourself.

Some of the early baits I used to make were far more nutritionally stimulating and attractive than I ever realised until much later having looked more deeply at fish essential requirements and potential food detection and opportunity and threat sensory systems etc. This means that anyone can do successfully right now. A bag of readymade baits can often cost you 8 to 12 pounds and if they work, you will use them again and pay another 8 to 12 pounds. But the fact is that although many fish can be caught very successfully using just hook baits alone, many big fish are much easier to catch in many fishing situations by leveraging various forms of ground baits etc.

When you cost in ground bait, along with traveling and cost of fishing and replacement tackle and sundries like PVA bags, tape, lost "back-leads" etc, things really add up. If you buy 2 or three bags of ready made baits totaling 2 or 3 kilograms in weight, you may have spent 24 to 36 pounds for maybe just one weekends fishing and you have not even wet a line yet! (You can just keep on spending!)

I can guarantee you can make your own baits for a fraction of that cost in very little time, with minimal effort and catch the fish of your dreams using them against popular commercial readymade baits. In fact, being cheaper, you can even leverage your homemade baits even more and apply more in order to do better than you would be able to afford on readymade baits with their much higher costs!

Sure I've used ready made baits and caught on them well, and comparing your homemade baits results against a commercially ready made bait is a great boost to your confidence, especially when your own far cheaper bait is out-catching the ready made. There is a whole industry of well proved flavors, base mixes and additives etc to exploit and it's there because it works! Saying that, proprietary fishing bait products tend to have a premium price tag, what with overheads; mixing machines, packaging, printing, distribution etc and the need to make a profit.

That's fair enough, but you are buying bait just for recreation and prices don't often seem to go down but rather up! So, if you feel you are having to skimp on bait when you know more of it, or a particular type would more suit your needs and fishing opportunities better, but you are not willing to pay for it, there is another proven cheaper alternative. If cost limitations or high bait prices, tackle costs and fishing permit costs limit your spending on other activities and even necessities in life, then making your own bait is like a taste of freedom...

Also there is a very powerful unique and special feeling of satisfaction when you catch fish on your own baits. This is especially true when your own secret recipes that you designed, and made real, catch you successive personal best fish!

Being able to make your own unique baits and even being able to enhance and manipulate commercial readymade baits too, are completely priceless edges in such a competitive sport as fishing. The understanding and experience you gradually built-up by making baits and applying them in creative ways will improve your catches for life; so you cannot ignore it! I certainly believe that being able to manipulate your baits to do specific things to suit different fishing situations is one of the greatest "levellers" in fishing left to the "average angler" today. So don't miss out on the "big-time!"

1. Fish location is not for the lazy! It's a vital fishing "must do" especially for big fish and is the universal fishing rule number one; you will not catch any fish where there aren't any!
2. Always use a sharp hook of suitable size for your fish, and bait! A sharp hook has always caught more big fish than that old blunt beast of an old pattern hook you find in the bottom of the tackle box even if it was your favourite 5 years ago!
3. A bait that still tempts the fish you are hunting and has not already lost its "edge" through previous over-use which actually repels wary fish instead! Do your own thing; homemade baits are the closest thing to a sure-fire bet of a bait; readymade baits are often a lottery in actual effectiveness; the ones you choose may already have been "hammered" without your knowledge! When it comes to baits, flavors and rigs, adaptability and creativity is the name of the game. Being prepared to take risks and do new things always pays-off big-time in the end! The best baits are the ones that catch on the day after all!
4. Lady luck always helps no matter how much you prepare for your fishing! You might hook the one fish you desire within just 5 minutes of your first cast; or it might take you 10 years!
5. You will need other tackle to enable you to land the big fish you're after including an adequate rod, reel, line and hook link and a strong enough hook not to open-out when the real pressure during the fight reaches its peak, generally on the first run or at the landing net!
6. You will need equipment to deal with the fish once hooked. You will need a big enough landing net for a start. It's no good using a normal 42 inch carp landing net for a 6 or 7 foot long catfish, unless you are particularly skilled at "folding" such beasts into such a net in the dark, on your own at night, in the rain, on a slippery wet bank! (The secret is drilled rehearsal!)
7. If you are a responsible fishermen and care for the future of your sport, then you will realise that the fish are the future. Remember, smaller fish will be the personal best fish in the future. So if you care for your fish and intend replacing it back into the water it lives in (and not cooking it for tea,) then a protective mat big enough to completely remove any danger of damage from contact with the ground is an excellent and essential bit of kit.
8. Suitable unhooking forceps are necessary (as are sharp scissors!) Often unhooking a well hooked fish with your fingers is difficult without causing undue damage due to difficult angles with a barbed hook which potentially might cause damage. Practicing your forceps skills can make hook removal simple and clean so keep them easily accessible. I've seen far too many so-called anglers rushing and fumbling when unhooking fish virtually ripping the hook out of them. This is completely irresponsible and utterly unnecessary and can produce wounds which last for the life of the fish! Just calm the fish down by de-stressing it with plenty of water and wet hands, being efficient, confident and quick. It's like the old dentist joke: “You what - you want 200 dollars for just 2 minutes work to remove my tooth; that's a joke!” The dentist responds by asking: “Would you rather I took an hour instead!?
9. Use of fish care kits with swabs and antiseptic solution are very responsible too in helping heal the hook wound and any scale damage or fresh scrapes, or previous wounds on the skin etc. It is very possible by doing this you will enable the fish to recover from capture much faster, even put on more weight quicker in the future owing to less stress and even potentially save a fish's life!
10. You need a venue containing the species and size of fish you are hunting; it's no good fishing for salmon in a river devoid of them for the past 30 years or for a 30 pound carp where the biggest is 19 pounds!
11. Have all your camera equipment ready for use! When you catch your personal best fish of a life-time, you want the photos to reliably come out right; there's nothing worse when they don't! (No problem; just catch the same fish twice!)
12. If you fish at night take at least 2 torches and always have plenty of spare batteries. Its "sod"s law' that the one night or session when the fish feed like mad is the one you find your torch packs up. (Bulbs blow too!) Head torches are very popular and cheap these days and I also use "glow-in the dark" pencil torches to find my torches (and glasses) at night. I hang one on the bite alarms to indicate the position of the rods on dark nights. The dim light of a pencil torch is enough for landing big fish in the dark without spooking them off at the last minute at the net and losing them because you have a thousand candle-power lantern on the bank or have a 100 light-emitting diode torch on your head! (On some carp lakes in the UK, constant use of such torches make the banks at night look like a scene from close encounters of the third kind or club laser show rather than a natural lake-side environment; expect to see a "ufo" any minute!)
13. If you fish in the heat you need water and loads more of it than you think! You "feel" hydrated long after your body has become dehydrated. Most people in an out of doors setting are amazed how dehydrated they get but this is because they do not realise just how much more active we have to be outside. Everything takes effort, exertion and energy to get things done and just breathing a lot more loses you much more water and not just in hot conditions. Remember you will usually dehydrate yourself looking around and locating fish, getting yourself and your fishing gear to your swim and having set-up your tents, rods and baiting-up with ground bait if desired. From personal experience; you're not much good as a fisherman with a heat stroke and a dehydration headache; playing a big fish with a bad headache is most un-cool!
14. Please be aware that fish when first caught come from water that is generally cooler than the air at the height of summer and they will need constantly cooling down with generous amounts of water. Fish skin and delicate vulnerable tissues as in the gills in such conditions can dry out very quickly and be damaged. So be efficient in unhooking fish and very quick with pictures, and keep fish wet! (Wetting your hands before touching your fish really reduces the heat sensitivity shock on them and covering their eyes with a wet sling or sack is very sensible and can help a fish "settle" on your unhooking mat and de-stress it which is very important! I usually take at least 2 big bottles of water just for one night, so you might imagine how much I take for a 3 or 4 days and night session.
15. A bit more about fish recovery and handling. If it is very hot, keep the fish out of the sun and in the water until the last second while everything on the bank is prepared so the fish is out of the water the minimum time possible. When handling, touch the fish as little as you can to avoid stressing it and utilise your wet unhooking mat to carry it back to the water. It may take some minutes if not hours to get a big hard-fighting fish to recover from a spirited fight. During this time make sure you choose a conveniently shaded cooler margin for the fish's and your own comfort; and be persistent! You may have to artificially work the gills of the fish and wave fresh oxygenated water into its mouth for its energy and metabolism in order for it to recover, which might take an hour or more in very hot conditions!
16. Polarising sunglasses are one of your key bits of kit because they can make you look cool when standing on the bank like an idiot, even though you might have caught no fish, be sweating gallons and look like the morning after your stag night and your gear might have been almost totally destroyed in a freak storm that the previous night! "Shades" are also good for looking for signs of fish such as cleaned feeding spots and impersonating celebrities. In combination with a hat, they even shade your eyes from harmful rays direct from the sun and reflected back off the water, which can easily avoid you a nice headache after a day watching the water, or a tiny little float!
17. If you fish in the winter you will always need more warm dry windproof and waterproof clothing than you think! When your rain or snow-proof stuff gets wet and it's raining or snowing, if you have no way to dry out; you'll slowly freeze! A windproof fishing shelter or "bivvy" with a door with zips that really work all the way down to the ground, can literally be a life-saver just as much as a life-jacket when using a boat! Comfortable anglers catch more big fish because they can focus on catching fish instead of just staying warm! (In any country, when you spend the night outside in a strong northerly wind with a minus degrees Celsius wind chill factor, clothes are not just about comfort, but avoiding hypothermia, so beware!
18. It takes practice to do anything in life consistently successfully. "Beginners luck" is one not so "weird" phenomenon. It is easily explained; often a new fisherman on a water with different baits and rigs, fishing unusual or less popular spots (because he is not familiar with the "popular" ones,) will hit the biggest fish first. (No big surprise there; so be prepared!)

So there you have it; it's easy, there's nothing to catching big fish! When "opportunity meets preparation," big things will happen!

What I mean is, the whole modern bait and tackle industries are supposed to be geared towards providing the modern angler with every "edge". Now the paradox here is these "edges" can eventually become the very reason anglers often do not catch more fish. Fish can very quickly adapt defensively to new "ultimate" and "cutting-edge" baits, tackle and techniques!

One of the most intriguing aspects of fishing for carp especially involves ways to tempt and hook those fish which rarely, (if ever) get caught. Trying a new bait concept, or new ingredients, alternative rig approach, new bait format, or method of baiting for the first time, has produced some of these more unusual catches for me.

It is the more rarely caught fish that tell you when you really have done something different in your approach, bait, rig or all of these (and more!) Some of these fish have a curtain of skin in their mouths. I'm not certain this is a sign that the fish have never been hooked before or not, (or not for a long time,) since I think it may be possible it could grow back given time!

Whatever is the case, when I've landed such fish, they have stood out much more for being in absolutely pristine condition, than for being big. Such fish may not be big, but can be pretty old. I recall the exhilaration and astonishment at catching a carp under 10 pounds from a farm pond in 2005, that I last landed 30 years before at the same weight and it was in immaculate condition with a curtain of skin in the mouth...

Many tackle items are more short-term as opposed to longer-term solutions, without really being intended that way. Some fishing products tend to follow particular sales life-cycles and useful lives. Products which are longer-lasting often have the capacity to be added to, adapted or more easily re-designed to fit new applications, new purposes and fresh requirements. It's rather like the basic design of the legendary much loved "Spitfire" war plane. Although this has a very recognisable outer appearance, it has had so many new "reincarnations" to prolong its functional life in battle situations, it lasted up to 4 decades, even well into the jet plane era!

Fishing baits, items of tackle, associated methods and techniques are no different in terms of functional life at defeating the instinctive or conditioned defenses of carp and their behaviors. A new product's first introduction can generate excitement, even anticipation and elevated demand for it. The period after initial introduction can often be when anglers' demand for a new product is at its highest.

Now, most anglers appear to want the easiest "instant edge" to keep them ahead of the "crowd" (if not the fish.) Sometimes some fishing products certainly "look the part" and if there was a prize for stylish looks they would win. But the true impact of looks as opposed to function upon results is often questionable. It's like those flashy rods with fashionable handles, brightly coloured (or camouflaged reels,) brightly painted floats and other things designed to catch the eye of the buyer. But just how many more fish does a stainless steel bite indicator catch as opposed to one that looks like its part of a shrubbery? (There's a Monty Python joke in there somewhere!) Most of the time, the "real edge" is one you cannot see. The highly refined vibration sensitive part of a bite indicator that can register a "bite" when others may not sound anything at all (being less sensitive.) is one practical example. A new special non-light reflective hook is a another good example.

Carp eyesight up close is obviously pretty good in certain light and water conditions and I've seen carp take a bait in the side of its mouth while hovering in the water on its side, using one eye to study the bait... (They can take baits while almost up-side down too, which is amazing and thoroughly unnerving to watch when you consider its full implications in regards to ideas about "self-hooking" and "self-turning" rigs!)

Constant fish exposure to a new item of bait or tackle as used by the majority of anglers can change results on them dramatically. This is a reality check. What is sold to keep you "ahead" can lose its edge incredibly quickly. In carp and catfish fishing this might mean a genuine edge such as a new rig or bait may only produce dramatically improved results lasting a matter of weeks or months before catches return to "normal" levels.

That is why bait company "field-testers" hate to see their new successful baits marketed, with a consequential drop in their results by comparison to when they were the only ones using it! The basic "hair rig" is another prime example of this principle, where things have frequently gone full-circle even to the point of such rigs resembling the original side-hooking methods of old.

Virtually any part of tackle and bait and fishing activity, like casting heavy leads into your swim or "spodding baits" with a ground bait loaded "bait rocket" etc, can affect fish behavior and responses in negative not positive ways, given time. Even using commercial ready-made baits that have nothing but well-recognized successful ingredients and flavors can cost you fish. It's not that they are a bad thing at all, but the fact is that these can all be associated with danger, due to fishes' experiences of previous captures or simply of being hooked and lost!

On that point, you never really know what you lose; some fish which do not get caught for years may have been hooked and lost repeatedly without the angler realising what has been lost. (I know for certain I lost a 43 leather at Darenth around 2003 but in hind-sight, it's probably best to not know what you lose!)

The tackle and bait industries are forced to give anglers what they want because that's how selling works, right? Well the reality is different to a degree... It is the fishing companies' marketing, advertising and sales departments' jobs, to ensure the majority of anglers use their company's products and some will do almost anything to make this happen as is human nature I suppose. The days of the blatant "hard sell" have been replaced by far more sophisticated indirect and multi-staged techniques of marketing and selling.

This means in the case of the most effective marketing methods, that you probably will not even realise you are being sold to, at all! What I'm getting at, is not the skills and arts of marketing, selling and promotion. Modern companies need them just to survive and keep market share. But I'm referring to a more subtle kind of reader and customer "conditioning" of attitudes and outlooks. Certain articles and advertorials can bias reader's ways of thinking about brands of tackle and baits. It even changes key attitudes and ways of looking at fishing methods and their possibilities and limitations.

This information and how it affects readers has often appeared to manifest itself in limited thinking, limited beliefs and even skepticism among anglers on the bank and negative snobbery about certain brands and methods. This is a shame because to get really good fishing edges, you need to have an open, not closed mindset.

I get the feeling that we are merely touching the tip of the "ice-berg," of what is possible in fishing, tackle, baits, methods and thinking approaches. Many anglers' success is being limited artificially because they feel the need to use what they see in adverts and "advertorials," instead of really considering solving their specific fishing problems their way, using their own original thinking. Often an angler will reach for the nearest glossy magazine for inspiration and copy from that rather than look at their fishing problems from a genuinely fresh angle.

How many anglers row out a very light lead (as opposed to a heavy lead,) 200 yards in order to solve specific problems and be different to the common approach in order to get results? (Terry Hearn is one example.) Such guys are thinking for themselves, not hanging on every word of their fishing heroes! They are actively identifying key problems, thinking and solving for themselves, "doing it their way" and catching incredible results, (but this is possible for anyone!)

Incidentally, on many highly pressured waters, fish will take a free-lined bait and immediately bolt, out of pure fear, just from the action of picking-up something potentially dangerous, although nutritious. Leading anglers will take great pains to ensure that carp have as little reason to treat their baits with suspicion. Some will spend many weeks and months preparing and conditioning the fish by baiting, to the point that they make it look easy when they do catch them!

The most popular baits and methods can become seriously anti-productive for the "average angler." If the greatest edge in fishing is being different, then it is certainly often being under-sold. You could say it even being "over-sold" in terms of practical products that lead to a uniformity of any key aspect of fishing. Sometimes, "touch-ledgering with a center-pin reel or float fishing and the use of fast reactions can produce easy results compared to using "big pit' reels and a conventional "static" approach.

Perhaps it is time that more anglers got the message that "easy fishing success" is not easy at all, but does require extra thought and attention to details, which must be very specific to any problem at any particular moment in time on their water. Constant adaptation in response to ever-changing variables takes thinking and often original thinking is the missing ingredient in success. Often we may just be a hair-breadth's distance from great solutions but stop before reaching the last break-through step...

If most of your fishing problems (and their solutions,) are really to be found between your two ears, then better catches are just a thought away! "Original thinking" in fishing is not necessarily about what you know, but how you look at what you know and apply this know-how in fresh new ways. For example instead of settling for a barrel or round shaped bait on a single hair on a form of "stiff" rig, why not experiment much more?

Look at the "bigger picture" as it were. Remember carp can practice 24 hours a day and 7 days and nights a week to identify the common characteristics of baits and rigs etc most used by anglers and they get very skilled at avoiding them. Carp can get off a hook in a fraction of a second or half an hour or more. They "know" they can do it and how to do it, even to the point of deliberately searching for your other lines to cross to tangle and use as a fulcrum!

A simple idea is usually the best and can spawn further simple ideas. Exactly how your hook baits move in the fishes' mouths is an easy "danger reference point" to alter to make a difference to your catches.

Using an innovative new hook link material such as a monofilament with a braided material coating for example, is something I'd take a look at. It is so adaptable for stiff and flexible rigs. Making instantly changeable "hinges" and stiff and flexible sections, so the bait moves differently in the mouth and making hook turns faster, is easily achieved. Maybe you could also use it in conjunction with an elasticized hook-link material, plastic-coated braid or stiffer "stiff-rig" materials?

Many anglers are now using the "chod" type of rigs in fishing situations that do not necessarily suit those best; when other rig designs can work better. But then again, even where chod rigs are highly successful now, anglers like Terry Hearn will be catching on the next innovative edges, ages before the "herd" ever hear or read about them... It all makes you think huh!?

However, I have been known many times to just go fishing to get out of the house, get some peace, get some sleep, have a social and meet friends, even have the (rare) drink on the bank or hot meal on a Saturday night with the wife while sitting beside the rods. I have been known to fish entire seasons on a water, deliberately fishing "off the fish" just to get some peace and quiet, just to "de-stress" and enjoy very lazy fishing. (You do not have to get up at 3 am and lose sleep reeling in another forty doing this!)

But blank fishless sessions and disappointing costly sessions where anglers have put in the time, put in the money and followed everything the "experts recommended" in the magazines that week, but still gone home disappointed, happens all the time... Now that is a sad situation happening more and more often to your average angler as increasing competition on fisheries makes things more difficult. Sure anglers' ambitions and desires to catch numbers of big fish can be out of perspective with their angling experience and abilities. (Both attributes are incredible edges over other anglers.

Most people can run or (even sing) but even if you are very talented, it does not mean you will be successful. Gold medal winners in the Olympics are frequently measured in fractions of seconds, separating the best who take their place in history from the far less remembered second place competitors. To underline this point, many world record-holders never win an Olympic gold medal! The English hurdler, Sally Gunnell was a leading athlete from Essex when I was competing in athletics alongside Olympic medallist Eamon Martin.

Sally holds the honour of having had the exceptionally rare situation of holding a world record, being the World Champion and Olympic champion in the one event, simultaneously! (Even so, she was only fractions of a second from being beaten in the World Championship event and had to pull out a world record to win! (It seems that in more and more events, more than one competitor will break the current world record in the one race, which is incredible!) In many fishing situations, catch results are evening out among very many anglers too, but to gain a significant advantage often has to come from within your own personal mind rather than from tackle and bait that is easily "available to the masses."

I'm not in favour of secrecy in fishing because this carries with it "clicky" separations of fishermen in competition with each other and life is too short for this rubbish! It also has unsociable, negative, anti-social effects and connotations. On some waters it is actually in the best interests of anglers to co-operate in what they do; details such as how and where they bait-up and what with, fish feedback and location reports etc. The sum results of the "group mind" are so often many times the effect of those individuals. Even fishing with one partner has enormous advantages as opposed to fishing alone.

When everyone has access to information on the ever-changing moods and patterns of a fishery, often as a direct result of anglers baiting, rigs etc and fishing activities themselves, results get spread around and no-one really suffers despite lots of hard work and enthusiasm. (Some very hard-working fishermen can get left "out of the loop" on some waters where there is serious "stitching-up" of swims etc going on, which is a sad negative aspect of fishing today and is totally unnecessary.)

Often fishing success or failure is down to one single small detail and these things really add up. I'm never averse to helping fellow anglers but only if it means they will be able to help themselves more by my help! Telling every detail of a swim, bait, rig and strategy is limited in effect because the other person has missed the most vital bit, which is in learning and developing the very skills which enable him to think and do it for himself successfully!

A good example is that of localised feeding spots in a swim. You can have a rig just 2 feet from a small feeding spot and never realise it. I have fished swims where fishing 3 rods and rigs within 2 feet apart on the bottom and only ever had takes on the one left rod with never a "take" on the other 2 rods! (Productive casting accuracy cannot be taught in a magazine - it takes real practice!)

Most carp fishermen are "average" in everything they do because that is how averages are. Many products by definition are aimed at the "average buyer" because they are ones that constitute the largest proportion of the market and the biggest profits. I believe everyone is born to succeed and born to "win" and thrive some by co-operation others more in competitive ways... We are genetically programmed to adapt constantly in order to survive, just like any creature such as carp. We are not so different in numerous ways! In fact ancient teleost fish like carp are our long -forgotten evolutionary ancestors.

In fact it has never been proven that apes are our real ancestors (Neanderthals used to be thought of for instance until recent finding erased that theory!) The same goes for dinosaurs and the origins of birds, new fossils put "spanners in establishment scientific theory" all the time...

E.g. attractor baits which fish ignore because many of them detect absolutely no biological nutritional or metabolic raising or mood changing effects issuing forth from the baits. In fact their receptors are simply "closed" to many baits. This often means many over-used or poorly designed baits effectively become literally invisible to fish receptors and so not induce any feeding behavioural responses. Often the "curiosity" value of a bait even if dyed bright white is not enough for a fish to inspect it.

If a fish is not in a feeding mood and sees a conventional bait with nothing it needs, and which ultimately has low energy benefits it will frequently be totally ignored by carp, especially in heavily baited waters. Why should it even bother wasting energy eating something which may actually cost it more energy to digest than it gets in reward for eating it?

It may have various baits to supplement its diet in front of its nose, 24 hours a day so you it makes "sense" they will certainly know which baits are worth the rewards of eating on a repeated basis! Apart from that, there is the added factor of fishing pressures which can turn fish any particular form of bait severely.

On many lakes there are fish that are known to exist but do not get caught on any conventional pellets or boilies etc. such fish are often termed "natural feeders." Some of these fish are small, but others can get to be the biggest fish in a water. The impact of eating rich digestible foods left in higher or more abundant levels due to other fish predominantly feeding on anglers' baits should not be underestimated!

A carp in a natural food rich water literally has food items all around it; why would it risk its survival or well-being and risk changing behavioural patterns by "sampling" anglers baits if they are actually recognised as potential food items by receptors cells?' (Carp literally can absorb certain minerals through their skin and even "filter feed" on daphnia, spirulina (natural blue green algae) as they cruise along...)

Remember some of the biggest most muscular creatures on earth eat proportionally tiny food items that may not appear to be able to sustain their large body mass. Consider whales and gorillas and giant pandas do not go around deriving their vital energy from high protein meats, but plain old bamboo shoots among other vegetable sources. (Human vegetarians do not count as they suffer various deficiencies, ailments and diseases as a direct result of strict vegetarian dietary regimes.)

Many anglers try to solve problems by thinking like an "angler." So much importance is on "appearances" these days, but exactly how we perceive problems and how to solve them is far more important to success, which is one reason why Terry Hearn is as successful as he his and also a very down to earth "humble" type of guy. "Thinking like a fish" is the obvious better choice! Why not “See it backwards” much more?

Most anglers try to solve their fishing problems by using and adapting what tackle and resources they already currently have. But this requires the skill to correctly identify and isolate the correct problem in exactly the correct context in order to begin to design a possible solution to the problem. This thinking and practical creative process is mostly a developed skill in itself so anyone can use it to improve their fishing results and bait and its design, form and application are much easier to manipulate than it first might appear!

This fishing bait secrets author has many more fishing and bait "edges." Just one could impact on your catches!

It is best to solve most of your fishing challenges and problems by beginning with understanding fish and observation of behaviours; not to reach for the tackle and bait adverts first! It takes practice and an open mind, that's all! I remember a time years ago now, when the famous UK Woburn Abbey wels catfish adapted to very intense fishing pressure from anglers by switching-off from all previously successful "conventional baits."

They refusing to take them, relying for their survival upon natural food items instead. Using observation it became clear they were preying upon small zander in the margins of the lake. Therefore when small zander were used as bait, immediate success followed after weeks of struggling using popular recommended baits. Using baits which arouse zero or as little suspicion as possible (ideally with the maximum stimulation) has always been the biggest point about fishing baits (as well as the hook!)

“It is not just what you've got, but it's the way that you do it!” You can get many more fishing "edges" by "reverse engineering" our baits rigs and tackle from the perceived view-point of the "angler-conditioned fish danger reference points." Possibly the most effective ways to uncover edges is not just by methodically refining already existing and currently popular and "relatively" currently successful ideas, rigs, baits and tackle.

Often it is difficult to work out who came up with original ideas maybe about fishing "bivvy" design, rig design, bait design, rod design, bed chair design, or whatever, because so many others copy it and claim it as their own. Also it is a very peculiar fact that a certain "group consciousness" appears to be at work in the creative department of our minds. This is the strange when where a number of people, even in different locations around the world come up with very similar designs and inventions almost simultaneously.

The same phenomenon been proven to be the case with isolated island monkeys too. (I derogatively used to term this the "monkey mentality," of some anglers!) Having discovered the art of using a stick as a tool to pick insects and larvae out of tree bark and wood was a new skill that spontaneously appeared on many isolated islands with populations of that species of monkey.

But what about the potency of creating completely new breakthrough baits, rigs methods, tactics and tackle completely from scratch! Now in fishing this may seem impossible but it certainly is not. The concept of "plucking ideas out of "thin air' is not so insubstantial an idea as it first seems, especially in regard to improving your fishing results. Many anglers were using "the hair-rig" way before it was claimed as an invention of 2 particular anglers and details of it were published. (Even I used it with small fish baits for eels as a kid)!

Einstein could produce ideas out of "thin air" and so did Nicola Tesla, the most world-changing inventor in modern history. His "alternating current" and the electric motor among others world changing technologies he patented have advanced the world and connected it in so many ways it's almost impossible to imagine. Many of Tesla's most cutting-edge and completely revolutionary new inventions were put down on paper straight from scratch; without intellectual development!

Much of the secretive "star wars technology" is Tesla's. He mistakenly gave the leading governments of the second world war era designs, so potent he thought the making of which would end all wars, because use of this technology would easily wipe-out life on earth; ironically enough, by harnessing its own energetic fields! (Unfortunately however, not all leaders or their advisors are necessarily sane; there are plenty of obvious examples throughout human history!)

It was as if the new idea had simply manifested in his head in complete finished form with all the details and practical parts and mathematical formula all ready to be written down. In fact he often miraculously came up with new inventions by having completely new designs appear in complete form instantly in his mind.

In fact many of his patents and inventions are still so ahead of their time, no other scientists can figure out how to put them into reality as science has not "evolved" that far yet! The fact that the light bulb inventor Thomas Edison took credit for much of Tesla's work is a tragedy. Thomas Edison even accepted nationally acclaimed awards owing to work done by Tesla and totally stealing the limelight from Tesla and even trying to discredit him (a foreign Serbian migrant to the States.) Compared to Edison, "Nicola Tesla" is also most a forgotten name in world history - the US government has been forced to attribute many patents to Tesla not Thomas Edison in significant court proceedings!

Thomas Edison was a self-educated scientist and inventor who did things the hardest and most conventional way possible - by trial and error, using methodical scientific methods. His invention of the light bulb famously involved 9999 ways how "not to invent alight bulb!" (Many similarities with fishing baits, but at least 80 percent of homemade baits catch fish regardless of many mistakes made!)

Edison was absolutely enraged by the fact that Tesla could "invent" completely ground-breaking new concepts and practical ideas and inventions in schematic annotated form seemingly "instantly" without the hundreds and thousands of developmental trials and tests he had to carry out. But them Nicola Tesla was a genius of extraordinary stature! And Edison was jealous as heck of him! (Edison became the much applauded and awarded national hero of the scientific "establishment" of the United States; Tesla tragically died destitute in a hotel room, alone in New York City...

Each time you switch on your television consider the red colour you see; Tesla invented it. When you turn on you computer in your house or office without Tesla there would not be the power to sustain it. In fact there would probably be electricity generating stations buzzing away in their millions instead of issuing forth from relatively few power stations, if Edison had gotten his direct current established! Tesla even had proven plans for free communications across the world by harnessing the earth's "free energy..." (J.P.Morgan the financier withdrew support when he realised it was free and not something to provide him with more millions.)

So can you come up with an original fishing idea of any idea completely from scratch? I believe any one can, provided they know exactly what they are trying to solve in very great detail and simply meditate on it. In the case of fishing, it is very difficult to do this when your mind is jumbled full of other peoples' second-hand ideas, methods, techniques, bait ideas etc. What you need to do is identify your greatest fishing problem pick it apart to see where the difficult to solve parts of the puzzle are and simply and meditate on this! I've come-up with many bait and rig solutions just doing this...

This fishing bait secrets author has many more fishing and bait "edges." Just one could impact on your catches!

 

1. Tinned fish make excellent baits. Putting them in a liquidiser and adding ordinary wholemeal flour and eggs is one of the simplest ways to make a fish meal bait!
2. Even using tinned tuna or salmon flakes or chunks in natural oil used in ground baits or one of the new round plastic hollow hook bait holders; both work effectively.
3. Many fish meal fishing baits can taste sour or bitter and benefit from use of ingredients to improve taste, (and smell) and most importantly; "palatability" which can cause fish to ingest baits more repeatedly to create more chances of a hook bait being taken.
4. It takes roughly 4 to 5 tonnes of live fish in order to process and produce 1 tonne of fish meal, (fish have a high water content like us humans among many other similarities!)
5. Due to world-wide over-fishing, certain fish species used for human consumption and in fish meals, especially of the north Atlantic white lean fish like cod, haddock, whiting and pollack are more in short supply these days but their place is filled by smaller still very valuable fish species.
6. You can mix various fish oils together or with vegetable oils, to create your own personalised "fish feed inducing" oil.
7. Lecithins improve the beneficial dispersal of fish oils from baits when in water; making them far more "semi-soluble" and easier for fish receptor cells to "detect."
8. Use of fish oils in low temperatures can severely inhibit fish bait digestion and even "lock-up" other less soluble ingredients which could sit in the gut and go rancid.
9. Often when fishing a fishery containing large catfish, having baited a swim with fish meal type baits can produce a "slick" of oil on the waters surface which can take some time to reduce depending on the oil content of the baits.
10. Often a fish oil induced "oil slick" can be confused with the large "slicks" which large catfish produce, (and the reverse is also true!)
11. Putting together a fish meal bait is very easy at the beginners level and gets more in-depth at the levels of optimising the digestive biological value and nutritional profiles of substances in the baits (especially involving first and second "limiting amino acids," for instance.)
12. Ideal fish meal boilies and pellets and pastes should contain much reduced oil levels and exploit lecithins (like the commercial carp bait “Trigger Ice” for example.)
13. A good fish meal bait in winter (in contrast to summer) needs to have an open texture which allows soluble components to leach-out more effectively.
14. Using crushed egg-shells or crushed cockle shells adds much more than just more effective open bait texture.
15. The use of wheat germ, wheat and barley bran and milk proteins, are all beneficial digestive ingredients in cold temperatures either helping other ingredients to be absorbed or helping further natural bacterial enzyme of proteins for example.
16. When your simple straight fish meal bait loses some of its "edge" you can add to its nutritional profile by using various milk proteins, yeast powders, "Robin Red" additive type products ,or kelp powder for instance. (But there are thousands of choices and combinations to exploit while keeping a very favourable stimulatory nutritional value of your bait!)
17. You can rejuvenate the fish response to an already established fish meal bait, by adding various herbs and spices (which also aid more effective digestion and raise fish metabolism.)
18. Many simple baits based on cat foods and dog foods containing fishmeals and cereals make highly successful carp and catfish baits which are enzyme active and in the case of dogs, are most often than not, sweetened for added palatability!
19. Fish "oils" are liquid at room temperature but can solidify in cold temperatures so making normal summer type fish meal baits very ineffective.
20. You can test some of the "functional effectiveness" of your fish meal baits and pellets, by placing samples in a glass of cold water and assessing the time it takes for baits to "colour" the water in the glass and release soluble attractors you can smell.
21. The marine stocks of smaller fish used in "brown" fishmeals especially have stabilised and are claimed to be "sustainable" so it looks like these fishing bait ingredients are here to stay!

Although there are thousands of other bait variations, additives, attractors, enhancers, feeding triggering ingredients and substances etc, the basic fish meal bait and its nutritional profile is a proven winner for consistent big fish results!

The author has many more fishing and bait "edges." Just one could impact on your catches!

On very highly pressured waters, where fish have seen "everything" it is often imperative that both your hook-link and main line is as "invisible" unobtrusive and as "natural acting" as physically possible. Your main line had better be strong enough to stand the pressure and abrasions (even at the reel roller and rod rings) when the biggest fish in the lake rips-off with your baited hook and ploughs towards the nastiest snags in the water! Usually such fish will test your rod and line past their limits and quoted breaking strain as the biggest fish normally have had years of practice being hooked and diving for safe snags!

The quality and condition of your rod rings, reel line roller and clutch mechanism can easily lose you "the fish of a life-time," so regular maintenance and attention to detail is essential. It is a massive advantage if you get advance experience of using your tackle at full pressure fishing for other big species. During key moments in a fish when your adrenaline is pumping and it is fifty-fifty who is going to win, knowing exactly what to do in advance and how to maximise the leverage and limits of your gear really matters. (They often help you keep a "cool head" and control any sense of panic or shock if the fish is evidently more cunning or powerful than you've ever experienced previously!)

Fishing "Lac Du Salagou" and "Lac Du Curton" ('Rainbow Lake') in France is best done after having previously tested your gear to the limit and then seriously up-graded both your tackle and "mental approach!"

Other aspects of lines that all can combine and stack the odds of success in your favour are: Exceptionally "low memory," minimal "line twist" and smooth casting properties to hit that "dinner plate" spot accurately at 120 meters away. This distance is often about 40 to 50 metres further away than most anglers estimate 120 metres to be and is a hell of a cast. (In fact such a cast is beyond the capabilities of many an "average" angler, despite "modern distance rods and big line capacity big-pit reels!")

It helps to do 3 decade of long-range beach casting to seriously train-in and hone your range, casting action, motor skills, appropriate musculature, technique and most importantly; your accuracy. (Often applying free bait accurately is a huge factor contributing to success as fish move further and further "out of range of our lines and leads!)

Other bits of tackle you might prefer not to leave at home, include a very sensitive bite detector. Often you can have fish "playing with baits' on and off for hours, without them getting hooked. This is without a fisherman having had any sound other than one or two "bleeps" from the indicator, (especially at range!). When fish are used to shedding hooks every day and night, they get very skilled at it in response to exposure to all the most popular contemporary rigs.

These are supposedly designed to be "self-hooking" self-turning' contraptions to always give you the "edge" and get around the crafty fishes defensive behaviors. If you have ever seen fish get off these rigs with ease in the margins (it might take a fraction of a second, or half an hour without moving-off though.) It could be argued that a truly effective hooking rig providing a truly genuine hooking "edge" is one that fish in any particular lake have never experienced the like of before!

Your fish hooking success includes the design of your chosen hooks and the materials and quality and gauge of metal it is made from. Added to this are decisions you make regarding the rest of the rig and the use of hook-link material and of particular strategic pivot points for rig movement and son. A good example is a version of a "cranked hook" with multi-stranded hook link material where the hook is positioned above and independent of one bait but sandwiched between the top bait and the smaller less buoyant one beneath the hook.

As recent innovation from "Solar Tackle" is the introduction of a "ring swivel" incorporating tiny ball-bearings which make it turn on your line more efficiently than ever before. The great advantage of this is it allows your rig to turn instantly in the mouth exactly in the way your rig design requires for maximum hooking potential. I can personally vouch for the fact that an efficiently-turning rig catches more fish!

Many of the most successful big fish anglers use a handful of very simple rigs for all their fishing, casting, weed, gravel, silt, or bottom detritus ('chod') situations. However, these guys have many hidden attributes that "mask appearances." I've used the same range of rig dimensions and "mechanics" for years. But this has been in various refined ways and in accordance with the individual fishery and swim requirements and using various more advantageous materials.

A simple rig or bait in the hands of one of the most skilled or experienced anglers on a water, equals fish caught! If an experienced angler has all the advantages of high levels of skill in "reading" a water and fish location, he may well seem to constantly "drop straight on fish" and catch them pretty soon after. A great "hidden advantage" of many top anglers is they're often very skilled in the application of bait in order to manipulate and stimulate fish feeding behavior to the extent of controlling fish location when they do feed.

This skill may be exercised over a season or numbers of seasons until the "target fish" are finally caught. It is often an over-looked fact that the biggest fish have the greatest energy requirements and nutritional needs and it makes sense they very often get caught in swims where the largest amounts of regular free baits are introduced. "Beginners luck" can rule in such swims!

But it is obvious to me at least, that after 3 decades of hunting for big fish of many species, that "confidence" is the real number one factor in fishing success. Without it you would not bother going at all. It is the thing that keeps you going back and which leads to most of your learning, feed-back, catches and in fact, personal satisfaction and enjoyment of the sport. When you are confident in anything in life, you tend to think and therefore behave in that way with all its benefits!

Confidence makes you "anticipate success." This leads to you constantly be looking for "cues" and clues of all kinds that bring you nearer to your goals. It is the thing that allows you to stay awake through the quietest most anti-social night hours listening for moving, rolling and feeding fish, (to give away their location.) Confidence makes you try ideas and things that your "mates" will probably call you an "idiot" for trying. Well "an "idiot' is someone who does not learn from their mistakes, whereas the most successful people have by definition made far more mistakes; but they learn from this "feedback" and develop even more confidence! (And their catches put their "mates" to shame!)

Confidence also makes you "pressure-test" every aspect of your tackle; because you truly believe there is no doubt you are going to hook the fish of your dreams. When the rare fishing opportunities you have been waiting for, meet all your carefully refined preparations and personal skills, then you have the highest possibility of achieving your fishing goals! This might be described as "cultivating your own luck."

Be lucky!

The author has many other "edges" to reveal...

Many anglers desire consistent big carp catches and baits that can possibly level out differences between an angler's abilities, time available and money resources, experience and so on.

There is no doubt among those anglers that use "high" or "balanced" nutritional value baits, that they produce long-term big fish results. Providing the essential dietary requirements of fish can very much determine the initial and repeated behaviour a fish has towards such a bait. Refining the taste of the bait is a very important part in this too. But what is the mystery and incredible cumulative effects of specific nutritional baits can have and how do they really work both short and long-term to achieve the hooking of a fish?

Comparatively few anglers understand why such baits work and often, when asked about them, a vague “something to do with protein, oils, flavours, minerals etc” is offered. It seems to me that many anglers drop the deeper questions about bait, when things get any further than the "name" or label, or flavour a ready made products is marketed as. But anyway, why would an angler even benefit from knowing how and why their ready made baits work; they catch fish after all?

It is common for an angler to see an advert or "advertorial" with their current favourite fishing heroes and buy the ready made bait being recommended and use that. This is fine for very many anglers, but then very many anglers make up the majority who only achieve the kind of results the "average angler" achieves. If you want more certainty about better than average results, you require more control over this vital aspect of your fishing.

There is of course nothing wrong with "borrowing confidence" from recommendations of successful and "high profile" anglers. They must use bait of some sort; so why not think “If it is good enough for them, it is good enough for me.” Many anglers over-look the fact that most of these anglers would also do very well on any quality bait and "crap baits" too... If you team up an exceptionally talented angler with outstanding bait, the results will be as expected, but then they will do it with "humble baits" too. Think Dave lanes catches off the surface at "Horton" or Rod Hutchinson's results at "Redmire" on particles for instance. Many an angler would turn to a tiger nut or peanuts, hemp or maggots, if boilies and pellets were banned on their water.

The days of the cheap "crap value" semolina and soya flour baits with a flavour (and similar) that dominated many waters in the past have been replaced by a completely different generation and quality of baits used today. (Sure there are artificial or fake baits being used today, but these are hook baits only!)

Quality baits are those designed specifically to provide for the needs of a particular species of fish using a balanced and broad spectrum of highly nutritious fresh ingredients which have more favourable digestibility and therefore higher nutritional value. The "bioactivity" and solubility and components of such baits varies extremely widely being designed with various different approaches and angles of stimulation and attraction in mind.

Anyhow, some "club water committees" seem to like banning such baits due to the changes in feeding behaviour of their target species which may be roach as opposed to carp. (These guys need to adapt their tackle and baits!) Sure, you need to check on certain particles like peanuts and so on, but then particle baits are easily available, ready prepared these days.) Why would you ban quality nutritional boilies and pellets anyway; many fish species grow bigger, faster by regularly feeding on them and meeting their essential dietary needs so much more efficiently.

Not only this, pest and disease immunity can be improved, especially over the winter and spring periods and general health and condition is improved, if not fish longevity too. Why would any responsible fishery owner not want such benefits? If over-stressed fish need to they can often "turn-off" boilies and pellet baits and thrive on the more abundant natural foods made available by the far lower dependence of fish upon them. Most lakes have one or a few so-called "natural feeders" that are never, or extremely rarely caught on anglers' baits of any kind.

I'm sure this has much to do with the way their receptors are developed, actively adapted and coded for various substances in their environment. In a related way, it is not dissimilar to an individual who is unable to put on muscle due to the way their genetics, body chemistry and metabolism are set-up even when eating a high protein diet. In contrast, a different individual can seem to put on the pounds, or remain muscular even on a vegetarian low protein diet.

'Blind spots' in physiological processes are very common types of developmental adaptations, mutations etc in nature. These contribute to diversity and the ability of organisms to survive threats like changes in food availability and opportunities involving the need to adapt to new foods available in the environment and so on. We are to a great degree a product of the diet our ancestors and the foods available in their environment, just like carp are. (In fact the links and commonalities between humans and carp are very significant when it comes to designing fishing baits.)

I've seen exceptionally talented anglers dominate catches on a lake using "crap" baits, but would an "average ability angler fare so well on highly pressured waters? Indeed many more famous contemporary anglers have swapped the bait company that sponsors them fairly frequently; how confusing is that for those anglers who know very little about bait? There are definite advantages to having a general background in fishing of many kinds before going into carp fishing.

Learning about the behaviour and feeding habits of different fish and the kind of baits, tackle, methods and principles to catch them effectively gives a carp angler huge advantages. New anglers starting in carp fishing have far less "real grounding' to apply to carp and are far more dependant on help from other anglers on the bank and magazines and so on. This can be disadvantageous because certain biases can develop which can obscure what is really going on and far better baits and tactics to overcome challenges.

Statements like: “Pop-ups do not work here,” or “You need to be "in" on this bait to catch” or “This set-up is the one to use” and so on. The advice can be well-intentioned and certainly effective at the present, but things can change very rapidly, especially when fish are being caught by anglers using the same or similar baits and tactics. Thinking ahead of current successful baits, methods and approaches etc is one of the more "hidden" aspects of successful carp angling.

If you are user of "food" type baits like modern boilies and other baits like pellets and dough baits specifically designed for catfish and carp, then you are familiar with "the jargon." This refers to the theory that nutritionally balanced fishing baits will induce better results as a results of consistent bait introduction and positive recognition. This can result in fish treating your bait as natural food that they derive significant dietary and energetic benefits from.

The common focus of many anglers in regards their baits is the "flavour" it has, or less degree its "protein content." High protein boilies for example have been very popular in the past and there have been situations where anglers have used bait ingredients to achieve the highest crude protein levels in their baits. Often , milk proteins have been used because many milk derivatives and fraction have very high protein content, with quite a number quoted as having 88 to 96 percent protein.

Carp for example do not require "protein" at least "whole protein" as such, but certainly have essential dietary requirements for nitrogen and amino acids among very many other "essential" requirements. The protein content of a bait is often quoted as doing all the major stimulatory and attraction work of the bait. Certainly, the soluble components of such a bait do much of the work compared to the insoluble and least digestible components.

Some nutritional ingredients have stimulatory effects which can be as or more important than the nutritional benefit to the fish upon attempted digestion. I'm referring to milk proteins like casein for example. Enzyme treated casein is far better from a nutritional and stimulatory perspective than whole casein powder, it having significantly more solubility for a start. The taste and smell of milk proteins is undeniably very potent to carp, even the humble normal milk powders used every day. Used in ground baits for example, these readily prove their worth.

Things have changed drastically in carp fishing in the UK over the last 50 years.

The commonly held popular theory of milk proteins seemed to be a product of the age, where few anglers used much bait if at all, and the secrets of nutritionally stimulating baits were not yet being exploited by the majority of anglers using ready made baits as they do today. Also there were far fewer carp anglers in the past and far less carp in any numbers of any significant size.)

The fact is that the use of two to ten kilograms of free bait boilies or pellets, or other baits for a single night session, is a common practice for many modern carp anglers. The fish are getting filled up and sustained on more food than they need on many waters. The long periods of time during a season where no fish are caught, as in the winter period on many waters demonstrates how many fish no longer really have to feed all year round. A spring and early summer binge is commonly being replaced by the "traditional" UK October pre-winter feeding binge of 20 or more years ago.

The popular UK theory about bait was that carp "preferred" high nutritional value ones where lower nutritional value baits were introduced. (These were mostly carbohydrate based baits made predominantly from soya flour and semolina.) When fishing with fish and milk protein based baits, on some waters in the 1970's and 1980's depending on many variable factors, this may well have been the case. However, I have always fished a variety of baits side by side of both low protein carbohydrate type and of high or balanced nutrition types.

On balance, the baits which caught most fish were the ones I used the most, it became clear that a balanced nutrition bait had a frequent edge especially for bigger fish with greater nutritional and energy requirements. In this respect the bigger fish can be easier to catch as the nutritional baits appear more big fish selective. Many American anglers and those in countries "crawling with virtually un-fished for carp" have yet to discover this experience. I've yet to notice maize, plastic baits, hemp, sweetcorn etc to be as big fish selective...

But it is very often the case that the introduction of large amounts of a variety of baits, from pellets, peanuts, maize, boilies and so on, can massively impact on the feeding habits and feeding locations of fish in any individual fishery. Even if it is a "50 / 50" semolina and soya flour mix, on many waters where this is introduced, if enough is regularly introduced it can for a while dominate catches. Carp generally tend to exploit any readily available regular food source.

I remember it striking me that carp often have the habit of binging on large amounts of bait smaller fish cannot handle. Just imagine all the occasions where lots of ground bait, maggots, sweetcorn, pellets and dog biscuits have been used over the course of a day and build up in an area or swim. At some point, often in the evening or following morning, the carp will move in and devour everything left. So there appears to be efficient energy benefits to eating a new bloom of food appearing in a swim.

Of course carp are conditioned by repetition into behaviours so they will respond to bait being introduced. On some lakes they will roll over a freshly baited area upon its initial introduction, but wait to feed on it for 3 or 4 days if they have been constantly subjected to heavy fishing pressure. (Fishing over washed out nutritional baits is a well-known edge where fresh boilies used as ground baits may even act as a deterrent.)

It is not necessarily the new wonder "HNV" bait that dominates a water all the time. There are factors here which complicate things. For instance, just how much of the fishes dietary requirements satisfy them to the extent that they do not actually need to consume all the nutritional baits being introduced? How does this affect the impact of newly introduced nutritional baits? (Is it healthy for fish to feed on beds of 20 kilograms of "Marine pellets," or oily fish meal baits? Oily "glugs" are still being promoted by some "names" in fishing magazines.)

I remember fishing a water in the early 1980's to 1990's against someone who is now the boss of one of the biggest UK tackle manufacturers. This guy had access to all the refined extracts etc available from the Far East; money was no object. Over all, he told me himself, for the time I did and what I knew about bait and how it worked at that time, I did extremely well for catches. (Although my fish were often not as consistently big as his on his more refined often far more sophisticated enzyme active, self-digesting baits.)

My point here is that despite the series of sessions where this guy pre-baited heavily with a new special pre-digested bait etc, he did not eclipse me all the time, even on my less refined "attractor combined nutritional style" baits. Being able to "pre-bait" while actually fishing (or beforehand) and keeping your "HNV" bait going into a water every 2 or 3 days at least, is very important in getting it established. This practice is a key part of exploiting balanced or high nutritional value baits.

That said, the results of many contemporary anglers using different companies ready made "HNV" or "biological nutritional value" type baits can often be very similar, as all these baits become "natural food" fish become dependant on. In such situations, using new baits you have made yourself, or ready made baits that you have been adapted and enhanced, can prove highly productive.

Such baits certainly can produce for you as many, if not more big fish than the "standard versions" of popular established ready made baits.

My point is one of the key edges in fishing apart from watercraft skills, location and actual bait presentation, is to be the first on a rig, method, tackle innovation or bait format or design. I know many experienced anglers who have become lazy and stereotyped in their tackle, baits, rigs and over all thinking approach. Of course, many anglers just fish for a bit of peace, wildlife and country air, or a change to a "social" in the pub for example. But even these anglers who completely differ from some intensely driven and goal oriented contemporary anglers, can benefit from thinking a bit more about what they do and how they think about what they do in their fishing.

If most anglers realized that although there is such a thing as mean or average fishing results, no angler is doomed to remain just an "average angler" achieving mostly average results. Using commercial baits is a very good idea, with so many advantages attached. There's time saving, potential savings of economy on quality nutritional baits and the feeling confidence when you have heard about big fish catches on a ready-made bait or mix at other waters.

It makes great sense to exploit ready made base mixes pellets, ground baits and method mixes etc that have been designed by often very technically minded guys. These companies often use the back-up of flavourists, aquaculture experts, nutritionists and the like. These baits have to be rigorously tested over months and even years. This is to refine them and discover the correct levels of ingredients and flavors that will be successful on a range of waters throughout the year.

Your trust in a bait and any company is extremely important and rumors can be very damaging. It is always best to find things out and experience things first hand rather than take any notice of things you might read online in forums especially. For instance, I used to use Rod Hutchinson products for years in all my bait making. At one stage there was a rumour going round that he was making savings and lowering quality standards by using things like wood shavings swept off the floor!

Well I was not fooled by this at all; my results told me the precise opposite. I bought some of his ready made baits instead of the base mixes I often incorporated into my base mixes at the time. (Yes, you can "bulk up" expensive base mixes very effectively with cheap protein ingredients like yeast powders, feather meal, peanut meal etc.) I looked for anything unusual and found in a particular meat boilie (meat baits were far less popular at the time) that there were what to me anyway appeared to be tiny "wood chips" in the matrix of the bait... But there was far more to this than first appearances indicated.

I thought a little about it. Firstly, the baits caught me fish, which is what I totally expected, being a new bait with a different profile, taste, hardness and so on. This little chips could actually be a deliberate inclusion I pondered. I reasoned that from a texture point of view, they would create a different "dimension." They also would offer a different attractor leak-off characteristic to many contemporary baits like the soya, semolina instant baits and milk proteins so prevalent at that time.

However, the clincher was when I stumble across a bit of information regarding certain species of catfish which use an unusual behavior to help them utilize their food better. These catfish would scrape bark off the overhanging trees. I think they were "Salix" tree species. Being a professionally trained commercial horticulturalist of 20 years I should have taken much more notice; but the effect is what matters.

The inference was that this stimulated and improved digestion of some other their important harder to digest foods. (Many important processes, roles and substances are involved in "synergistic" ways in fish digestion.) Well if you investigate various wood barks you will immediately notice the common presence of sap, or resins. These are a kind of "half-way house" combination of often very potent substances. One of these substance categories is for instance the oleoresins. "Bingo" will some readers exclaim at this point. Oleoresins are very common bait ingredients and can be used in powders or liquids.

Vanilla powder from "Ccmoore is packed with vanillin, which has over 300 components to stimulate and attract your carp. Capsaicin of red peppers and chilli peppers is also very effective. Piperines of black or white peppers are very effective too especially for low temperatures and winter time. Essential oils and often proprietary fishing flavours have a variety of potent oleoresins at play, which can effect carp and catfish in "bioactive' ways. (Think of the way chili powder "hits" you with a large dose for instance and how a curry gets to be "just one more" in effect.)

Its funny how many fishermen don't see the "wood" for the trees...? It makes you think a bit more about what else is used your ready made baits than meets the eye. One company I heard about used "industrial grade casein" (used for glue manufacturing not food) because it was so much cheaper. The things is, their baits still caught fish; so how could anyone have known? There are many ways to alter or adapt most ready rolled boilies and pellets etc to achieve extra "edges."

Those baits designed specifically with enzyme or "bioactive" components are best left to do their thing, although there are loads of additional proven feed triggering substances you can add from electrolytes, organic acids, various amino acids (both essential and non-essential,) taste enhancing and sweetening substances, oils and others most anglers won't have probably heard of.

You may not consider over-flavoring and boosting your ready made baits these days with a glycerol or ethyl alcohol flavor for the winter for instance. But a good soak in an amino acid packed liquid or powdered palatant additive can do wonders; the more soluble feeding triggers leaking off the baits the better!