Leaderboard

Don't apologise Finchey, it's not a stupid question mate...…… It's a good subject this with a few angles to consider imo…. Here's a few of my views, and they are just opinions based on a bit of reading, a bit of fishing and various comments from different people...… Glad you mentioned digestion. btw. Imo ( I will keep saying "imo", so as not to offend anyone)… The ability of a bait to be easily broken down, not just crushed, but dismantled , a molecule at a time, by natural enzymes, is everything imo. It not only allows the bait ingredients to by utilised by the fish,( As once broken down by enzymes into, amino acids,simple sugars and fatty acids, to name a few, these can be absorbed through the lining of the fishes digestive tract, and on into it's circulatory system and delivered to wherever they are needed, within the body, to promote, muscle growth, tissue repair, plain old energy, etc etc..) but it will also attract naturals onto the baits/baited area too, for the same reasons. Ie, the naturals, snails, bugs etc , will be looking for the same nourishment. So a good bait, imo, will be attracting naturals from the off, onto your baits and providing a veritable banquet for any fish, this, imo gives the added attraction of lots of tiny movement over the spot, which fish will home in on, imo, with their ability to detect such things , through "electro sensory" detection... So these, easily digestible baits, promote a whole cycle of events, a life cycle if you will. And even if you are fishing a vast water and have put some bait in a spot where they are difficult to find by the fish (carp)… They will still attract naturals and in turn silvers etc and be devoured by the lakes inhabitants...Worst scenario, because the enzyme activity produces gas, primarily CO2, if the baits are not completely eaten, they will gas up and float to the surface after about 3 days and be picked off by the bird life or blown into the edge where the birds, rats etc will get them...……… Basically, they will not be sitting on the bottom and rotting for weeks...…. The only time that could happen with a good bait, is when temperatures are at their very lowest, this will slow down the enzyme activity and therefore slow down a whole chain of events. So in cold conditions, it's very important to put any bait in the right place, where a degree or two of warmer temperature can make a huge difference, to the life cycle..... So there you go, a brief description of what a good food source can bring to water, plenty of life in a cycle that benefits everything that lives in it...….. Right, now shelfies, how can I put this?...……. " NONE OF THAT HAPPENS"........ They should be banned imo..... It's most likely some very clever attractor packages used in them, as to why they catch fish.. But the fact that they are stuffed with preservatives to stop the enzymes doing their thing, means they add nothing to the environment they are chucked into, with some reports suggesting that the preservatives leaking out, can actually be quite harmful to small creatures and actually kill off fish eggs...... Add to that, that the preservatives will also hinder the gut flora (enzymes found naturally in the gut) in our fish, so they cannot possibly break these baits down and utilise anything that is in them... You may as well be feeding them cardboard...... Bleached cardboard with a sugar coating imo......... When you catch a fish that is Emptying out loads of a particular bait, imo, it's a stinky winky bait that can't be digested and is just passed through, so please don't think they are thriving on it........ Right, getting back to the OP, soft baits, hard baits etc (again, just my op'). I'm going to dismiss hook baits, as I will always use a hard hook bait to get round the smaller species pecking at it , or coots etc picking up and dropping it......... That just leaves "feed baits", mine are always soft, boiled for about 20 seconds just to form a light skin that stops them sticking together in the bag. The plus side of this , is that very few of the goodies, liquids and soluble ingredients are boiled out of the baits and once they have been in the lake for a couple of hours, they will break apart when the coots try to pick them up, mostly............ And having done a few pint glass tests on them, they will literally disintergrate , after about 10hrs, if you touch one...... Whether the softness of a bit is more attractive to a carp, who knows, they pick up snails, mussels etc which are hard, but they also feed on, bloodworm etc, that are soft..... Being omnivorous scavangers I would think that the hardness/softness issue wouldn't really come into it, as long as the right food signals/attractors are being picked up on... Nuts are hard, worms are soft, they love both.... The problem I have with harder baits (boilies), it just says to me that there are fewer soluble ingredients in them and imo, will be mostly cheap ingredients held together with something like whey gel or egg albumin, and give me the feeling that they are slightly "locked up", which may take longer for any attractors to do their thing, not great if you are on a shorter sesh imo...... If I had some baits like this, I would probably try to boost them and soften them at the same time, by first air drying for 24hrs and then rehydrating them/soaking them, in something with a bit of pulling power, liver hydro, fish hydro, that sort of thing....... Even some plain old liquidised live, a quids worth of liver, liquidised and diluted with some lake water is all you will need for a few kg of bait.......

Great bait imo. Good for baiting up with too as they are so cheap. If I'm just baiting I'll use straight out of the tin. If I'm gonna use them as a hookbait too then I prepare them myself as the tinned ones are too soft. They take on colour and flavour really well too.

Why do you assume you've been done? I've said this before and my views haven't changed, it seems absolute madness to me for you to get up nice and early before you're perceived bite time, only to get impatient and let doubt creep In, should I check my rigs, have I been done, is there any bait left? Then you proceed to pull the rigs up, most likely spooking anything creeping into your area, then smashing them back out - definitely spooking any not spooked first time. Better still I'll bait up messing it up for anyone nearby too. Why make and check rigs that are, anti tangle, re-setting, tried and tested, spots good enough to present on, bait up carefully - then just when you need to sit on your hands and do nothing......... You know the rest, and you said the results ain't great! Stick to plan A and be confident 😊

@finchey having just posted a hint of my current bait on another post i will expand on my views a little, the bait i use is a shelf life with a dual personality. i have found that removing a few of the boilies from the bag and keeping them for hookers they are quite hard but will start to break up after 10-15 hrs (tank test with lake water at ambient (outside) temp) BUT!!! the company also supply magic in a pot called H-Dec (Hydrolysis Digestive Enzyme Catalyst) which apparently "in effect ‘de stabilizes’ your baits. ‘Un-preserving’ the preservative, ‘un-inhibiting the inhibitors’ and ‘removing the shelf life’ in your shelf life baits"(quote direct from their blurb) that you mix with lake water and add to your boilies a day before requiring them, the effect is quite amazing to see as the boilies will start to break down and ooze goodness and attraction before your very eyes. just to add, the fish seem to love them as they broke my loooong blank and they just keep on producing

my preferred bait is the boilie, specifically CherryCarp's Chocaberry ( Cranberry, Chocolate Malt, Broccacel, MRP, Lupin and Niger Seed, smell and taste orgasmic) for the fruity hit and KMT ( Squid, Monster crab,Kelp Marine and Tangerine) for max fishyness, both fished over a small bed of maples, tares, hemp, corn, chops and a few freebies mixed in. both have turned my capture rates round and refilled my MoJo bottle to the max. my reason for using them,,, i was wary at first of trying Cherry Carp baits because of the negativity of some on here who seemed more authoritative than me about bait companies, as it turned out tho these folks churning out the negativity were just jumping on the 'hate waggon' because they didnt like the way that the bait side had split from their parent company or just belching out what they had read online, so i waited and observed for almost a year, asking questions direct, queries about ingredients and inclusion rates, preservatives (shelf life) nutritional values etc etc and was at first suprised to find out that it was the actual directors who were chatting with me and not some flunkey paid to fob us off. i have been assured that their prices and inclusion rates will not be compromised nor beaten and so far they have been true, (£4.50pK to £6.50pK) they also do a tackle range that i may do a F,O,T,W, on soon

I will happily bait up through the night if I need to, a bit of late night spombing really helps you get in tune with your casting! Recasting at first light is a nono, unless its a quiet flick down the margin/being dropped in off the rod tip. A few quartered baits to clear the fish off quickly and a quietly dropped rig is no real disturbance IMO. I'd only be doing that if I think I've been done though, or it's unsafe to fish the snag whilst asleep.

Short sessions = less bait imo…….. Even better if you can put some in a day or two before (without encroaching on anyone else) and flick a single or stringer out on the spot when you do your overnighter.... As @Pete Springate's Guns mentioned, the guy piling it in opposite him is going to sit on that for a few days. (bit out of order considering by 4/5pm on a Sunday, most anglers will be packing up, so he could have waited til then)... Over nighters, for me (I don't do that many), consist of about 10-12 baits flicked around my rig, looking for a bite at a time with as least disturbance as possible and a quick set up time, especially as the light is drawing in now and I don't want to be waiting for my swim to settle down after a barrage of baiting as the twilight witching hour approaches...… Nice little trap set. If I get anything, it's an easy re-set, flick it back out with a few more baits over the top...……. I've been baiting a couple of waters this year, but actual fishing has been done over very little bait, just to try and get a quicker pick up and a more covert set up and rods out... Steady results, but feel that I'm doing something right...… Having said that, they have seen a bit of my bait over the last 6-8 months, which definately helps. A mate of mine does the opposite, turns up at midday, sorts his rods out and clips them up, bangs a bit of bait out.... Then says his hello's round the lake, drinking all our tea lol...… Casts out at midnight ready for a morning bite.... He does alright too.. The theory being, let a few fish come in and out of the baited areas with no lines cutting through the swim, before chucking a rig out...….. He jokingly says " get yer camra ready geezer' As he wanders back to his swim at 11pm...…. Proper annoying when you get the wake up call at 3am, I have to wind my rods in, that have been out for 8hrs, to take a pic for someone who's been fishing for a couple of hours...…. Doesn't always go like that, but he does alright...….☺️

I read that he said that he has been carp fishing since 82 and he wants his 5 minutes of fame so will be going for the record.

https://www.carpfeed.com/fishing-news/article/day-ticket-fish-eclipses-british-record-carp

Wasn’t that big rig that karked it ?

Will it be accepted do you reckon?. Apparently the lake done 3 different 60s In a week. Sounds more like a French type venue .

Nice to have one if you have the space, mines full of everything, powders, ground bait, particle, boilies...… Bit like sweeping it all under the rug lol 😄

I've never tried with the tinned ones. I'd imagine as they are already soaked In water they wouldn't really absorb much . Turmeric is one of my favourites when preparing them myself, especially in the colder months.

Hi Finch...I also use the EXACT BAITS but As B.C says i let a hand full of each harden up for hook baits and the rest i lightly soak in corresponding liquid...Nash Coconut in the Rod Hutch Coconut Creme and the Nash Candy Nut in Manilla Liquid...as also stated about digestion and on another thread ive asked about chick peas compared to tiger nuts...

Thanks B.C. for another in depth reply very interesting reading and very helpful. I'm afraid I won't be rolling my own baits the amount of fishing I do doesn't really warrant it but I do think I'm going to be investing in a little bait freezer and swapping to frozen baits. I have been toying with the idea for a while it would come in handy for my pike fishing as well, it would free up a draw in our home freezer the wife will be made up. 😂

liver boilies all the way

I’m probably in the ‘remove their dangly bits brigade’! This has been reinforced this morning when a guy arrived opposite at first light and proceeded to spod for 2 hours.....Its ok for him, he’s down for another 3 nights, he does this every week in the same swim, usually midweek hence I was somewhat surprised and disapointed to see him today. Complete lack of respect for others; the lake is hard, pressured and swims are tight. Cock.

Thanks for the link yonny. Good reading there. My water is a drop the lead rule, instant ban! So after a bit of experimenting, & due to the mountainous canadian weed. I am naked to a drop off fox in line, with a sinker wrapped in putty 2ft up the line. I use 4-4,5oz up to 100 yds. 4_5"combi rig with a large split shot where the braid is stripped off the fluro of Hydrolink, to set the hook. Pop up or snowman. I tend to get the hook bait 2-3" off the bottom, with a few freebies in stocking, which helps avoid tangles. I will play around with lengths & not necessarily drop the lead on other waters. I often get liners, but put that down to fish & movement of the weed. With this setup I definitely know when it's a take & have a 100% land rate & confidence in it. From the rotary, in my early days of fishing & carping I used to use a small 1/2 oz in line ball lead to devistating effect. Fond memories and stirs up the grey matter to uses nowadays.

I'm always wary of old stock, but it is sunlight that weakens line, along with the stretching and abrading in the water. I used to change line religiously twice a year, my Sensor was being fragged on lilies, weed, (with snails and particles on the fronds), gravel and mussels, even buoy chains. This year I have had to replace line twice when boats caught it, blooming idiots sailing too close to the bank!

I think hes referring to the bait taking on the smell of the silt try soaking your baits in lake water before putting it out that way its already absorbed as much water as it can and wont suck up the silty smell

Not quite sure how that makes sense? Why it is harder to use a fishmeal than a bird food or nut based boilie? All round balls of boiled paste. If anything I’d be using a highly flavoured fishmeal that stinks enough to give you a headache, squid, monster crab, GLM, etc. That will combat the silt and silkweed and make sure the fish find it.

Time dependent I soak mine for 24-48 hours, boil in the same soaked in water for half hour or until the maize starts to split, take off the boil and leave to cool down on the cooker. I've had success with then adding some sainsburies rum flavor to the maize. not loads about half a small bottle per kg and mixing it up, placing in a bag, blow up the bag with maize inside, then let it ferment in a warmish place for a day or two - occasionally check for mould and let out old air and re blow up. Once fermenting is done - I divide up and freeze. Also had success with boiling maize the night before and taking it in a tub with the water i boiled in with no salt or sugar. Had great success with adding salt/chilli/sugar and various combinations. Top, top bait imo. If i'm being honest, 200g a session would be plenty, sifting through the better kernels to use on the hook - the grain is so tough it withstands all sorts of punishment. The rest mixed in with corn/hemp/bread crumb/groundbait mix and I think you'll have a decent spod/groundbait mix that will attract most fish. TLDR: Maise is a top bait - doesn't matter how its prepared or any additives.