hutch

It certainnly does and holds in the bait well, will be complex mixture of carboxlyic acids which is what made the for mentioned fishing bait classics when it comes to flavours, plus very attractive to our cyprinid friends

Ive just moved onto the shrimp after a conversation with @yonny (dont have the time to amke my own this year), good start as i managed to catch one first time out, has a very distinct smell to it (think possible SSA & Monster Crab combo/Nash Cajun Prawn as the lead smell/flavour.)

I agree with Yonny the rule of thumb with cork balls used to be use a cork ball 2mm smaller than your intended bait size

Is it one you have done yourself or Tropamino ? Egg Albumen will make a harder skin on the outside whilst retaining a softer centre, blood plasma will firm it through, if you just need egg albumen for making 1 egg pick up some egg white powder from the supermarket baking aisle

Look like a good start to your journey @elmoputney hopefully some of those will put some fish on the bank soon.

Mix wise: Used Amber Attract alot in my early years, Sting Fish Mix was another good one, Flavour wise Scopex, SSA & Cajun Prawn could go on

Sad to see Nash Bait is being wrapped up, has released some classic mixes and flavours over the years https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C4wFLRCXM/

FYI: One of the main men behind Premier back then is now Active Bait Solutions

Taking a wild swing I think Digest may have been papain based but dont quote me on that, that would laso fit with your observations above

In answer to the thread title i think the word better suited to semolina is functional, it serves a purpose like Nick says a s a binder mainly as its make up is mostly carbs which carp cant do anything with, as for the Nutrabaits Addits they were more additives rather than making a bait a HNV based bait, i used to know what all 3 were, i think taste was MSG but i have forgotten the other 2. I think the fact there are a lot of very good products available now and the way modern day anglers use there (glugs, coating boiles etc..) i think it would be very difficult for carp at first glance to tell whether something is good for them or not as you could make a poor quality boilie initially seem like a likely food source, and fish dont have hands so the only way is to try one and find out, if you eat something that is like digesting a stone your porbably not going to go back for more. A thing that does intrest me is do we cause sensory overload and what the effects of that are to the fish by having most of our baits pepped up

Threw £20 at a little temu haul, pair of croc type shoes for any night time dashes (more to the tiolet than the rods these days 😆), water bucket to replace my leaky old one, bait spoons, tackle pouch and some bait pots for my pop ups, plus some tiny pots ideal for soaking zig foam in, all in all pretty happy

As for recent purchases, after going back and forth over deciding on a new bank side home i have final settled on a Trakker RS Brolly, Skull Cap and Infil, will be out on a couple of weeks time but have had it up in the yard looks the business

Anyone who is interested in the background of Marcus Watts he has done some stuff with the carp cast recently

Protien is where your amino acids come from in various guises depending on the liquid etc.. imo liquids contain FAA (Freeform Amino acids) are better as a stimulant, there are other ways to stimluate them though as i believe CSL attraction is based more around that active process of the carbs turning to sugars (might be wrong here memory isnt what it used to be ... lol) which is why the active versions are better than the inactive ones

The best baits are nearly always the ones that are a nightmare to roll and generally have a bit more going on attraction wise, baits that go through machines normally have had to take a hit somewhere on ingredients to get them to roll nicely

2 satchets of that to 100g will do it as a stop gap, it wont firm them through but will give the baits a hardened skin so will slow the water leaking into the hookbait

You could nip down the supermarket and pick up some egg white powder i would use this at 10% (or 10g to 100g), this should harden the outer skin of the bait and take them long to break down.

Agree with Nick, I would look at making a 1 egg mix of hookbaits with 5-10% of either whey gel or blood plasma that should firm them right through leaving your hookbait in place whilst the feed is breakingdown

From memory (its been a while since I have been up there) 7,6,5 are the hot swims, along that long no fishing bank there are a couple of water inlets that do a good number of fish, 8-11 are worth a look as well as they have access to the deeper water, 4-1 that end of the lake is very swallow. I think it gets a bit of weed in it in the summer so it might be worth having a lead around for clean areas. The baliffs have there own youtube channel which they have been uploading videos for tips https://www.youtube.com/@WyresideLakesFishery and Mr Pitchers did an episode of the challenge on Sunny 1 think he is fishing peg 7

Old wives tail mate, they will still eat fishmeal in the winter the problems you can get is becuase the water is colder and there metabolic rate has slowed down, if they chow down on a heavy protein bait it basically can take them alot longer to digest so they wont be as inclined to eat again for several days maybe longer, also combine that with there requirements change when the water is colder so they are looking for fast hits of more energy based/easy digestable baits like a Manilla or Live system rather than a complete food source.

If your going to be using some of Dean's (Dean Towey) gear you might want to listen to some of his podcasts on the subject https://www.youtube.com/@CarpChronicles

Loving the effort and enthusiasm on this thread Carpbell3 your going to enjoy that first fish rolling over the net cord

From looking at the ing spec. there doesnt appear to be much difference other than the NOR 70 seems a touch more soluble so would probably require slightly less CSCP 90 in the mix, so i dont think it would make a great deal of difference to the attractivness of the mix

Wouldnt be pricking then you could end up with a pot of bright bottom baits, pricking them will cause them to take on water faster hence making them heavy, you looking at doing multi liquid combinations with them ? , just add your required liquids to a pot and let them soak in, be careful not to over do it as heavy liquids can also cause an undesired effect

Depends on your interests within our great past time mate, some people have no interest in bait and how it works so if your that way then the above is a good solution, but some people like to know why certain things attarct carp and then create there own bait around what they have learnt