|
Carp Bait Additives,
Ingredients and Mixes
There are a variety and additives, ingredients and mixes available to make
or enhance your bait.
Dry ingredients
Making boilies at home is
similar to making a cake. The most effective dry ingredients contain
materials that carp need to survive. Fishmeal, poultry meal and wheat germ
supply essential amino acids needed for growth and weight maintenance.
There are many other basic food ingredients for making boilies, these are;
milk & egg powders, soya, fishmeal and meat make up the bulk of base mix
powders available. Good powders for making boilies are dense with nutrients
and are good for carp. Carbohydrates are found in sugar and
can be used by carp as a source of energy, albeit in small quantities.
They also include cellulose (fibre) for roughage in assisting the movement
of food through the carp’s gut. A carp's main energy is provided through
oils, thus the leakage of oil from bait can be very attractive to carp.
A typical two kilogram recipe for boilies includes:
-
6-10 eggs
-
500g maize flour
-
500g corn semolina (panzani)
-
500g pre-cooked Soya flour
(bio flour)
-
400g powder milk 1/2 (Lovelait)
-
100g sugar (fine mixed)
As with many types of mix, you can make substitutions. You can add crushed
bird seed to the base mix in a ratio of one part seed to 3 parts of mix. You
can also substitute different types of flour, such as cabbage, rice,
cinnamon and wheat. Other dry ingredients include kelp, belachan block, hot
chilli powder, spices, and Tiger Nuts (must be soaked overnight and then
boiled for 30 minutes). Dean Towey has developed his own recipe for
attractive bait. It includes white fishmeal, full fat soya flour (the
binder), lactalbumin, rennet casein, robin red and seaweed extract.
Once you have created your
unique bait, try some tactics on
how
to introduce a new bait into a lake. Liquid ingredients
(Nutritional & Attraction properties)
To your dry mix, you will
need to add liquid ingredients. Again, you will want to use ingredients
which are
attractive to carp. Lipids (fish or vegetable oils, especially red
salmon oil) are a source of energy. They are also utilized in the formation
of cell membranes and are carriers of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and
K. Other liquids include corn steep liquor, many different fish oils, liquid
liver, minamino, multimino and molasses.
Powdered additives & stimulatory additives
Carp tend to go after bait which they recognize as a beneficial food source.
Essential Baits makes Shellfish B5 base mix. It contains betaine, five
different marine extracts, low temperature fishmeals, soluble fish enzymes,
and milk proteins. Baits containing liver, lobster, robin red, seaweed, and
brewers yeast are also very attractive to the fish. While peanuts contain
lipids, sugars and amino acids, they are not as appealing as the actual
elements carp prefer, such as green lipped mussels, crayfish and weed.
Another source of amino acids
is worms. As this is a vital part of carp diets, worms are very effective as
bait. There are two schools of thought as to why worms are so attractive to
carp. Some anglers think that worms attract carp because of their squirming
motion. Others believe that worms naturally give off a powerful amino acid
scent that carp can easily detect in the water. In 2006, SBS developed
Liquid Lobworm. You can add the liquid to pastes, groundbaits, and
particles. It can be added to any base mix. Julian Grattidge has even added
it to dog biscuits and landed a number of carp!
Powdered & liquid attractors
Some ingredients are added to
bait as coloured attractors. Spirulina, krill and paprika are used to create
orange-coloured bait. Saffron produces yellow. There is also Shellfish Plum
liquid attractor, which produces pinkish-red boilies.
One very powerful liquid attractor is SBS Corn Steep Liquor (CSL). It has
additional betaine, essential amino acids, and vitamins and minerals, making
it a highly appealing food source for carp. SBS also makes CSL pellets,
which dissolve in the water and rapidly release appealing food signals.
Imitation Baits
Carp will also eat flavoured imitation baits. When boilies fail to attract
them, artificial corn will usually work. Zoom Carp Snacks have been used
successfully by many anglers. The snacks come in honey, vanilla, strawberry
and chocolate flavours. Zoom also makes a range of Jointed Snacks. These are
made of multiple pieces of artificial corn joined together with a latex
hair. Push your hook through a notch on the hair and pull the hair around
the back of the shank. Julian Grattidge recommends using two pieces of fake
corn on a hair fished over a little hemp, particle mix, or real corn/maize
as feed bait. Enterprise Tackle makes an excellent range of imitation baits.
Glugs & Flavourings
These flavoured, water soluble solutions make everything more attractive to
carp. Resistance Tackle makes glugs in a variety of flavours, including
strawberry, anise, tigernut, pineapple, pineapple and banana, clam and
blueberry, scopex and banana.
You can blend other flavours and additives to your mix, including almond
essence, anchovy concentrate, squid, octopus, peach and pepper flavours, and
fruit. These are particularly effective additives. Mike Willmott of
Essential Baits recommends that “(not) adding more additional additives,
flavours, extracts etc, than those recommended, simply because they could
end up acting as a repellent as opposed to an attractant. Stick to the
levels and guidelines suggested and you shouldn’t go far wrong - all you
have to do now is put it in the right place!” Mike also favours using
quality food as bait. Once the flavours and other additives dissolve away,
there will be something there for the carp to eat. If you don’t use quality
food, once the coatings and additives are gone there is nothing left to
attract the carp.
Foam
Sometimes
it seems that carp are too smart to be caught. They have a habit of
inspecting freebies very carefully by moving their fins and seeing how the
pieces react. If the pieces move freely, the carp may sample them. If the
freebies do not, such as when their attached to a hook, the carp will ignore
them or sample them and spit them out. One way of deceiving the carp into
believing it has a genuine freebie is to hollow out a boilie or a nut and
insert a piece of foam. When your hook and bait is moved about by the carp’s
fins, it will move exactly as an unattached freebie. This makes it more
attractive to the carp, who will sample it.
Learn
correct Bait Applications When Fishing for Carp
Baitpacks
Resistance Tackle has the recipe for making a highly effective baitpack:
18oz Instant Grits
9oz of Quick grits
A little Salt Dry mix
1 can of cream styled corn
2 cap fullls of flavouring of your choice.
Mix well and let sit for 20 minutes. A tight lid must be kept on the bait at
all times to keep it from drying out. It will be good for around 12 hours
after being made. If
you would like to start making your own quick-to-make, successful carp
baits, then we recommend Fish Bait Formulas. It reveals 11 carp bait
formulas guaranteed to catch more carp.
Check
out Fish Bait Formulas Here!.
What is the
Best Type of Bait to Use for Carp Fishing?
Applying general Baiting Tactics to Catch Large Carp
Introducing a New Carp Bait into a Lake
Doing a Baiting Campaign
on a Carp Lake
Carp
Baits - The Basics of a Good Bait
Long Fishing Session Bait Tactics
Carp Digestion
Carp Fishing
Science References:
Anonymous. No date given. How to Make Boilies.
URL:
http://www.geocities.com/diabolo38/bouille.html
[Accessed April 21 2007].
--------------. No date given. Tiger Nuts.
URL:
http://www.geocities.com/secarping/nuts.html [Accessed
April 19 2007].
Carpman, James. No date given. Boilie Baits.
URL:
http://www.geocities.com/jstevens_uk/bait_boilies.htm
[Accessed April 19 2007].
Grattidge, Julian. 2006. ACE Liquid Lobworm – SBS Turns the worm! URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/Product-Reviews/SBS_ACE_Liquid_Lobworm.html
[Accessed April 26 2007].
-------------------- 2006. Ask Mike Willmott: Boilies-Ingredients for
Success. URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/Ask-Mike-Willmott/Mike_Willmott_Boilies_Ingredients.html
[Accessed April
26 2007].
-------------------- 2006. Essential Baits – Shellfish B5. URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/Product-Reviews/shellfish_b5.html
[Accessed April
26 2007].
-------------------- 2006. Critically Balanced Baits for Carp.
URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/The-Help-Files/Critically_balanced_bait.html
[Accessed April 26 2007].
-------------------- 2006. Enterprise Tackle Imitation Baits.
URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/Product-Reviews/enterprise_baits.html
[Accessed April
26 2007].
-------------------- 2006. SBS Corn Steep Liquor Pellets & Corn Steep
Liquor.
URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/Product-Reviews/SBS_Corn_steep_pellets.html
[Accessed April 24 2007].
-------------------- 2006. Zoom Carp Snacks and Jointed Snacks – Flavoured
Imitation baits. URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/Product-Reviews/Zoom_Carp_Imitation_fake_corn.html
[Accessed April 26 2007].
Newfields Bait Supplies. April 2007. Fire and Ice Basemix and Rolled Baits!
URL:
http://www.geocities.com/newfieldsbaits/nbs.html. [Accessed
April 21 2007].
Roocroft, Tony. 2006. Koi Food and Feeding Koi for Results All Year Round.
URL:
http://www.pond-doctor.co.uk/directoryfood.htm. [Accessed April 18
2007].
--------------. 2006. Koi Food Innovations. Pond Keeping Answers.
URL:
http://www.pond-doctor.co.uk/longfoodinnovations.html.
[Accessed April 24 2007].
Towey, Dean. February 22, 2007. Olfaction or Fiction? URL:
http://www.northwestcarp.co.uk/Carp-Articles/General-Carp-Articles/Olfaction_or_Fiction.html
[Accessed April 20 2007].
List
of all our Carp Fishing Articles & Information
|
