Fishing Baits Secrets To Treble Your Carp And Catfish Catches!
As a plea to the average carp and catfish angler; it is possible to double and treble your catches (and more but you probably would not believe me,) by treating fish as swimming tongues! It seems to go right over most anglers heads that fish can be manipulated (big-time) by what is dissolved into the water that surrounds them from specifically adapted baits… So why not let this be the start of something big for you too!
Many anglers like to catch specimen carp and large catfish because of the great sport they provide, but the big ones are often far from easy to catch, but you can easily use specially adapted bait or nutritionally boosted ready made baits as a big lever! Both species have similar essential nutritional needs and physical structures and biology for instance to exploit in regards how they detect potential food sources and your baits! Catfish and carp have special cells in their skin all over the place in specific concentrations and adaptations that truly maximise their ability to find specific nutrients they need to survive; even down to 3 just 3 parts per million in the case of certain chemical molecules; so you might say fish are tongues that swim!
Humans tasting a bait substance is rather an exercise in personal taste and opinion as opposed to a scientific method of selection, as our senses have been severely dulled over the course of evolution and recent cultural revolutions such as that of farming; but some indigenous hunter tribes eyesight is perfect at 20 / 25! Another point is that specially evolved cells called receptor cells are found in various concentrations on the external and interior of fish. These have many various special adaptations.
It is noticeable that carp will detect various substances using cells and groups of cells that are specially adapted for the purpose, detecting particular essential amino acids especially well in certain combinations for instance. To detect foods and your bait substances special cells are found in fish in the skin, the face and head, the lips, barbels, fins, nose, mouth, throat and so on. You might wonder how carp detect oils in water, but even these are very slightly soluble and adding lecithins is an important point here too!
Apart from cells involved in chemical detection in the water better known in olfaction and chemoreception, there are many others, such as the specialised lateral line pit cells. These continue from the tale, along the flanks and down around the eye and along the bottom of the jaw ending very near the mouth. These are so vital to Cyprindae fish for example, that the jaw of these fish is shaped to allow this distribution of nerves and sensory pit arrangements from millions of years ago in their evolution.
Over all carp possess an amazing radar array with nerves all combining in the brain for the fish to respond appropriately to, and this is where we can truly exploit all these systems together in our baits and fishing approaches and tactics etc together in our favour, to make them far easier to catch! Obviously the more you know about what you are hunting, the more you can exploit everything vital to them, and carp olfaction and chemoreception are prime examples to exploit! You might discover carp become more predictable when you think like one rather than like an angler; even sensing weather changing and air pressure changes; many top anglers develop extra sensitivity naturally by being outside so much and this can act like a sixth sense when casting into a swim, choosing swims and so on!
The worm-like projections around the mouth of a carp help in the vital decisions and behaviours made in testing or eating an item, or rejecting it, and these are packed with high concentrations of specialised receptor cells; so getting your bait right is essential! You baits can absorb water so releasing substances, or even simply dissolve into the water in the case of highly soluble or hygroscopic additives, ingredients and flavour components like glycerol for instance. Now the chemical substances from your bait are most concentrated near your bait and this message in solution gets weaker travelling further away and this is obviously very significant in drawing fish to your bait!
Fish will track-down your bait by following the concentration gradients of substances leaching outwards from your baits. Making the most of bait produced concentration gradients in many ways really gives you the edge, and making your own baits and ground baits, and being able to adapt ready made ones for this purpose especially is such a massive edge! A bait packed with many of the essential dietary requirements of carp will give carp far more reason to pick-up your bait and actually consume it compared to many baits with much less vital reasons on offer, and you can boost this effect in many extremely potent ways in your homemade baits and ground baits or in any ready made boilies, pellets, particle baits etc…
Your bait exploitation of substances that intensely excite your big carp and catfish is simply one of the most potent edges you can give yourself; and this is why knowing more about bait is such a valuable, powerful advantage over competing anglers and their baits! Discovering more potent information about bait manipulation costs peanuts when compared to remaining perhaps relatively ignorant; and maybe blanking more, or not catching those dream fish you could potentially catch so much faster!
By Tim Richardson.