Re: Bygone Times Re-visited
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2024 8:49 am
Editorial from COARSE FISHERMAN, Coarse Fishing Monthly - August 1981. Price: 60p
Old baits revitalized ... or insane ramblings?
by The Animal
OVER the past few years many articles have been published on the subject of high protein baits, or to give them their correct name, high nutritional value baits, it has been done to the exclusion of other lines of thought on the secretive subject of baits for carp.
HNV baits are not the ultimate bait, as many carp fishermen who have jumped on the bandwagon mindlessly, have found out. These baits can be, in the right hands, very effective, in the wrong ones, no better than a lump of bread or a few grains of sweetcorn.
A person who knows little (if anything) regarding HNV baits would do well to concentrate his efforts on more tried and tested ingredients and ideas.
For those people still with me (most will probably have died of shock after reading the last paragraph) I will explain.
Many household and pet food items will, if used with some degree of thought, produce a bait that will, (if it is well presented) produce a very acceptable carp bait.
For example, when a cat food special is mentioned, to many carp anglers it conjures up thoughts of a can of cat food mixed with flour (and oxos for more flavour) or another binding ingredient, which shows their lack of experimentation and foresight because suitably used, a can of cat food can produce a fantastic bait, a suitable recipe (and one I have used with great success) would be:-
(a) One can beef cat food (mashed)
(b) 2 sachets of beef delicat (reduced) to very small particles).
(c) 0.5oz Stress (A nutritional food for pregnant cats).
(d) 2oz PYM
(e) Liver flavour Go-Cat. (This come in small crunchy pellets and can be made to a powder by treatment in a food blender)
It is a very smelly bait and not one that should be mixed in a confined area with no ventilation -- but it works! To anyone who doubts this I suggest they mix it up and try it next to their normal bait -- don't be surprised if you get a take on it first.
Just for the record this bait is approximately 20-22% protein, and this one bait can be modified to produce many variations for example, altering the flavour of cat food, and replacing the Go-Cat with Herring Meat for a fish-flavoured bait, removing the PYM, altering the proportions of the ingredients or indeed, removing two or three ingredients and adding such things as equivite, sodium, cassinate etc., if it is desired.
By altering the bait's flavour, texture, or indeed colour the risk of it 'blowing out' is greatly reduced, and from one bait a whole season's successful carping can result.
Now, what about luncheon meat? You can't do much with that you might say!, but you'd be wrong, the most obvious treatment is to dye it, but why not deep fry it, and use it as a floater -- yes it does float! or better still, dye it or soak it in oxo stock or flavour it with a spice such as curry and then use it as floater.
Sweetcorn has been used fresh from the can by many anglers, but how many have soaked it in a flavouring (strawberry for instance) then dyed it red and used it!
In a lake where ducks tend to eat floating baits, why not make your own bread loaf (or other floater) and dye it green -- ducks are less inclined to take a weedy-looking floater, but the carp don't seem to mind.
Even potatoes, the bait that brings a smile to the faces of most carp anglers can be made more attractive -- by boiling in a flavouring and/or dyeing them to a selected colour.
Particle baits such as maples, black eyed beans, tic beans, rape seed, and gunga peas all catch a considerable amount of carp, and have been explained in detail by many good anglers.
There are probably hundreds of 'simple' baits that I have not covered, or even thought of, which would catch carp with regularity.
I am not trying to attack the use of HNV baits, in fact I have used them with good effect on most waters I fish (for those who wish to know these waters consist of club and day ticket waters in the Dartford and Medway area). I am simply saying that many other simpler baits will, and in fact do catch as many carp as HNV baits. Provided the same degree of care is taken in their preparation and presentation.
Old baits revitalized ... or insane ramblings?
by The Animal
OVER the past few years many articles have been published on the subject of high protein baits, or to give them their correct name, high nutritional value baits, it has been done to the exclusion of other lines of thought on the secretive subject of baits for carp.
HNV baits are not the ultimate bait, as many carp fishermen who have jumped on the bandwagon mindlessly, have found out. These baits can be, in the right hands, very effective, in the wrong ones, no better than a lump of bread or a few grains of sweetcorn.
A person who knows little (if anything) regarding HNV baits would do well to concentrate his efforts on more tried and tested ingredients and ideas.
For those people still with me (most will probably have died of shock after reading the last paragraph) I will explain.
Many household and pet food items will, if used with some degree of thought, produce a bait that will, (if it is well presented) produce a very acceptable carp bait.
For example, when a cat food special is mentioned, to many carp anglers it conjures up thoughts of a can of cat food mixed with flour (and oxos for more flavour) or another binding ingredient, which shows their lack of experimentation and foresight because suitably used, a can of cat food can produce a fantastic bait, a suitable recipe (and one I have used with great success) would be:-
(a) One can beef cat food (mashed)
(b) 2 sachets of beef delicat (reduced) to very small particles).
(c) 0.5oz Stress (A nutritional food for pregnant cats).
(d) 2oz PYM
(e) Liver flavour Go-Cat. (This come in small crunchy pellets and can be made to a powder by treatment in a food blender)
It is a very smelly bait and not one that should be mixed in a confined area with no ventilation -- but it works! To anyone who doubts this I suggest they mix it up and try it next to their normal bait -- don't be surprised if you get a take on it first.
Just for the record this bait is approximately 20-22% protein, and this one bait can be modified to produce many variations for example, altering the flavour of cat food, and replacing the Go-Cat with Herring Meat for a fish-flavoured bait, removing the PYM, altering the proportions of the ingredients or indeed, removing two or three ingredients and adding such things as equivite, sodium, cassinate etc., if it is desired.
By altering the bait's flavour, texture, or indeed colour the risk of it 'blowing out' is greatly reduced, and from one bait a whole season's successful carping can result.
Now, what about luncheon meat? You can't do much with that you might say!, but you'd be wrong, the most obvious treatment is to dye it, but why not deep fry it, and use it as a floater -- yes it does float! or better still, dye it or soak it in oxo stock or flavour it with a spice such as curry and then use it as floater.
Sweetcorn has been used fresh from the can by many anglers, but how many have soaked it in a flavouring (strawberry for instance) then dyed it red and used it!
In a lake where ducks tend to eat floating baits, why not make your own bread loaf (or other floater) and dye it green -- ducks are less inclined to take a weedy-looking floater, but the carp don't seem to mind.
Even potatoes, the bait that brings a smile to the faces of most carp anglers can be made more attractive -- by boiling in a flavouring and/or dyeing them to a selected colour.
Particle baits such as maples, black eyed beans, tic beans, rape seed, and gunga peas all catch a considerable amount of carp, and have been explained in detail by many good anglers.
There are probably hundreds of 'simple' baits that I have not covered, or even thought of, which would catch carp with regularity.
I am not trying to attack the use of HNV baits, in fact I have used them with good effect on most waters I fish (for those who wish to know these waters consist of club and day ticket waters in the Dartford and Medway area). I am simply saying that many other simpler baits will, and in fact do catch as many carp as HNV baits. Provided the same degree of care is taken in their preparation and presentation.