Big Carp and Catfish Bait Flavours And Feeding Triggers!

Hey get this; if you treat your fish like swimming tongues by exploiting what stimulates their specialised taste and smell cells in as many potent ways as possible; you will do very well indeed! This seems to be a little knew too many carp anglers who are often tunnel-visioned; just thinking of what they themselves prefer thinking as an angler, and not truly about what fish often senses prefer far more! It is obvious that what is dissolved in the water from your bait triggers responses of many kinds in fish, but how do you begin truly maximising these responses using bait; let's see...

Carp and catfish often live in the same waters and are targeted by anglers fishing in similar ways for each so I'll place these together. A good reason to use catfish and carp together as examples of tongues that swim is the sheer number of physical similarities in substance detection and also their shared quite similar essential nutritional needs that often means the same bait design can catch both; and very big ones too! Many anglers know little about the specifically adapted cells in and outside of fish that enable them to detect substances in water on a chemical level even down to a few parts in a million or even billion, and this is one of the most powerful aspects of fish we can exploit with our baits to make them far easier to catch!

I always laugh when I see someone sniffing a bottle of flavour, or tasting a bait, because this is really a measure of personal preference, rather that scientific testing of how a substance actually triggers feeding intensity or not in water, plus our senses are dulled compared to fishes by a gigantic percentage; these are the bloodhounds of the water world! We taste and smell using specially adapted cells in our tongues and noses; these have wet surfaces at all times to enable use to detect substances effectively in air, but fish evolved such cells all over their bodies, as well as internally, so they are like big tongues really. Specialist fish cells are part of many vital sensory input systems are found in various areas of concentration and cell forms; for detection of various substances, and other input information, like water temperature and pressure waves from your lead almost hitting them etc!

Some specific cells and systems detect various substances like particularly essential and also very stimulatory non-essential amino acids, or mineral salts or individual vitamins etc. Many different substance-specific cells and different functional-orientated cell are found in the surface skin for example and are distributed over the body, and in particular areas like the face, fins, nose, throat and interior of the mouth etc. As a side note here; even oils are partly soluble and this is significant especially in the use of lecithins in lower temperatures, improving digestion, more effective bait substance distribution in the water etc.

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!

Your bait substances in solution (in the water) are detected by many various cells not least by the vital barbels covered in very high densities of receptor cells that help carp locate and identify potential foods (and threats too!) Your bait is very much more effective if it pumps out high concentrations of stimulatory substances that are easily dissolved or imbibed by water, and so much more easily detected by fish olfaction and chemoreception systems (and by others too!)

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...

Carp and catfish senses are the key to manipulating their feeding and location behaviours in your favour and anglers who truly appreciate this often make catching great numbers of fish look easy and are able to certainly gain huge advantages over other anglers competing baits and their methods of application by constantly adapting with the fish! Many leading anglers truly appreciate how to leverage and adapt their baits because they know enough about exploiting carp senses and behaviour to do this and often to maximum effect, and it costs you very little to multiply your catches for life when you find (and utilise) the right information!

By Tim Richardson.