If you are looking for something different to boost your catches, you can never be stuck for choice and there are some very effective ones too. Nuts are one very special ingredient and bait that has caught fish reliably for ever. There are many reasons why such an often ‘foreign’ food item produces fish. But fish just love them!

One important mention is nut preparation. Unless nuts are used as finely crushed or flour form, they need correctly soaking for at least 12 to 24 hours to ensure they have fully absorbed water. Many fish have died as a result of fish eating nuts thrown in as ground bait or chum, and then had nuts swell up as they absorbed water, but inside the fishes’ own digestive tract! In the States nuts dumped directly into rivers do not seem to decimate carp however. Why I do not know especially as much of this waste is not ‘human grade’ and likely to have toxins as a result of fungi or bacterial activity. Perhaps resistance has been developed as a result of this seasonal activity of dumping?

Let’s focus on ground baits. Frequently anglers use loose nuts or seeds like sweetcorn, or maize, tiger nuts or peanuts, pellets or boilies for ground bait. Some use live baits like maggots or bloodworm. Nut oils like tiger nut oil and peanut oil and pellet type oils like marine halibut oil are being used with great effect to enhance baits. But one often overlooked method is using homemade ground baits and these can be so successful! They can incorporate the ingredients used in your pellets or boilie mix. They can contain the flavours and oils used in your hook baits among many other components.

You can even add live elements like bloodworm, maggots or worms to stimulate your fish and get them digging in the silt for far longer, giving your more time and chances of successful bait pick-ups. Besides this point, many fish love to feed on tiny particles of food and this is often more natural for them. Often this type of baiting will produce fish successfully whereas ground baiting with ‘whole baits’ like boilies, big pellets or cut meat or fish baits will not. Even the addition of cracked corn, soaked corn flakes or maize flakes can bring your swim alive, adding corn steep liquor is an obvious edge here.

Ground bait traditionally in the UK was made from bread crumbs. Bread crumb ground bait is very effective for carp and many other species even catfish, because it is a great carrier of liquids, for example liquid liver, blood, corn steep liquor, all manner of flavours, liquid fish protein, liquid amino acid and vitamin / mineral additives. I’ve caught many big carp and catfish using ground bait. How you use it and what you combine with it regarding your hook bait, and near hook proximity attraction all play a part in your individual success on a particular water and the way you need to fish there.

Making a boilie from various nut meals is not uncommon. Even a simple recipe like the following can be the basis of your ground bait and be ‘tweaked’ to attract all kinds of species if not carp or catfish:

Peanut meal (roasted is often higher in protein.)

Crushed tiger nuts.

Crushed almonds. (Especially high in vitamin E and very good on waters hard hit by high fish oil baits like pellets and fish meal boilies with bulk oils.

Crushed brazil nuts.

Tiger nut flour.

Brazil flour.

Eggs or gelling agent.

Sweetener. E.g. Molasses, fruit sugar, brown sugar, icing sugar, Talin, Betalin, Thaumatin B etc.

Ground nut or tiger nut oil.

Amino acid containing additive.

‘Super sweet’ taste enhancer or similar.

A teaspoon of nutmeg or cinnamon per pound of dry powders is optional. So many taste and smell options are available. Fenugreek is another good additive, especially if you use natural and synthetic maple syrup as the flavour.

Some may prefer using an essential oil component like geranium terpenes. If you add crushed hemp, then hemp oil with fennel essential oil is a good combination. (Including fennel seeds and black pepper add another dimension for example.) Aniseed is well proven for holding fish in a swim, but is used so much it can lose its edge, but with so many other choices who needs it?

A flavour is desired by many anglers. Well very many are good, but I’d go for Rod Hutchinson’s “Chocolate malt.” Dynamite bait’s “Fish Gutz” is another good one. This is the much whispered about coffee flavour of recent times, although Rod Hutchinson’s Coffee flavour from the past was brilliant.

Adding a small amount of chocolate powder or coffee powder adds a different dimension to this bait in certain stimulating ways. Fish detect certain compounds like caffeine, and stimulatory phenols in the case of peanuts and almonds especially, which create a ‘I want just one more’ effect. Carp have proven to possess dopamine neuronal systems. These can be very much linked to preferential behaviours and ‘the feel good factor’ in the brain. This doe not mean that this response is always good for you or for carp either!

Too much chocolate or crisps, biscuits, candies or cookies are not nutritionally good for you, but give you a temporary ‘lift.’ Sugar, fats, opiates in milk and wheat, salts etc are addictive to humans and carp love them too. But too much of these and it either means disrupted physical health and mood and even diet or behaviour-induced diseases like fatty liver, fatty heart, heart trouble, obesity etc. Activated dopamine neurons are powerful aids to learning and repeated behaviour. The ‘just one more’ syndrome is a great thing to exploit in your bait any way you ‘ethically’ can without harming fish health. You can see the links between our love of curry and the use of chilli powder in baits. Hemp and the abuse of cocaine and similar substances. Even tobacco and alcohol are fish stimulators at the correct level and in the right dose.

(Please note nicotine is fatally poisonous even more toxic than cyanide… Smoking this stuff is insane. We used to use it as a kill-all insecticide in glass house plant production using nicotine shreds. Even this has caused human fatalities. Funny that nicotine is a naturally produced insecticide and we should choose to smoke it. Incidentally Indigenous American Peoples use pure willow leaf tobacco in sacred ceremonies, but knew all about its power and how not to abuse it! Anyway, virtually all drugs of abuse use activation of dopamine neuronal systems.)

In the case of carp, in some fishing situations where anglers fish predominately with certain nuts introducing huge amounts, carp get hooked on these baits like peanuts and tiger nuts. They can eat them at the exclusion of anything else, resulting malnutrition and weight loss. Although nuts contain healthy omega oils, protein and vitamins, iron, they are not particularly digestible and not especially high in protein. (Some roasted peanut products excepted.)

Nuts are very attractive baits in their own right, but their attraction can be enhanced.

Now if you cannot get any of these ingredients you can replace them with many others. Even ground rice, corn flour, semolina or ordinary wheat flour can be used. Desiccated cocoanut is very good too. Many commercial ground baits contain this. The trick is to ensure your finished bait has added soluble attraction and feeding stimulation. For example, you could add a teaspoon of sea salt per pound of dry powders. Peanut butter is a great additive.

I read an amazing story as a kid once about a young boy who landed a stupendous uncaught giant carp from a nearby lake by using a homemade peanut butter sandwich. The irony was that it was laced with cocaine and the carp had a ‘fatal attraction!’ Fortunately the story was made-up, but it really got me thinking about making baits ‘addictive!’

Various seeds can be added to your nut baits too and roast sesame and pumpkin seeds are higher in protein being 30% protein or above. Hemp seed and crushed hemp seed or powder have always been good as is hemp oil. However, how many anglers have used hemp protein?

Nut milks instead of ‘conventional flavours’ are well proven, coconut milk combined with condensed milk is a tasty combination for example…. Milk powders can be very useful in ground baits improving solubility, nutritional attraction and even binding as with Vitamealo for example. ‘Tahini’ or creamed sesame seeds when sweetened make a brilliant base for an alternative paste or dough bait.

Malt extract is very useful proven additive too. Another water attracting or hygroscopic ingredient to attract catfish in particular, is LO30 fish protein. The spray-dried form can be incorporated into ground baits, pellets, boilies or dough or paste bait mixtures and is highly effective. The popular liver powder, green lip mussel extract and blood powders and green corn steep liquor and even Vegemite, Miso soup, are all proven nutritional ground bait additives to add. Betaine HCL is another and many betaine products are now available, and combined with added amino acid type products are excellent.

Making hook baits with crushed nuts and seeds impregnated into the surface provides a different texture and leak-off rate of attractors to your baits which can be more productive than ordinary round skinned boilies. I like to use a mix of crushed nuts and seeds in high levels in my paste baits and air-dried pastes and ‘just skinned’ boilies in a PVA bag along with fresh paste. The irresistible effect of this lot ‘melting’ around the hook bait is fantastic. I have often used a slower melting paste actually on the hook alongside pellet or boilie or nut bait or baits on a hair (or hairs) to trip-up those warier fish.

You can make a sweet nut bait with an added proportion of ‘creamy’ squid liver extract, and fully expect big catfish and carp with this unusual combination. Nut baits go far beyond a chopped or skinned or glugged tiger nut or flavoured humble peanut. Creative bait making, even simply mixing proprietary base mixes and ground baits together works wonders. The added bonus is you can make those more expensive products go much further by additional nut meals and bird seeds. So why not make some homemade baits, go nuts and land more crackers!

The author has many more fishing and bait ‘edges’ any of which can have a huge impact on your catches.

Tim Richardson is a homemade carp and catfish bait-maker, and proven big fish angler. His bait making and bait enhancing books / ebooks are even used by members of the “British Carp Study Group” for reference. View this dedicated bait secrets website now…

For the unique and acclaimed new massive expert bait making / enhancing ‘bibles’ ebooks / books:
“BIG CATFISH AND CARP BAIT SECRETS!”
“BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!” (AND “FLAVOUR, FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CHEMORECEPTION SECRETS”) SEE: http://www.baitbigfish.com

Frustrating as it is, carp fishing is awesome. Carp are really good at sucking in and blowing out suspicious baits. It’s such an excitement to see the whole action in a fraction of a second as you hang on for dear life while the reel is trembling with a loud noise.

Carp happily devour on the surface as long as you keep the pellets, biscuits, chic peas, bread, and re-hydrated corn coming in, and these are inexpensive baits as well. Just attach them to the hooks, most preferably the bread.

Have the biscuits softened by dipping it in the water for about 2 minutes, then, place them in a sealed sandwich bag for about an hour. Since different brands have different textures, just experiment to know which is firm enough to cast. Another way to hook baits is super gluing the pellet into the shank.

Once they get into feeding, let them feel comfortable around the bait. This gives more opportunity for the fisherman since they begin to not feel picky. This tactic can be useful for zig rigs.

As soon as they’re feeding, cast the bait but make sure not to drop the bait directly onto the feeding carp. Cast away from the feeding area then slowly draw it in position. While the bait is till hanging, keep the food coming in so as to keep the carp from going away.

How to Set-Up?

1) Use a hair rig to increase your chance of catching. As carp taste food first, if they don’t like the taste, they won’t come near it.

2) You may also use a Spider Line, 50 lbs test, then use a leader material that fits the situation.

3) Thread the bait on the baiting needle and hook the hair loop. You may also use foam dipped in a flavor as this enhances the attractiveness of the bait.

4) Also make a baiting needle by just straightening a long shank hook. Slide the bait on the shank, then slide the bait from the needle onto the hair.

5) Using a float is also an advantage because it adds weight for further distancing and the location is easily identified.

6) Don’t forget the controller float rig. A leader can be used which is attached to the swivel to its mainline of at least 3 feet length with a 10lbs Drennan double strength. A low diameter mono will do just as long as it floats well enough for visibility.

As experts say, it is not the bait that catches the carp but the method in which the bait is introduced. Pre-bait everyday, in one spot for a few days. This makes the carp think that there is a regular source of food for them and by “word of mouth” there’ll soon be a school of fish around. Just be patient and it will all work.

While carp predominately spends their time feeding on the bottom of waters, they also pay a frequent visit to the surface of the water. This is especially seen during the summertime, when fallen insects make a delicious treat. With this kind of feeding pattern, anglers are able to take advantage of positioning a wide range of bait to entice the fish. Some fishermen have enjoyed desirable results when using bread crusts or pieces of deli meat to bait carp.

Since carp tend to swim in small groups (usually of two or three fish together), bait options including bread crusts or flakes, small pellets, sweet corn, worms, and bunched maggots tend to work fine. But, in order to catch larger carp, which tends to swim on their own, many anglers turn to more advanced fishing bait.

Today, fishing tackle aimed at carp include enhanced methods of luring specimens, such as manufactured bait boilies, high-protein pastes, and pellets containing special flavorings that appeal to the sweet or unique interests of the fish. Paste baits are popular and fairly stiff, making it easy to attach to hooks, but are also used to create a “coating” for other types of bait to increase the level of carp appeal.

Dough baits present a favorable dough-like consistency made of various materials, including corn meal, shredded wheat, liquids, and flavorings. The construction of this kind of bait easily attaches to hooks. Today, anglers make their own dough bait creations that include a wide-range of ingredients, such as oatmeal, wheat germ, peanut butter, strawberry-flavored juices, rabbit feed, and hamburger. As a rule of thumb, carps are attracted to sweet-tasting and crunchy ingredients. This is why items like Kool-Aid, Wheaties, and Doritos have been used in homemade fishing tackle for carp.

Additionally, bait and fishing tackle shops may also sell method mixes, which sometimes include cracked corn, dog food, pulverized seeds, or chicken feed. When tossed into the water, the bait breaks down and attracts fish to the surface. A baited hook is then released into the water with hopes of luring a catch.

[Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/]

Pete had been fishing with the new bass lure he had seen advertised on television. It was a good looking plug, and it cost a pretty penny.

When he met total resistance on his fifth cast, he was sure he had landed a trophy fish. A minute later, he knew he had snagged a log. He fought to free the expensive lure, but it wouldn’t budge.

For added leverage, he stood in his boat and yanked with all his strength. When the lure broke free, it rocketed from the water and he lost his balance. The plug lodged in his cheek as he toppled backward into the lake.

A doctor had to remove the treble hooks from his face. Knowing he had narrowly escaped being blinded and drowned, Pete called it a day and headed for the golf course, where there would be no talk of the one that got away.

Annually, over 60,000 fishing injuries require emergency room treatment. Eye injuries from fishing are the No. 1 sports-related eye injury.

Most fishing injuries are caused by fishing hooks, while most fatalities are the result of drowning. To fish safely:

In A Boat

* Always wear a Coast Guard approved lifejacket.

* Never overload your boat.

* Load the boat properly, keeping the heaviest items in the middle and bottom of the boat.

* Before taking out any boat, make sure it is equipped with an extra oar or paddle, a bailing can, an anchor and line, and if motorized, a full gas can.

* Change positions only on shore or in shallow water.

* In a storm, lie low in the boat. To avoid being tipped, point the bow of the boat into the waves.

* Exercise special caution around dams. The falling water creates a back current that can pull a small boat into its turbulence and cause it to capsize.

* At night, slow down and use running and marker lights.

* If the boat capsizes, stay with it until help arrives. Do not remove your clothing or boots. They will keep you afloat by holding air, and they will keep you warm.

* Avoid alcohol use.

In A Stream

* Never wade alone, and wear your lifejacket.

* Wear cleated or felt-soled waders or boots that will provide maximum traction on the slippery rocks underfoot.

* Unseen holes or drop-offs are a dangerous hazard. Test each step carefully in advance by taking a tentative shuffle. Better yet, use a wading staff to measure the depth of the water before each step.

In Any Event

* Carry a radio for weather information, and a cell phone for emergencies.

* Dress with the weather in mind, preferably in layers. Pack a wind-and waterproof outer shell.

* Wear properly fitted eye protection that covers the eye socket to guard against hooks and glare. Polycarbonate lenses are recommended for their strength and protective capabilities.

* Do not cast over a companion’s head. Always look around before making a cast.

* Carry sharp pliers and disinfectant in your first aid kit.

* When landing a fish, work from the rear of the boat. Use a net.

* Ease a fish out of the water. Yanking it into the boat can release the fish and create a dangerous sling shot effect.

* To remove the hook, wait until the fish is exhausted. Use a special gripping glove, and know the techniques for each species.

* Be especially careful dislodging lures and hooks from submerged branches or roots. Invest in a lure retriever to do the work.

* If you are snagged by your own hook, do not try to back it out. Instead, push it through the skin until the point and the barb are exposed.
Snip them off; also snip off the eyelet. Now pull the smooth hook through your skin following its natural arc. Cleanse the wound and apply disinfectant. Watch for infection.

* Look out for overhead electrical lines, especially around the dock and in an unfamiliar stretch of water.

* Carry your rod parallel to the ground whenever possible.

* Don’t fish from railroad trestles. You’re the one who may be caught.

[Article Source: http://www.thearticlesource.net]

John Myre is the author of the award-winning book, Live Safely in a Dangerous World, and the publisher of the Safety Times Reproducible Articles.

Drain whole corn, add grits, instant potatoes, and cream corn. Stir by hand until bait is well packed. Add more potato flakes if mixture is too moist. Place Corn Pop on hook and pack bait around it.

An ancient way of survival turned hobby, fishing, is cherished by many for its relaxing, natural setup. But if you think fishing is all about throwing the line in the water and oozing down in your fold-up chair while getting a tan, think again. Sometimes fishing is hard work! Especially carp fishing. Read on and you’ll find out why?

You don’t have to be an extremely experienced fisherman to recognize this scenario: you prepare for a fruitful day of carp fishing, thinking you got the right bait, the right rod, the right line and so forth but several hours pass without any luck for you. When you look up just a few hundred meters away, some random guy using the same tools and same bait is pulling out big carps every now and then. How come he’s catching them regularly, while you end up empty handed at the end of the day? When you ask him about it, he just winks at you and through his smirk, he says “It’s all about luck, mate!” But you know it can’t be simply a matter of luck, it’s too plain obvious. Chances should be equal for both of you?

And here’s where most fisherman go wrong, thinking carp fishing is only about chance. What they don’t understand is that fish aren’t always equally spread out in a lake and they prefer certain areas and certain depths more than other. Actually, experienced fisherman agree that the biggest challenges of carp fishing are choosing the right bait and choosing the right fishing spot. We’ll discuss the bait part a bit later, but first let’s see how you set your position up so that you maximize your chances of landing the cast near some fat carps.

It’s well known that carps are fish that tend to stay deep, near the floor of the lake but how can we know what “deep” means without knowing the exact topography of the lake you’re fishing in? One direct, but rather blunt way is to ride off in a boat, using an extendable pole to check the exact depth of the area and try to cover several positions so that you get an approximate clue to what the lake’s topography is.

Of course, this carp fishing method has 2 major disadvantages. One would be that riding off in a motor boat in what you’ll find to be excellent fishing spots might scare the carps away, which means that you’ll have to wait a while before you can fish in that particular area. The other disadvantage is that the lake (or at least some areas) will simply be way too deep for an extendable pole to handle. But if you know for a fact that the lake is shallow enough to allow for some “floor poking” then it’s a relatively efficient method, especially that you’ll only have to do it once, write down the numbers, try to approximate the topography and then use the “blue prints” over and over again each time you fish there.

An alternative method of testing the depth of a lake that is becoming more and more popular amongst experienced carp fisherman is the so-called “plumbing rod”. This requires a spare rod armed with a 3 oz lead sinker with a free running barrel swivel attached. At the end of the line, tie a large bobber so that the lead is allowed to run freely on the line until it hits the float. Cast the rod and wind the line until the float has hit the lead on the bottom. Congratulations, you just found out the depth of that particular spot, now all you need to do is measure it. Slowly let out the line approximately one foot at a time until the float comes up. The number of feet the float rises from the bottom is directly proportional to the number of feet of line you let off the reel, so keep count of the line and you’ll have a pretty accurate measurement of that spot at the end.

Like I stated above, choosing the right bait is equally important to choosing the right spot when it comes to carp fishing (well this is generally important to all sorts of fishing types, but even more so to carp fishing). Let’s start off the subject by saying that as a general term, particle bait is the best type of bait you could use in carp fishing. This includes a wide array of baits such as beans, corn, peas, vegetables, nuts and even peanuts. The problem is that although generally effective, you can’t say that is the best for carp fishing. It depends on so many factors such as water type, depth, natural food sources of the fish in that particular lake (and we can go on an on), that it would be rather inaccurate to state such a thing. Personal experience will make a huge difference here so it’s best if you try them all for a while, or why not a combination of two or more particle beans on the same cast.

What happened to the poor, old, standard worm-in-the-hook you may ask? Well the problem with worms or any other wiggly meat baits is not that the carp won’t be attracted to it (by God, a worm must be the royalty of meals in every fishes’ menu) but that other, faster, more aggressive fish will see and grab it first. So it’s best if we use the above-mentioned particle baits which are not very tempting for other fish, but equally delicious for carps.

A popular technique used in carp fishing is pre-baiting. This means that once you have zeroed-in on the spot you’re about to fish in, you take a short on-boat trip to where you’ll figure the casts will land and spray the water with bait of all kinds in order to attract the carps (and inevitably other fish too). After the panic caused by your boat settles in, you can start casting. Don’t worry about the fish choosing the pre-bait before the one in your hook, since by the time you cast, there will be plenty of carps there banging their forks and knives to the table, waiting for food and your bait-filled hook sliding down to the bottom will surely grab their attention.

Now that you know how to choose your carp fishing spot and what to place in the hook, start exercising your arm muscles since there’s going to be a lot of hard work and pulling to be done, getting those fat carps to the tip of your rod. Oh and if you see a poor fellow fisherman sitting a few feet away from you, frustrated by the fact that he’s empty handed while you’re reeling in carps like there’s no tomorrow, just give him a wink and a smirk and say “It’s all about luck, mate!” Secrets are meant to be kept.

1 cup sugar
2 cups white flour
3 cups cornmeal

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Then slowly add water and mix to the desired consistency. If the dough needs stiffening, add more flour and cornmeal. To thin it, add more water.

Flatten the ball, wrap it in a cloth bag, and place it in boiling water for 20 minutes. Cool the dough, then put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate. To add other fillers, blend them in before cooking.

Once the doug cools enough to handle, knead in any carp flavorings.

Carp fishing can be an exciting angling adventure.  Few other opportunities offer anglers a chance to land fish over 10 pounds almost every day!  Best of all, these fish can be caught in almost all major waters in the state. To get ready to fish for carp, you’ll need a few items.
 

Tackle
Both spinning and spin-cast rods spooled with 8- to 10-pound-test line work well for all but our largest carp. Many anglers prefer spinning reels with rear drag controls for easier adjustment when fighting a large carp. Use hooks in sizes 4 to 8, with shanks long enough to hold the bait of your choice.  The size of the sinker that you choose depends on your desired casting distance and any current in the water that you are fishing.  For finicky carp, you may want to use smaller hooks and lighter line.
 

Basic Rigs
A three-way rig with swivel, sinker and single hook is a great way to start fishing for carp.  Tie the piece of line that the sinker will be attached to with lighter line, so that if you snag the bottom, you don’t lose your whole rig.  This rig fishes well in rivers and streams. Another good carp rig works very well in lakes.  Even simpler in construction, it consists of a sinker running freely on the line, a single swivel to stop the weight, and a hook and leader attached to the swivel.  The leader length should be around 12 to 16 inches.  When fishing this rig, set your rod to free spool so that the carp can take the bait without any resistance.
 

Bait
Bread balls, canned sweet corn, nightcrawlers and crayfish are all popular carp baits.  There are many bread ball recipes, some for fresh bread balls and some for more durable baits that are boiled.  Add a flavor like vanilla or strawberry to your baits to make them more attractive.  In addition, canned sweet corn and bread are popular baits for chumming. Carp are great fighters, and anglers can readily catch really big ones!  Be sure to get in on this action!

Big Carp Picture Gallery does the work for you. They also supply easy code for posting a carp picture to your favourite fishing forum.

Once you have completed the free registration you can start adding your carp fishing photos to the big carp gallery. Your photo gallery is self administrating so there is no need to wait for webmaster to add your photos.