You might well ask an experienced bait maker for advice and simply expect details and levels of ingredients for a bait recipe; but you need more than just this! I can reveal to you just why that is the truth and how to always keep ahead of the fish. You can create powerful competitive edges over any readymade bait that you fish against within extremely potent economical homemade baits; so read on for details now!

So to explain why just having a recipe is not enough, just for one example, I will mention the experiences that one particular bait company boss told me about on his own stock pond where he tests baits for his own company. He tested a bait and it looked great in profile and fish response. Then he pre-baited the stock pond heavily with it. Then he allowed his friends to fish using that bait. The fish started getting caught and gradually more and more were hooked.

But after such an intense period of captures, the fish rapidly became warier of the bait and became harder to hook and rig adjustments were necessary. But within 2 weeks they could not get a single bite on that bait, which was one that had been rigorously field-tested else-where too. Fish are designed to survive and will simply not hang themselves if they have any choice about it so you need to have a next bait or version of it to move onto, preferably one you establish while you are hammering the fish out on your original bait; and so the cycle goes on and on!

This is a very soundly proven method to always stay ahead of your fish. It is also why I like to control aspects of my homemade baits so I can very easily constantly adjust and tweak the baits and the impacts and reference points fish experience with my own baits. It is just not the same simply adding a new dip to a readymade bait; this is simply nowhere near as powerful a method!

This is why simply having just one recipe at your disposal is not the ultimate solution! Fish are constantly adapting creatures that dynamically alter their behaviours in response to any threat including familiar extract substances, flavours, experiences, tastes, impacts, smells, tones of colours, feel and hardness and textures of baits and so on.

I very much doubt they would enthusiastically feed very long on any natural bait, even if it was natural swan mussels, if they just kept on getting hooked on the things! Changing baits is vitally all about keeping ahead of fish responses made wary by familiarity and these bait changes obviously can massively improve your chances of success!

The motivation for bait companies to keep on producing new bait ranges is obviously in part to do with renewal of interest connected to human psychology as anglers are tempted by what appears to be new wonder short-cuts to success with fancy names and alternative angles etc. But really changing baits is very significantly all about keeping ahead of fish made wary by familiarity! This obviously can massively reduce your chances of success.

In most cases wary fish can associate previously successful baits with danger very easily. For example in the case of Active 8 readymade bait where when new it hammered many waters but I know some waters where you cannot get a bite on it now. However, by manipulating the base mix to ensure this bait has new reference points that in effect make it a new bait, great success can continue.

A very simple set of changes to such commercial bait can be as simple as to add very coarsely crushed tiger nuts, crushed almonds and crushed pecan nuts, and natural almond extract and maple syrup. I might also for example add fresh fruits made into a puree. I might cut a familiar oil such as hemp oil or pure salmon oil with something a bit unusual such as safflower oil or sweet almond oil or wheat germ oil for example.

A change of flavour is very easy. It can re-label baits. For example you might add a bloodworm flavour or Belachan or honey flavour for example from CC Moore instead of the usual standard flavours associated with different brands of base mix. You might add different appetite stimulators and enhancers too. Personally I have a big choice of extracts not in mainstream use by bait companies but only as a result of years of hard work and research to identify them and find suppliers for smaller quantities. But this work is extremely well worthwhile!

I can tell you that even altering oils and maybe creating unusual mixtures of them can really work. That can mean not using any you might see usually used although of course these are well proven. Believe it or not, avoiding using more easily familiar bait substances really is a great competitive edge!

It is not difficult to find unusual oils or make your own. For instance who do you know who uses polyunsaturated safflower oil (safflower is a relative of sunflowers.) For that matter, who do you know who uses alternative oils like sunflower oil and olive oil alongside sweet almond oil for example?

I have had great success with alternative oils even in very cheap low protein homemade baits packed with phyto-nutrients, such as those in high quality full fat maize flour and (genuine) wholemeal wheat flour for example. So much focus goes on protein content, but nutritional value is about a vast amount more than this in creating edges. The polyphenols in grains and seeds should not be over-looked! Get on them this autumn! Humble corn is after all one of the most enduring carp baits with good reason. Even the natural pigments are cumulatively habit-forming!

Anyway, who says that wheat germ, oat and wheat bran and wheat gluten are not really useful versatile nutritional healthy bait ingredients? Alternative protein sources include the old favourite, roasted peanut, and poultry protein that has been hydrolysed. Baits based around these have every right to be successful so think about them this autumn!

I learnt how to create my own herbal extract tinctures and extract-infused natural oils and these are very potent indeed as well as being totally unique and new to the fish! You can do all this too and much more to great effect to better your results. Why settle for standard readymade baits when the masses are using them; after all the point of bait is to achieve competitive edges right – not lose them immediately!

I am certainly not closed minded enough to just use one brand or range of products for my carp or catfish fishing! That is just stupid and limiting because so much can be achieved by mixing different companies products! I will take the best of many and combine them and why on earth not! I am not at all influenced by new fads or trends like maggot and worm extract boilies and so on; years ago I made the effort to source my own such extracts so I can formulate my own unique potent homemade bait recipes; just as you can too!

I have sourced enzyme active worm extract myself and know its effects and practical uses in baits far beyond the superficial, but this does not mean I will use it if I think the masses are on such a bait; in that case I will avoid using it like the plague! I will find myself loads of other edges or simply apply ones in usual combination and levels.

You might like to try powdered amino acids at different levels alongside betaine HCL for example, and powdered palatants and powdered sweeteners for example. All impact on each other OK! I might even use sea bait hormones meant for certain other species. I am not above testing anything because I have found many really exciting edges by not being conventional.

I can assure you that if this approach seems beyond your mindset or you think doing such things are a waste of time with so many readymade baits available then you will miss out big time, and you will not even realise it! Revealed in my unique readymade bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!

By Tim Richardson.