Big Carp and Catfish Bait Flavours And Feeding Triggers!
It might sound strange to imagine a fish as a tongue, but that is what they are in effect in water; and exploiting this fact is well proven to catch you a shocking amount of fish! Too many anglers think like anglers instead of seeing and sensing things from a fish perspective and this often is the difference between an average angler and a big-name one! It’s the substances leaching and dissolving into water from your baits that seriously impact on specialised taste and smell cells, (plus other senses) all over the external and internal surfaces of fish and realising that this is similar to taste buds on your tongue is something you can hugely exploit with bait to totally transform your catches…
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!
A human smelling a bait in air is more than a little different to a fish detecting the bait in solution in water and for this reason many anglers simply choose the baits and substances they use from their personal perspective; not really appreciating how a bait and its substances impact upon fish senses directly or indirectly to various degrees between different baits and their components! Fish use cells literally outside their bodies as well as familiar nose and internal mouth and also throat cells too for instance, to detect potential substances in water. The systems fish use to detect your bait are so very impressive and sensitive that you would be a fool not to find out how to exploit them to the maximum and make catching your fish so much easier, for life!
Carp find many potential food substances including your baits by using cells adapted for the purpose which are extremely sensitive to essential substances especially, like various combinations of amino acids. The cells that detect very many substances are located externally in the facial skin, areas of the head and flanks, the lips, fins, in the nose, the barbels, in the mouth, throat and other lesser known significant areas too! The so-called receptor cells are very sensitive and so can detect oils in water not supposedly water soluble, however, even these are to a small degree and using lecithins with oils obviously improves their detectability and attraction!
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!
Carp in part will locate your baits by tracking the strengthening concentrations of substances leaching from your baits as they get nearer their source in the water. Because fishing bait location and identification is related so much to fish olfaction and olfaction, covering the many essential and non-essential fish stimulatory substances and others in your baits really does exploit them and can make catching fish far easier! Many nutritionally balanced baits are great for getting fish into the habit of eating your baits on a regular basis too; and this can truly work in your favour and allow you to catch more fish despite perhaps many lacks in knowledge, skills or experience that an angler may have and these can be great equalisers and another reason I recommend homemade baits…
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.
Tags: boating, camping, fishing, hobbies, hunting, leisure, outdoor activities, outdoors, recreation, recreation and leisure, Recreation and Sports, sport, Sports, water sports
