Fishing Tips Online

Fishing bait from fishing shops can really make going carp fishing an expensive passion! Many anglers are now so conditioned to using readymade baits that they have never seriously considered the huge advantages of making very unique baits for themselves, but they will catch as many if not higher numbers of fish than commercial baits. The fact that homemade bait will cost you a fraction of the cost of readymade baits and over the days and weeks shocking savings can be achieved with no less fish (in fact quite the opposite!)

Every time I have used a homemade bait that is different to the popular baits on a water, big fish have appeared and this is one of those definite points about carp which you can exploit using homemade baits. Fish learn by association and will find your new baits much harder to resist than popular readymades that already have been exploited. This difference is often the factor that decides if you get a run of big fish, or just average results, or series of memorable personal best fish sessions or lots of blanks!

Now I’m not saying that you will produce a wonder bait which fish simply jump straight into your net and beg for! Even with the very best baits, all the usual skills of fish location, bait application and skilfully playing your big fish are still required. But on your own homemade baits, the rewards and joys of catching your personal life time best fish on your personal secret bait formula is just incredible. This is why it is so important to exploit the massive fish catching factor of making your baits very unique.

This is a point lost on most readymade bait users! The great edge of bait is being different to ones fish wary of already as a result of previous hooking and captures on it. So make your baits as unique as possible as frequently as you think your results indicate you may need to.

On the point about fish learning by association, you will also find with readymade baits that they frequently have to be changed to new ones because they get over-used and fish associate them with danger of hooking or capture. Whereas with homemade bait this rarely happens because you alone are fishing your bait so it cannot get over-used so intensively as readymades. This means your baits will remain effective very likely indefinitely which means you can focus on your fishing and have complete confidence that your bait is always working to best effect and has not blown! Some baits get based around flavor attraction on a carbohydrate ingredient base mix. Many others utilise to a greater extent a food bait approach using nutrition as the fish feeding triggering mechanism.

I could not believe how easy and simple it was for me to make baits that hooked big fish straight away literally while still hot, even using the most basic of ingredients. Homemade baits can be just amazingly instant and fill you will so much confidence. I do not even bother to make baits that have a round or barrel shape or an even skin at all and I most often do not even boil them to make them resilient boilies either. This is because your greatest edge with bait is their difference. Therefore if you bait feels different, has a different shape, colour, texture, buoyancy, density, firmness or softness or permeability or solubility for example, then it is far more likely to out-fish readymades with ease! That is why making homemade baits is so easy.

As I said, round baits are not needed. Things have changed drastically in the last 3 decades. There are many methods which introduce free baits well over 100 metres accurately, including ground bait slings, spods and PVA bags and nets etc. So you do not need to ever roll your baits. To make a starter effective bait you need only use one ingredient or a couple like soya flour and semolina, add enough eggs to bind them together, and make a dough to use as bait (and every bait can be different!) These might be used as paste or cut or divided into many different shaped and sized bits which you might scald with water or boil for a few seconds to harden them up to make them more resilient.

Making baits is very easy. You merely need a large container to mix your ingredients in and a knife or spoon to mix the materials to form a practical bait dough. First just get a handful of eggs and a teaspoonful of cake flavor and mix together well, then add your dry powders, etc a bit a time until a firm dough is reached.

Now you can use the dough as fresh bait or opt to label some sealed plastic bags and store it in the fridge for a few days or to freeze it in advance of going fishing. You most likely will forget what you made your baits out of so it is best to write this somewhere so you can remake your winning baits repeatedly! It is possible to get a ball of dough weighing about a kilogram from a 6 egg mixture; this will obviously vary depending upon the various ingredients you choose to include and their levels. Some ingredients will hold water better than others while some might dissolve readily in water, and the practical advantages of each kind are easy to exploit depending if you want hard baits which break down slowly or ones which dissolve and spread their attraction very quickly.

Having the knowledge to be able to consistently make homemade baits for a mere 3 pounds or 6 dollars per kilogram, instead of 12 pounds or 24 dollars is stunning. Just think of the saving on 10 kilograms costing 120 pounds or 220 dollars! (90 pounds or 180 dollars is a giant saving and is literally homemade made money!)

The best advantage of all is you can make your baits as different to normal as you like. Remember, being different is what really counts. Most frequently it is the most different and alternative homemade baits which tempt the very biggest and wariest of fish. You can start off with the simple bait here, but you might like to find out more if you really want to get cracking and hit the big-time!

By Tim Richardson.

Are you doing fresh-water trolling? Then you are probably using the standard glass fiber fishing gear. This is optimal for this type of fishing, since it is proven to be both lightweight and durable.

In my experience, the usual bait-casting reel is adequate for most applications. The exception would be deep trolling.

As in other forms of fishing, small, light lures require light tackle. Medium-size lures call for medium tackle, and heavy lures for heavy tackle. Medium and medium-heavy action spinning outfits can also be used for most freshwater trolling. Heavy fly tackle can also be used in trolling for landlocked salmon and large rainbow and brook trout.

Choosing the right lure is very important when fishing any considerable distance under the surface. You can use different weights and sizes of the same lure to reach different depths, including bumping the bottom, or you can use an assortment of different designs in various weights.

For trolling, wobbling spoons are well suited. You will find that some can be trolled at various speeds and perform well, while others need a particular speed for best results. You have to test this out for each one.

The larger spinners and spoons are often used for muskies, pike, and lake trout. Here I prefer a spoon that wobbles or darts to one that spins in the water. The spinners may catch as many fish, but I find them too tiring to troll. I’d rather use a lure that throbs and gives notice that it’s working correctly, but doesn’t put up much resistance.

Indeed, spinners pull heavier in relation to size as compared to spoons - especially the large ones. I find they require a real effort when used with light tackle. Spinners also have this irksome way of twisting the line, which requires using extra swivels.

Once a line gets badly tangled, it is such a chore to untangle it that one is tempted to throw the line away. If a line is twisted but not tangled, take off the line-twisting lure and let the line out carefully behind a fast-moving boat or feed it into a fast current until it unwinds. If the line is tangled and knotted, you need patience, good eyes, and imagination to straighten it. A new line may be the best solution.

Catching Crappies in the Fall and Winter can be tough. You may be on the lake one day and can’t do nothing wrong. Get up early and go the next day and go fish the same locations with the same bait and you can’t buy a Crappie! Another factor is fishing for Crappie in the Winter thru early Spring is the Weather. One minute it can be pleasant. Within a few minutes it can turn deadly as an approaching front blows in without warning. But there is hope for us die hard Crappie fishermen. It’s docks and I’ll teach you how to discover and catch Crappie in the late Fall through early Spring around boat docks.

The most challenging aspect of catching Crappie in the Winter|Fall and Winter|Winter thru early Spring|late Fall through early Spring|Winter time is usually the weather. Weather during Winter|Fall and Winter|Winter thru early Spring|late Fall through early Spring|Winter time can be downright upredictable. Bright, calm and sunny one minute and the next you’re dealing with cloudy skies and tropical storm force winds out of the North as a front approaches.

There is one place where Crappie fishermen can go to get out of the weather and have a reasonable chance at catching enough slabs for a fish fry. These places are boat docks. But not any ole boat dock will work. We’re looking for boat docks that have Crappie beneath them! This is sometimes easier said than done. But with a little practice and a little research, you can learn how to find the best boat docks for Winter Crappie.

To start, look for boat docks that are over deep water, Preferably near a creek or river channel. Once you’ve found docks over deep water, look for ones with structure. Many slip owners will sink bruch piles around the slip where their boats are tied up. It will pay to search out these slips with brush below them, especially the ones in deeper water near drop offs. Some Marina owners also sink brush piles below their docks. It may pay off big time to stop by the Office and enquire which slips have brush below them.

Now that you’ve done your homework and found a Marina or two on your local lake that have slips over deep water, look for structure beneath those slips. Ask the Marina operator whether or not they know of any brush piles beneath the slips. More than likely they know of several. Next, you’ll need to find what the Crappie want to hit. I start off with small minnows and work them around structure. If it’s a fairly warm day, the Crappie may be extra hungry and you can try tube jigs to catch them quicker.

Once I find them, I’ll usually switch to a 1/32 or even 1/64 ounce tube jig and fish it nearly motionless. Crappie love tube jigs and Winter can be a good time to use them. If the Crappie stop biting, I’ll move along the docks fishing brush at different depths until I find them again. One nice thing about Winter Crappie fishing around docks is, if you find them holding at brush below a dock at 12 feet, you’ll usually find them under all the docks holding at the same depth in the same type of structure.

Some Marina’s now have indoor heated fishing docks. These are great when the weather is fit for neither man nor beast. I’ve had many a great day fishing for Crappie in a heated dock passing away the time talking to other fishermen. This is also a fun way to introduce Kids to the sport of Crappie fishing!

Sadly many Crappie fishermen miss out on the fabulous fishing at other times of the year. These people only think Crappie can be caught in the Spring. Oh well, that means there’ll be more Crappie for you and me! I’ll see you at the docks! You bring the coffee!

Top fishermen know that by exploiting the way your target fish feed at any time of day or night or time of the season, they can reliably improve their catches and keep catching more consistently than the average angler. This is one very significant bait and rig subject which is neglected by the majority of anglers. In fact fish like carp change their mode of feeding all the time even over a 24 hour period or in an instant and you can manipulate and induce changes in feeding to catch far more fish!

Blood worms (and jokers) are notorious natural baits known for being banned owing to their extreme success at match venues. This is a good lesson to all carp anglers in how carp feed and exploit their modes of feeding. Fish like carp can feed in many ways, from dashing about after fry, to slowly sifting through silt for many hours with their heads totally buried. It makes logical sense to get to know exactly what your fish is eating at what time of day or night, where and why in order to fully exploit the form of feeding used at any point in time, or to even induce the one you wish the carp to use in order perhaps to hook them more easily by leveraging special bait formats and ingredients.

Many carp anglers do not realise carp can feed on items as small as algae and tiny zooplankton crustaceans, even under a millimetre in size and derive extremely significant nutrition from such small organisms. These are very rich foods and are often exploited when fluctuations of populations are especially favourable and in spring and summer help in the time leading up to and after spawning. The success of fine particulate feeds like fine fish meal and bread crumb ground baits in many ways echo this mode of feeding which in this case can occur at any level in the water or sediment.

Because carp gain their energy predominantly from amino acids and even their tissue lipids are composed of them primarily rather than from oils or carbohydrates, it makes great sense to leverage them in inducing filter feeding to get them in an excited state! In this way you can know the fish can truly positively assess your hook baits and free baits in advance of physically sampling them, by the particles and substances in solution and in suspension in the water columns coming from your baits. In doing filter feeding mode of feeding, carp will taste what they are filtering using taste buds in their pharyngeal cavity, and can feed like this while moving or stationary and on difficult pressured waters stationary filter feeding on bait substances in suspension etc is very common.

Filter feeding is very interesting because fish like carp can gain masses of nutrients to promote their growth in safe ways without eating your baits. But they can also derive nutrients from your baits in suspension and in solution as they leach out amino acids, nucleic acids, oils and slats for instance, without actually eating your baits. So it makes sense to drive fish into a feeding frenzy mode as far as possible by inciting this natural feeding mode.

It is natural for fish like bream, roach, carp, tench, barbel, and even bass and trout, to filter feed at times by capturing various sized food particles within their branchial sieves. However there this sieving can be adjusted in order to capture patches of fine particles or to capture larger single items and the characteristic speed of this feeding can vary between species. In the case of carp which are termed slow suction feeders, although they can suck up finer particles from one head length away from it at surprisingly high velocities indeed.

It often seems to be the case that carp fishing baits focus goes on chemical smells for instance which are very obvious to our senses, but it needs to be remembered that fish have extremely fine tuned lateral line cells which use electrochemical impulses in the detection of food items even by the tiny movements of zooplankton only 1 millimetre in diameter. The gape size of a fish’s mouth is normally not a limiting factor in efficient feeding, but the diameter of the area where the food is chewed is and it is often far less than the gape of the mouth. Therefore its makes sense to exploit this and use smaller baits than often recommended. In fact carp in turbid lakes predominantly depend on food which is in particle size, so why not go with this approach not against it!

Although filter feeding modes in carp reflect their most dominant small sized natural foods you can overcome their preoccupation with these to get them to feed on your fishing baits by also using fine particulate feeds and smaller baits at least to begin with in your ground baits, method mixes, stick mixes etc. Many carp in pressured fisheries regard eating 21 millimetre pellets nad boilies as natural as they literally depend on them for essential dietary requirements, but it does not mean using hook baits of this size make it easier to catch warier fish. The finding is that smaller baits do often fool carp better than large baits and this is not merely due to the fact that proportionately far greater numbers of anglers use baits over 1 centimetre in size…

How many big carp get hooked by match anglers at the end of a day of baiting up constantly with tiny pouches of fine bread crumb and fish meal and tiny micro pellet ground baits; it happens far more often than carp anglers like to imagine. The constant ground baiting is one factor along with the fine tackle they use, but mostly, match anglers are offering carp the ideal form of ground bait to exploit their natural filter feeding modes. Literally matching up your bait to the feeding modes of fish and even influencing which mode and feeding intensity occurs can seriously improve your catches all season; it just takes a little bait know-how…

By Tim Richardson.

Often people watching television programs about fly fishing think that beginner fly fishing looks easy. However, what you are seeing on television is definitely not beginners fly fishing, what you are generally seeing is fly fishing being executed by professionals who have had many years of experience perfecting the techniques.

Remember this television and the chances on everything going to plan on the first take are pretty low. Television programs have a way of making things look easy which is appealing to anyone watching the program, and this is why individuals get the idea that beginner fly fishing is easy. Actually, beginner fly fishing is not easy at all so here are some great tips you will require to get started.

Fly Fishing Accessories:

The fly fishing equipment you will need is a rod, reel, flies, and special fly fishing line. Many individuals make their beginner fly fishing first mistake by getting the wrong line. You’ll notice two things about fly fishing line, it’s both thicker and heavier than standard fishing line. First off, fly fishing does not call for you use of sinkers or lures so there’s nothing weighing the line down.

Therefore the line itself needs to be heavy so you can fly cast it properly. It is also thicker because you need to cast with accuracy and that is hard to do with lighter line. So make sure that for your beginner fly fishing expedition you get the proper supplies and tools to get the job done.

Get Quality Fly Fishing Accessories:

A lot of individuals will attack beginners fly fishing with a focus on catching fish and no thought on the gear they’ll employ to get the task done. Never skimp on your equipment because if you purchase inexpensive tackle and it gives out on you at the start of your trip then you have a drawn-out angling trip in front of you.

Acquire the best reel you can afford and the best pole you can get hold of. You can ask somebody at the sporting goods shop but you are better off asking somebody you know that fishes as sporting goods store clerks love to see individuals in beginner fly fishing and try to pass out stuff they don’t need.

You can definitely be positive that fly casting is unquestionably the hardest thing to achieve in beginner fly fishing so you’ll want to practice. Make sure to take your time becoming accustomed to fly casting, since you’re fly fishing success will depend on it.

You can make carp baits as easy and simple or as complex as you want but one thing is certain and that is, for best results you need to make sure your baits are as unlikely to arouse as little suspicion in fish as possible. To do this you need to leverage the top rule with fishing bait; that of making your bait unique and different! A new different bait has the best potential to tempt big wary carp because even where a so-called food bait or nutritional biological value bait is established, once fish get hooked on it, then fish feeding behaviour on it can alter dramatically!

Improving your baits competitive edges is all about adapting their ingredients or adding extra ones soaked in, or treating the bait with a new process so it smells and tastes different to its previous version. Other carp can senses come into the equation and be exploited in regards to texture, colour, density, shape, buoyancy, firmness, solubility and permeability etc. However you do it, changing a bait in even one small way can sustain your results on it or even totally transform your results far more positively!

Now it is true that much about baits is marketing and gimmicks to catch the attention of angler, just the same as a the flashy paint and spoilers of a car have bear zero impact on its function. However, the fishing bait industry provides us with numerous trustworthy substances to exploit to alter our baits to prolong their effective function and effect. But many of these get over-used and it is a top idea to find new and interesting other ingredients and flavors etc not currently sold for fishing purposes!

Many anglers love to use flavors and others steer clear of using them. But one thing for sure is that the majority of anglers are only aware of a tiny fraction of forms of flavors and flavor substances and components available to use in our baits. The concentrated solvent based flavors so commonly used to change the smell and taste characteristic of a bait are a minor part of what you can leverage for great results!

We can associate flavors with fruits and sugars of many kinds from oranges and pineapples to apples, pears, butter and cream, spices and herbs, molluscs and crustaceans, fish and everything in between and those besides. But many flavors are beyond what most anglers would even term flavors and have bitter, sour, salty, sickly, acidic, highly pungent even repulsive effects on us humans, but carp absolutely love them. It is an interesting fact that complete digestion of many substances occurs as a direct result of bacterial action to help break down food in the gut which enzymes alone cannot digest. In this example, this means that flavors and ingredients that are partially digested or even represent or mimic these can be super attractive to fish

In the case of big carp, they can be caught on baits containing strong powerful flavors or minimal amounts or none at all. The angling fishing pressure they receive 24 hours a day will often influence which approaches and which forms of flavor are more stimulatory or more repellant! But even using rubber and plastic baits will eventually be associated with previous captures and be less effective for this reason.

When anglers think of carp baits most will immediately picture round boilies. These have succeeded for decades, but its is noticeable that round and now barrel shaped baits are being easily dealt with by wary carp and other new alternative shapes should be exploited! In the case of rubber and plastic baits, their many characteristics and lack of these too compared to conventional carp baits really gives them edges, but even these are not totally devoid of anything carp can associate with danger.

Food ultimately comes down to the supply of energy and its efficient use in our bodies and fish are just the same. Any aspect of bait which can provide more efficient use of energy, or at least appear to can be fantastic to use in baits and many are waiting to be discovered and exploited. As big fish have a greater energy requirement it stands to reason that these respond to such substances rather well. If you consider that oils, betaine and even amino acids have a tendency to promote growth and have significant relevance in the use or supply of energy, it is not a surprise they are potent fish feeding triggers!

The natural foods which carp have survived and evolved to exploit in their natural environments have had more than just impacted upon the senses which detect these foods. Even the carp body itself has evolved physically in order to best detect, consume, digest and extract the maximum essential nutrition and energy it needs for survival. Betaine is found in many natural foods from root crops like sugar beet to molluscs and crustacean and fish themselves and even we humans contain betaine and it is a real essential!

In fact I focus on betaine because it has an even more intense feeding stimulation impact on carp sensory systems than the fellow feeding stimulator, the amino acid alanine. Most anglers already appreciate the impacts of amino acids upon fish feeding but do not relate this intense feeding response to hardly any other substances. But just in the same way that betaine and amino acids are significant growth and health and balance promoters etc, thousands of other substances have very significant bioactive effects on fish we can exploit in baits for big fish.

The vast diversity of substances that you can exploit and manipulate in our baits and many forms of ground baits etc to induce bite from carp are endless. But to make things clearer I have been able myself to categorise great numbers of these extremely desirable substances, ingredients, flavors etc into groups including their sources, uses and biological effects on carp. This has been extremely valuable but took over a full year to complete. You can do a bit of this yourself next time you read an ingredients list on a can of cola, bar of chocolate, readymade meal, can of beans, microwavable curry, and try and identify the substances which turn your body and senses on and make you want to eat more; it makes you think! The popularity of camp and fishing, boating and hunting and outdoors hobbies for sport and recreation combine well together, but bait is always the deciding factor if you catch fish or not despite all your efforts; so learn as much as you can and transform your catches!

By Tim Richardson.

Most young people are exposed to fishing at an early age because one or both of the parents fish. They typically get bought an inexpensive rod and reel with one of the latest Disney characters on it. For a kid, those reels can be pretty fun to use but once you get older and become more serious about fishing, you’ll need to start investing a little bit more money in better gear and finding the right reel to use will make all the difference in your success at fishing.

Understanding the 4 basic models of fishing reels will help you find the one that’s right for you. First, there is the spin casting reel. Second is the spinning reel. Third is the bait casting reel and fourth is the fly fishing reel.

Your Mickey and Barbie fishing reels was the spin casting sort. This, however, doesn’t mean that such a reel should be obsolete for you now. This sort of reel is less prone to tangles and snares and casts with the push of a button. By pressing and holding the thumb button on the back of the spin casting reel (opposite the string hole), you essentially push and hold a spindle and peg which locks down the fishing line. By letting go of the button when you cast, the bait or lure lobs out to the water. Though quick and painless, the drag and design of the spin cast reel doesn’t allow for casting very far. If you’re new to fishing, and don’t want to use a lot of effort (cast and let the bait sit on the bottom, for example) or catch too big of fish, then this style is for you.

A spinning reel is not for the novice and is the second most common type of reel next to the spin casting reels. Spinning reels have open faces and you can see the string in the reel. You have to pull back the bail to release the string and then control the cast with your thumb and forefinger. Most professional fishers use a spinning reel to catch their fish on. Because you can control the way the string leaves the reel, you can get very accurate casts when you cast into reeds or other areas fish like to hide.

A bait casting reel, on the other hand, provides the most control, allows for the most distance and can give anglers near perfect accuracy. The reason is quite simple: You can use your thumb to release and stop the fishing line before the weeds or logs, for instance, and predict quickly where the bait will land. However, the bait caster reel is trickier to use and takes a lot of practice to learn. If the reel is set to your specifications with the right line weight, then using the bait caster reel becomes astoundingly easier. Like some spinning reels, you’ll have to use your thumb to start and stop the reel. Additionally, like the spinning reel, the reel will hang down and not up when casting. By applying pressure from your thumb through the cast, you can slow down the fishing line spool and accurately cast in open waters.

Watching an experienced fly fisherman work the fly gear and land a great fish is truly and inspiring site. Fly reels are the fouth style of reel and are nothing like the other types or styles of reels and in fact don’t even use your standard clear fishing line. Fly reels are made to exacting specifications and designed for precise movements involved in fly fishing.

You can improve your catches instantly by taking the step of trying new things, trying new combinations of things you may already know work and trying things you do not know work or not. Remember it is the things that carp have never regularly experienced previously that mostly catch those dream catches you hope for, so here’s a few perhaps familiar and unfamiliar tricks you might try with your baits to stimulate your catch rate! Soak your baits in a dip; whether meat, nuts or particle baits, pellets, boilies dips and bait soaks work!

Oil rich dips and those rich in amino acids are outstanding and can come from simple homemade sources like tinned tuna oil mixed with liver pate and garlic salt for instance. Or maybe try shrimp paste with diluted fruit cordial juice and yeast extract; you do not need to spend a fortune on readymade dips or soaks etc. Don’t boil your hook baits; steam them instead to allow far more nutritional attraction and stimulation to release into the water instead of being sealed inside and largely wasted!

Coating your baits in even simple paste or dough bait certainly increases catches. Because most of the stimuli which incite fish feeding are water soluble, it is sensible to get many soluble attractors in your paste for best effect! There are many feeding triggers in fish and using mashed tinned fish like tuna, anchovy or salmon to make paste to go around your hook baits is easy; just mix with eggs and wheat flour or with ground dog mixers to bind!

If you use readymade baits like boilies and pellets or even prepared particle baits like nuts or seeds or tinned meats, you will get more takes by altering the surface coating. Make it irregular shaped as if other fish have already been chewing at the bait. This helps release the baits intrinsic attractive substances too. Another trick when using boilies is to poke them with a knife point or baiting needle to go deep inside the bait to release attraction - it really works and changes the bait surface into a very unusual and irregular texture too with all its advantages!

I bet you never tried coating all your free baits with paste as well as your hook baits. You could try fishing a red fish meal hook bait with a pink liver paste or a meat based bait with a fish based paste; just experiment with colours, flavours and any kind of baits together! Even coating particle baits like smaller pellets or tiger nuts with paste is very worth doing!

Try coating pop-up baits with paste to improve the effect and impact. It does not need to correspond to the flavour or base mix colour or anything else to make that essential difference and catching edge you need. Try adding cork granules or cork dust to your paste to make it buoyant or pop-up.

You can add cork granules and other very light or buoyant ingredients to make it float or hang in the water off the bottom or silt or weed for instance. Imagine the advantage of using a buoyant paste around a bottom bait or semi-buoyant bait and how frequently your fish will have had to deal with this! Using buoyant paste around bottom sinking hook baits can seriously save you blank sessions!

It is beyond question that carp and many other fish learn through experience and repetition not least in regards being hooked on any particular bait or rig. Obviously the greatest edge is to make sure your baits represent as little association with any previous encounter as possible; and even instil confident feeding. Fish certainly remember far longer than just seconds or individual fish would always be easy to catch every time, so do yourself a favour and look further into how to make your baits different; and reap the huge rewards - this fishing bait secrets ebooks author has many more fishing and bait edges; just one could impact very significantly on your catches!

By Tim Richardson.

When your catches are not as you wish there are many tricks to try; and improving the pulling-power of your hook baits is just one of these but it is a massively important one! Carp can be very difficult to tempt when previously hooked before on any bait, so aiming to make your hook baits unique can really pay-off. Liquid bait soaks have always been successful but you can make you own homemade ones very easily…

Oil rich dips and those rich in amino acids are outstanding and can come from simple homemade sources like tinned tuna oil mixed with liver pate and garlic salt for instance. Or maybe try shrimp paste with diluted fruit cordial juice and yeast extract; you do not need to spend a fortune on readymade dips or soaks etc. Don’t boil your hook baits; steam them instead to allow far more nutritional attraction and stimulation to release into the water instead of being sealed inside and largely wasted!

Coating your baits in even simple paste or dough bait certainly increases catches. Because most of the stimuli which incite fish feeding are water soluble, it is sensible to get many soluble attractors in your paste for best effect! There are many feeding triggers in fish and using mashed tinned fish like tuna, anchovy or salmon to make paste to go around your hook baits is easy; just mix with eggs and wheat flour or with ground dog mixers to bind!

If you use readymade baits like boilies and pellets or even prepared particle baits like nuts or seeds or tinned meats, you will get more takes by altering the surface coating. Make it irregular shaped as if other fish have already been chewing at the bait. This helps release the baits intrinsic attractive substances too. Another trick when using boilies is to poke them with a knife point or baiting needle to go deep inside the bait to release attraction - it really works and changes the bait surface into a very unusual and irregular texture too with all its advantages!

The act of putting paste on all your free baits as well as around your hook baits can truly produce great catches; it sounds like hard work but that’s why it works; just like in any endeavour! This paste or dough bait covering can be anything and put around anything used as a hook bait; do not be a slave to convention! Even using a Scopex flavoured dough bait around a salmon flavoured boilie is different enough to produce great catches even if it is still a relatively very conventional combination.

You might like to try using paste around buoyant baits like pop-ups. Your hook bait and paste covering do not need to be like each other to produce great catches; in fact far from it! The method of coating a pop-up bait with a very different dough is a huge edge and is very well recommended!

You can add cork granules and other very light or buoyant ingredients to make it float or hang in the water off the bottom or silt or weed for instance. Imagine the advantage of using a buoyant paste around a bottom bait or semi-buoyant bait and how frequently your fish will have had to deal with this! Using buoyant paste around bottom sinking hook baits can seriously save you blank sessions!

It is a commonly held angling myth that fish do not learn, but in truth very many species can be conditioned by angling activities, bait introduction etc and even koi carp can be trained to take baits from out of a keepers hands and be in a particular place in advance of feeding time! If you think carp do not learn just consider that over time when repeatedly hooked by anglers, they do not get easier to catch but harder! It’s just the same with hunting of other kinds. For this reason alone it is definitely in your best interests to find out as much as possible how to maximise the impact and effects of your hook baits and free baits because a trap is only as good as the bait!

By Tim Richardson.

For thousands of bass fishing enthusiasts the thrill of discovering a great location for catching fish can almost equal the thrill of catching one. If you are new to bass fishing or if you are planning to fish in a new location, you will find more success with this simple plan to find the best fishing wherever you go!

STEP ONE:

Research the lake. Whether you’re participating in a tournament or just spending the day fishing in a new area nothing can help you find the right spots to fish like doing a little research.

Finding maps of that particular location can be a great jump start. You can find other information in periodicals and websites about bass fishing. The more you know, the better your day and success will be.

STEP 2:

Get experienced input. Finding an experienced guide to accompany you on your first fishing day on a new body of water can provide you the optimum support for finding the best fishing spots as well as guidance for the best techniques to use in that water.

Understand that fishing cycles and seasons can affect your experience. Your guide should be able to tell you when these changes occur and just how they will affect your fishing experience.

Do not be of the opinion that if you are a talented bass fisher then you don’t require a guide. Guides will surely raise your chances of success because they are familiar of the local area. But if you are not able to find a guide then you can look for information at the local fishing tools supply stores. Even though these suppliers give the same info to other out-of-town fishers who are most likely to crowd the same spots.

If you are going in for a contest then you must get unbiased information in case the guide is also in competition with you. It is always better for you to do your own research and test the lake before competition.

STEP THREE:

Know your prey. Even if you know the waters or not, you will still be able to find the best fishing locations.

Bass like to stay hidden under safe objects rather than alone in open waters, so you should try to cast your line near rocks, trees, or other shelter.

Depending on the weather and factors such as feeding times or breeding, your fish may be more or less likely to gravitate to particular areas of the lake. Learning about their habits will help you select the best areas and techniques.

STEP 4:

Apart from personal research, guide and knowledge of the habits of bass you have to be flexible also. Altering baits, weights and regions often when the fish is not biting will give you research findings and these will improve with your experience.

Normally fish does not remain in the same place doing the same thing. So you have to be tolerant and benefit from the search while scheduling for the top grab yet!