Choosing a Winter Bait - Quest Baits

I|Bait Quest Shaun HarrisonS H A U N H A R R I S O NBAIT QUESTFollowing onfrom last month’sarticle, lookingat the productionand application ofpaste baits, I wouldnow like to takethe theme a stagefurther by lookingat what to includeand what to avoidin a bait producedspecifically forcatching winter carp.msI|III1IM16I016_Bait_Quest.indd 2 16/1/07 18:30:52

|IIII|IIII|40gms700mlsWe all have good baits at our disposaland I don’t want this series to runalong the lines of ‘use this, usethat’, or ‘do this, do that’ because there areplenty of magazines out there catering forthis type of thing. What I do want to try toachieve is to simply put over a few ideas, alittle ‘food for thought’ to get the old greymatter ticking over.These days, in my own angling, I findmyself starting to question everything. Someof the major steps forward I have made inmore recent years have been from goingagainst what is normally accepted. After all,if someone says something often enoughit will be accepted and eventually taken asgospel. It is very difficult to turn away fromgms something you so believe is right, but thebrave ones who do so can find themselvesstumbling upon something just that little160gms bit special. There are so many excellent baitscurrently available to anglers that the days ofhaving 150gms to spend hours at home formulating120gmsyour own concoctions 140gms are130gmsalmost over. Well,that’s until we come to the subject of baitsfor winter fishing.|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|I|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|So many commercially available baitscan be far from ideal when it comes totempting the carp living in a cold-waterenvironment. Just because you have baitwhich takes waters apart during the warmermonths certainly doesn’t mean it will do thesame during the cold days of winter. It is myhumble opinion that the one major factorwhy so many carp anglers struggle to cometo terms with winter carp fishing is that theymake it difficult for themselves from thestart by offering something with little coldwaterattraction. So why is it, then, that anexcellent summer bait won’t necessarily be sogood during the winter?The fi rst sunrise of 2007, the fi rst day ofJanuary and I was still hopeful of a bite.1“My findings comefrom years of sittingbehind rods andhaving a great interestand willingness toexperiment. I also putmyself out to actuallywatch carp at all timesof the year, and notalways fish for them”Now, let me put this across right fromthe very start. I am not a chemist and Ihaven’t studied fish biology. My findingsEarly ’80s winter capture.come from years of sitting behind rodsand having a great interest and willingnessto experiment. I have also put myselfout to actually watch carp at all times ofthe year, and not always fish for them.The natural activity of carp can be verydifferent to their activity once they areaware of rigs and lines in the water. I learna lot from both scenarios. Waters whereyou can observe carp subject to anglingpressure during the coldest of conditionsare extremely few and far between in myexperience, but if you visit enough venuesyou will eventually stumble across a fewfish. Not only is this incredibly useful forlogging their reaction to different baitsand food sources, but it can also showhow very inefficient many rigs can be.The first major shock for me wasexactly how slow the carp move around ina natural state in the cold. It is possiblyworth reminding everyone here that carpare cold-blooded. The colder it is, theslower their metabolism. If a carp takes abait and heads back towards the lead witheven a shortish six-inch hooklength, thatbait can be in the mouth for a very longtime before they hit the resistance of alead – lots of time to eject the rig. Notonly that, but the slow motion movementsI observe make it most unlikely that thefish will hit the lead hard enough to prickitself. However this is all for another dayand another article. Let’s get back to bait.My findings come simply from bothobservation and bobbin action. They arenot armchair theories that ‘should’ beright. I have lost count of the numberof those I have read about. My findingsare based purely on actual anglingapplication.So, what do I look for when producing abait specifically to catch cold-water carp?From my own point of view it comes downto how well I know the water I’m fishing.If I know the carp are in the area I amfishing then I will use a slightly differenttype of bait than I would use at a venuewith which I wasn’t familiar. I often mixand match on the same water anyway,rather than have all my eggs in one basket.500ml400ml300ml200mlBait Quest Shaun Harrison650400m300m200ml17100ml100 l016_Bait_Quest.indd 3 16/1/07 18:31:07

III|IIII|220gmsBait Quest Shaun HarrisonS H A U N H A R R I S O NBAIT QUESTAwesome – anotherwinter capture at 28lb.ms170gmsI|IIII|IIII|MAXThe same day I had the 28 (right), I’mseen here playing a 24lb true winter carp.First and foremost, and this applies toboth types of winter bait, I want a bait thatis very highly digestible and contains enoughsoluble ingredients to allow the natural andadded attractors to leak out in cold water– but not leak out so fast that I am left withno taste to the bait. Quite simple really.I would now like to take a look back at myown winter fishing, simply to illustrate thatI have actually caught winter carp for a longperiod of time from a lot of different venues.My findings aren’t based on just one or twowaters over a period of a couple of years, asI have been fortunate to have been catchingwinter carp since the 1970s, from the dayswhen I was a young kid with attitude.Fortunately, punk rock came at the right0gmstime 10gms and gave me a way of offloading someof my anger without the need to take it out20gmson others. Fish and fishing has always beenmy wind-down.30gmsSo, in the ’70s I used to catch them onquite fast-dissolving paste baits simplybecause this is all I knew and I didn’t know40gmshow to keep the paste held together for long.I didn’t know about binders and gels andother bits like that. Boilies were unheard ofwhere I fished, or I certainly didn’t know 50gmsabout them. Paste baits were generallyreferred to as ‘specials’ and eventually Istarted to read about skinned baits, which60gmseventually became known as boilies.Some of my early paste baits were, in fact,quite effective, and probably would still be18 today in cold-water conditions. I had no70gmsII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIproper bait ingredients, so used to raid mymother’s cupboards. I used to start with agroundbait base, crushed up biscuits andcereals. I would raid the flour tub, nick thecat’s food, etc., etc. Anything would be triedand thrown together and my early recipebooks got very dog-eared. It was a massivelearning curve, but, looking back, some ofthose very simple baits were, in fact, quiteuseful cold-water carp-catching baits.“I consider myself mostfortunate to havebeen around at thetime many of the wellusedingredients firstbecame available tothe angler and I wasable to take each oneand play around with it”As the ’70s turned into the ’80s I gotmyself a job in the tackle trade, at Walkersof Trowell. Here I started to develop thethen non-existent carp angling side of theshop.Soon we had a few bait ingredientsfrom Bait 78, Duncan Kay’s Slyme Baits,and then Mick Winterton’s Key AnglingSupplies. I consider myself most fortunateto have been around at the time many ofthe well-used ingredients first becameavailable to the angler and I was ableto take each one and play around withit, finding out exactly what I could andcouldn’t do with it. As the years progressedwe stocked more and more ingredients,from Rod Hutchinson’s Catchum Baits,SBS, and a few more, until suddenlyJoe Public no longer wanted individualingredients. The idle age had arrived, whereanglers no longer needed to know whateach ingredient did. The suppliers wereputting together perfectly good base mixes,and latterly ready-rolled baits.Those formative years, however, were sovery useful for me. I grew, as the bait listsgrew. I read everything I possibly couldabout bait, and actually ended up becomingvery sidetracked from my own thoughtsbecause of what was being written by others.I actually suffered two very poor winters, allbecause I was taking as gospel what othershad written.Like everyone else at the time, I travelledalong the high protein, milk protein route.Most anglers would end up with a bait ofaround 80% protein. I caught fish on them.I caught a lot of fish on them – but notin the winter. People who I had immenserespect for kept plugging on about droppingfishmeals off in the winter and changingover to milk protein-type baits. Now, Inever used to use fishmeals anyway, but Idid start changing over to high proteintypebaits in the winter. I caught odd fishbut nothing like the number I was used tocatching. Two years on and I reverted backto my lowered protein baits, and suddenly Iwas catching those carp again.The milk proteins in winter stood for solong, but this type of bait certainly didn’twork very well for me, despite all the socalledwinter anglers of the day advocatingtheir use. It all became clear in my mind’seye after a chance viewing of sometelevision programme which I wouldn’t haveusually bothered watching (whilst channelhopping).The telephone rang and thetelevision continued. Whilst talking on thetelephone I heard something along the linesof protein taking a long while to digest andprotein binding up people. It was like a bellringing in my head.1016_Bait_Quest.indd 4 16/1/07 18:31:17

I|II|IIII|IIIMAXBait Quest Shaun Harrison0gms20S H A U N H A R R I S O NBAIT QUESTCheck out the snaggy areas inthe winter, I bet there are oneor two carp holed up in here.I know full well there will be at leastanother five fish huddled together aroundit, seemingly taking comfort from the closepresence of the others. Conditions arequite mild at the moment and the fish arerelatively active, as the water is a dirty teacolour. If we have a proper cold snap thewater clarity will return as the fish stopdigging away and disturbing the silt. This iswhen I can finally observe the fish in theirproper winter ways, and every time they arehuddled in a tight bunch. It would appear Ihave three main shoals and each have theirown favourite lying-up areas.My carp love boilies and this is their stapleadded diet – this gives them an alternativechoice from the abundance of natural foodpresent. I take pride in the fact that in thelast seven years (since I first stocked my carp)I have not suffered a single fatality. I guess I70gmshave their food requirements sorted. As is thecase in most gardens, I have more fish thanI really should, so I do need to supplementtheir natural diet. The problem is, theyspawn each year and I just cannot bringmyself to part with some of the fish – theyare gorgeous-looking fully-scaled mirrors andlinears. Not only that, but it is a brave manthese days who lets them out in an establishedlake, for fear of disease. If my fish arecarrying anything I could never forgivemyself for passing it on to wild fish. It isso frustrating. I rent my own lake, whichis full of old warriors all around my age.I would love to see some of my homestock grow on – but I daren’t do it. Thoseold carp deserve to live their lives to the fullwithout risk of disease. My fish are probablyokay – but who can be sure?“Sometimes the bait will”|IIII|IIbe there for two days,just inches away fromtheir mouths, but theyare happy for the baitsto remain there untilthey need to feedI’m digressing a little here. What I wasleading on to say (after pointing out that mycarp eat as many boilies as any other naturalwater carp) is that if I put a few subtleflavoured boilies close to them during thenon-active, non-feeding periods, they simplyignore them until the time comes when theywant/need to feed. Sometimes the bait willbe there for two days, just inches away fromtheir mouths, but they are happy for thebaits to remain there until they need to feed.If, however, I put even a single, dosed-upbait amongst the carp, they come aroundfrom their semi-torpid state and move awayfrom the bait; they get agitated and simplymove away. Certainly I have never seen aIt’s November 1984, andwhat a super winter mid-20.fish from any of the other shoals becomeattracted and drift over to the bait. This, Ipresume, is what anglers are hoping for whenthey add extra flavours and glugs to theirbaits. Certainly I see the reverse happening,a distinctly uncomfortable feeling onceheavily-flavoured bait is introduced, andyou must bear in mind that my garden fishhave never been fished for, so they haveno fear of bright baits or dark baits, or anyparticular sort of flavour. The fact that thepool is quite large and has all the naturalfood present that I find in the lakes I fish(so the carp always have a choice), shows methat these fish are a fair indication of whathappens in the murky depths where we can’tquite see what is going on.During the cold winter months, thefamiliar twitches and plucks of the linereceived shortly after casting is just as likelyto be fish catching the line by moving out ofthe way as it is to be fish quickly investigatingthe bait. So, for me at least, heavily-flavouredwinter baits are something I no longer useand I can certainly hold my head high and sayI do catch quite a lot of proper winter carp– not carp still behaving in their summer/autumn ways, but carp in January andFebruary after they have been subjected tolots of frosts and possible ice-overs.Let’s now get down to the nitty-gritty ofwhat I use and what I avoid when makingmy winter bases. I still keep a little milkprotein content, which hasn’t venturedfar from my earliest experiments of onethirdprotein to two-thirds bulk. Some ofthe breakfast cereals can be brilliant bulkingredients, as can many of the commonlyknown mixed birdfood ingredients. I likethe coarse-textured ones, such as Ce Deand Nectarblend from Haith’s. There aremany other similar alternatives from othersuppliers but here I have mentioned two ofthe most commonly used ones.A visit to your local pet store to huntout some of the other alternatives couldbe well worth your while. This type ofmix, being quite loose-textured, helpsthe attractors to escape without the needto pile a lot of flavour in the bait in thefirst place. Wheatgerm, oatmeal, crushedbiscuits, micronised cereals, bran, the listgoes on as far as you want it to go. Thesefew items should give you an idea as to thetype of ingredients I use, and mix, as bulkingredients.msI|III1016_Bait_Quest.indd 6 16/1/07 18:32:08

sgmsII|IIII|IIII|160gmOne of the few fi shmeals suitable for colderwater, LT 94.I|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIthe carp are these days, I am still more thanhappy to fish with baits emitting hardly anysmell, particularly in the coldest conditions.You don’t need to attract the carp. The carpare already there if you get your locationright. Unfortunately, these types of baitwould hardly sell commercially. Anglerswant to be able to smell the bait. I am surewith most anglers it is the smell that givesthe confidence rather than what is actuallyinside the bait when the carp get around toeating them.If I am fishing waters I don’t know then Itry to use baits with subtle smells emitting|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIII|IIfrom them. As I said 50gms at the start ofthis piece, I often mix and matchbetween the non-smelling baitsand subtle flavour leak-out baits.Fortunately for me, in 60gms the bait gamethe customers do seem to like these.The three most successful baits in myQuest Baits range are Fruity Trifle(fruit and cream blend), 70gms Irish Cream(smells like Bailey’s) and RahjaSpice (Indian spice). All have veryattractive angler-friendly smells andall leak off their flavours 80gmsat a steadyrate but retain taste after the bait has Essential oils give a good bait a lasting taste.been out for a length of time.“out at home to see how much flavour isMany baits 90gms resembleescaping from your bait and for how long.little more thanSimply fill a glass of water and drop a boilieunflavoured100gmspastaonce they have110gms”into it. After a period of time, taste thewater and see if you can detect the flavourbeen in it. If you can, then the flavour is startingto leak out. Pour the water away and repeatout in the water for a the process. As long as you can still detectfew daysthe flavour in the water then the flavour isstill leaking. If you suddenly find there is noI feel this taste left in the bait is one flavour evident then the flavour has finishedthing that is so often overlooked. During leaking out. Now, simply break the baitthe winter time when baits are likely to be open and see if the boilie has retained anyout for long periods before the fish decide smell. Simple tests you can do with any baitto feed (often several days after we return at any time of the year. For proper accuratehome), then I want them to still tasteresults you need to be doing these testsgood. As I said in last month’s Paste Baits with the glass kept outside to simulate thearticle, many baits resemble little more than temperature in which you would be fishing.unflavoured pasta once they have been out Hopefully the words in this piece willin the water for a few days.have once again got the old grey matter|There Is A World Of DifferenceBetween Flavour And Taste!Flavours are leaking away from the bait.Taste remains. A simple test can be carried500mlticking over. If something I have written hastriggered a few alarm bells then hopefully itwill have all been worthwhile.Until next time, I will leave as usual andwish you all – Best Fishes.400mlBait Quest Shaun Harrison650400m40gms700mlLate-November again, and it’s allsmiles for a true winter whacker.300m200ml23100ml100 l016_Bait_Quest.indd 9 16/1/07 18:33:00