Hey get this; if you treat your fish like swimming tongues by exploiting what stimulates their specialised taste and smell cells in as many potent ways as possible; you will do very well indeed! This seems to be a little knew too many carp anglers who are often tunnel-visioned; just thinking of what they themselves prefer thinking as an angler, and not truly about what fish often senses prefer far more! It is obvious that what is dissolved in the water from your bait triggers responses of many kinds in fish, but how do you begin truly maximising these responses using bait; let’s see…
To begin with, I will group carp and catfish together, because many anglers catch both or target both and seek the biggest ones possible. These fish share so many dietary essential requirements that baits meant for big carp or catfish will often catch specimens from each group. Carp and catfish are like swimming tongues because they are covered in receptors cells inside and out that maximise the ability to detect potential many food substances in concentrations as low as 1 part in a million or even 3 parts in a billion!
I always laugh when I see someone sniffing a bottle of flavour, or tasting a bait, because this is really a measure of personal preference, rather that scientific testing of how a substance actually triggers feeding intensity or not in water, plus our senses are dulled compared to fishes by a gigantic percentage; these are the bloodhounds of the water world! We taste and smell using specially adapted cells in our tongues and noses; these have wet surfaces at all times to enable use to detect substances effectively in air, but fish evolved such cells all over their bodies, as well as internally, so they are like big tongues really. Specialist fish cells are part of many vital sensory input systems are found in various areas of concentration and cell forms; for detection of various substances, and other input information, like water temperature and pressure waves from your lead almost hitting them etc!
Some specific cells and systems detect various substances like particularly essential and also very stimulatory non-essential amino acids, or mineral salts or individual vitamins etc. Many different substance-specific cells and different functional-orientated cell are found in the surface skin for example and are distributed over the body, and in particular areas like the face, fins, nose, throat and interior of the mouth etc. As a side note here; even oils are partly soluble and this is significant especially in the use of lecithins in lower temperatures, improving digestion, more effective bait substance distribution in the water etc.
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 the various systems and their different functions combined act like a biological radar system and enable the fish to be as aware as possible of its surroundings. Fish can detect the surrounding water oxygen concentration or dissolved carbonic acid concentration in various times of year and seasons. A lowered carbonic acid concentration in water on the end of a strong oxygenating warming south-westerly wind in the UK for instance, can often lead to fish preferring the water conditions where the bank faces this wind.
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.
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