your thought's

hi all, do you think that carp prefer hard baits or soft baits,and how important do you think colour really is??

I think it all dependds on the water, over all I have discovered that carp (that I have fished for) like soft bait, carp are defenatly attracted to colour, but also saying that I have fished a water where washed out grey/brown was a good working colour.

hi rich,i to think carp prefer softer baits, much more digestible this has also been proven from japenese koi studies,as for colour i dont think it is important i would rather be using a food bait containing many carp olfactory feeding triggers and water ionizers than a brightly over flavoured boilie.

I agree I would rather have some fantastic ingreadiants than a bright color, BUT the washed out brown/grey was a working colour, personally I like my baits a redish colour not bright fantastic red more of a red oxide nearly brown.

As you have probably read somewhere on here I have a bait made for me, I designed it and created it (with the help from Tony at Premier) A while back Tony sat me down and told me what some of the ingreadiants do and how, why ect, it wasn't a big lengthy discussion more of an introduction to understanding bait. I went away and studied with the aid of google, it helped to know some of the names of the acids, etc in bait.
Around a year later I phoned Premier asked for Tony and told him a bait I was interested in and fine tuned it over the phone, 3 days later I collected 10 KG of the stuff, I used it and banked, not good for the confidence I can tell you, I tried it again and cought a few pasties, again not good for the confidence, I decided it might be a good bait for early summer so left it in the frezzer for a while, gave some away etc in the hope someone would come back and say wicked bait blah, blah, blah.

Testing a bait on your own is hard work LOL, Mr Wrongen took some and said this is good stuff, why arn't you useing it? I explained I have but I recon it was a summer bait, he laughed and said that I should be pushing the bait hard on one rod and then accused me off trying to off load it on him LOL. My next big session wasn't for a couple of months but when I finally went I put it on one rod and had another bait on the other, OMFG! I couldn't keep the rod with my bait in the water! It was tearing off "in winter" it was anywhere between 0 and 3 celcius durring the day and F ING cold at night guessing -2 to -3 Mr Wrongen even had to pop to the lake to take photo's for me as I beet my PB Common by 5lb, I ended up bringing the rods in that evening, I couldn't cope with the cold the lines actually froze in the Delkim and my landing net stayed the same shape when I picked it up, all the margins started to freeze and thought this is insane, start again in the morning when Mr Wrongen turns up to fish.

I should still add only one rod on my bait the other was on a totally different bait from a different company, Wrongen turned up, I explained to him why the rods were in ect, all the action I had (only on 1 rod) 11 fish in 7 hours "in winter" he laughed and said he did check the weather that night and think "fuck Rich is out in this" I must also add the day before I had 9 inchs of rain in 4 hours according to the weather web site Wrongen uses (and now me) as Isaid he came down the night before to be a photographer and said he'd be there about 8-9 ish in the morning, he was there at 6:30 I think to see if I was still alive LOL, he did mention concern etc but were men, we don't talk like that do we! LMAO.

I put the 2nd rod on to my bait and for the day Wrongen played Gillie, a rarety, seriously it is rare! I showed him the rig I was using and explained all action was on my bait, he switched bait and f me he started catching, that day, evening and night we smashed the place! we had a good 5 day session and vowed a return next week, and we did, this time Wrongen was there a day earlier than me and already had started to smash the place, I turned up, everyone but Wrongen was blanking, people had been asking him what was the bait etc, NEVER on that club water tell people what you are catching with there will be all 90 members using it 2 days later, Wrongen explained it was a custome bait of his mates, when asked what it was called Wrongen gave it's name over freely, "Chainey" that's a fucking weird name came the reply, He's a weird fella Wrongen said, and with a flee in his ear off went disgruntled angler. I turn up start fishing, start catching LOL, everyone else "blanking"

I have recently had a report of Admin seeing this bait in action as well, 5 mins wasn't it admin? LOL

I know it's not all the baits work, placement is alot to do with it, but that bait has smashed that water 2 times now when others are blanking, OK Wrongen and I have taken the time to learn the water and can place a bait in any swim we fish but let me say the rod I didn't have much action on that wasn't carrying my bait was also placed! I had 2 fish on that rod until I put my bait on it and then it took off just like the other one.

A big test is gonna be the week long were doing as from this Saturday.

fingers crossed, different venue, different fish, harder to catch!

hello m8,i know the boys from premier well and they are quality bait makers no doubt,my main thing about bait ingredients is why they work(olfactory feeding triggers) i have been studying these for around 10 years now and to know why things work is a big advantage,you have to go a lot further in to it to really understand why that certain thing works,all the baits i have made i have never used a colouring, to much robin red puts an end to that(lol)as for flavouring if used at the correct levels we can hardly smell it,i agree with you and big ron no need for it and of course you av to use a bit of water craft.

I understand what your saying, and as I said, I went away and did my homework, the bait came to me a grey wishy washy colour I wanted it the red I describbed, premier also will not add colour to there bait, I fished the grey stuff and all was well, my bait is now red, why, because I changed the ingrediants slightly to acheive it.

Does clour matter as much as decent additives and ingrediants... NO
Does colour matter... YES...(imo) just not as much as above.
Don't get me wrong if a bait I want isn't in the clour I want it doesn't mean I wont buy it, but if it is the color I want as well as the flavour then I am one happy chicken!

I am just talkig bottom baits here BTW when it come to pop ups I want them in all the colours of the spectrum!

It's my opinion that alot of bait is a punter hunter, it's nice colour and smell ect that really is mainly for the angler, carp don't smell, they taste, they notice changes in the water in the area your baits in.
Does a carp know a bannana boilie is bannana? I doubt it.
But if said Bannana boilie is made with the love, care, knowledge and research that any good bait maker put's into it, the carp don't give a damn if it's bannana or bloody cola, what it cares about is protein, The attraction isn't the bannana flavour, it's the stuff that makes the flavour, the base mix, the oils, acids, your obviously incredably knowledgable at at your craft, I can only hope that I continue to learn the craft and be as good as people like yourself and Tony from Premier, I'm not interested in being a bait maker (I think) I'm just interested in making a great bait or 2.

This is the thing with food ingredient you can create a desired colour with foods red, brown, black, white, yellow, green but as you said can be over done with coloured spices and other ingredients this is where you need a fine balance and would be better to stick to low levels and bland colours.
If you have ever tasted powdered food dye disovled it makes you wonder why it is piled into base mixes?
The same goes for such flavours like tutti-futti in its almost neat form it knocks your head off and gets down your lungs and you cant breath and very difficult to work with but what the end product produces is prob one of the best smells ever!...
who'd know?...