Friday, December 23, 2011

Guide to Mission Fly Fishing

To begin with fly fishing is fishing with fake or artificial flies attached to the hook. For best results these flies should look realistic and natural so as to catch the attention of the fish. Practiced in both freshwater and saltwater, this type of fishing is a favorite among many anglers but it requires one to master the techniques to attain success in this particular style of fishing.
The fly line is what sends the fly to the target; the line weight carries the hook through the air. These artificial flies are thus made with fur, animal hair, fur made of both natural and synthetic substances to make them lighter. These flies used for fly fishing are specially designed to different sizes and colors as well as patterns to resemble the local terrestrial and marine insects, baitfish or other attractive prey of the fish.
Fish like trout and salmon are the most common fly fishing targets. Bass, pike, carp, grayling redfish, striped bass, snook etc are favorites of anglers. Tuna, marlin, sharks and wahoo are some target fish for saltwater anglers. However for these big catches, one needs extra strong and durable rods, reels and lines.
So instead of rushing to buy fly fishing gears, you need to understand a few basic things. If you are a beginner, you need not spend a fortune in the fishing gears. Starting with the entry level equipment and moving on from there would be a better idea. Pre packaged gears are also available these days and buying them ensures that you are indeed buying a good quality gear. In this regard the best person to help you out would be an experienced fishing guide.
Joining a fly fishing club will do a beginner a world of good. This way you will be able to interact with other fly fishermen from your community. They are the best people to give you a few fishing tips, which will come in handy while you are at it. Learn the basics from the instructors. Practice fly casting drills and the place does not matter, even your backyard will do. Go through the books, magazines, journals on fly fishing, knot tying, fly casting and this way you can learn a lot about this amazing sport. It is important to know your local water if you want to excel in fly fishing. Last but not the least you need to be patient with yourself. No one mastered fly fishing overnight and nor will you. It will come to you with practice, patience and perseverance.
Once you learn to cast the line correctly and tie the knots with perfection and have acquired enough knowledge about the fish and their habitat, and gathered enough know how about fly fishing, you are ready to roll. Fly fishing makes a wonderful hobby. Not only is it a challenging way to catch fish but at the same time a great way to be one with the nature, out the beautiful surroundings. The places where fly fishing are practiced are serene and picturesque; so along with some satisfying fishing spree you can also feast on the bounty of nature.
Allan Simons is an avid fisherman from Australia. He is also an accomplished writer; he writes articles on fishing, fishing guides, fishing tackles and other such related topics.

How to Catch Any Fish - Bait Fishing Tips

 If fishing with a worm, try inflating the worm with air using a syringe (there are special worm syringes for this that you can buy). By doing this you can float the worm off the bottom and hopefully right in the fishes' faces. If you just fish a worm on the bottom without doing this they are harder for the fish to see and they can crawl under things and hide.
If fishing with live crayfish, try pinching one claw off. This makes them appear more vulnerable and helps them stand out more. To do this, just grasp one claw very firmly with a pair of pliers. The crayfish will eject the claw on its own and seal off the hole. If you try to pull it out it can kill the crayfish.
Try to use the smallest hook that you can get away with for the fish you are trying to catch. This will impede the movement of the bait less and look more natural.
When fishing with live bait it often pays to select the friskiest bait possible. This is not universally true, as sometimes fish are lazy and don't want to chase a fast-swimming bait. If that is the case you can bang the bait on the side of the boat or clip the fins before casting. This will disorient them and hopefully cause lethargic predatory fish to want to pick them off.
If fish are not in a biting mood, it usually helps to chum the water with bait. If you see fish eating the chum but avoiding your hook baits, try hiding your hook completely in a bait, throw in some chum, and let your bait free sink down with it. You can pull line off by hand to make the bait sink naturally in the water. This works great many times. To increase effectiveness try using a fluorocarbon leader to decrease the visibility of the line.
Be careful when handling bait. When using live fish for bait, try to cradle them in your hand rather than grabbing them hard. If they are wiggling around too much for you to easily put them on the hook, try holding them upside down. This disorients many fish and causes them to wiggle less.
If fish are holding deeper and you are using live fish for bait but don't want to use a weight, try hooking them above the anal fin. This causes many types of fish to swim downwards.
Check out great tips on catching over 70 other species of gamefish, as well as unbiased tackle recommendations and high quality fishing photos at my website: http://www.howtocatchanyfish.com



Thursday, December 22, 2011

How To Make Homemade Carp Fishing Boilies Part 2!


Making your baits different is a massive edge in carp fishing in winter or any other time! Achieving as many bites as possible means exploiting any bait design approach that will beat fish caution so inducing far more confident feeding! There are new and alternative ways to do this that can be incorporated into completely new and unique homemade bait designs. Yet many of these are not complex, and simply require a deeper understanding of the appliance of secondary school level science and knowledge of fish feeding triggers and are easy for anyone to apply in their homemade bait making!
I have used many approaches to creating various boilies, pastes, ground baits, particle mixes, and spod and stick mixes which exploit fish sensory systems and internal processes and also water reactions to many varied bait substances. I used to have a conventional train of thought about boilies thinking that there were really two main approaches.
These were over-flavoured instant attractor boilies, and balanced nutritional value boilies. I also started out thinking conventionally about boilies being in distinct groups based on their ingredients, for example milk protein baits, fish meal baits, yeast based baits, bird food baits, meat baits, marine derived baits, enzyme-active highly nutritional baits and low nutritional carbohydrate type baits, and so on.
But now I have a completely different view of baits and any distinct groups have disappeared into a blending of potentially any and all possible into very unique combinations, including many homemade baits I cannot even classify into any single or conventionally-related group.
I have designed and made some really successful boilies (unheated or just scalded not boiled or steamed at all,) using products rich in very uniquely selected hormone combinations which are highly stimulatory to carp and I have had some interesting exchanges on this topic with friends including Frank Warwick.
The exploitation of the chemoreception and olfaction of carp by natural and synthetic and other groups of chemicals is extremely effective and my choices of bait substances is not at all solely about digestibility or nutritional value of ingredients etc. Such factors can be utilised yet you can design baits purely on chemical attraction of synthetic and partially natural and analogue types of flavours and other easily dissolved and easily dispersed substances.
I am far more interested in the potency of individual substances particularly when in solution actively breaking down into the water. This is where boilies work at their peak and not as un-hydrated hard whole or trimmed down intact bait.
In my research for my carp ebooks I asked most of the bosses of the biggest bait companies in the UK how they thought bait flavours actually work to induce a response, either in terms of single bait curiosity feeding or repetitive feeding. I knew this kind of area was vitally significant to success, as the actual processes by which a soluble bait substance interacts with sensory proteins at receptor sites is a cornerstone of how baits actually work!
Only a couple of these people could offer any sound scientific help.
Rod Hutchinson simply asked me do you have all afternoon, whilst Ian Russell did not offer any insisting he just keeps things simple and offered no help which most probably meant he only knew certain flavour substances worked in certain concentrations and levels but not why and I was not impressed by him! Anyway many anglers including myself were using over-flavoured pop-up baits at range off the bottom and in the upper layers in the nineteen-eighties and before so that angle is nothing new or unique to him!
Ian Moore impressed me very much by his knowledge, yet the majority of commercial bait company bosses appear to be operating without a detailed scientific knowledge of how and why flavour substances work which is crazy and just goes to show that putting all your faith and confidence in readymade baits is not at all the best thing to do and that you can do just a well making your own truly optimised homemade baits!
In one article Mark McKenna stated that flavours do not work, and when I told rod Hutchinson and Martin Locke this they just laughed. Any experienced big carp angler worth his salt has exploited Scopex or Squid and octopus koi rearer flavours. I might add that Rod told me he does not call Scopex a flavour but something else which was an indication of the fact that many flavours are not exactly a simple collection of synthetic and natural flavour components and are far more bioactive than just that, and I can definitely include Richworth Tutti Fruitti in this class knowing what I do about elements of its formula (which will never be passed on!)
How strongly substances in solution either individually or in combinations result in the most potent nerve responses, brain responses and proceeding amino acid and hormone releases that directly promoting feeding behaviours is vitally important to optimise for maximum success. All these things can be simplified so that the starting points for designing baits come from sensory information first and not arbitrary or random personal preferences!
Boilies work at their absolute worst as whole hard baits. This is where the word boilie is history for me. No angler would actually boil their baits today. There is far more nutritional potency in consuming raw foods. So paste is very much a part of my approach and I even avoid fast-steaming or even scalding baits as much as possible. I have made homemade paste baits that remain hard yet water soluble for over 20 hours immersion in water without using any heating whatsoever.
That is the future. I have given a few examples of insights experiences and thoughts here and I am sure many of them go against popular conditioned thinking.
It has taken me over 30 years of making homemade baits and another 5 years of full-time researching into nutrition and many aspects of internal carp workings and substances interactions and reactions with water and much more to have the bigger picture I am now seeing. Even so despite all this effort I realise that the fact is the more I know the more I see there is yet to know but I do know for a fact that truly optimised homemade baits do not have to be extremely complex in terms of profiles and modes of actions to beat even the latest most popular readymade baits!
So many anglers today think it is right that they chop down their boilies, or use chopped boilies, or even coat boilies in paste. The fact is that boilies are not the optimum bait format because by definition their ability to become solution is limited by coagulated proteins formed during boiling, or steaming or other cooking. This means all these baits are not in truth actually optimised for nutritional stimulation and are certainly not maximised for peak potential performance.
This is why I love making my own optimised for performance boilies and knowing there is no-one else on the lakes I fish with baits anything like mine homemade baits. That is such a competitive edge that I laugh if someone on the bank inevitably asks me what brand of boilies I am using. Sure I am a consultant for CC Moore and their readymade baits are used by top anglers, but I choose make my own boilies because in tests I can match any readymade bait (including their baits,) that I have ever tested against my own homemade ones, and beat them.
Sometimes I have had to change the mode of action or levels of substances for example but I say this to show that the entire point of bait is to present as confident as possible a feeding situation. Nothing does this more effectively than baits with an overriding majority of characteristics that fish have no reason to fear due to any negative prior experiences of them!
Remember that fish survive by constantly evolving and adapting to any threat dynamically by adjusting their behaviours extremely quickly! That means feeding as carefully as possible on familiar but dangerous baits their brethren have been hooked on. It is my opinion based on experience that with unique truly optimised and truly maximised extraordinarily potent baits you can catch 4 or 6 times or more carp than those on popular readymade baits the herd are already on.
So when I get anglers asking me for help on their bait choices and they say in fearful words that Mainline Cell or whatever is dominating catches on their water I simply tell them straight to forget that because it is not relevant at all and bears no relationship to what they can do and achieve by not using the same bait as the herd!
Whether your water is low stocked and very naturally rich with a high pH or highly stocked and low pH with little abundance of natural food resources it matters little! You can create baits truly optimised for every individual water and unique fishing situation to maximise your fishing success!
Readymade baits have to be a compromise of customer expectations, profitable contents, effective contents and design, and duration of practical intactness in water again based on customer expectations.
They are designed to work to at least some degree on as many waters as possible yet are not optimised for performance on any water except maybe those of the actual field testers. This takes into account also the fact commercial boilies are heated so automatically not qualifying them as truly optimised for nutritional impacts and actual functional performance! This also applies to very many pellets which are heat extruded and so on.
If your idea of making boilies is to put a collection of random popular ingredients and additives together with maybe some liquid foods, sweeteners and enhancers and you expect miracles on a hard water by doing this by mixing all this into one big new batch of bait then forget it! This is a big mistake so many anglers I know make all the time!
Modern carp fishing is built on methodical scientific measurable results testing, and catches feedback and carefully considered refinements in measured increments. Therefore the most sensible approach is to make small test batches of baits and test these on easy waters and this way you very quickly discover which baits top the list of new baits.
In my experience to be in control of testing new homemade bait formulas and variations of these using what is termed a control bait is absolutely essential!
You must test any new bait versions against a control bait that produces fish very well indeed and obviously to find a reliable control bait is very easy to test for when you are using 3 or 4 rods! Top anglers will know that fish can be very taste specific and using different versions of baits on different rods really does produce fish that other versions using different levels of flavours and extracts do not produce!
When Kevin Nash caught his Essex record he had to test a number of new bait recipes before he discovered a formula that fish would actually eat and this says a lot about bait design and the limits of readymade baits on different levels!
One method I have utilised very much in bait testing is simply testing 3 test baits each with a different level of flavour or a particular extract within a very simple bait recipe of maybe 1 to 3 ingredients including liquid. I avoid using any egg for binding as this is the most common danger signal carp experience in readymade baits! I hope all this makes you think! Revealed in my unique readymade bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!
By Tim Richardson.
To make addictive economical homemade baits of every format including boilies, pellets, pastes, ground baits, spod mixes and more, now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with this totally unique powerful series of well-proven fishing bibles: "BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!" "BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!"
For these and much more unique revealing information NOW VISIT: http://www.baitbigfish.com
The home of the world-wide proven homemade bait-making and readymade bait success secrets bibles and more free completely original articles on carp and catfish fishing and bait success - make this year your best ever!
(The innovative bait and fishing author and bait consultant Tim Richardson is a big carp and catfish angler of over 35 years experience and has been writing, researching and testing material for articles and fishing secrets ebooks for 6 years full-time and helped anglers in 70 plus countries catch new personal best fish.)

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

How To Make Homemade Carp Fishing Boilies Part 1!

Find out how to make more potent truly optimised top potency homemade boilies. If your impression is that it is simply a matter of adding eggs to a base mix then think again because this is an old out of date paradigm! Design and make your baits right and you can genuinely fish with absolute confidence and out-fish any readymade bait available today and hold your own and even beat readymade baits that previously dominated catches.
Many commercial carp bait recipes are out of date by 30 years. The whole point of the most successful baits is to get most bites and hook most fish and not in fact to feed fish not with convertible nutrition! (Over the years anglers have been brainwashed by proteins!) You do not need to get mind zapped by thoughts of limiting amino acids. I have yet to test any boilie sorted for limiting amino acids that actually out-fishes optimised homemade baits not sorted for limiting amino acids.
The traditional way to make boilies is to use a recipe, 99 percent on the internet are based on conventional materials 30 years out of date. This also goes for a massive number of readymade baits by people who have no more creative a mindset than that. The more effective approach guaranteed to avoid your baits being ignored by wary fish (most highly desired fish are wary today) is to design totally alternative new unique homemade baits.
Do not worry; these baits do not have to be designed around high protein or even around balanced nutritional value types of thinking. Many anglers over the decades have been brainwashed into the impression that proteins and amino acids are the only feeding triggers that matter but the fact is that true carp feeding triggers are a far wider list and includes components and substances which have nothing at all to do with proteins.
Many anglers when starting out mistakenly think that using a bait based on carbohydrates is a simple easy effective way to get most bites. So they may make a boilie mix based on a dry powder mixture of soya flour and semolina as this is the most mind numbingly uncreative carrier type mix used over the years; however today fish are so wary and conditioned against such baits. I mean that you might simply add a flavour and sweetener and eggs to this type of powder mix but on most big fish waters today your catch results will fall very short of expectations!
One of the major reasons new boilies are brought out each year is because they blow. There was a time when it was considered that low nutritional value carbohydrate based baits with concentrated flavours lost their edge over carp considerably quickly, while high quality nutritional value baits do not blow.
But today most baits going into carp lakes are composed of at least minimal nutritional value ingredients and additives and liquids etc. However due to the pressure of angling and huge volumes of various nutritional baits going into waters there are many times when the popular readymade baits advertised in the flashy magazines simply do not deliver the catch results promised.
It is so hilarious to be on the bank of a carp lake and have anglers come up and immediately state the readymade bait they are using as if they have a major stake holding in that company or something. Frankly most anglers are so conditioned into using popular readymade baits that you can see the guilt in their faces when you suggest to them to try an different brand to their favourite, or God forbid actually design and make their own totally unique baits!
Carp bait only aim is to catch fish. Carp baits made to feed fish and provide nutrition merely are an expensive way for carp fishery owners to get anglers to pay to feed fish instead of them. I repeat that bait is to catch fish. You do not require massively nutritional baits to catch carp even against massively nutritional baits. All that idea is simply a myth. The old paradigms of baiting triangles exploiting conditioned habitual feeding of carp on familiar food items is merely one approach, one method of catching carp.
It might be noticed by anglers who are not so conditioned that instead of nutritional value baits catching most fish on a lake of extremely wary fish it is very often the case that the brightly visual, highly flavoured buoyant baits fished in upper water layers can very frequently catch far more fish than sinking nutritional baits fished on or just off the bottom. Things are so different today compared to 30 years ago when all carp anglers had no choice but to make their own homemade carp baits because readymade boilies simply were not available.
In fact there was a time when anglers used bottom baits all the time as the concept of using buoyant baits that could be fished off the bottom on a ledger was a well kept secret. Of course the balancing of baits and negating hook weight was always important to real carp anglers not copycat pretenders and even Richard Walker who caught the famous UK record carp of 44 pounds in the nineteen-fifties balanced his crust bait using bread paste.
Real carp angling is about appreciating the bigger picture, of how everything connects up, from how angling baits methods tackle and baits condition fish negatively particularly in a fishing environment now which is built on commercial interests where every new bit of tackle, rig, PVA product and readymade bait are jumped on by the masses and copied on their lakes thus immediately losing the massive edge they once were during the initial introduction.
The way that the commercial carp industry works is to hit the masses with niche and mass market products which will lead to maximum repeat sales for maximum profits. It is not predominantly orientated to give you unique competitive edges over your competition. It is about mass sales and mass marketing to a herd mentality! This herd mentality is a proven psychological expression of males between certain age ranges and is exploited in industries of many kinds including clothing, cars, alcoholic drinks, music etc.
The carp magazines are the major influencing media in carp fishing today and have seriously affected the ability of anglers to think as individuals on their own unique paths. In fact as I was doing my early big carp fishing apprenticeship I was advised to avoid reading the magazines by far more experienced carp anglers who actually sold tackle such as reels bait, bivvies, bed chairs and rods etc in these magazines, including Cliff Fox.
Today the industry actually leads the thoughts of anglers and I believe this is a serious flaw because it is original thinking that creates the most successful competitive edges in carp fishing!
Think about it; when the majority of anglers on the bank are using exactly the same readymade bait and same rig materials, dynamics and proportions and the same devices and bait delivery systems and methods the average angler does not see the bigger picture clearly. He is conditioned so much by fashions he cannot see that by copying what is instantly available to literally any other angler on his lakes he is actually drastically cutting his chances!
The numbers of times I have witnessed the introduction of new commercial baits on a water and seen how their success tails off dramatically the more fish get hooked by the masses using them is so many I have lost count and I include every single nutritional bait considered the new ultimate bait!
You might not think that nutritional baits do not blow when it comes to extremely wary fish. The fact is that if it is 50 times harder to actually get a pick up on a nutritional readymade bait that the herd are using because of the number of fish already hooked on that particular bait, what is the point of using that popular bait which is actually so counter-productive?
You might be aware that when the majority of anglers on a water are using the same readymade bait then most of the time it will appear that the majority of fish will be caught on that bait. This is simply because most frequently the majority of hooks in the water will be attached to that bait! It could equally be bread, blue cheese paste, worms or whatever is front of the fish the most.
But this does not mean that any particular bait is the optimum bait for that water, fishing circumstances, time of year or even the best method to catch the most fish or to choose to select the most rarely caught biggest specimens!!
I have been a bait tester for many companies over the past 30 years and so have been able to do comparative tests of low nutritional value boilies with homemade baits and balanced nutritional baits of so many formats and designs including those sorted for limiting amino acids and exploiting a range of enzyme reactions and other processes and modes of actions.
When enough fish have been hooked in a water there is absolutely no doubt that no matter what readymade bait is used they all have a reduction in catch rate the more fish get hooked and fish grow in levels of wariness. I can further state that where fish are particularly sensitive to fishing pressure there can come a time when a previously highly successful bait will not even be picked up by the vast majority of carp in a particular water. I know for sure Gary Bayes has the same viewpoint having described this experience to me.
I witnessed this phenomenon over a period of 3 years at a lake called Oak Lodge in Essex where Mainline Active 8 was a dominant winner and a favourite of mine and I spent fortunes baiting up the place and caught nearly all the big carp in there including most of the big thirties and even the upper forty pound leather. However many of my biggest fish did not fall to Active 8 at all but where caught on homemade baits, including the upper forty leather later moved to a syndicate water and featured in Nash Bait adverts with Kevin Nash.
In the nineteen-eighties into the early nineties for 10 years I fished a syndicate reservoir where the caliber of many of the anglers meant that they could make homemade baits easily the equal or the better of any readymade baits available at the time. At least one of the famous Gibbinson brothers fished there, and friends of Kevin Maddox also fished there and these were highly sophisticated anglers. I often fished along the bank to Cliff Fox, the now retired boss of Fox International.
He caught import whatever he wanted from the Far East and get hold of exceptionally expensive high quality protein substances and extracts, enzymes etc that ordinary carp anglers could not get hold of, or they had no awareness of. Yet even though being extremely high protein pre-digested nutritional baits, his creations would blow when too many fish were hooked.
The same happened to the fish baits exploited at the time in the nineties when Premier Baits mixes and bulk oils where jumped on by the herd. In the beginning results were better than average yet they soon dropped off on Shotgate and other baits and formats had to be used. I saw the same thing with readymade fish meals and so on at many other waters including the Essex Big Grange where I occasionally fished down the bank from Danny Fairbrass founder of Korda, whose catch results stood out no more than anyone else's.
I can say that I spent 15 years and more making homemade baits for a variety of carp waters in Essex and further a field in the middle of the nineteen-eighties fishing these very highly productively against a host of readymade boilie base mixes and further developed readymade boilies moving on from being low protein type over-flavoured attractor baits.
I then spent another 10 years fishing other waters including a very fascinating time fishing smaller highly pressured waters where your bait was so important that most of the time 70 percent of anglers fishing there blanked nearly every session. I did so much time on there that I noticed the patterns that went on. There was no doubt about it that these fish were acutely clued up and so conditioned by the previous years fishing activities and baits when every swim was occupied by anglers 24 hours a day. Those fish were incredibly wary! The fish were so wary that I avoided using a tackle barrow and avoided at all costs making any vibrations and undue movements on the bank even in darkness.
Fish would even stop feeding the moment people slammed their car doors closed in the car park and they knew very well when lines were in the water and when lines were removed. Frankly I could not believe all this until it was plain to see again and again. Many times I had to wait for the insensitive what I call pub on the bank type anglers and those thoughtlessly re-casting and baiting at totally inappropriate times and frequencies to leave the lake before fish would actually feed! Using a spod on this water was absolutely the kiss of death and bait boats turned fish off feeding too.
The over all action on readymade baits pattern I observed was that all the readymade baits used on there only had a very severely limited few months successful life, except for winter time when the lake more or less shut down as the fish stopped feeding because so few anglers kept bait going in. I know because one winter I fished 3 to 4 days a week nearly every week apart from when the lake froze solid on a couple of occasions and trying to break the ice was not possible because the ice was so thick!
At that time in response to this acute response from the carp in this instance I had to increase the frequency of altering my very successful homemade bait designs to keep on catching the very biggest fish in the lake. Also I stopped bothering using popular readymade baits having given up doing that in vain!
It was obvious that using readymade baits was a recipe not for success but blanks. I only altered my homemade baits because I was catching the majority of the big fish and was top rod and knew it was best to constantly keep ahead of the fish, and it really worked fantastically well. When the owner of a fishery instructs you to help other anglers catch fish because they are really struggling, then you know you are doing things right.
The strangest thing to come out of this time was that having focused on designing and making homemade baits to tempt the few big catfish left in there resulted in multiple and repeated captures of many of the biggest carp left in this particular water. I had achieved these baits by focusing my attention on the sensitivities of wells catfish (and not those of carp,) to a range of feeding triggers I had by trial and error over that 5 year period found produced far more prolonged and far more intensive feeding of wels catfish.
The results of this bait designing and bait testing resulted in the captures of all the big catfish including a few repeat captures. One early April session I hooked and landed the same 2 catfish twice each within a space of 3 days; one was a good fifty five pounds in weight and the other was 72 pounds.
Over all over 5 years I had over 30 catfish captures of fish weighing between 68 pounds and 120 pounds which was easily a record for that water at that time and for bait-caught not live bait-caught catfish this was easily a national record at that time even beating catches at Wintons.
I went onto catch the Kingfisher catfish record at Wintons too again using these homemade baits and the jealously in fishing was a sour theme at that time. Yet the best part was dominating the Essex lake with big carp catches and catching more thirty pound plus carp than anyone else using my homemade catfish bait designs applied to big carp! That was immensely satisfying as I had literally designed my life around achieving this and it took its toll on me in many ways.
Being top rod on a water for over 5 years really is about living being in touch with the water, with it in your mind while away while working and at home etc. Certainly carp fishing can be an addiction and obsession which is not to say it is all a good thing!
I hope you see some pattern here; that you do not need readymade baits to achieve great success far above average anglers using popular readymade baits! I did try to use a very conventional approach by using mainline baits at Darenth big lake and it was disastrous.
I simply could not afford to apply the kind of volumes and get in the swims that were hot so my results were very much hit and miss. It was a very frustrating time when I did not feel comfortable at all fishing like this. Yet the first time I designed a new homemade bait using some lesser used ingredients from Premier baits, instantly I hooked big fish!
I love small waters and tend to dislike fishing bigger waters where accuracy at range really matters. My distance eyesight is bad so casting under a bush overhanging an island feeding spot 130 meters away in a blustery crosswind is not my fantasy way of fishing frankly! I prefer to be able to actually see fish bubbling in detail moving in the proximity of my baits. Being able to actually observe fish responses and unique behaviours in the presence of unique new homemade baits is something that really fascinates me as this is extremely revealing.
For this reason I decided to fish Wintons Kingfisher Lake around 2005 and 2006 doing a number of sessions successfully exploiting totally new homemade bait formulas on each trip! This goes completely against the old school baiting triangle theory of nutritional baits long term. My thinking was to do exactly the opposite of the locals who insisted the lake was hard and insisted that when I started fishing there that I use mainline baits and halibut pellets. I did it my way using new baits designed further along the lines of those to exploit both catfish and carp sensitivities to a range of true feeding triggers, plus a number of dramatically alternative incitants and attractants.
By the time I had caught 3 different forties in 3 days and a couple of times had 2 forties in an evening the bailiffs and owner had taken a dislike to me. I thought they would be pleased but that was not the case at all. Still the fact is that homemade baits ruled during my sessions on there and those anglers on the readymade baits were so jealous.
But it was just rewards for 25 years of experimentation and total proof that avoiding using popular readymade boilies really works! Anyway on principle I would not pay all that money for readymade baits and going back in all those past years making baits economical was a real necessity so it made fishing such an over-priced venue even more satisfying! (It is such a shame that more and more carp waters today are run by greed-consumed megalomaniacs!)
Very small volumes of homemade baits made as potent and as optimised and as maximised in unique ways can easily out-fish far greater volumes of readymade baits and I can apply this to all the readymade baits I have ever fished in comparative testing. Less really can be more in carp fishing! Revealed in my unique readymade bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!
By Tim Richardson.
To make addictive economical homemade baits of every format including boilies, pellets, pastes, ground baits, spod mixes and more, now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with this totally unique powerful series of well-proven fishing bibles: "BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!" "BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!"
For these and much more unique revealing information NOW VISIT: http://www.baitbigfish.com
The home of the world-wide proven homemade bait-making and readymade bait success secrets bibles and more free completely original articles on carp and catfish fishing and bait success - make this year your best ever!
(The innovative bait and fishing author and bait consultant Tim Richardson is a big carp and catfish angler of over 35 years experience and has been writing, researching and testing material for articles and fishing secrets ebooks for 6 years full-time and helped anglers in 70 plus countries catch new personal best fish.)

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Questions You Should Ask When Buying A Used Fishing Boat

It is surprising what boats you can buy with your money in today's market, you can now buy a very good used fishing boat. When you consider buying used boat, it's always a good idea to talk to a person with sufficient knowledge about used fishing boats so that you avoid ending up with something that needs a lot of work and money.
The main purpose for people who buy a vessel is fishing, while there are some who buy boats for other purposes. Owning a fishing vessel is very similar to maintaining a motor vehicle.
If you buy the wrong one, the maintenance cost could be discouraging; therefore, it is essential to do some research about fishing boats that you want or prefer. Many second-hand vessels need some amount of attention which might be an advantage for you. You may be able to buy them and just repair the boat by yourself or you can seek for a professional to do the work for you.
With used fishing boats, you could have several choices. Purchasing a pre-owned craft is the most cost-effective way to buy. For most people it is not within their budget to pay out large amounts of cash on a boat. Similar to purchasing a car, you may wonder if it's better to purchase used or new, however, new fishing boats can be costly, making second hand boats more practical.
When you are looking for a craft to buy, you need to ask the proper questions. Here are some ideas on what you should ask and search for:
Ask the seller about the general information with regards to the fishing boat. Find out if the seller is the real owner. Ask specific questions about how the fishing boat has been stored, cared for and if the boat stayed unused for extended period of time.
Ask about the repairs the vessel has gone through. Ask the seller to list all the repairs for you and how they were handled. Was the boat repaired by an amateur or was it performed by an expert? Also, ask if the fishing boat requires any repair at the time of your purchase.
Obtain information with regards to the status of the upholstery, interior, and deck. Obtain details on the exterior cosmetics and hull. Feel free to ask specific questions; keep in mind that it's your money that you will invest on the boat, so be sure to obtain the facts.
One important question you should ask to the seller when you consider buying a used fishing boat is, "what is the reason you are selling the boat?" The seller may be surprised with this question, however, try to get an honest answer. If the seller's answer seems dishonest and shady, keep on asking questions so you could eventually get the honest response.
Find out if the craft has ever been involved in an accident. If this is so, ask about the result and how it was repaired.
Moreover, ask if the boat has undergone recent inspection or safety check. If not, talk with the seller to have the vessel inspected before your purchase.
If you are deciding on several used boats to buy, you need to be a knowledgeable buyer. So, spend some amount of time in doing your research to get the used fishing boat that is worth buying.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6735286

Friday, December 9, 2011

Fishing Rods and Reels and Fishing Lines

If you are fan of fishing then you will know just what makes it so addictive - it's the ability to constantly get better and to get more efficient at your game, and to get the impressive reward of bigger and bigger fish that you can show off to your fishing buddies and that will make you a legend among them. If you are seriously into fishing then you probably dream of being able to catch that huge meter long fish that you can hang a photo of on your wall.
This then is why it is so important to make sure to have the best fishing rods, reels and fishing lines, and by having the best items you can make sure that you are the most likely to catch the largest and the most fish. There are many ways in which having the best equipment can help make life easier and this is through the way they allow you to cast out with ease - if you want to be able to launch your line huge distances into the middle of the lake or sea with a grace that impresses those around you, then the best fishing rods, reels and lines are going to help you to do this. Meanwhile you want to have lines that are going to be not only resilient but also thin - this way they won't frighten away fish but also won't break when you are wrestling with a shark. The rods too need to be strong enough to fight against the bigger fish, but also light enough that you can wield them gracefully. The reel is the last piece in the puzzle and how it feels when you reel it in, and how unlikely it is to get stuck, are factors that again will contribute greatly to your success. It's very important to make sure that you have the very best fishing rods and reels if you really want to succeed and at the same time just looking at them and showing them off can be a great source of joy - some of the best rods are like perfect weapons in their sleek appearance and the way that they're balanced.
Then on top of this is the fact that better fishing equipment can help make the occasion more relaxing - if you're fed up of your line getting tangled, or of things getting stuck when you try and reel in then you'll know this isn't exactly relaxing (and many people will fish in order to unwind).
But if you're just getting into fishing then of course you'll need to start somewhere and any rods, reels and lines will do. Then once you've made your selection you can start to enjoy the feeling of relaxing while hunting, and you too can start to get addicted at this serene but compelling way to pass the time. You'll find that once you start you really can't stop, and before you know it you'll be wanting to upgrade your rod to the latest and strongest one on the market too.
Using the best Fishing Lines will help you get a great catch. The Fishing Rods and Reels are also really important to ensure that get a great catch.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Handy Fishing Accessories: The Essentials of Fishing

A good fisherman knows that fishing takes more than just rods, lines, reels, and lures; there are also a number of handy fishing accessories that can make fishing more convenient and efficient. Every fisherman's toolkit must contain these necessary accessories so that he can avoid being troubled over stubborn fish and hooks, and have more time to enjoy fishing.
A fisherman's tool, also known as fishing pliers, is a must-have for every fisherman. Fishing pliers are not the same as ordinary household pliers. The most common use of a pair of fishing pliers is to pry hooks from fish, particularly those that are embedded or stuck in the gullet. It can reach deep in a fish's mouth and safely remove a hook without much damage. A fisherman's tool is usually equipped with other accessories such as line cutters and knife blade. Most fishing pliers are especially made to be more rust-resistant than ordinary pliers.
A line clipper is another handy fishing accessory. It is similar to fingernail clippers and is used to cut lines. Attach the clipper to a lanyard and wear it around the neck; this will make the clipper easily accessible.
Another handy tool is a lure retriever. Although many fishermen do not think of this tool as necessary, it is especially convenient when a lure gets stuck under an obstruction such as a rock or a log. Since most fishermen would not want to dive in the water just to retrieve a lure, the lure retriever does the job. It is practically easy and simple to use.
A fish stringer is also essential, particularly if you're fishing from a boat or bank that does not have a live well. A fish stringer will ensure that you'll be able to keep your catch while keeping them alive. There are two types of stringer: rope and chain. A fish stringer is not very expensive and would definitely come in handy.
A reel repair kit is another of the must-have fishing accessories. It is particularly helpful for on-the-spot repairs and adjustments. A reel repair kit usually contains a set of small screwdrivers, reel oil, and adjustable wrench.
Every fisherman should also carry a bottle of sun block. Fishing is an activity that requires sun exposure, and too much sun exposure can lead to skin cancer. In order to prevent skin cancer, sun block must be applied to all exposed areas.
Handy fishing accessories are usually easy-to-find; most of them can be bought at a tackle store or a sports shop. Moreover, most of these accessories are not expensive; in fact, all of these accessories right not even amount to $50 in total.
For the best in marine electronics and boating electronics devices, visit Quality Electronic Sales.

Winter Carp Fishing Bait And Recipe Tips!

Get ahead this winter with these unusual and insightful tips based on 30 years of winter fishing experiences and big carp captures and make your ready-made baits and homemade baits catch many more big fish!
Very viscous and extremely soluble substances are very effective at catching more carp in cold conditions! Obviously highly soluble substances such as alcohol flavours are highly effective in winter, yet other substances that are less soluble are also very useful in achieving bites, most especially if they are emulsified or partly emulsified using liquid lecithins. Terpenes, oleoresins and essential oils etc are all proven winter winners.
Glycerol or glycerine is a very useful substance because it mixes with water in effect 100 percent, and many successful flavours are based on it. Alcohol flavours too are highly water-soluble so will travel easily from your bait, so forming a concentration gradient that carp can home in on. Personally, I find mixing glycerol and alcohol-based flavours with ones primarily natural ester-based or others, natural or nature-identical, or diacetin types, are very successful.
You can even boost a propylene glycol based flavour by cutting it with vodka (at home not on the bank preferably.) many things can be used to alter conventional concentrated flavours including natural raspberry puree, and a probiotic agent such as marmite.
Marmite is very rich in taste-enhancing factors for instance slats and glutamine. Adding Talin as an electrostatic carrier and also further soluble sweeteners, taste enhancers and palatants etc help produce very unique homemade flavours but this aspect is so huge I have written a book on it! I have been doing this kind of experimentation for my baits, both homemade and ready-made, since the seventies because it works so incredibly well particularly in cold water conditions.
But of course concentrated flavours are not the only useful substances; and some substances can be too soluble and actually leach out of baits too fast as they have infinite solubility, as in the case of glycerol dominated flavours, for example. It is wise to try mixing flavours and other substances so your flavours all leach out at different rates, leaving some concentrated attraction in the proximity of the bait. Using pure glycerine, vodka, and a mixture of concentrated sweetener and molasses and marmite, soluble fish protein and lactose, for instance, is a little bit alternative and produces different effects and impacts at different ranges.
For an easy homemade method or stick-type mixes, just make a breadcrumb based fluffy mixture dampened with your unique liquids to produce a ground bait mixture that will disperse easily, releasing soluble attraction and food particles into the water column and attract carp like mad! Using anything, from hemp oil, essential oils and fruit oils etc in your mix will get particles to pull fish down from upper layers better as the oil will tend to rise in water. Maybe add crushed tiger nuts (chufas) too as this will leave an oily layer on the bottom that will easily rise up when disturbed by fish and will excite them further still!
An easy way to make an alternative, highly over-flavoured area for winter fishing is to mix breadcrumbs with the old favourite Nesquick powdered milk shake. I really like using extra sweetened oils of many forms, provided they are mixed with liquid lecithins, but I advise you to avoid bulk fish and marine oils that simply solidify in low temperatures - test in the fridge or outside overnight using a thermometer if you are unsure.
While actually fishing and testing oils, I have found a thermometer placed in oils in a pot in the water is quite enlightening! This is especially since doing my bait kitchen video for CC Moore TV and researching more in my practical fishing for my unique Crafty Carper magazine Carp Food Column.
Fruit oils are easily available online, and you do not always have to go to fishing bait companies for something slightly different or alternative; after all, that is one of the greatest proven edges in carp fishing! Besides using any oils, I seriously recommend using the high PC liquid lecithin from Phil at CW Baits (online) as this will improve bait performance dramatically and increase digestion of baits as well as add further feeding triggers and nutrition to your baits!
Test any oil you use in your winter baits to check that it does not solidify in the lake water temperatures you will be fishing in. this might sound very obvious after all just how much harder is it for a fish to detect a bait that is simply a ball of fat, compared to a finding a bait that is very actively releasing oils that can easily disperse in the water? For example, in cold water, avoid using salmon oil, and use very viscous hemp oil, maybe with added liquid lecithins and maybe essential oils based on clove, cinnamon or chilli for example.
In really low winter temperatures, solubility really is a great factor that can be leveraged, and in such conditions it is often pointless using a conventional boiled bait coated in paste, when you can use paste on the rig and know every part of your bait really is working for you (and is not rendered ineffective due to being sealed inside coagulated protein formed by heating of the bait!)
I will not go into which bait products to use here because there are so many excellent ones for winter and spring fishing to choose from but one key aspect in choosing substance is how well they will disperse in water - and most especially in cold water! To find this out just get samples and mix them with cold water. In a way it is like testing salt against betaine crystals or whole milk powders against various caseins, semolina or maize flour - or against malt extract, for instance.
Just one example of a really good winter trick is to make a paste using CC Moore Feedstim XP Liquid, their Feedstim XP powder, their Belachan powder, pure betaine and liquid Red Venom, stiffened with good old whole meal wheat flour. Notice that no egg is used in this paste as you might in making boilies, as this bait can be as water-soluble as you like and will last longer in very low winter temperatures! Add milk powders in this bait for improved nutritional stimulation.
Milky baits break down and cloud water thus stimulating fish sight feeding behaviours! It is cheaper to use Vitamealo and Five Pints milk powders than caseins, whey proteins and caseinates however remember that using higher quality protein can really pay off especially for bigger fish! Revealed in my unique ready-made bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!
By Tim Richardson.
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(The innovative bait and fishing author and bait consultant Tim Richardson is a big carp and catfish angler of over 35 years experience and has been writing, researching and testing material for articles and fishing secrets ebooks for 6 years full-time and helped anglers in 70 plus countries catch new personal best fish.)