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…

Many anglers like to catch specimen carp and large catfish because of the great sport they provide, but the big ones are often far from easy to catch, but you can easily use specially adapted bait or nutritionally boosted ready made baits as a big lever! Both species have similar essential nutritional needs and physical structures and biology for instance to exploit in regards how they detect potential food sources and your baits! Catfish and carp have special cells in their skin all over the place in specific concentrations and adaptations that truly maximise their ability to find specific nutrients they need to survive; even down to 3 just 3 parts per million in the case of certain chemical molecules; so you might say fish are tongues that swim!

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!

It is noticeable that carp will detect various substances using cells and groups of cells that are specially adapted for the purpose, detecting particular essential amino acids especially well in certain combinations for instance. To detect foods and your bait substances special cells are found in fish in the skin, the face and head, the lips, barbels, fins, nose, mouth, throat and so on. You might wonder how carp detect oils in water, but even these are very slightly soluble and adding lecithins is an important point here too!

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 carp possess an amazing radar array with nerves all combining in the brain for the fish to respond appropriately to, and this is where we can truly exploit all these systems together in our baits and fishing approaches and tactics etc together in our favour, to make them far easier to catch! Obviously the more you know about what you are hunting, the more you can exploit everything vital to them, and carp olfaction and chemoreception are prime examples to exploit! You might discover carp become more predictable when you think like one rather than like an angler; even sensing weather changing and air pressure changes; many top anglers develop extra sensitivity naturally by being outside so much and this can act like a sixth sense when casting into a swim, choosing swims and so on!

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…

This kind of bait exploitation of vital fish senses approach can even give your own adapted or homemade baits greater advantages over other anglers competing baits. So as you can appreciate, it will certainly pay you to find out more!

By Tim Richardson.