If you want to catch more carp it is very advisable to put them at their ease right?! Many substances will do this in carp even as simply as by releasing more glucose into their blood (smoking does this in humans and is the first thing a smoker experiences.) Nicotine is a defence compound like hot chilli pepper compounds that stop plants from being eaten, however very many other natural compounds are addictive and are easily applied to your carp baits so read on!
You can be relaxed just by consuming food and drinks. You can easily feel the proof of this by drinking a warm sugary tee or coffee or having a beer and a smoke, or eating marmite on toast or a bar of chocolate or even eating a mixed salad very rich in minerals and other nutrients. (Now I have just mentioned far more addictive substances just in these few examples than most people will ever realise!)
Very often many of the best carp bait ingredients and additives are very obvious by completely over-looked. But everyone knows that ancient South American peoples revered chocolate (alkaloids) and took it with chilli peppers (oleoresins) and vanilla (terpenes) in particular and of course now it is universally eaten as an addictive fatty substance people consume on a daily basis. However, give a dog too much chocolate and you will kill it. In fact if you were to extract a drop of pure nicotine and ingest it you would very very quickly be dead!
So it seems that the natural substances around us can heal us, relax us, prevent and control diseases (e.g. cannabinols from cannabis plants) etc. But very many people do not realise that certain substances in cereals and milk are addictive, that fats and sugars are also addictive, but when consumed in high levels can kill you! The modern day diabetes and obesity epidemics are as much a result of sugar as anything else because it is converted into fat in the body! (It is no good eating a low fat diet if you go out binge-drinking regularly, consume loads of sugary fizzy drinks like Cola or eat loads of sugar-laden snacks.) Carp find sugars extremely attractive too and the instant energy hit it gives them is highly significant in their success quite apart from many bait palatability factors among others that are so important.
Although the bioactive compounds in hemp seed are different from the leaves of the cannabis plant one in particular is certainly habit-forming and carp respond to this in our favour; big-time! Hemp is regarded as a super food these days and hemp protein is among the best quality proteins found in the plant kingdom. But other foods can creep up on carp and become habit-forming including the lycopene in tomatoes and the cantaxanthin in shrimps and krill that give them their red colour when boiled.
But then other stimulants affect carp very well too, and the highly antioxidant pigment called carophyll in various natural and synthetically-produced forms have really proven their worth in carp baits universally and in additves such as Robin Red and substitutes for this. Robin Red is rich in sugars as is that legendary hydrolysed liquid casein product known as Minamino.
You can actually condition carp senses to baits using many of these substances to achieve competitive edges over other baits of competing anglers. Did you ever try those sugar free biscuits or sugar and salt free sweetcorn? You can taste the difference and in part your receptor cells have become adapted to expect sugar and salt in connection with so many foods. The same goes for the taste enhancer monosodium glutamate you find along with loads of salt in Chinese dishes for instance.
But the Chinese and the Thai people for example really know what they are doing when it comes to food recipes certainly in terms of what they do to your mood, mood-related behaviours, bodily responses, health implications and the way they stimulate you for example. Chinese 5 Spice is a great carp bait additive as is Thai 7 Spice. Even fenugreek, mustard and horse radish and soy source (as found in various Japanese food additives) are much more than they seem for they supply amino acids such as tryptophan which carp essentially need and which can be used to help balance out limiting amino acids in baits.
Stimulants are very interesting and often are related to antioxidants and lipids or oils used with great success in carp baits. Many of the best flavours have stimulatory effects and even blood-thinning effects which help raise metabolic rates and energy levels and promote better more prolonged carp feeding and improved bait digestion etc.
As a personal example you can apply to yourself to examine your own addictive eating and behavioural and buying habits what about this: I gave up wheat and cheese and became addicted to chocolate so I stopped that eating that and ended up started eating loads of crisps instead! I stopped eating crisps so I started eating loads of biscuits! I gave up coffee and started drinking loads of tea. One habit and craving replaces another! Peanuts and tiger nuts, Brazil nuts and almonds make great carp baits to a big degree because they have that natural chemical driven just one more factor. (They are far from being high in protein so please note that protein is not everything in carp baits and cheaper baits do work!) Note the sweet stimulatory amine substance called betaine is found in sweetcorn but this is not the end of the matter as betaine has many forms and natural origins and not just in regards to sugar cane and beets and various marine creatures either!
However diverse items such as seeds are rich in various fatty substances, certain sugars and carbohydrates in different forms plus many bioactive substances as they are live seeds (or corms) and are energy power houses designed to create new life which is very well related what so many great carp baits are ultimately all about! Tiger nut milk is used as a health drink in many countries and coconut milk is very healthy for many reasons. Its natural oils are one of the most noted in natural health circles, like those found in wheat germ and krill also!)
It is obviously hard to remove an addiction from our brain chemical driven behaviours and sensory preferences and even DNA! It takes time (and a suitable substitute,) but this all can be leveraged in our carp baits and not only on a personal level. The replacement of smokers fags for patches does not directly stop your craving but starts to recondition your behaviours making it much easier to stop. Thinking about how you can apply this stuff to your fishing, baiting applications and bait designs will certainly help your catches improve compared to your peers!
On the negative side, eating lots of white refined sugar actually alters your DNA and this is extremely difficult to achieve because food these days is poisoned with the stuff all over the place as it is with wheat but definitely not to good effect as it builds up negative health impacts and even hyper-sensitivity-related diseases etc. But then taking raw mineral-rich molasses every day is proven to slow down the aging of your hair and other parts of your body, as will antioxidant-rich olive oil on your skin! Exercise with drinking lots of mineral water is an excellent way to release those feel-good hormones, instead of binging on unhealthy stimulant, fat, sugar, carbohydrate and salt-laden foods and drinks which is all too easy to do today!
It is an hilariously habit-forming activity because your body actually begins to expect it and anticipate it to the degree you miss it when you do not do it due to the effect of those feel-good hormones released! Note: I stopped drinking caffeinated black and green teas and now I now have decaffeinated natural fruit and spice tea flavours with natural extracts. (Sure it is true that I have 5 bags in a cup, but I have not had a cold for 3 years now; all those antioxidants and other beneficial bioactives really work!)
On this point I will leave you to relax, have a smoke or another coffee and digest all this (or your curry if you are eating one,) and think a little further about the thermogenic impacts of the protein you consume because this is another very potent effect of many bait-making goodies too! For much more information on the simple basics and more advanced aspects of big carp bait making and readymade bait boosting and adapting of boilies, particles and ground baits etc, why not get my totally unique big carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks at my site Baitbigfish now!
By Tim Richardson.
