The small lake outside my kitchen window about to freeze over this winter - again! But it's an ideal time to experiment with baits for such conditions!

Incredibly potently stimulating maximised ttotally unique homemade baits can be created and optimised by the homemade bait maker using a multitude of ways and means to out-fish readymade baits!!!

Water density is a very interesting thing because around the point of freezing, water density changes. This makes the formation of ice and thawing out of lakes quite an exciting time because carp respond to the water density changes.

It is well known for carp to break the rules of anglers' incorrect expectations and many winter carp get caught right at the points and locations in lakes where active icing over and defrosting is taking place. It may be cold but the water density is very often the more important factor in fish feeding behaviour!

When winter and spring water temperatures struggle to get above 3 to 6 degrees, for example, it can be really tough to get bites. Part of the problem is achieving the correct, most suitable concentration of stimulating signals pumping from your baits to the fish to actually make them aware of the potential food source nearby, that is actually worth the energy expenditure, or even in regards to the possible digestion of bait in such conditions!

Consider that maggots will slow down their movements pretty quickly and will have already dumped their initial burst of excreted ammonia and amino acids etc into the water upon their initial introduction - leaving little to attract fish onwards! It is no surprise that most often concentrated pastes will out-fish boilies, pellets and live baits after initial introduction. It shocks me when I read about people like Ian Chilcott talking about having to go onto maggots in cold water conditions from his favourite readymade boilies; he just needs to understand more about bait formats and substances and how they work in different ways in solution, and in regards to fish external and internal systems. Maggots are far from being the automatic or best solution particularly the moment their movements slow down and stop meaning the vibrations their best advantage in attracting carp dies!

Due to changes in water densities and other factors in rivers, winter baits need special properties if they are to be far more productive than usual but this is not limited just to using extra-soluble substances but also relates to others aspects such as substances that carp most easily detect in very low concentrations, as well as things like special substances that will provide a sudden behavioural change or metabolic or energy-boost when detected - even in low doses. Certain flavour components and combinations will do this just on their own, while bait additives and ingredients add to this effect in many ways for longer durations, with better leaching and attraction and stimulation properties.

Extremely effective cold water baits are basically 2-way pumps that take in water that replaces bait substances within the bait, and in this exchange, pump out stimulation and attraction substances in concentrations that fish easily detect in the water solution contacting them (even at range). Ionic exchange is central to much of this, although certainly not limited to it, as this is only one way baits operate in water and on fish senses. The way substances trigger carp receptors in different places on and in the body are also an important part of the success equation, but how a bait impacts all senses simultaneously or just one aspect can be a key to success also.

Well over 90 percent of all readymade baits are not optimised and maximised to achieve these effects (they are optimised for profits instead!), so the ionic exchange and hence the impact of the bait components on the water and fish senses is very under-optimised compered to what is actually potentially possible due to design and profitability constraints, and also angler expectations of how the bait will behave in the water.Most anglers want baits that 'look' and 'smell' like a bait their mind is used to, but just becuse a bait catches it does not mean that format or design is the best possible solution - it could be a relative barrier to success when so many anglers use that format. Even maggots results slow down when carp have become wary of them...

But of course the homemade bait maker, doing things on a smaller scale, has no such restrictions and can choose very specific substances to significantly boost the bait's properties, for maximum impact and effect!

For instance, when I am sensing and assessing a bait or new potential bait substance (or substances in combination -  some substances get active or change their chemical structure and are much more noticeable when combined), for me it is not about a tongue taste or a combined nose or tongue impact that is important - but a deep gut reaction. Some substances are almost invisible to the senses when used on their own but in combinations with others can be made far more active or potent in impact and effect.

The winter and spring test paste bait pictured contains a high level of long-range attractors that stimulate protein-orientated feeding, plus it contains hemp oil and highly water-soluble additives and ingredients. In the test glass here, it is breaking down in an hour, releasing a potent red (and also clear) halo of attraction and stimulation for fish to easily home in on when used when fished!

This homemade bait formulation can turn the water to a suspension of semi and fully water-soluble attraction to seriously stimulate feeding!

 High phosphorylcolamine (PPC) liquid lecithin is an essential component of cold water baits for me - as a proven feeding trigger (Re: Harada) as it emulsifies oils and improves bait digestion and substance hydration and dispersal, among other benefits - see cwbaits.co.uk for the premuim quality version of this!

*A snow fall in March need not be a bad sign at all - with the right bait know-how!

By Tim Richardson.

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