It often only takes a little extra attraction and stimulation in the water close to your bait to induce a fish to become excited enough to take it and give you a bite. Being able to make your very own homemade fishing bait flavours instantly is a really effective edge that can avoid a fishless session and catch you big fish. Find out how!

To multiply attraction in the general vicinity of your swim, make your ground baits with more soluble ingredients like sugars (or syrups) which adds fish feeding stimulation and opens it up more to release attraction. A constant supply of very highly soluble baits and attractive sediments forming on the lake bed, especially when the ‘going’ gets hard is one of my favourite ‘edges.’

I could go into the advantages of the ‘hygroscopicity’ and solubility of many proven bait ingredients, flavours and additives etc; but that’s for a different article. (Some flavour substances have unlimited solubility and therefore are far more effective in dense cold water!) But I’d like to give you a tip for making an ‘alternative’ cheap and highly effective ground bait and hook bait boosting ‘instant’ bankside or homemade flavour mixture!

First, make yourself some tea. (Yes I know; it’s very ‘British,’ but there is a very good carp-catching reason for this; as you will see!) Check your tea bags are the right ones for the job! Along with the usual green tea, add a generous amount of sugar. Have a few sips to give you some inspiration and think how you can make it more attractive to carp!

Now if you happen to have brought along your herbal teas then you can create an instant flavour ‘on the bank flavour!’ Choose your selected tea bag flavours and put about 7 bags in half-pint cup. Now onto them only enough boiling water to cover them so you will create a very concentrated flavour when you have finished! (In fact it will be almost syrup!)

Always add sugar or other such sweeteners and loads of them in low temperatures; as these are well proven readily soluble carp feeding stimulators. If all you have available is saccharin or a slimming type of intense sweetener, then use this. Any bitter back tastes can be smoothed-off by the sugars and naturally potent flavour components in the tea:

Examples of teas you might use are liquorice root, cinnamon and apple, cranberry, blueberry, blackcurrant and pomegranate, strawberry and acai berry, peppermint and honey, etc. Adding some milk powder, or a handy ‘dash’ of soy source, ‘Worcester source’ ‘Ketchup’ or hemp oil, provides some added nutritionally stimulatory ‘kick!’

When the tea has well brewed (after at least 5 minutes preferably longer,) squeeze out the juices from the tea bags, remove the bags and give your mixture a vigorous stir and; ‘voila!’ (You can credit me with this trick!) Soak your baits in this new unique flavour brew while still hot, or leave your hook baits in the hot flavour in a pre-heated flask. (You can let me know when they ‘steam-off’ with a cold-water fish attached!)

When you use your instantly-boosted new baits; they will literally be ‘steaming’ attraction! So; good luck, wrap up warm and ‘tight lines!’

By Tim Richardson.