Look at the many common ingredients used by bait companies and realise that these can all be danger reference points to fish hooked on these or have experienced their brethren being hooked on these. No matter what the food value of any bait, if it is perceived a threat fish will either feed more cautiously in its presence, or actively avoid consuming it.
Think about the numbers of carp waters where washed out boilies seem to be the form that fish prefer to actually feed on! Think about why so many boiled baits are not taken quickly. Instead of fresh baits being taken on first introduction, you may have situations where carp are rolling over your baits but not picking them up. The fish are feeding on your baits, but the fish are in reality filtration feeding on the dissolved substances releasing from them (and feeding in this way in total safety!)
Fish in highly-pressured lakes will wait until fresh baits are beginning to be pre-digested by microbial organisms in the lake bed sediment etc before consuming them with total confidence. So you must think seriously about making your baits energy-efficient as possible by making your baits as enzyme-active as possible!
Such wary big fish will definitely feed on baits if they are broken down and not in whole round form. I found this for years comparing fishing over intact boiled or steamed baits and broken down baits. In the end I opted for fast-steamed hook baits and un-cooked PVA baits and un-cooked free baits.
My entire fishing thinking and dynamics of baiting strategies changed. And my results also changed. More big fish, faster; much faster, without the long-term build-up of establishing a food bait. I fish in the moment one fish at a time, one pick-up at a time and use the best of what I know that truly optimises baits for internal and external activities ultimately in maximizing feeding responses in real time, right now.
Life is too short for any other approach. I spent 25 years using countless HNV and BNV food baits and found my own new approach which is naturally instant, evolving it over the course of a further 10 years. It is based purely on testing and how fish evolved and upon exploiting dynamics and substances, processes and combinations and certain what some might consider, extreme levels of certain (natural) components that naturally trigger feeding the most irresistibly.
The common components of very many readymade boilies can be listed and then removed methodically from your own baits. This may sound strange but when you realise that common materials used in food baits can in actuality be danger reference signals and also represent nutrients and other factors that due to the volumes being introduced, carp actually do not require!
So trying removing various most commonly-used components and replacing them with new, rare, unique, never used previously ingredients, additives, extracts, liquid combinations and levels etc. Be as unique in your creative process as possible. For instance use fennel essential oil instead of aniseed. Use multiple forms of intense sweeteners in very low levels instead of just one or two. Use multiple palatants and blend them to create new unique blends.
Do this for flavours and essential oils, esters, and any other substances and see how they blend together and act when immersed in water. How well do your blends work the entire water column from the bottom to the surface?
Try cutting the amount off egg you use and substitute it entirely, especially for free baits. Imagine how much more soluble and digestible your baits will be without eggs. How many eggs can you eat at one time? Think out of the box of what has always been done! Being different has always been a massive edge in big carp fishing. The readymade bait marketing industry so often tries to funnel your thinking in a single group mindset of how things should be done!
This leads to most people all doing the same things, thinking the same things and catching the same average amount of fish! Aim to be exceptional and do not settle for average numbers of fish. You can genuinely catch four times as many fish with enough knowledge of homemade bait design! You can achieve staggering levels of stimulation built purposely within your own unique baits compared to average commercial food boilie baits!
The difference in catch-results between superior homemade baits and standard fish meal and carbohydrate bulked-out readymade baits can truly be enormous! 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.