By Michael Koester

 

Have you ever thought about fishing with the ultimate bait. Carpfishing would be so easy. But what should an ultimate bait do or what kind of bait must it be.?? I have read a lot of carp mags and books especially english

publications. All I learned was that each company has a so called wonderbait or a bait which should catch the big ones. Alright so is this the answer for our question?!! No. I donīt think so.

First there is the price of such a bait. Of corse these proven baits will work and if the aplication is allright you should catch. But must a bait cost a lot of money and could a bait itself catch a fish??. A bait could not help you to find a feeding area or creating a new hot spot. But if it is not the bait itself wich catches the fish what is it?? The thinking angler will catch the fish and it is the bait which he uses in which he is confident. It could be a boilie a past or particles. A feeding carp will feed everthing which looks like a bit of food. Or do you think that a carp won`t eat your corn and look for the ultimate bait??? The best bait is ( here comes the secret) the bait which the carp fed on. Think about it!!

I start to think about bait each season and try to find a better bait or even a more attractive bait for my fishing.

I try to explain what I did the last season. I think, that I had a bit sucsess in thinking about my fishing and the way to fish. The last three years I fished a basic fishmix with good sucsess (See the receipt at the end of the article). I talked to a baitmanufacture about changing my bait and he laughed at me. He said why should you change your bait when you still catch fish on it??

He was allright. I decided to change only one thing. I added to the mix dried insects ( a new ingredient ) to cremte a more interesting

Bait. When I started to fish a new venue the river ruhr in our area I used from the beginning my fishmix. I know that this venue is high pressured and the most angler use standart readymades ( fruit and cream flavours) and troutpellets as loose feed. Theo caught there fish on a regular Basis when the season Starts , But Theo the fishing Solls down. So I used bigger pellets and my fishboilies. Pop ups as hookbaits, because the standart was to fish bottombaits.

I had sucsess from the start but I find out, that the action came allways not as quick as the action on the other baits. The fish I caught have been bigger than the fish on the standartbaits used by the other angler ! One point for me!! Yeah. After 6 or 7 session I recognized that a few people changed there tactic and start to use fishboilies too (readymades).... but without much sucsess. I think, that they have no confidence in the bait and they could not wait to get the fish feeding... Another point for me. But there was another weapon in my armery. I started to introduce tigernuts on a regular basis. When I got a fish and sacked it overnight I recognized that the carp had eat tigers. At this stage I was the only angler who fished tigernuts. What a sucsess for me. I had a lot of fish and

I caught my first 40lbs 7 oz mirror carp. Another thing happend.

On the weekend where I caught my fourty. I have been the only angler who caught over the weekend. It starts in the first night when I had two doubleruns. What a night for me I had 2 30lbs+ mirrors and a 28lbs common and a high double which I did not weight. The other day I had another 20lbs+ and at 6pm I got my fourty pounder ( again on tigers popped up). The standart baits caught only one low double. Only one angler tried to change his setup when I told him to use a short hooklink with a popped up tiger... What should I say he got a 30lbs common!!! The other blanked. The next weekend I have been out again. I had three other fish over 20lbs. All on tigers. My friend fished three rods and he had nothing. He changed his tactic the next trip and he fished one rod on tigers. He had 5 runs and caught 4 fish 2 over 20lbs with the biggest of 29lbs. Wow the tigers count again. The other had nothing and they start to make jokes about me ( Kevin Koster ...).

The next trips to the river we had the most sucsess on tigers again, with a few fish on bottombaits ( my fishboilies now they worked instantly ).

The result was the best I ever had: This season I caught ( the most fish had been caught on the river ruhr but a few also on different lakes, where I fished the same style) a few less than 10lbs more than 60 doubles, 23 20lbs+ fish up to 29lbs, 3 thierties best 38lbs, and the fourty pounder.

There was one thing for shore for me. And I learned a lot of things. The first thing which I want to underline is that I had only the sucsess because I started to fish a bait in what I was confident. The next thing was to try out a thing or two which was complete different. Tigers have been the key to late season sucsess but I also caught fish on my standart fish mix. I can remember, that on most englisch waters nuts are banned, because they outfished all the other baits. I never thought that this will be the same in germany but now I know it is.

The season is now slowing down and I fish a different venue. I use a birdfoodbait (thatīs the choice for my winterfishing ) because a fishbait is not the best winterbait. After a few blanks and a lot of time without a fish I start to think about a better bait. Should I add a new aditive like Betain HCL or robin red, could I create a much more better bait perhaps the ultimate bait...... but why should I do this........I found the "Holy Tigernut".

Here my receipt for my fishmix:

20% Semolina yellow

10% Full fat soya flour

10% soya flour ( less fat)

10% Egg Albumin

20% White fishmeal

20% Sardine & Anchovy meal

I use 10% dryed insects

Or use 10% robin red!! ( Iīll use it in year 2000)

The total cost for the mix should be less than 4$ for the dry mix. Simply add 10 medium eggs to it and youīll get 1,5kg of bait. I did not use a flavour but I dipped my boilies.

So if you donīt try you could not say that I did not warn you because I try to get Big fish in year 2000 (Entry for the big fish award again??) !

Happy milenium for you my carpfishingfriends.