By Kim Wyatt

More of a bait does not make it better ,it just makes it more available.Quality of bait is an important factor and as an example if every paylaker on a water started fishing with black eyed beans even if the quantity of the bait being introduced into the water was ten times the small seed packbait the small seed packbait would be more effective as a catching bait.

One reason for that would be the "system" it is fished and the other would be the quality of the bait over black eyed beans. Paylake fish and from that I mean "pressured" fish as I personally have not fished for paylake carp have to eat and to the anglers advantage also have to compete with each other for the available food. From an anglers point of view this makes them" easy" .

Now before you all quit reading at this point and start beating the keyboard to death with the "try it first before you open your big mouth " hear me out. What I mean is ,is now it becomes a battle of wits . The carp wants /needs food and you are supplying it ,the first problem is the fact that you ain't the only one so you are competing also with other anglers as well as the carp.

Problem number two is the fact that paylaking is far removed from the aesthetic carp fishing that people like Carpsava and myself grew up with ( although Steve did fish College Resevoir in its heyday) so the carp are VERY aware that you are there fishing for them.

Problem number three is although carp are not capable of deductive reasoning they are able to spot some dangerous scenarios that are familiar to them.

Problem number four is you draw for swims/holes/pitches so if the carp have a favoured area then you have to be drawn on it.

Finally problem five is you only get limited time in a hole to catch your fish.

Problems 2,4 and 5 are part of the paylaking scene so you can do nothing about them but 1and 3 are in your hands and given that the problems 2 ,4 and 5 have not already sunk you then the fish are going to feed on your bait. From a fishing point of view that makes the fish "easy" although that is only metaphorically speaking as I have fished for bait dependent fish and would have had more luck trying to spear them.

I will go out on a limb here and say that if the paylakes were gin clear the packbait method would only work at night because although the carp would come in and feed on it in daylight he would recognize the pop as part of a danger scenario and leave that whilst clearing up the rest.

Now you should be asking well wouldn't a carp recognise a boilie as part of a dangerous scenario ? Yes the fish does but so long as it becomes like all the freebies and you give the carp nothing obvious to associate it with danger e.g.25lb leader sticking out of the bait then the bait is part of a quality foodsource that the carp has eaten thousands of and in its solitude is still sending out a "foodsource" signal.

Add that to the fact that the carps mate is about to eat it first then the carp has to make a decision to eat the bait or not and when it takes it into its mouth your chance to catch it just went up. When you take away the carps ability to "see" he becomes a little bit easier to catch although if he didn't have to compete for his food his natural caution would make him an almost impossible adversary. In this area the fish being overstocked works for you as the carp is aware that there is a danger in that little pile of food but due to competition doesn't have the time to assess the exact location of the danger.

This makes the bigger fish naturally more difficult as they are naturally more circumspect so the smaller generally younger (more irresponsible) carp pick up the bait (make a mistake quicker).

Probably although this is a WAG the worse a swim /hole you draw the better your chances of a bigger fish. This would be because the big carp wouldn't be competing with hordes of smaller brethren and would be feeling that bit more secure in a "safe" area thereby being just a little more prone to making a mistake. Here also bait attractiveness is more important than bait quality and while I'm up this tree climbing out on limbs I'll make another observation here.

To a paylaker bait attractiveness is far away a more important aspect than bait quality as due to problems 2, 4 and 5 he /she is looking for a quick hit as opposed to a long term result. When I refer to bait quality I'm refering to the ability of the carp to utilise the ingredients for growth , healing and general health not suggesting that paylakers use sub standard products as I am very aware that quality products form a large part of their armoury. (have you seen Shears van?? unbeliveable !!!!) .So..........I stated in an earlier post that I could wean/train get fish to recognise the "Boilie " as "THE" foodsource of most benefit so making it superior and more favoured than any other method and the thing that most bothered me was quantity of bait introducing it into the water within the rules.

When I really thought about it with the three rod rule it would be easy using packbait PVA and ten minutes between casts, in a 12hour match I could introduce 20lb of boilies and boilie mix so with a partner and some hard work probably within a month you should be winning most of the pots. Now if that sounds ridiculously arrogant or simplified before you dismiss it out of hand remember its never been attempted YET.

KIM