BAIT EVOLUTION
Theory and practice
Carp have been bread and fed by humans and nature for thousands of years. A lot of it has changed since… Or has it? Following in the steps of evolution carp have managed to adapt to ever changing natural and human built environment. They have been cought on almost anything you can put on the bone, hook, wire, net… I haven’ t been here for thousands of years but in relation to simplicity, avilability and ease of use, corn, worms, crayfish would be my first guess for human induced carp food (feed, bait). Avilability of underwater flora and fauna determined how likely those would be picked up. We will never know who used boiled bait for the first time as there is many conflicting information avilable but we know who made it famous. Let’s skip the centuries and land in 1970s when first bait “revolution” changed things forever.
HNV bait theory – author mr. Fred Wilton
Fred believed that carp, like any wild creature, given the choice over time, would show a distinct preference for a food source that offered it the perfect balanced diet fulfilling all or most of it’s nutritional needs. Given the choice of a food source that is nutritionally nearly perfect against various much less nutritional food sources, the carp would show more and more preference for the nutritionally perfect food source, if it was applied to a lake consistently over a period of time. Flavours were only added to the baits as a ‘label’ and not as the primary attraction source. The base mix is what the fish wanted and the flavour simply allowed the carp to identify the food source and differentiate it from other food items. The term HNV or ‘High Nutritional Value’ bait started to be whispered around the very small carp fishing grapevine of the time (http://www.lacserreire.com/?page_id=2334).
In short, baits from that time were based exclusively on milk proteins and its refined products. They would usually comprise of 80% proteins and 1g/240kcal fiber. Name of the game was, higher the protein content, the better the bait would be. Fats, carbohydrates and fibers had no place in bait at that time. Typical ingredients: lactalbumen, caseinats, soya isolate, whey concentrate, egg albumen, wheat gluten, milk powders… (Zupanic, 2013:170)
Huge respect for extraordinary, pioneering work to mr. Wilton but as we know now… There were a few things off. To begin with, expression high nutritional value is meaningless in nutritional science. It should have been named hi protein nutritional value. As nutritional value by definition is nothing but macronutrient analysis. So impossible to judge as high or low. Does it mean bait with 99% fat is high in nutritional value as it provides most possible kcal/g? “Grammar” aside, baits of that time offered carp all essential aminoacids (but unfortunatelly hardly in correct ratios). Sadly something was even more off… The problem with baits based on single protein (AA) source (milk), was insufficient level and/or ratio of essential AA, bait digestion was slow and hard due to serious inbalance of other nutrients (fat, CH, fiber) that carp require. High milk protein baits are prone to “go off” very soon. But… “HNV” theory had more important impact in bait evolution than just producing the best bait ever… Those 3 letters kick-spinned the carp world… fast and hard at that.
Hi content of milk based refined proteins was the way to go
“Reversed bait theory ” (2nd bait revolution theory) – mr. Evert Aalten and mr. Ruud Jongens
Nutrition-wise boilies of that time tried to achieve some sort of balance between macro nutrients (P,F,CH). Even the vitamins found their way in bait design. Beside nutritional benefits, “newly discovered” carbs offered mechanical properties unmatched from before. Bait personalisation became possible, in contrast to almost no customization (hardnes and structure) options of “HNV” bait (Zupanic, 2013: 171).
Hi carb content was the way to go
BNV (3rd bait revolution -theory) – unfortunally still out of reach for most bait makers
Two protein content related extremes have now been defined. Now let’s put our theory in the middle. Balanced nutritional value theory, as the name suggests, stands for balance of nutrients provided in bait, bringing the best from both worlds (hi protein/high CH bait). Main focus is to provide long term balanced food source to carp whilst still offering high attraction properties and great deal of customization options. Emergence of hiqh quality fishmeals and other marine food sources, hydrolysed liquids and powders from plant, marine and animal origin and most of all with significant advances (or at least avilability of literature) in aquaculture and nutition science offered quantum leap in terms of bait making possibilities and undestanding of carp nutrition requirements.
Globalisation (digital university libraries…) made it easier to understand what carp need and what they like. Shortcomings of previous theories stood out like a DxxK in the kitchen. One (Wilton) figured out that carp need protein in their food. “Second” theory established carp respond well to and need carbohydrates, fats, fibers and vitamins but it resented protein content and their value. In accordance with scientifical findings on carp nutrition in the last decade or so, we now know and understand better than ever, carp nutritional need and AA composition of their body tissue. Bait should contain between 30-40% protein, 5-15% fat (lipids), up to 40% carbohydrates rounded with sufficent vitamin and mineral level, key word being their balance and sustained enery release. Along with balanced nutritional composition of the bait, the most important piece of carp nutrition puzzle was establishing appropriate and sufficient AAs content and their ratio. Designing the bait around eliminating every LAA (limiting amino acid) is absolute milestone in our approach. Providing all essential AA in quantity and ratios required, is way more important than % of crude protein in bait per kg. High quality of ingredients, their profile diversity in providing needed micro and macro nutrients, establishing their balance, provide long term bait that never blows and is super attractive at the same time… Just some pillars of balanced baits temple. So is this the end of bait evolution?
On contraire. We barely started to undestand the thing or two about carp. Dare to explore, BE the next legend!
All of our baits are designed and made in accordance with BNV bait approach. I’d like to think I made carp fishing simple again. It doesn’t really matter which (BIO-TAKE) bait you choose, because all of them provide EVERYTHING carp need. Different baits we make are just “tuned” to be ultra balanced and attractive for specific season. Just feed ’em and meet ’em.
Balance of nutrients is THE way to go
Nuggets of wisdom
1. Stay away from “HNV” advertised bait. There is no such thing as HNV and therefore people making it, obviously have no idea about carp and/or nutrition. If they actually make Wilton’s “HNV”… well you know by now why it is not such a good idea to use one.
2. Don’t jump on “dips”, “glugs”, “sprays” … bandwagon. They are nothing but hydrolysed extracts wit added ess AA dilluted with glycerine. Use undilluted natural hydrolysed extracts and be done with it.
3. Ultra, nano, super-trooper AMINO ACID ARTIFICIAL solutions… Well, sorry to disappoint you. They don’t work either. As suitable, proportionate and continuous AA leakage is impossible to incorporate in the bait itself. Soak the bait in NATURAL HYDROLYSED EXTRACTS and/or use PASTE.
4. Bait companys focus on profit, advertising and sexy packaging. Carp health is usually low on priority list. They spend fortunes on paying professional anglers to target specific venue with months of pre baiting and advertise captures on “next best wonder bait”. Angling on exclusive 100% pre reserved venues with big fish population and no regular homemade bait “joe” competion. On more occasions than I care to remember carp have been cought on completely different bait than advertised. Manipulations, lies and cheating of this kind make me sick!
5. Million dollar bait will catch nothing if you fish in the wrong place at the wrong time.
6. Only thing you need to suceed in bait making and/or fishing like a “Sir” is your determination, self-confidence, patience, sacrifice and decent bait offering balanced nutritional value.
7. USE PASTE! I only fish without it when I need to get some sleep.
8. Overwhelming importance of freshness and quality of ingredients can’t be overstated!
9. When looking for bait check for nutrition label, preservatives and flavour content. In most cases you are buying very expensive parfumed and colored semolina/soy “crap boilie”. It is so easy to fall for commercial bullshit about the best bait in the world. If you read half of the page… you should understand the basic rules of carp nutrition.
10. Most of bait manufacturers list almost every possible ingredient in content list. If they contain 1g of GLM, fish protein hydrolysate… It won’t do you any good. It is normal that every baitmaker keeps exact recipe secret, but 1% ? Come on…!
11. Don’t add salt to the bait itself. Himalayan blabla salt’s only positive effect is mineral content. But do your math and see if you need to add any in the first place. Otherwise… NO GO! U can use it on the outside of totaly dry baits. Wipe off before using.
11. I think there has never been more chemistry put in the water than this days, never so much commercial disinformation that does harm to the fish, never so many mass delussioned commercially poissoned anglers on the bank. I would like YOU to make your own bait. It is very rewarding, however very smelly and painful learning process. Once you understand and get it righ, it will give you the feeling of unimaginable satifaction. To be successful, read books, verify information sources, buy only fresh (with BB dates) ingredients, use your experience and brains, get acquainted with excell and build yourself nutrition library. Experiment, but don’t hurt carp sensitive receptors with artificial chemical stuff.
12. Carp eat a lot of things. Some of them, they just “mouth” and then spit out immediatelly. Will they get hooked in between? Possibly. Make them look for you instead with balanced bait and meet them often. Don’t have them spit out your bait, use the good one. Quality will provide the TAKES! Every day…till the end of days.