Bait, or to be precise, boilies, are to some, a necessary evil to catch carp. With so much available and so many phrases used to get you to buy it, I wanted give you more of an insight/knowledge as to what things mean and what bait sellers or even anglers promoting baits are saying, which they themselves might be a little naive to. It happens right. In essence, phrases you may hear on a regular basis on social media, may sound really impressive, persuading your thinking with Jedi like powers, blinding you with science and having you part with your green, to the point, it impressed you so much, you bought the company!!
I decided to get the crayons out, put a type of glossary together to help explain the guff you may hear, when a bait is bought out, or given an OTT review, plus an insight or two, that stems from that mighty echo chamber of carp fishing delights. I’ll try not to get overly sciencey because there’s no need for it. I am looking at explanatory for the masses…and as much as I know, I don’t want to get muddled either :)
So starting lightly:
ATTRACTORS.
An attractor can be a liquid or even a powder used either in a bait(during production) or on it later to help increase its appeal to a carp. From an inside subjective point of view, if the bait is generally good enough, attractive enough, you don’t necessarily need anything else to ‘help’ it do the job.
SOLUBLE/SOLUBILITY.
If your bait is soluble ,it’s how quickly your bait reacts to water. Some baits are harder than others, yes. But this doesn’t necessarily determine how quickly they break down and ‘give off’ in water. A hard bait might be porous, so therefore the water might be able to penetrate quicker as opposed to a lesser firm bait. Its down to the ingredients. Some boilies won’t even go out with a throwing stick as they are just too soft.
Soft bait vs hard bait: once the bait hits the water it will go soft(er) over time, it just depends on your needs, and what ‘small’ risk you want to take with a softer bait coming off the hair…food for thought.
Ingredients that can firm a bait up, such as egg albumen, blood powder, wheat germ and even longer boiling times and even over drying can add to the equation. As ever its down to the producers of baits to determine the outcome. As much as anglers have their preferences, some may dry baits out before use (this is a good way to make them more permeable), some may soak them to wash out and soften them, but as mentioned in previous articles, it’s finding that goldilocks effect that works for you.
At the end of the day, you want water into the boilie, flavour out. Leakage!
PRESERVATIVES & STABILIZERS.
Both of these are regarded as food additives. Both are very different from each other. A boilie doesn’t need to contain either, but if you are looking at a shelf life boilie or a more physical and stable consistency, then both can apply to a point.
Preservatives are used to stop what what we would call bacteria or in a nutshell, mold. Giving you that shelf life, that most anglers require - keeping the food out of the danger ‘zone’, maintaining I guess you could say the nutritional values. Plus the preservation process does help with, what I have mentioned before, its life longevity from the moment it has been made at the factory, and its journey to the shop, keeping it as fresh as freshness in this manner allows. NB: All those little E numbers on your food labels are your preservatives, and also some with bizarre names.
Stabilizers, another mighty buzzword via the echo chamber. These are found in food, to help products maintain or help to enhance its primary textures and consistency. One of the single primary functions is to prevent water and oil separation, which if it happened, can lead to your product becoming degraded. It’s almost like a preservative.
Stabilizers are a blend of two or more elements manufactured or naturally found that can be powdered or liquid form. No two are the same. Different foods requiring different types, such as gum types or soft gels that can stop ingredients separating. Its really emulsifying at its best. Which is partly a reason for using eggs (yolks mainly) in cooking and even boilie making, natures own emulsifier. It helps keep fats and water altogether, so your oils and your flavours will combine just right!
PALATANTS.
A palatant is an ingredient or a collective of, to make food taste, well…better.
Used commonly in the pet food industry in either liquid or powdered form for treats and supplements, to make them more appetizing. Its the same for a carp. Basically creating a food source and making it appetizing to a carp senses - taste, smell even down to the texture.
Palatants can be of a sweet or savoury type, natural or even developed artificially. In some cases palatants are used to ‘hide’ or cover possible undesireable tastes that can occur. For example, some of us like a lot of sugar in our tea or coffee, because it has an almost dry bitter taste to it. Some of us like lemon in tea. Its the same with carp. Sweetners can be used as an attractor and again hide a plethora of odd tastes. Its all about how to use them. Everything and everyone wants to enjoy a healthy meal, but if it keep tasting like cardboard, then on goes the ketchup or the mayo, preferably not drowned in it though.
Some baits that have been thought about carefully, can start with a flavour in mind and then be worked up and around just that one element alone, in order to get it to be just right, sometimes this will remove the need for ‘extras’. But not always.
HYDROLYSIS, HYDROLYSATES and ENZYMES.
Terms well known, ‘related’ to liquids that we use on, or, even in our baits.
But what is a Hydrolysate? I will keep this as simple as possible again as the subject matter can get pretty deep technically.
Hydrolysates are the resulting product of hydrolysis and are formed from animal, plant or protein origin. These are ‘broken down’ using water, and for the most part output as a liquid. See it as a type of digestion that converts proteins into amino acids. Not every protein can be broken down, unless you start looking at specific enzymes.
An enzyme is a biological catalyst, breaking down your food for example to aid in digestion. Enzymes include amylase and lipase which you’ll find in your saliva, this will break down the carbohydrates and fats in your food before it heads on its way south to your stomach.
The entire process of hydrolysis has to be handled correctly because of possible by products, safety precautions are required during the process, as is a license when doing properly. Its not just a You Tube video of putting stuff in a blender.
AMINO ACIDS & PROTEINS.
As much as I use these words on our product descriptions, it’s when these two words are thrown around more than your gran on a bus, it becomes a point of contradiction - ‘this bait is packed full of amino acids and proteins’ - sound familiar??
Essentially, you cannot have one without the other…it is an impossibility.
Simply put, an amino acid is the molecule/building block, that combines to make protein. Both are the building blocks of life! When a protein itself is either broken down/digested, amino acids are the actual result. Again you cannot have one without the other.
Amino acids are found in food sources, which in turn shows you the relationships to protein. As an example, here I’ll use 2 protein sources that each contain 9 of the essential amino acids in our carp bait as we know it: fish and eggs.
So, to simplify we have fish meals from fish (of all things) and binders from the eggs. Both taken care of in that equation and both falling under the protein moniker and both contain amino acids
Lesser of, or should I say, foods that lack essential amino acids are, as 2 examples, Nuts and seeds. Both still contain them (aminos), among other things. Again, both are found in various forms in bait.
I am keeping this as basic as I can because this can become a very complex subject matter. But I hope with the toned down explanation you can see how it all relates.
LAST THOUGHTS:
With everything I’ve just written, consider this: the next time you buy food either for yourself or even your pets, do you actually worry about the amount of amino acids, protein content, what type of palatants, and the amount of preservatives the food contains?
I can guarantee you don’t.
Even though I make and sell boilies, I’ve done ‘my’ research as to what works, and works better or worse than other ingredients. However, in a slight contradiction, I am compelled to ask why do we worry so much, with what’s within a boilie, before we actually buy them.
We can catch carp on bread, sweetcorn, pulses and even pellets, we never seem to question the contents of any of them. Surely the flavour on the packet alone should tell you enough, like chicken and mushroom does on a soup tin, instead of guff from a social media video..
Cheers
Jay