PASTE BAITS AND GENERAL BAIT EVOLUTION

Hi Lads,

A little background on paste baits & general bait evolution might be in order. A paste bait in Britain is basically anything which remains soft enough to mould around the hook. They are not cooked in any way, they are one of the first "inventive'' baits to be widely used & even bread can be made up as a paste. One of the earlier pastes was simple 'Honey paste', this was made by simply de-crusting stale sliced bread & mixing with honey, kneading with your hands, untill the desired consistency was reached.

Many other things could also be used ,such as "Marmite", peanut butter, and other cake type & biscuit (cookie) ingrediants. When the boily boom came, ( mid 70's) some of the new found ingrediants were also suited to paste baits, The milk proteins (sodium casienate) was used to make a high protein paste & the idea of a paste was that it should slowly dissolve into the water. Unlike the pack baits however, they remained glutinous(sticky) enough to stay around the hook or moulded on a hair rig & could handle quite serious casting distances. At about the same time the luncheon meats, tinned fish & pet foods were enjoying some attention too also trout pellets.

I personally found the tinned fish made into a paste (that word again) was an exellent bait but with the fault of being too easy for the carp to strip off the hook, (I was not using hair rigs then). However there were waters where many of the above baits did not seem so effective, these were thought to be rich waters with lower stocking density. They were teeming with natural foods, & it was here that one of the pioneers in Britain made big in roads into some of the harder British waters with particle baits. Almost every pea bean & seed was used & slowly a pattern emerged about just how to effectively use these baits & for what reason.

I had a good go with particles in Britain & my fav's were undoubtedly Sweetcorn ,Peanuts ,Tigers & Hempseed. Chicks were good & also some of the beans (blackeyes & soya's). I used boilies with some trepidation at first as the results were initially slower than some of the 'old favourites'. Eventually though , whern I learned how to make them & use them effectively my session results tripled & more ! when I would have a good day & catch say 3 fish, when using boiled baits 10-12 fish became the norm. For years "BB's" became THE bait & it was not untill

I came over to Canada, that I once again experimented with all the other baits. I still take boilies with me & catch some fish but I would most definately not go out without the "all time superbait" . I think bait preparation & inventiveness is one of the things which keeps us carpers on our toes, probably more than in any other branch of fishing. What N.A has taught me more than anything else is the need for versatility, & now I veiw any aspect of the carps adaptable nature as challenge & boy is there some variation in these waters. Take a look on my page & the index page will show you what I mean ! also have put in a write -up by the CAG big fish winner Scott Osmond, here is an example of the elusiveness of some of these carp, what an exellent result for Scott. Take a look when you all have a chance & dream on ! There is a fish of a lifetime if I ever saw one.

Tite lines & happy carpin'

Carpsava Steve in Kitchener, Ontario

Let's go Carpin'---- Carpfishing in Canada

Visit Carpsava at, www.geocities.com/carpsava/