Beware – this extremely revealing article may contribute to you catching many more big fish as a result of you taking more interest in your baits from this moment on! When you think about the success of the well-known carp bait additive Robin Red you may not realise that it could have certain detrimental impacts on wary carp that are all too familiar with it; but you can alter Robin Red to make it different and perform even better to achieve a carp fishing year you will always remember!
You may know that Robin Red is a bird food applied to carp fishing baits for all the positive effects it has on carp health and on feeding responses etc. As the majority of ready made bait manufacturers use it in at least one bait in their range – usually a red bird food type bait or even a fish meal or meat type bait or forms of ground baits, over the decades it could have side effects with some fish. What I mean is that our baits are meant to attract carp and induce them to feed as confidently as possible, but what if an ingredient is so obvious and distinctive to carp that it reminds them of many previous experiences of getting hooked?
You might think this may or may not be a possibility, but as they say, the greatest edge in carp fishing is being different. There are numerous substitute Robin Red type products available. Certain versions I have used have fished just as well as the original version when fished side by side, but then the versions I have used have been either designed by bait makers with over 40 years experience or have been personalised by myself.
There is no doubt of the performance of the original material however and its versatility as a bait additive is literally limited only by your imagination. Below are a few things I have tried using to either make my Robin Red go further in a bait, or to differentiate it from the usual version, or to give it an extra kick of some kind or even to make the way water interacts with it different to some degree.
Note: You certainly do not need to be aware of literally all the components and ingredients used in Robin Red for your own alterations, or adaptations of it to be extremely effective in boosting your catch rate. Just remember that you would be wise to test any new bait on an easy water or in circumstances where you can fish and expect action readily. Doing this actually provides you with incredible confidence, especially hen you take your tested new baits to a range of new waters and they catch good fish straight away.
The best thing about testing your new versions of baits against your favourite readymade baits for instance is that your personal confidence in your baits is massively improved and stays with you. Also please bear in mind that certain new baits might be less instant than others, just as some commercial bait ingredients and additives and liquids may take a bit of feeding in advance for fish to really get revved-up on them. So do not go expecting every new bait to out-fish an established bait immediately (although some certainly will!)
I often make a slurry with Robin Red and mix all kinds of other stuff to it; you can pre-soak particles like this for instance and soak meat and other types of baits in this and other slurries too and the liquid Robin Red type liquids are not to be forgotten – including the CC Moore Red Venom which I have done extremely well on and contains an addictive component (that builds in effect the more regularly it is used!)
In winter and spring I have given Robin Red added lecithins to emulsify the oils. This can be done in advance of mixing with other ingredients. It helps bait performance overall in the water plus improves bait nutritional value, adds another Harada-proven feeding trigger and improves bait digestion. I use lecithins all year round anyway in a range of homemade baits as an added food source and more unusual feeding trigger that improves digestion of things such as bulk oils in summer. I get premium grade liquid lecithin from Phil at CW Baits plus a number of other ingredients including Robin Red itself.
A good edge to bulk up Robin Red is add a premium winter koi feed ground into tiny particles and soaked in hemp oil and very unusual blend of flavours, essential oils and many other potent liquids, some common, some completely new. Again all this can be mixed in with Robin Red in advance of mixing bait ingredients together, making ground baits etc.
I do like to be different and find ingredients and combinations that will trigger feeding or really boost the modes of behaviour that lead towards more intensive feeding! One little edge I do is include a range of familiar things prepared in more unusual ways. Just a taste of this mad creativity of mine is this: try making your Robin Red differentiated by preparing hemp seed cooked in anchovy concentrate or add crushed peanuts or crushed tiger nuts cooked in not the familiar Talin, but CC Moore Ultrasweet with hot chilli powders (among very many other examples I could mention!)
I often add chilli pepper powder or ground pepper flakes to Robin Red baits and this is very successful. You can make your winter and spring baits potent by adding a range of other herbs and spices to your Robin Red. These offer an incredible range of attractive benefits to your baits and carp and will certainly not detract from the potency of the Robin Red. (These add all kinds of things including vitamins, oils, minerals and trace elements, essential oils, alternative taste and smell factors, plus very many other components that most anglers have never heard of that are extremely healthy!) Another example I have used is lactose in solution-treated flax seeds and sesame seeds in Robin Red plus added ground egg food pre-soaked in liquid foods such as CSL or liquid liver extract and betaine or betaine HCL.
Please note that whatever you do avoid using MSG in its pure form – it has been found to literally explode brain cells within 3 hours of it entering due to messing up the vital and delicate osmotic balance and diffusion of cell liquids etc and is at least 3 times more damaging than effects of alcohol in the brain!
Natural-form MSG is found in so many protein type ingredients you would not believe, but for taste enhancing why not try concentrated or enzyme-treated yeast powders with alternative powdered enhancers (blue cheese powder for example from CC Moore is another great enhancer that is excellent in low water temperatures with concentrated garlic for instance!)
So many anglers are still stuck in the mindset that boilies should be firm, resilient, have a particular shape and most limiting of all, preferably stay intact in the water for at least 12 to 48 hours or more! Among the very best homemade baits I have ever created lasted a mere 30 minutes to 3 hours immersion and these were even successful when fished against probiotic and enzyme-active balanced amino profile fish and milk based HNV boilies.
Robin Red is a carp bait additive that you can boost or make a bit different in such wildly varied ways to great effect to catch you more wary fish – so go for it; get experimenting right now and be paid back with the inevitably big rewards! (Revealed in my unique big carp and catfish homemade bait and readymade bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information - see my unique website Baitbigfish and my biography for details right now!)
By Tim Richardson.
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