Few carp fishermen realise that fish can switch their modes of feeding and you can exploit these and manipulate these to catch more fish! In fact you can make fish feed in the specific way you want by the form and size of baits you introduce as ground bait or chum making it ideal for far more natural and confident feeding leading to more bites.
It is well-known that jokers and blood worms have often been banned as baits from various fisheries because they impact upon the feeding behaviour of fish so much. Many species of fish and in particular the Cyprindae genus of fish, have many adaptations which help them switch between modes of feeding to exploit the higher profitabilities of one mode over another, depending on which forms of food are available and where they are located in the water or bottom sediment.
You may have watched koi or goldfish sucking algae off the sides of a pond. But carp can also feed by filtering tiny items from the water, while moving and even while stationary. The position and concentrations of natural foods like algae and crustaceans called zooplankton or daphnia fluctuate depending on sunlight angle and intensity, temperature and water mineral and oxygen concentrations among other time and seasonal variations. The successful use of very fine ground baits is one way to induce the filter feeding type of modes whilst on the way to the angler inducing feeding on larger food items such as boilies for instance.
Because carp gain their energy predominantly from amino acids and even their tissue lipids are composed of them primarily rather than from oils or carbohydrates, it makes great sense to leverage them in inducing filter feeding to get them in an excited state! In this way you can know the fish can truly positively assess your hook baits and free baits in advance of physically sampling them, by the particles and substances in solution and in suspension in the water columns coming from your baits. In doing filter feeding mode of feeding, carp will taste what they are filtering using taste buds in their pharyngeal cavity, and can feed like this while moving or stationary and on difficult pressured waters stationary filter feeding on bait substances in suspension etc is very common.
Filter feeding is very interesting because fish like carp can gain masses of nutrients to promote their growth in safe ways without eating your baits. But they can also derive nutrients from your baits in suspension and in solution as they leach out amino acids, nucleic acids, oils and slats for instance, without actually eating your baits. So it makes sense to drive fish into a feeding frenzy mode as far as possible by inciting this natural feeding mode.
Carp, barbel and tench and even trout and bass feed to varying degrees using filter feeding and they use branchial sieves to do so. These are adjustable in order to catch the most profitable nutritious particles sizes available, depending on concentration and abundance. These are also adjusted to catch batches of particles or individual large ones. In feeding terms, carp are categorised as suction feeders and slow ones at that, but that hides the fact that they can suck up items at a tremendously powerful velocity when required which has great rig implications especially when a fish is filter feeding on food at a long distance from the fish's head where long rigs and critically balanced baits have great benefits!
It often seems to be the case that carp fishing baits focus goes on chemical smells for instance which are very obvious to our senses, but it needs to be remembered that fish have extremely fine tuned lateral line cells which use electrochemical impulses in the detection of food items even by the tiny movements of zooplankton only 1 millimetre in diameter. The gape size of a fish's mouth is normally not a limiting factor in efficient feeding, but the diameter of the area where the food is chewed is and it is often far less than the gape of the mouth. Therefore its makes sense to exploit this and use smaller baits than often recommended. In fact carp in turbid lakes predominantly depend on food which is in particle size, so why not go with this approach not against it!
The fine filter feeding mode predominance found with carp in lakes especially is really a reflection of the most dominant abundance of smaller food items available throughout most of the year such as fluctuating populations of fly larvae, tubifex, daphnia, and other benthic organisms as well as algae etc from which carp drive essential amino acids, and pigments like cantaxanthin etc. Many anglers say smaller baits are better for catching carp even though this species and many others become conditioned to eat large boilies, pellets and particles of 20 millimetres and over. But the fact is the smaller baits are more easily consumed for less energy cost compared to many larger ones and the fact that far less anglers presently use tiny boilies on their hook rig is a bit beside the point here.
How many big carp get hooked by match anglers at the end of a day of baiting up constantly with tiny pouches of fine bread crumb and fish meal and tiny micro pellet ground baits; it happens far more often than carp anglers like to imagine. The constant ground baiting is one factor along with the fine tackle they use, but mostly, match anglers are offering carp the ideal form of ground bait to exploit their natural filter feeding modes. Literally matching up your bait to the feeding modes of fish and even influencing which mode and feeding intensity occurs can seriously improve your catches all season; it just takes a little bait know-how...
By Tim Richardson. - 16003
It is well-known that jokers and blood worms have often been banned as baits from various fisheries because they impact upon the feeding behaviour of fish so much. Many species of fish and in particular the Cyprindae genus of fish, have many adaptations which help them switch between modes of feeding to exploit the higher profitabilities of one mode over another, depending on which forms of food are available and where they are located in the water or bottom sediment.
You may have watched koi or goldfish sucking algae off the sides of a pond. But carp can also feed by filtering tiny items from the water, while moving and even while stationary. The position and concentrations of natural foods like algae and crustaceans called zooplankton or daphnia fluctuate depending on sunlight angle and intensity, temperature and water mineral and oxygen concentrations among other time and seasonal variations. The successful use of very fine ground baits is one way to induce the filter feeding type of modes whilst on the way to the angler inducing feeding on larger food items such as boilies for instance.
Because carp gain their energy predominantly from amino acids and even their tissue lipids are composed of them primarily rather than from oils or carbohydrates, it makes great sense to leverage them in inducing filter feeding to get them in an excited state! In this way you can know the fish can truly positively assess your hook baits and free baits in advance of physically sampling them, by the particles and substances in solution and in suspension in the water columns coming from your baits. In doing filter feeding mode of feeding, carp will taste what they are filtering using taste buds in their pharyngeal cavity, and can feed like this while moving or stationary and on difficult pressured waters stationary filter feeding on bait substances in suspension etc is very common.
Filter feeding is very interesting because fish like carp can gain masses of nutrients to promote their growth in safe ways without eating your baits. But they can also derive nutrients from your baits in suspension and in solution as they leach out amino acids, nucleic acids, oils and slats for instance, without actually eating your baits. So it makes sense to drive fish into a feeding frenzy mode as far as possible by inciting this natural feeding mode.
Carp, barbel and tench and even trout and bass feed to varying degrees using filter feeding and they use branchial sieves to do so. These are adjustable in order to catch the most profitable nutritious particles sizes available, depending on concentration and abundance. These are also adjusted to catch batches of particles or individual large ones. In feeding terms, carp are categorised as suction feeders and slow ones at that, but that hides the fact that they can suck up items at a tremendously powerful velocity when required which has great rig implications especially when a fish is filter feeding on food at a long distance from the fish's head where long rigs and critically balanced baits have great benefits!
It often seems to be the case that carp fishing baits focus goes on chemical smells for instance which are very obvious to our senses, but it needs to be remembered that fish have extremely fine tuned lateral line cells which use electrochemical impulses in the detection of food items even by the tiny movements of zooplankton only 1 millimetre in diameter. The gape size of a fish's mouth is normally not a limiting factor in efficient feeding, but the diameter of the area where the food is chewed is and it is often far less than the gape of the mouth. Therefore its makes sense to exploit this and use smaller baits than often recommended. In fact carp in turbid lakes predominantly depend on food which is in particle size, so why not go with this approach not against it!
The fine filter feeding mode predominance found with carp in lakes especially is really a reflection of the most dominant abundance of smaller food items available throughout most of the year such as fluctuating populations of fly larvae, tubifex, daphnia, and other benthic organisms as well as algae etc from which carp drive essential amino acids, and pigments like cantaxanthin etc. Many anglers say smaller baits are better for catching carp even though this species and many others become conditioned to eat large boilies, pellets and particles of 20 millimetres and over. But the fact is the smaller baits are more easily consumed for less energy cost compared to many larger ones and the fact that far less anglers presently use tiny boilies on their hook rig is a bit beside the point here.
How many big carp get hooked by match anglers at the end of a day of baiting up constantly with tiny pouches of fine bread crumb and fish meal and tiny micro pellet ground baits; it happens far more often than carp anglers like to imagine. The constant ground baiting is one factor along with the fine tackle they use, but mostly, match anglers are offering carp the ideal form of ground bait to exploit their natural filter feeding modes. Literally matching up your bait to the feeding modes of fish and even influencing which mode and feeding intensity occurs can seriously improve your catches all season; it just takes a little bait know-how...
By Tim Richardson. - 16003
About the Author:
For expert help enhancing and making top fishing baits see: "BIG CATFISH AND CARP BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!" And "FLAVORS, FEEDING TRIGGERS And CHEMORECEPTION SECRETS" SEE: fishing baits Even used by members of the British Carp Study Group so visit his site now!
