In reply to Post #57
I believe that's exactly how the carp find the bloodworm beds.

In reply to Post #57
That's an interesting point for me. I have been lucky enough to get hold of live worm and joker over the years and used to get old match packs on the cheap following the weekend. Trouble it is predominantly the cooler months when match anglers are using it for scratching etc. a bloke once showed me how to scrape it and I have done a bit of that too with a mate years ago, as for bloodworm beds, that makes me laugh, some areas are more productive than others but I wouldn't say they were dropping off the scraper

Going back to what you mention, I believe a lot of the frozen stuff comes from abroad and got only knows what they are getting it out of, I can only imagine

Again, back to what you mention though other than the hemoglobin they are probably also full of the silt they have been feeding in and that raises a question as to whether they are readily accepted or seen as “foreign” to said water, or maybe we are digging to deep as usual

Or is it the mixing them with other ingredients?

From a carp perspective, they will eat virtually anything, and a lot of their diet is dependent on what is readily available in said water, and now topped up by anglers baits

I have found that tench go nuts for bloodworm and that tells me what is eating the majority of the bloodworm in lakes with a decent tench population, all water dependant of course

As for peanuts?

In reply to Post #62
I think we did peanuts to exhaustion lol, nothing else to explore . I said on a bait group some time ago that imo the lake bed itself gives off feed signals and got royally lynched by the hnv boys, but on reflection I don't think I was too far off , especially when it comes to natural lakes that don't see much bait. The carp know what area to visit but don't feed all the time or even dip down until something happens, that can only imo be a chemical change in the surroundings not just from a potential handful of bloodworm. Anyway, carp eat loads of green stuff, new shoots etc as a readily available energy source, stands to reason with elevated levels of amylase being secreted into the digestive tract?. And the reason why some fish just don't get caught.... Who knows, certainly not me but it's fun to speculate

In reply to Post #60
Your next post is also relevant, in that some fish simply don't seem to switch on to particles, or boilies, yet get caught on maggots, worms or other 'natural' baits.

The last capture of the Queen in our lake was on maggots by a tench angler, around 3 weeks after being caught on boilies. One or 2 fish don't seem to eat anglers baits at all, yet have been seen.
There is so much natural food, snails, bloodworm, mussels that these fish may be totally natural food feeders.
Is the attraction of maggots the movement, or the amino acids?

I was ankle deep in the silt last week, even that close in, a handful produced loads of bloodworm. Out to waist deep and turning the rake over after clearing the weed, I was getting snails and bloodworm.

Scozza makes the point about what is available, the numbers of mussels seem lower ( on our lake) at the moment, but maybe that is just me.

Areas that were productive in the past you can see the feeding holes, and are currently not being fed on, maybe not enough food in at the moment?

In reply to Post #64
Good stuff nick and thought provoking. There's no doubt that tiny electrical current caused by movement plays a part in the attraction, surely the carp are adept at utilising every sensory organ they have. Regards to maggots etc, I tend to look at how they feed and the soup of enzymes that they secrete onto whatever they are consuming must create one hell of a signal of bacteria, ffaa, that is of course if there's enough of em in an area, or other critters that feed the same way? I'm a big believer in natural harvesting especially on natural lakes. One lake I fished, 200acre was amazing. The carp would turn up in one margin in September and absolutely smash it to bits as it was covered in zebras, yet all year you wouldn't see a carp there. They are very adept at knowing where to feed and what time to be there, maximising food availablity Vs energy spent looking for it. On that lake the only way to catch if you couldn't find the seasonal feeding spot was to use "lures" , bright smelly popups that they had to explore!! No amount of food type boilie had an impact , ever. Imo this is where something like marks baits come into play, a carp sweet if you will ...tempting and interesting, enough to get a bite

In reply to Post #65
Love it, you know

Rich waters, au natural, for me it's spot fishing of the highest level

Although this diversion away from peanuts seems off topic it actually might not be. Chatting about feed spots, natural larders etc has taken me back to the humble peanut. I think we're all fairly agreed that nuts have little nutrition so when looking for something else to get bites there is potential to establish an addictive element to those wary fish away from nutritional signals by tapping into a different response, an addictive response that over rides everything else, is it possible, who knows, but I'm convinced the peanut triggers some neurological response. Why else would carp eat them with such gusto?

In reply to Post #69
I'd love to try maggot infused silt, as in the maggots being in the silt like bloodworm, giving off the excretion enzymes etc, but it's an impossibility as if you wet maggots before use they float, so that means having them sitting in a bucket of lake (or river) silt overnight can't be done. Come to that I'm not sure how long before they drown...

You are relying on the attraction created by them being introduced at the time, which could be movement, or the enzymes or amino's.

There are some anomalies though, you rarely fish a single maggot with no freebies around it, it doesn't catch, yet a single lobworm on float tackle can and does, especially after summer rain.
Mot baits work best in some quantity, for most species, although a single boilie, a single tiger nut or peanut (there are others) can and does catch.

I'm sure I recently watched something where they baited with maggots and they were still alive after 24hr.It might of been a cyp film.

In reply to Post #70
Here's a good one for you and yes I did do this. Fishing a sandpit with little silt or anything really I decided similar to your silt idea. I picked up a big bag of ericaceous compost which has a pH of around 5 iirc and loaded it with hemp, maggot, and partiblend. This was duly balled in to the margin where I'd seen fish patrol but never stop for the freebies. The very next fish that approached stopped pretty much instantly done a few circles and started rooting around. This only works close in and pretty shallow as the compost is pretty light and it takes bloody loads to create something on the bottom yet it worked a treat. That's got to be the localised pH shift with the added bonus of a natural cloud being stirred up.

In reply to Post #72
Maggots in molehill soil...

Now there's a thought.

In reply to Post #73
Used to use molehill soil with pinkys and bag of live bloodworm in when match fishing (got them from a local fish shop) many years ago.

Great tactic for the silvers in autumn from memory - just saved it for matches as could be pricey

In reply to Post #73
Or dodge the molehill soil and go completely different. Normal topsoil with added em1 culture, molasses and brewers yeast to feed the bacteria. The resulting enzyme and bacterial activity will be mega and with pellet, boilie, particles in there makes a natural spot.

In reply to Post #75




Love something different, really gets me thinking lol

Somebody out there....

In reply to Post #73
I have been known to go one step further and collect worm casts.
This is another level, please don't tell anyone else though.