Over past seasons Kalum River Lodge have had a number of young anglers and they have always found this to be a fun and rewarding experience for all involved. This year they are holding a Youth Week from the 25th July to 1st August. This special week is designed for young persons aged 16 to 25 year to experience fishing the world's greatest rivers for Salmon, Steelhead and Trout..

Kalum River Lodge’s Youth Week is a unique opportunity for young people aged 16 to 25 to experience fishing on the world’s greatest rivers in the stunning wilderness of British Columbia. During this action packed week you will fish on the world famous Skeena River for salmon, Steelhead and trout, and float down the scenic Kitimat river.

Experienced guides will teach beginners how to fish and help more experienced anglers improve their fishing skills. After an exciting day out on the river you can enjoy a nature walk through the forest, relax on the sun deck and take in the spectacular mountain views or play soccer on the lawn.

Join fellow young anglers from around the world for a fishing trip of a lifetime.

Our Youth Week Package includes:

• 6-days fully guided fishing
• accommodation
• all meals and fishing tackle

$4350 CDN per angler

Further Details: Kalum River Lodge

When autumn, winter and early spring conditions make carp much harder to catch you need to really think about how you are using your baits, if you are using them to their full potential to catch the most fish, and how you can do things to improve your catches. Many readymade baits may well be actually reducing your chances of getting as many bites as possible. Maximise your chances of bites to a much greater degree and read on now to find out more!

If you are using high protein baits in cold water temperatures in particular this can seriously reduce your catch rate. The reason for this is very simple. In low temperatures fish may take well over 12 hours or more; or even 3 days to digest your bait before it begins to feed again. Meanwhile it is busy not feeding and using energy digesting the bait it has already consumed. This is not exactly the situation you want because every hour that fish are not feeding but digesting baits is wasted fishing time! You might be aware that in past decades very high protein milk ingredient dominated baits were usually used very sparingly compared to the mass baiting of fish based pellets and boilies for instance in use today.

Very many cold water bait designs exploiting a mere 22 percent protein for instance will be digested much faster in low temperatures and you can expect fish eating and filling up on your baits to have digested them in just 8 hours for instance - and then again be actively feeding again (and so available to catch once again.) This of course means you get far more chances of more bites as you have more actively feeding fish available.

In some respects high protein boilies are probably more suited to pre-baiting scenarios in many situations and periods of the year where you can leave a baited swim for 3 days and expect to find actively feeding fish looking for more of your bait upon your return. It makes logical sense that when fish are full of high protein bait they need a longer period to digest such baits during which your bait is not catching you fish if you are trying to catch them during this period of time.

Full up fish tend to move away from actively fished baited areas in order to find somewhere quiet to most efficiently digest their food. Often such quieter areas are not the kind of areas in lakes that produce very many fish. Similarly such areas are often the retreat of fish that have been recently hooked and are in a state of recovery.

Also it may be noticed that in the case of big fish on angling-pressured waters, more frequently than not the majority of the fish will be caught in areas that receive the largest volumes of free baits This is something that Dave Lane and Terry Hearn and Jim Shelley exploit all the time by massively baiting up regularly even in winter…

This is just a simple indication of how extremely energy-efficient carp so often are in their feeding even despite the pressures angling puts on them. It is obviously energy-efficient to browse regularly fed areas particularly when your instinctive behavioural defence mechanisms for dealing with suspicious baits and rigs is extremely well honed from 24 hours-a-day practice!

Now just in case you are a the type of angler who continues to use oily pellets and fish meal boilies for example into winter, you might be over-looking this fact but if your bait is steeped in oils in cold conditions this will reduce or in very low temperatures totally prevent digestion of various elements of your baits! Oils of many kinds actually seal up your baits so the soluble components of your baits cannot disperse. Think about the implications this has on your catch rate!

For a long period I tested fishing in low winter temperatures using popular pellets compared to open-textured easily digestible homemade boilies and the results were very distinct. When water temperatures were under around 12 degrees the open texture easy-digest boilies seriously out-performed the medium to high oil (low viscosity oil) types of marine type pellets. I had to try this experiment just to prove the point in practice to myself so it was not merely hearsay or theory.

The fact that the oily pellets had been very successful in much higher temperatures just underlined how their effectiveness as baits had dive-bombed in the period around the late autumn, winter and early to mid-spring when water temperatures were yet to rise. Of course medium to high lipid content fits conditions when carp metabolism is very high due to elevated water temperatures when oxygen saturation is sufficient to promote high activity and heavy feeding.

In winter, obviously if any bait is in the right place it can catch fish but if inducing as many bites as possible form almost torpid fish is your goal and you wish to maximise all your valuable time, money and efforts you need to use a very attractive bait suited to prevailing conditions not just in water but within the carp too.

Often you get totally illogical statements from anglers on the bank who say things along the lines of: I prefer to use fish meal baits on this particular water in the winter. If you ask them if they know the ingredients and their ratios of their baits and how long their gut transit times are through the gut in low temperatures regimes they simply how no idea. Added to this and even more importantly, they do not even know why these baits might possibly make fish actually be attracted to them - as opposed to being actively repelled by them in the first place.

There is a vast diversity of baits that catch winter carp. Very many of these are not high protein baits but they catch big carp and have done for years. The other day I had someone ask me about peptones and their impacts on various fish meal ingredients. Peptones are in general a range of substances composed of protein constituents that are broken down into their smaller elements by various means and as such are easily water-soluble and easily detected by carp. My question for him was what percentage of his bait ingredients and additives and liquid foods etc consisted of soluble substances that are very easily digested by carp.

The fact is that he did not know these things meant that asking me about peptones would basically be meaningless to him. Peptones are produced from very many various protein sources. This guy did not know which versions he was specifically wanting to use (or why) and what jobs they were going to be specifically aimed at doing. Such things do not just impact on carp internally and externally but also work within baits working synergistically as a whole.

Cold water baits are so much about easy digestion and it is easy to see why. After all, you are after getting as many bites as possible - and certainly not into feeding up the fish at the expense of bites! It seems to me that many bait buffs go carp fishing in order to grow monster carp by their baiting up and not so much to maximise bait for its potential to achieve the most bites possible and thus the most hooked fish.

Now on to a related subject regarding homemade base mixes. I really like fishing with bait base mixes in various more conventional or more unusual forms. Stick mixes are just one example where you can make up your own boilie base mix and apply them or adapt them for use in winter.

Applying a base mix in various different ways as opposed to just in boilies for example has many benefits. Base mix based ground baits of many kinds can be used with various PVA products to deliver very loose and easily dispersed attraction in the water to pull fish to your hook baits in a more excited mode of behaviour; particularly in lower water temperatures and this also applies to slop and spod mixes and others too.

Open texture baits are obviously very good performers in cold weather. I am certainly not against using baits incorporating bread in winter. Of course there are very many bread based types of ground baits, stick mixes, method mixes and other baits. You can make cheap boilies for autumn, winter and spring that include bread crumbs along with other open-textured ingredients and use them pretty much as carriers for protein-rich liquids for example. Just using some garlic concentrate, intense sweetener and certain spice extracts for example will grab the attention of carp although many anglers will just go for their favourite flavour and a sweetener for example.

One of the bonuses of playing around with bread products in winter is that you can exploit fishing in various depths of water and specifically introduce free baits so they rise in the water or gradually sink or hang in the water to effectively tempt fish situated at different depths in the water column. As we know, carp are notorious for sitting within certain comfortable layers of water in autumn, winter and spring especially in spells of high pressure for instance. In this regard many more carp anglers are much more aware today that persisting with bottom baits or pop-up baits near the bottom in winter is often the wrong method to use when fish wish to be situated off the bottom for significant periods of time.

Especially stimulating homemade breads or cakes are great cold water edges when used on their own or used in combination with boilies or any other bait; but this is something I know very few anglers will even consider doing as it appears not to be fashionable. But I have proved this baits worth on countless occasions in my own fishing ever since my early days of baking conventional (buoyant) floater cake using homemade base mixes and readymade base mixes for example.

This is definitely a more unusual winter method to experiment with and I encourage open-minded anglers to try it! Using dog biscuits under water is a good trick but why not make your own baits that are totally unique with your own specific attractive alternative characteristics in mind?! For instance why not try fishing a homemade buoyant jelly based bait teamed with a floater cake bait for a really different winter option that I doubt hardly any experienced pressured fish will have had to deal with previously.

Sure fishing a bit of popped-up plastic corn near the bottom, or fishing a piece of black foam in mid-water can produce fish. But if you are looking for something a little bit different in a cold water bait and one that hold lots of attractive liquids then why not consider trying homemade buoyant cake! (For more information see my website and biography right now!)

By Tim Richardson.

The BRFC (British Record rod-caught Fish Committee) meeting held on 5th December at Fishmongers Hall, London, saw the retirement of Ian Epps and the election of Mike Heylin as Chairman.

The committee paid tribute to Ian who had loyally served the committee for many years having joined in December 2004 to represent freshwater fish. He was appointed as chairman following the death of his friend, Ken Ball in 2008.

His time in office saw important changes to the committee, in that he formed the freshwater sub group to look specifically at those species with a view of encouraging more anglers to claim records and for the records to be ratified whenever possible more quickly. He succeeded and an example is the Freshwater record for a Crucian Carp, caught in August 2011 and ratified at the December meeting.

Ian is succeeded by Mike Heylin who joined the committee in March 2007 to help resolve the then difficulties and bad press coverage surrounding freshwater claims. Mike needs no introduction, he is well respected within angling and has held numerous positions including being the present Chairman of the Angling Trust, the Governing Body of the sport within England that brings all the angling disciplines together, an ideal for which he has worked for many years.

Mike's aim is to continue the work of his predecessors, to develop and help retain the credibility of the British List by keeping records that are awarded on a strict procedures basis during which every effort is made to ensure their accuracy.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Big names from the worlds of fishing and politics have this week welcomed the appointment of former parliamentary angling spokesman Martin Salter as the new National Campaigns Coordinator for the Angling Trust.

Martin, who stood down from the House of Commons at the last election, has recently returned from 'a fishing and writing sabbatical' in Australia which saw him publish a landmark report - Keep Australia Fishing - on the challenges facing the recreational fishing sector. Martin has made good his pre election promise to return and campaign for a better deal for both anglers and for the fisheries on which our sport depends. This new, part time post has been made possible following donations from the Angling Trades Association (ATA) and two individual benefactors who support the Angling Trust.

Martin is to be based within the Angling Trust but will be working across the sector as a whole to promote greater unity and improved joint working. In addition to assisting in campaigning, fundraising and political lobbying, Martin hopes to help drive up membership and increase participation in both the AT and ATA.

National Campaigns Coordinator - Principal Roles:
- Supporting angling participation programmes
- Liaising with angling trades & other representative angling bodies
- Parliamentary and Ministerial liaison and political lobbying
- Membership recruitment & engagement
- Campaigns and communication
- Raising the media profile of angling
- Strategy advice and policy development

Martin's appointment has been strongly endorsed by those at the very top of angling in the UK.

Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon MP said:
"I am really pleased that Martin will be active in the Angling Trust working with the Angling Trades Association to promote angling across the UK. Over the years I have built a healthy respect for Martin's knowledge and passion for angling. I look forward to working with him in his new role and to seeing more people of all ages on our river banks and lakes."

Robin Morley, Sales Director of Daiwa UK said:
" I am delighted that we have managed to secure Martin Salter's services to encourage, support and promote angling in the UK. Having known Martin for many years I know his passion for angling, not to mention his vast experience gained over the previous 13 years in Parliament, will prove invaluable in promoting angling to the level it deserves.

I would also like to thank all the UK tackle companies who have made this possible by their contributions to the Angling Participation Fund organised by the Angling Trade Association (ATA)"

Charles Walker MP, Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Angling said:
"I believe that Martin Salter has been one of the most outstanding politicians of his generation when it comes to the championing of fishing interests. His depth and breadth of knowledge continues to be appreciated across the political spectrum, as does his campaigning zeal."

Mark Lloyd, Angling Trust Chief Executive said "Martin Salter is quite simply the best person the Angling Trust could possibly employ to campaign for anglers' interests. He has great contacts in Parliament, an encyclopaedic knowledge of angling and fisheries issues, and huge experience of communicating and lobbying at every level. We are very grateful to everyone who donated to make this possible. We hope that his appointment will encourage more individual anglers to get off the fence and join the Angling Trust so that we can continue to expand our work fighting for fish and fishing."

Naidre Werner, Chairman of the Angling Trades Association said:
" With a fabulous contribution from the trade, we are able to enlist someone of Martin's calibre and experience to raise the profile of angling and benefit of us all. The next twelve months will be very exciting."

Wildlife photographer and film maker Hugh Miles said:
"Our rivers and fish life are in desperate trouble and we couldn't wish for a more energetic and efficient champion to fight their corner than Martin Salter".

Chris Yates, author and former record carp holder said:
"To have such a committed, experienced and passionate campaigner as Martin Salter fighting for our rivers will give every angler cause for hope and I applaud his appointment to the Angling Trust."

Paul Knight, CEO of the Salmon and Trout Association added:
"S&TA is very pleased to see Martin Salter back involved in angling and fisheries politics in England. We worked very closely with him when he was Angling Liaison Officer for the last Government, and we look forward to doing so again as he looks to unite the different approaches from the various angling and fisheries organisations into a unified voice for the benefit of both the sport and the aquatic resource upon which it depends."

Angling writer and travel guide John Bailey said:
"I have known Martin for several years now and worked with him on a number of projects. I remain impressed by his vision, his energy and his ability to communicate. Above all, I like his obvious sincerity. Martin is no glib politician, he cares through and through for the causes he espouses. He is a terrific friend of angling and I for one will give him all my support. I really hope we have the opportunity to work together again in 2012 and do something positive for the sport we loveand believe in. This is, I believe, a really positive move for the Angling Trust and has made me personally want to get more on board."

Angling columnist and broadcaster Keith Arthur added:
" Since I have known Martin and, more importantly the job he has done for angling, the more I am convinced that he is what we need to carry our message. He is the perfect advocate for our sport, in my opinion."

Mike Thrussell, Director, World Sea Fishing Ltd added:
" Martin Salter has a proven passion and track record for both defending and promoting angling. His appointment to the Angling Trust as National Campaigns Coordinator brings a wealth of experience, knowledge, influential contacts and know how that will push angling to the forefront and also contribute greatly to maintaining and growing the sport for the future. My hope and expectation is that his known ability to bring people together will also help unify and strengthen the sport so that anglers from all disciplines work together to secure a positive future."

Martin Salter concluded:
" After an 18 month break to re-charge my batteries it's great to be back and fighting for fishing. I particularly grateful to Mark Lloyd at the AT and Naidre Werner at the ATA for giving me the opportunity to put my skills, experience and contacts to good use and for the benefit of the sport we all love.

My first job is to recruit some high profile ambassadors to help me raise the profile of the Angling Trust so that it can become a really strong and powerful voice for recreational fishing and the environment. I'm particularly keen to get some effective outcomes from the current Defra review of cormorant predation which has caused so much damage to fish stocks.

I am already lined up to attend a range of ministerial and other meetings and will be addressing conferences and supporting the excellent work of Angling Trust campaigners Mark Owen (Freshwater) and David Mitchell (Sea Angling) and the legal team headed by Justin Neal. I will be the main point of contact with my former colleagues on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Angling and will be developing and helping to implement a wider angling and fisheries campaign strategy for 2012."

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Volunteer four hours a week and join the new volunteer bailiff scheme being trialled in the South East by the Angling Trust and the Environment Agency. Get active on the bank finding, reporting on and finally catching fish thieves and others damaging our fisheries.

This is a unique opportunity to spend a day fishing with an angler of your choice for two people.

Research shows that fish theft and illegal fishing are the two biggest concerns for today's angler.

By joining the Angling Trust and Environment Agency "Special Bailiff Scheme" anglers can help stamp out fish theft on rivers, lakes, canals and estuaries helping to preserve fisheries for generations to come.

The Angling Trust and Environment Agency are running a three year pilot in the Environment Agency South East Region to prove the effectiveness of well trained volunteers in acting as a back up to full time Environment Agency bailiffs in their difficult task of policing our fisheries.

Volunteers in the South East are invited to apply now for this opportunity to make a difference.

The Angling Trust is initially looking for twelve volunteers in each of the four areas within Environment Agency South East, forty-eight in total, to work as part of the Angling Trust Team. Volunteers will be subject to a CRB check and will be expected to undergo a training course. They will then work in conjunction with the Environment Agency Team of Enforcement Officers delivering information on illegal activity and in the first year prove themselves capable of monitoring and reporting activities on rivers, lakes, canals and estuaries in their local area, not just on their own club or syndicate waters.

After the first year some volunteers will be offered the opportunity to train for a Management Restricted Environment Agency Bailiff Warrant so that they can extend their duties into licence checking and byelaw offences and take an active role working alongside operational Agency bailiffs in the field. In this role they will be representing both the Angling Trust and the Environment Agency. To be eligible, volunteers will undergo an enhanced CRB check and will have special training to give them the skills needed when dealing with the public in what can be difficult circumstances.

During this period the Angling Trust will be recruiting further monitoring and reporting volunteers to act as eyes and ears and to provide the intelligence to guide the activities of the highly trained Environment Agency bailiffs and voluntary Special Bailiffs.

In year three, some Special Bailiffs will be offered the chance to become fully warranted Environment Agency Volunteer Bailiffs, working independently when licence checking and able to assist full time officers in active operations to apprehend fish thieves and others breaking national fishery byelaws.

Volunteers will be expected to offer an average of four hours a week to the scheme and will be in the vanguard of what the Angling Trust hope to develop into a fully equipped national team of volunteer bailiffs, much like Police Special Constables, working alongside full time Environment Agency Bailiffs who will be responsible for managing volunteer efforts. Applicants will work in the evenings and at weekends as well as during the day.

Volunteers will need to be reasonably fit and able to demonstrate good interpersonal skills, show the ability to write clear and concise reports, keep accurate notebook records and timesheets and have an intimate knowledge of the waters in their area as well as having a full driving licence and being able to swim. This is an Angling Trust initiative and applicants will need to be a member of the Angling Trust to receive insurance cover.

For an application pack email bailiffs@anglingtrust.net

Non-members:
Join the Angling Trust at www.anglingtrust.net
Membership includes free insurance, newsletters, stickers, tackle and book discounts and other benefits and costs just £25 a year - that's less than 50p a week!

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Carp Bait | Butyric Acid | Advice To Make Your Homemade Baits Shockingly Powerful!

Find out how to beat readymade baits by using butyric acid! It is one of the most well known bait and flavour components in carp fishing today, rated by Bill Cottam boss of Nutrabaits in his top ten. It is used alongside pineapple flavours in instant readymade baits. But how can you use it even more effectively than that? How much do you know about butyric acid that will improve your catches right now? This revealing article will really make you think!

The n-butyric acid ethyl ester, ethyl butyrate is the ester responsible for that ever so distinctive ‘pineapple’ flavour. Nearly everyone is now familiar with the famous ‘pineapple and butyric acid’ bait flavour combination!

Use of butyric acid as a flavour and as a flavour booster is nothing new. It can make a difference to baits when just a few drops are added but then again you might experiment with far more generous levels in your homemade baits to really make them act like beacons to carp!

It has been used for decades by those in the know, but it has become popular especially as an instant attractor and it works very well in low water temperatures and is a great alternative to using the often over-used Tutti Fruiti for example. Saying that in my opinion the pineapple and butyric acid combination is over-used far too much these days. It is very well worth remembering that butyric acid can be used with so many flavours, even if they do not mix really well together!

For example pure pineapple flavour ethyl butyrate is not soluble in glycerine, but you can still use the two substances together in a bait dip for instance and they are both highly water-soluble which is a massive advantage in making your baits perform the best! All it takes is having a will to be experimental and finding out more and more, to the unique benefit of your own personal fishing success, instead of slavishly just following the herd and just achieving merely average catch results.

In my opinion and personal experience any angler who actually makes the conscious decision to make himself a better more aware angler can through persistence achieve the kinds of catches the top anglers catch. But having a vastly heightened awareness and deep knowledge of how bait substances affect fish and also water just as importantly I might add, can out-fish the best anglers.

You can out-fish bait-sponsored anglers like Martin bowler and Terry Hearn who pre-bait using maybe over a hundred kilograms of bait. But to beat anglers who are well prepared you need more potent baits. Fortunately using far more potent and better optimised bait you need to use less volumes of bait. This offsets the cost of making homemade baits that truly out-perform any commercial readymade bait. Bait if truly prepared and formulated to the heights of potency is a gigantic leveler of time, experience and skills and talent, but because so many anglers on the bank have become conditioned by magazine writers to not think hard enough for themselves, to not investigate what bait substances actually do once in water and when consumed by fish, most anglers are ignorant and fearful about making their own baits.

My mission is to enlighten the average angler so he can massively multiply his catches, and not expect miracles from merely having the same mindset as the herd. What you think determine what you do in life. Change your thoughts, with new thoughts, and your actions and fishing results will improve! If you cannot beat them, join them as they say; hence my own magazine articles in Freespool magazine and Crafty Carper magazine. You will note that I am not particularly biased towards any bait company; because my bias is only on what truly works best so my fellow anglers waste as little time and money as possible in achieving their fishing dreams!

If you saw my dedicated Carp Food section in Crafty Carper magazine then you will be a little more enlightened with my specifically-focused writing on what carp are highly stimulated to and attracted by, and also on what certain powerful bait substances actually are and what they do to carp once inside them!

Many trial readymade baits from bait companies are made more potent than the actual commercial baits when released to the public. This ensures the trial baits catch lots of good fish for field testers, but then a different version is released to the public at large! This is simply because the commercial costs of releasing the trial versions mean these baits are inevitably unprofitable. So you can easily see how you can level things out by making your own homemade baits massively more potent by making very specifically enhanced homemade baits, never based on bulk binders - and always made to achieve maximum fish responses!

You might think that a bait is just a bait, and that just a bit of plastic will do the job, but that is so not true! As Frank Warwick now admits, and many of us have known for years, rubber and plastic and foam are far more effective when impregnated or contaminated with powerful triggers and attractors, and I do not merely mean a solvent based flavours here, that is for sure! The new gimmick of putting paste inside a hollow bit of fake corn is hilarious to me. People are so fixated with outward appearances. Why limit the impact of a bait by 75 percent by coating its surface with plastic; doing that is just insane!

If you want to beat sweetcorn there are many ways to do it! For instance take into account one fact. Sweetcorn is high in water. Sweetcorn is high in soluble sugars. These sugars attract water inside sweetcorn very well and by pressures of diffusion release outwards the soluble sugars (and betaine) naturally within the kernels.

Much of the success of sweetcorn relates to how the substances in sweetcorn are released, the weight and size of the corn compared to natural food items, and the grazing, even binging modes of behaviours carp have in the presence of particular food items. The soluble and insoluble fibre of corn, quite apart from the sweetness and colour and tone and textures etc all play their part too. The water content of many of the natural food items carp find in water is high. Making baits which move in water like natural water filled food items is easy when you know how!

How those items actually move in water due to their relative density and weight compared to the water around them is very important to consider in getting around fish caution. I say this because the vast majority of readymade baits such as boilies and pellets simply are not a solution to this problem at all! Pop-up baits are invariably hard, usually rounded, and bottom baits are dense with a closed structure. Such baits are nothing like natural food items that carp most often detect in their environment!

I am learning all the time how substances get processed in the body in ways that could potentially mean more bites. Carp are known to eat aquatic foliage, and are in many cases feeding not just off the carbohydrate energy from the cellulose in the plants, but from the sucrose, the sugar that provides an instant energy hit to carp! I used to boil my boilies in honey with good reason! The use of glucose syrup by some bait companies today is an edge I have used for decades. Yet glucose and fructose, plus specific feed-triggering taste enhancers make baits far more potent.

Using a sucrose based sweetener alongside a protein-based sweetener such as Talin intensifies impacts at carp receptors, and improves repeated feeding and bait palatability and absorbent capacity of baits to water (another massive edge!) Practical uses of much lesser known bait knowledge go far deeper, and their impacts and results on catches can be very shocking!

I out-fished 2 anglers who fished for England by exploiting my bait knowledge to full effect in real fishing. It really is about exploiting the maximum possible concentrations in water of substances in order to keep fish most excited in multiple sensory ways and maintaining this excited state by regular introduction of optimum concentrations of substances. I also proved to one of the top rods on Horseshoe Lake in a very shocking very visual way while testing baits in the margins, just how much more powerful you can make you baits, even to the extent of making fish ignore a previously very successful bait in preference to your own bait!

For someone to watch as their previously very successful bait was totally ignored while fish head banged the bottom searching for remnants of an alternative competing bait introduced by me was obviously a very strong good reason for them to find out more about bait! It was a massive shock to that angler who witnessed my bait testing demonstration to him, because he used to match fish for England as a youth and had never seen his spod mix (a salmon fry crumb based ground bait,) totally ignored, while fed in directly alongside a competing bait before (which I had introduced!)

So what is so special about organic acids and short-chain fatty acids such as butyric acid, and it, why do carp appear to be attracted to it so much? Well For one thing carp are very sensitive to the presence of substances such as esters, or short-chain fatty acids in solution in the water around them! In fact carp are extremely sensitive to carbonic acid, and this indicates to them the relative levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, as carbon dioxide when dissolved in water forms carbonic acid.

This type of particular sensitivity ensures that carp remain more energy-efficient and more likely to survive, by remaining in more oxygenated water. This also explains how carp detect the most oxygenated water in very hot conditions, when in extreme de-oxygenation carp will gulp at the surface water. But carp will also be drawn to the water at the end of a wind as they can detect this water has the least carbonic acid and most oxygen.

It is very obvious that having a high natural sensitivity to acids is a key to survival, but not just in carp, but us humans too. We have very dulled senses compared to carp but we certainly detect volatile esters such as butyric acid as volatile vapours in the air we smell, taste and breathe in!

Do you ever wonder why we have cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks or even have wine and cheese together at a meal? Certain substances compliment each other for many reasons, and in this case improvement of digestion is one example.

Another name for butyric acid is butyrate and many familiar flavours contain butyrates, for example ethyl butyrate is naturally found in various plant extracts. Butyric acid freezes at -7.9 degrees C and boils at 163.6 C so it’s excellent for cold water use in heated baits! Ethyl butyrate boils at 120 Celsius so it is also useful in heated baits as less is lost in the heating process even though it is a quite volatile!

You might think that just adding perhaps 1 or 2 milliliters of pure butyric acid to your baits would be the only way to exploit it, instead of using just a few drops, but that is the tip of the iceberg! Think about this substance and you will realise it is very common in various other substances that can be exploited, from plant oils, to cheese products for instance.

There are many other sources and ways to introduce butyric acid into your baits and ground baits, boilies, pastes, dips, particle baits etc in multiple ways. Just one example is to use blue cheese powder in your spod mix or paste, while also using a blue cheese flavour or a butter flavour for instance! Not many anglers today would think of using a strong butter cream flavour alongside butyric acid, but this is just one of many suggestions I could reveal that really are genuinely effective successful alternatives to the most common pineapple and butyric acid flavours that are so much over-used that carp have in too many cases become wary of them!

Butyric acid is a common natural signal when in solution (in water) for the presence of  potential food in the environment and carp have evolved to use a massive range of such signals as natural indicators, of both opportunities for survival as well as threats! I say this because baits and flavours that are used far too often usually by the herd mentality weekend warrior type angler who just depends on the most fashionable readymade baits, really can unwittingly be in a situation where his bait is actually a really serious barrier to his success! Carp associate previously successful flavours with far more caution, even to the point of ignoring all baits with such familiar signals!

This is no exaggeration, and in discussion for example with Nash Bait man Gary Bayes only confirmed my view that even high nutritional value baits can totally blow when fish get hooked too much on them. But change the signals, adapt them and make them different and results keep on coming. This is one reason why making your own baits and finding out how to create your own unique preparations that no-one else can ever copy is so vital to long-term success!

This is why I keep plugging the truth that you can always maximise your results by being more sophisticated and different to the herd and exploiting the kinds of bait secrets insights I am so passionate about evolving and discovering more and more, even though I do not share the very best of what I know for free. But do understand all my work costs me time and money and it is certainly not free to me, and I have done this work full time for the past 6 years now.

In some ways you could attribute part of the success of fake rubber baits such as sweetcorn to the actual handling by us of such baits. I am referring here to the butyric acid that comes out of our skin naturally; thus contaminating these so-called inert fake baits with this ester plus other substances such as various other fatty acids, salts and so on! You could when you think creatively like I make myself do, come up with very simple alternative solutions to making successful baits perform better. So many ideas are obvious to me. One is simply to add a little butyric acid to your fake baits, or during the preparation of maize or hemp for example, or even add a few milliliters of butyric acid straight into a can of sweetcorn, and soak it in overnight!

Another prime example of other natural substances in the environment that carp use to detect food all the time are the amino acids and betaine issuing from mollusks and crustacean, snails, mussels, shrimps and many other benthic or bottom living and sediment dwelling potential food items. Many organisms have micro-organisms in their gut to complete their digestion, and part of this is the production and use as an energy source of butyric acid so it is a very common substance carp detect within their invertebrate and other foods.

The natural substances found in the water released from a myriad of natural food items and used a homing beacons by carp is an entire subject that I could write another book about, because it is so incredibly important to really understand and fully exploit to the very maximum effect. Ninety nine percent of baits do not do this so I think you can see how there is room for improvement here, to improve your catches on a quantum level!

Each week I discover more and more about how carp detect and exploit substances, and many of these are not being used in the mainstream readymade baits, if at all. But having a knowledge of them and a will to source them opens the way to creating the kinds of baits and bait formats and experiences of new exciting and incredibly stimulating optimised attraction and nutritional and hormone based stimulating baits that carp find totally irresistible.

Amino acid attraction and stimulation based on nitrogen needs is a tiny fraction of the knowledge that may or may not be exploited when making you mind up to achieve all your fishing dreams through the leverage of bait substances the herd will always be too fixated over instant readymade short-term solutions to ever exploit! Basically, if you are constantly looking for a quick fix, you will never reach the magnitude of success you truly deserve. Being a consultant for a number of bait companies you are part of the ongoing creative process that is a constant theme in the act of staying ahead of carp, with new products and spins on uses for existing baits substances and new bait substances etc.

The secret is to develop yourself and your knowledge and applied skills, because you are truly your own greatest edge. That means reading the best secrets and using them, and they do not come for free. Just buying a bag of baits is as far from optimising your chances as you can possibly get!

So many anglers short-sightedly think they will not invest in buying any information except biased magazines full of advertorials, and then go out and buy bait that costs far more than information that will transform their catches for life! They go fishing and expect miracles with their bag of readymade baits of convenience, but will never achieve maximum results simply by doing this. All heated baits and machine rolled baits are under-optimised and perform far below what is truly possible, for a massive list of reasons, in fact so many reasons that I could write a book just on this subject alone!

 To make catching fish far easier for you than the average angler in the next swim you need to think and do more than expect miracles from readymade baits. And you have to value information to appreciate it enough to make the magic happen for you.

Think about this, because seriously developing your knowledge of bait and how fish actually detect it and utilize it opens doors to success that most anglers will never find in a lifetime of fishing. Revealed in my unique readymade bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!

By Tim Richardson.

Scotland must be the spiritual home of fly-fishing. As it is for golf, Scotland is unique in offering the complete package of tradition, etiquette and above all, thrilling and diverse sport. Whether its dry fly fishing for wild brown trout on remote Highland lochs, night-time fishing for sea trout, upstream nymphing for wary winter grayling or rolling out a line for fresh-run Atlantic salmon; Scotland has it all.

The brown trout fishing in Scotland can be broadly divided between loch fishing and river fishing. On the lochs, we normally fish two to a boat, using all the usual methods, including dry-fly, wet-fly, static buzzers and dapping. Almost exclusively, we use classic imitative patterns such as Greenwells Glory, Kate McLaren, Wickham’s Fancy and CDC. Good brown trout lochs can be found in every part of Scotland, from Dumfries & Galloway in the south to Cape Wrath in the far north west. Personally, I prefer to fish in the stark grandeur of the more remote parts of the Highlands and on the islands of Orkney, South & North Uist and Lewis. For many visitors to Scotland, these places can be slightly off-putting due to the travel time required to reach them, but here you can find real tranquillity, fantastic fishing and a slower, quieter pace to life. If I had to select just one loch over all others it would have to be the Harray Loch on Orkney. The setting is simply spectacular. There can be fewer more sublime experiences than fishing the sedge on a floating line for fat surface-feeding brownies as you drift slowly past the Neolithic Standing Stones of Brodgar, under the shimmering spectacle of the Aurora Borealis. And then, to return to the quintessentially Scottish, Merkister Hotel for a hearty bar meal and a few single malts in the convivial company of fellow fishermen. Perfect.

The trout of Loch Leven are legendary and worthy of special mention. Leven is a vast loch covering over 14,000 hectares in the heart of the Kingdom of Fife, about 45 minutes north of Edinburgh. A relic feature left behind after the last Ice Age, the loch is surrounded by mostly low-lying pastoral and arable land. As a consequence, the water is rich in nutrients and has, over time, given rise to prodigious fly-life.  In this food-rich and somewhat isolated environment there evolved a unique strain of large finned, hardy brown trout. So prized have been these fish that over the course of the last 150 years or so they have been successfully introduced into river systems across the globe; including North America, Chile and Argentina.

Over the past 50 years or so, many of the traditionally less productive brown trout lochs have been transformed into rainbow trout fisheries; particularly in the more populous areas of the Central Belt – that area between and around the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Most notable amongst these are the Lake of Menteith, Carron Valley Reservoir, Portmore, Loch Frandy and Butterstone Loch.

Rainbow trout are not indigenous to Scotland and being genetically triploid, they do not reproduce naturally in our waters. Nevertheless, through careful husbandry and skilful stocking, they provide easy access to exciting sport with big fish. There are now plenty of such waters to conveniently satisfy the appetite of fishermen looking for a significant bend in the rod, but for whom a trip to the more distant, wilder lochs is a less frequent indulgence. Again, most of these lochs are fished from a drifting boat, using a variety of lines and predominantly streamer-type patterns, static buzzers and dry-flies.

When it comes to river fishing, as with stillwater fishing, there is an abundance of riches in Scotland. The most famous of all the brown trout rivers must be the Aberdeenshire Don. Flowing through rich agricultural land, the river supports a huge abundance of fly-life. The air above the reedy banks on a warm Summer’s evening is often thick with clouds of sedges, pale duns, spinners and caddis. This relatively small river has everything; boulder strewn streamy water, gentle glides and deep slow-flowing stretches. The most attractive and possibly most productive water is found on the private Forbes Castle Estate water near to the village of Alford in Aberdeenshire.

Scotland is of course, best known for the king of fish; the Atlantic Salmon. But, if you’re looking for upwards of 10 or 20 salmon a day, try Canada or the Pacific North West. If its monster fish you’re after, look toward the mighty Russian and Norwegian rivers. But, if your desire is to experience the real tradition of double-handed spey casting for bright silver Atlantic salmon in a truly historic landscape, then Scotland is for you. This, in essence, is what sets Scotland apart. Nowhere else in the world can you experience such superb sport combined with that unique, traditional atmosphere. So many factors contribute to that sense of tradition. There are the characterful ghillies, the tweed breeks, the dram of whisky in the fishing hut, the world famous fly patterns and the unspoken etiquette of the river.

Some visitors to Scotland are understandably a little trepidatious when it comes to the etiquette. But they need not be. The etiquette is no more than a loose set of protocols borne out of centuries of good manners, consideration for your fellow anglers and respect for your quarry. They are essentially founded on principals of common sense and form an ambience of good will and respect amongst all fishers.

There are four great Scottish salmon rivers; the Tweed, the Tay, the Spey and the Dee.

It is important to note that all of Scotland’s salmon rivers and most of the trout rivers and lochs are privately owned. This is a feature of land ownership which originates somewhere back in the feudal history of clans and the inherited privilege of English nobility. There is no law of trespass in Scotland and the “right to roam” is embedded in Scots law, but to cast a line requires permission and usually payment.

All salmon rivers are divided into sections of varying length depending upon ownership and the river’s physical characteristics. In many cases one bank may be in different ownership to the other bank. Each section of the river is know as a “beat” and within each beat “named pools” designate particularly productive spots. On all of the best beats there will be a ghillie, employed by the Estate which owns the beat, their duties being to lend assistance and guidance to the fishermen (known as “rods”), ensure that the rules and regulations are adhered to and to maintain the banks.

Of the “Big Four” rivers, the Tweed is commonly recognised as the jewel in the crown. Flowing eastward for nearly 100 miles from its headwaters at Tweedsmuir, this majestic river runs through the historic towns of Peebles, Galashiels, Melrose, Kelso and Coldstream to enter the North Sea at Berwick Upon Tweed. In recent years, a much improved Spring run has helped augment the prodigious “back end” run to ensure its status as the most productive salmon river in Europe.

Under the auspices of The River Tweed Commission (formerly the River Tweed Commissioners) the annual catch on rod and line attained a new record in 2010 with over 22,000 salmon caught. The Commission is charged with the general preservation and increase of salmon, sea trout, trout and other freshwater fish in the River Tweed and its Tributaries, and in particular with the regulation of fisheries, the removal of nuisances and obstructions and the prevention of illegal fishing.

In very broad terms, it is the middle beats from just below Galashiels to around about Coldstream that enjoy the most consistent sport throughout the season. The lower beats fish better in low water conditions and the upper beats only really come into their own after about the middle of September. Most of the beats fish well enough by wading, but many pools on the middle and lower river are covered better from a boat. The Tweed is the most traditional of rivers and fishing is usually restricted to “Gentleman’s hours” of 9am to 5pm.

The season begins on the 1st of February and runs right through to the 30th of November, with fishing available from Monday through to Saturday. There is no fishing on a Sunday. The length of the season is evidence of the fact that salmon run the Tweed system throughout the year, but the very best months are March, April and May, and then from early September through to the end of the season. From the start of the 2011 season, the whole of the Tweed River system has been total Catch-and-Release for the Spring season. The Spring season is defined as 1st February to 30th June inclusive.

The Aberdeenshire Dee is unquestionably the best of the Spring rivers. Prodigious numbers of large, fresh fish run the Dee from the start of the season on the first of February, right through the Spring and early Summer months. This steady stream of fish is then significantly augmented by the run of grilse and early-run “back-end” fish in August and September. Overall, the river provides excellent sport throughout the season until its close in mid October. Probably the most productive and consistently high-performing beat, and certainly one of the most picturesque, is Park.

The Tay is famous for its big fish. Located in central Scotland and easily accessible from both Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Tay is the largest river in Britain. It was on the Glendelvine beat of the river where, in 1922, Miss Georgina Ballantine landed the largest ever rod-caught salmon; weighing in at an amazing 64lbs. Even as recently as this year, there have been several fish over 30lbs and one at over 40lbs caught.

In my personal opinion, the Spey is the most beautiful of the Big Four rivers and offers the greatest variety of fishing. However, one needs to be careful when selecting the best time to fish any particular beat on the Spey. There is nothing like the consistency of catch returns as one might find on say the Middle Dee. In broad terms, the Spring run is later than on the Dee, with fresh fish only making their way through most of the river by the end of April. The Summer fishing is enlivened by a superb run of sea trout.

In terms of equipment, virtually every beat on all the “Big Four” rivers will fish well with either a 12.5 to 13 foot or a 14 to 15 foot double handed rod. However, if you are more comfortable fishing a single-handed rod, then a 7 to 9 weight 9.5 foot rod will serve you reasonably well on many beats, with the exception of the lower parts of all the rivers, where the bigger rods really are essential to cover all, or most of the water. The usual range of lines and poly-tips will give you the versatility to cope with the full range of river conditions. Personally, my favourite and most-used set up would include both a 14 and a 15 foot Sage TCX fished with the AFS line system; for effortless casting and perfect fly presentation every time, this combination simply cannot be bettered.

When it comes to flies, the advice is simple; buy locally on arrival. Time and time again clients will arrive in Scotland for their week of fishing, having paid no small amount for flights, accommodation and their fishing, and yet they want to use only tired patterns that may have worked for them on Russian or Pacific rivers. This is the worst of all false economies. You should always budget time and a relatively small amount of money to buy at least a small selection of locally tied flies in a range of at least 3 sizes. And, always but at least 2 of each pattern and size – there can be nothing worse than finding the winning pattern only to have a fish destroy your only example!

One final word on equipment; if you have fished outside of the UK before arrival, make sure that you have all of your equipment properly sterilised before fishing in Scotland. In an ongoing effort to mitigate against the risk of contamination of our rivers by the Gyrodactylus Salaris ectoparasite it is an absolute requirement that you are able to prove that your equipment does not present a risk of infection.

When it comes to cost, there is a direct correlation between price and productivity. For most beats, catch returns have been recorded for many decades, if not centuries. A simple formula applies a capital value to each salmon caught, based on the 10-year average catch. This value is then used to calculate a daily or weekly rent. In this way, costs are low for beats where the historic catch return is low in any particular week, and they are correspondingly higher for the most productive beats during prime time. For this reason, its possible to pay as little as perhaps £20 per rod per day on a beat where there is very little chance of catching, to over £1,000 per rod per day to fish the very best beat at the very best time.

Finally, Scottish sea trout fishing deserves a special mention; not least because this is the highlight of my fishing season. As Spring slips into Summer, the sea trout which have spent the previous one or two Winters feeding at sea, make their return to the river of their birth. Silver and packed solid with muscle, these superb fish will advance into the fresh water when their urge to spawn and their fitness dictate. Unlike the Atlantic salmon, these fish will run even in low water. However, these are cautious travellers; only moving under the cover of darkness and alert to any unnatural disturbance. It is only as the stars appear and the bats take to the air that we venture onto the water to cast a line and when we do so, it is with absolute stealth.

Every year, I take the first week in July to fish the famous Kinchurdy beat on the Spey. In my opinion, this is the most excellent sea trout beat in Scotland. As the darkness falls we gentle wade into position armed with 7-8 weight single-handed rods fishing with intermediate or sink-tip lines. At the business end, we normally fish a small double on the point (perhaps a silver stoat or medicine) and a dropper tied about 18 inches back from the point. In the best of conditions, when the night is warm and still and the river level is low, the flies swing slowly round in the current until grabbed with a violence that can be astounding. Whereas a salmon must be allowed to turn on the fly, the sea trout take must be met with an immediate and deliberate response. What follows can only be described as exhilarating. These fish will leap into the air like tarpon and strip line with the speed of a bonefish.

Most of the east coast rivers provide sea trout fishing between late May and the end of August, but the quality of the fishing varies tremendously and specialist knowledge is needed to realise the best sport. It should also be noted that a salmon, rather than trout license is required to fish for sea trout.

When it comes to accommodation, there is nothing generic or formulaic about staying in Scotland. The scope of choice is as varied as the fishing. Whether it’s a private castle, traditional inn or a basic B&B, any preference and budget can be catered for. And, you can always rely on receiving a warm and friendly welcome – after all, for many of our American clients, visiting Scotland is like coming home!

Tight lines!

This week, the Barbel Society was the 1,500th angling organisation to join the Angling Trust. Since its formation less than three years ago the Trust has grown to represent more than 350,000 anglers, these clubs and river associations are a powerful political force to support the Trust's campaigns to protect marine and freshwater fish stocks and anglers' rights, and are one of the largest networks of clubs and associations of any sport. They range from Abbey Cross Angling Society to Zeal Monachorum Fishing Club and from recently-formed syndicates of 10 members to 10,000-strong clubs with more than a century of history behind them.

Steve Pope, Chairman of the Barbel Society said:
"The Barbel Society has been watching with interest the development of the Angling Trust since they formed two years ago. Following its recent successes fighting pollution, fish theft, predation by cormorants and getting £100 million Government funding to improve the UK's rivers we decided the time was right to join up and support their work which will benefit barbel angling and therefore our own members."

Clubs like the Barbel Society pay a subscription of between £50 and over £600, depending on their size, to become part of angling's unified representative body. They receive highly preferential rates for specialised civil liability insurance which is essential in the modern world. They also benefit from advice sheets on a wide range of subjects, a free (optional) listing on the Angling Trust's find a club web page, and (for the 900 clubs who have opted to join Fish Legal) free legal action if their waters are polluted or damaged.

The Trust will be introducing new benefits for member clubs in the coming months. Individual membership of the Trust, which costs just £25 a year, is also increasing and has reached 14,335.

Angling Trust Membership Manager Will Smith is determined to increase this number further and said:
"All serious anglers should join the Angling Trust as individual members to support the work we do fighting pollution, tackling cormorant predation and representing anglers. Individual members provide the resources and the political clout to enable us to do more for the benefit of all anglers. As a member of the Barbel Society myself, I'm delighted that they have joined, but I'm also an individual member of the Trust."

Pete Reading, Secretary and Research & Conservation Chairman of the Barbel Society said
"I am delighted that the Society has now given full support to the work of the Angling Trust. The Research and Conservation work of the Barbel Society shares the common aims of the work of the Trust, and we look forward to working together to protect and improve the quality of our riverine environment."

Mark Lloyd, Angling Trust Chief Executive said
"The Angling Trust is delighted to welcome the Barbel Society as new members of the Trust. Specialist and single species anglers are particularly passionate about their fishing and this is reflected in the growing number of them who are supporting our work to protect and promote fish and fishing. We recognise the fantastic work that the Barbel Society does to protect and increase understanding of the barbel and its natural environment."

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

14th November – 20th November 2011

Sailing Lake
Predator fishing has been steady this week with plenty of Pike to a week’s best 18lb 6oz. Mark Manders of Nottingham landed a personal best Pike of 18lb 6oz fishing in front of the sailing club. Mark took the Pike on a float fished smelt. A 16lb Pike was taken by a local schoolboy during a junior Pike fishing coaching session, again in front of the sailing club on a float fished dead Roach.

Zander have been showing with plenty of 8-10lb fish with a 12lb 12oz specimen being the weeks biggest. The fish week fell to venue regular Alan Williams of Nottingham who tempted a new personal best fish of 12lb 12oz from peg 52 in the open water. Alan tempted the fish using ledgered skimmer. Trevor McKenzie of Spalding (see picture) came to the fishery in search of his first ever Zander and was rewarded with fish of 9lb 14oz and 8lb 6oz and 2 low double figure Pike. Trevor fished in a deep gulley in front of the boat slipway using legered Roach deadbaits.

Boys Pit
Still lots of Pike to 15lb being caught on all methods, with Lure anglers seeing the better of the action. Andy Pollard of Syston took 4 Pike to 14lb on lures whilst fly angler Malcolm Lovett of Lincoln took the week’s biggest fish of 15lb from the Back Bay. On the pleasure angling front there has been some fantastic silver fish catches approaching 20lb to pole anglers. Sean Hammond of Coventry set his stall out for silvers and was rewarded with a cracking bag of 20lb. Sean fished caster to take Roach to 1lb, Rudd to over 1lb and 2 bonus Tench. Other anglers are reporting fabulous bags of Roach and Rudd to pole tactics with caster being the outstanding bait.

Winter Specials
As we move into the winter months we are introducing the first of our winter special offers in the shape of buy one 24 hour session (£25.00 – 3 rods) and get your second night for half price.

The Walkers of Trowell Predator Open – 26th November 2011
We are very proud to announce that tackle shop Walkers of Trowell have agreed to sponsor the first of our predator open matches on November 26th. Walkers will be providing tackle prizes on the day including lure rods etc. These will provide runner up prizes and biggest fish prize. The winner will also receive a trophy!.

There are still spaces available for the £350 winner takes all competition; anglers should call 07791 104984 or book online to secure their place.

Source: Celtic Lakes Resort Frisby

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