Page 17 - RIFFLE4-flip

P a g e | 16 environment, which a barbel (or any fish) will eat are likely to vary considerably in nutritional use to home in on an item of food, with the benefit, but I firmly believe that nature gives a promise of something nice to eat, the signal barbel, in fact any creature, a sense of having triggered a memory of something it has satisfaction after eating an item of food that has eaten before that it found to its liking. It is not a good nutritional benefit to the fish. The more complicated to understand, basically it is the benefit for the volume of food eaten, the same feeling I get in my belly when I smell bacon greater that satisfaction I believe, and so its cooking! Some of these scents I would suggest appeal to the barbel to seek it out and eat it. are inherently attractive to a barbel, and some I This is the essential fact that we must keep in believe it is genetically programmed to mind when thinking about what makes a good recognise in its natural food. The most barbel bait. ‘Pretty obvious’ you may think, but important of these are those given off by the it seems to me many anglers struggle to find presence of fats and proteins. If not actually that appeal in their bait, at least in the long detecting them directly, barbel associate a taste term. or scent with their presence in a food and I Labels believe that, so far as bait is concerned, fats and proteins are the two most important These are something I consider very important considerations. Some signals may not be in my bait and which I change slightly over time recognised until an item of food is actually so that it does not provoke caution, instead of eaten, which I believe is the case with protein. the recognition of good food. This is why I believe a bait ‘blows’- many think their bait has The Feel Good Factor lost its appeal as their results diminish, when This is, essentially, what I am trying to achieve actually inherently it has not, and may still be a with my bait and once again, it is not rocket really good bait, but it has become recognisable science! At the bare minimum, for a long-term to the barbel as dangerous. This is the point bait to be effective it must leave the barbel when many stumble into that bait trap, wanting more, to leave it ‘feeling good’, after chopping and changing from bait to bait, in an having eaten it. This is where association comes effort to find that long-term appeal that eludes into the frame, whereby a barbel recognises a them. scent that it will associate with a certain type of It is at this point that I feel many anglers fail to food, having eaten it before and found it to its’ realise the importance of recognition in a long- liking, - the ‘feel good factor’. Without these term bait and how this can work both for and scents, and tastes, a barbel – in fact any wild against you. Firstly, the emitted signals act as an creature really – would not be able to discern aid for the barbel to recognise a good food is what is food and what is not, let alone know present that it has eaten before and, dare I say, whether it will enjoy eating it. enjoyed! But the second point here is that many Recognising scents, and tastes, are what attracts anglers do not realise that a barbel is capable of, a barbel to what it is really after…that ‘feel good eventually, associating the scent or taste with factor’ which comes from eating a food which is danger. However, this is something you need good for it. It associates that initial attractant, not worry about so much if you fish a water be it taste or scent, with that final satisfaction infrequently, or spread your fishing around after eating it - it is natures’ way of enabling a many rivers or stretches. It is when you fish a creature to identify a food item that is beneficial stretch regularly that it becomes so important to to it. The various natural foods that a barbel will change the label on your bait from time to time.