Some of the most important health providing and 'recreational' drugs originally have plant origins although these days, many are 'cloned' or copied using synthetic chemicals. Even the most basic of whole plant product baits like sweetcorn, maize, hempseed and 'chufas' or tiger nuts or peanuts have powerful effects on fish, having brought brilliant and consistent catches for many fishermen in the past.

But do you really know what it is that has that effect on fish in these baits? They are not highly flavoured or high protein when compared to many commercial boilies so it must be other factors involved...

Obviously carp, like many fish will attach danger to a bait they have been hooked on and will begin to avoid eating it with enough repetition of captures. There are many ways to keep ahead of the fish, for instance, simply use a totally different bait like changing from maize to tiger nuts, to hazelnuts, to peanuts to black eyed peas etc.

Or keep on changing the colour, flavours or attractors soaked or cooked into these baits. The predominant baits for carp are boilies and pellets and there are many variations on physical properties of these baits. This includes, size, dimensions, densities, colours, solubility, porosity, oil content and quality, flavours, additives content, amino acid content, protein and quality of protein content and so on.

So many baits catch carp and other species of fish that eat the baits meant for carp that it can be very confusing how to choose which to use. This is especially confusing when it comes to using boilies with so many commercially produced ones and various ingredients to use!

Many fishermen will 'swear by' a bait or a company's baits because they have caught fish on them. But this does not mean success cannot come on many other different boilie baits used in that fishing situation. Often a homemade boilie bait will score for big fish on its first cast simply because it has not been seen and has not hooked fish before.

In fact some very basic much cheaper baits than the commercially produced varieties can produce as many or more fish than commercial baits because they are so unique. Often the usual subjects of fishermen's conversations about boilies revolves around different company's baits and their favourite ones.

Multiply this effect by thousands and you have thousands of anglers fishing using very similar if not the same few most popular baits. This kind of defeats the object of bait. Ideally you want to keep ahead of the fish and the majority of anglers, by using a bait that has not already hooked all or most of the biggest fish in your water.

Unfortunately, the first few to use a commercial bait on a water, perhaps even the commercial company's 'bait testers' will get the best effects and results from these new baits. So you might consider why bother using these baits now? After all, how can you match the results of people who fished a bait which the fish were not scared of which now does scare the fish even though they will still eat it?

You have in effect just made your fishing potentially far harder by using these baits after they have 'proved successful' on your water!

The trick is to keep ahead of the fish by 'topping' or adjusting these successful baits to make them 'new' to the fish in different ways. Many anglers like to add a favourite commercial flavour or special dip made from an amino acid supplement and possibly added oils or flavours. These characteristics help to a limited degree to boost the baits' effectiveness.

However, there are far more powerful methods than this standard approach to altering commercial baits characteristics. These are in effect like adding 'drugs' to the baits. Perhaps instead of thinking of changing flavours or 'labels' from perhaps pineapple to cranberry, or 'Scopex' to crab, you might think of something that will actually change the stimulating effects of the bait completely!

Going back to plants, have you ever considered soaking your baits in neat essential oils? Or in chilli oil (oleoresins), or in pineapple powder in solution? (Think the multipurpose enzyme bromelain etc.) You might consider added ingredients like specific curry powders in solution, or individual spices like turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, or lemon grass or even take a look at the alcohol based mouth washes and cough mixtures or vitamin and mineral supplements available.

Even tooth paste brands contains highly volatile ingredients and have been very successful. All these things work by being highly active and volatile in water, making it very easy for the fish to detect your baits even in some cases from great ranges. They are also very successful because they are alternative and different to the usual baits attractors and flavours which are being used by those fishermen are usually found insisting particular commercial baits are their favourites.

There is no 'super' or 'ultimate bait' because everything changes too fast for them to last! As soon as fish 'get wise' to them they need to be changed or altered in some way to keep ahead of the fish and other anglers using them!

You might consider applying the use of tomato powder or asafoetida powder with added herb or spice extracts instead of a flavour. These do indeed affect the physiology of the fish in highly stimulating and beneficial ways beyond what the majority of most alcohol, glycerol, isopropanol or propylene glycol flavours can do for example!

So next time you're thinking of what bait change to make or what homemade bait to make why not think of any food 'stimulant' you can't stop eating or drinking. Apart from high protein or fatty foods with added salt, you will probably find them based on plant extracts and many will have sugar, a sweetener or stimulating plant extracts involved... You might also wonder why we put sugar, salt, herbs and spices on our food too.

The author has many more fishing and bait 'edges' up his sleeve. Every single one can have a huge impact on catches. (Warning: This article is protected by copyright.)