Washington has increased its number of wineries by 400 percent in the last decade. Connoisseurs and the average wine consumer have found a new place to get great wines.

Regardless of the advancement in technology to reduce the work of picking the grapes and making great wine it still boils down to the skill of the wine maker to produce the quality wines Washington is now known for producing.

If you were in France and drinking wine in the regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy you would be at the same exact latitude of the wine country in Washington. With all the positive things going for wine in Washington being designated as American Viticulture Area is certainly a plus!

Taking a wine tour in the state of Washington probably isn’t something that you think of right away, but with all the great wines being produced in the vineyards of the state, all the different types of wine and all the different wineries you certainly should consider the opportunity for an off the beaten path wine tour. You will be so glad you tried it that you will return time after time.

It may be dinner time at your house and what better way to set a relaxing environment than to have a wonderful glass of wine with dinner. Perhaps you are having something that a dry white will enhance or maybe you want a full bodied red to wake up your taste buds. Either can be obtained from one of the wineries in Washington.

It’s swirling, sniffing and slurping time when you get a good glass of wine. Swirl the beautiful wine in your glass to get the full color beauty and incorporate some air into the wine. Now it’s time to sniff, what a pleasure to smell the wonderful fragrance the wine gives off. With slurping you get the air mixed with the wine to bring out the full flavor of the choice you have made. Just remember to slurp gently and quietly, it still works and doesn’t drive your guests or family mad with the noise.

If just 1% of the wine grapes of Washington are grown on the eastern side of the Cascades then you would think that it was a poor area for wine growers. In fact, it is a great area where the soil is right, the climate perfect and the growing season long to provide fully ripened, fruit flavored grapes with good acid levels and pleasing aromatics. This area will certainly become more of a draw to vintners in the time to come.

The French, Italians and Germans began planting wine grapes in the state as early at 1825 for their own use when they were settling the area. Commercial planting of wine grapes didn’t being in Washington until the 1960’s with rapid expansion of the industry occurring in the mid-70’s. Now there are new wineries opening every couple of weeks for your enjoyment.

Do you want to take a tour of Mississippi that includes the scary things to do there such as the “Candlelight Ghost Tour” during Halloween week in Vicksburg or the Ghosts and Legends tour in Columbus? If ghosts aren’t your thing how about going to Noxubee and seeing the restored 1907 jail with it’s operative gallows? If you want beauty rather than ghosts and scary things then maybe you should visit the Magnolia mansion which was built in 1850 with the antebellum architecture features showcasing the exquisite mahogany staircase and the stunning furnishings of the time. You can visit the mansion in Aberdeen.

So what is in Pickensville? The Tom Bevill Visitors Center and Museum. Here you can see exhibits on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The replica of an antebellum plantation mansion serves as the museum and visitor center.

Racing is big in Mississippi and you can visit one of the tracks in Columbus, the Columbus Speedway where there is racing on Saturday nights from March through September. The 3/10 mile, high banked clay oval track will give you lots of thrills as the cars speed around amidst the dirt and noise! The track is just 7 miles east of Columbus on Hwy 82 so it’s easy to get to and offers a great Saturday night of enjoyment.

If you are interested in the African-American Heritage of the area you may want to schedule your Mississippi tour to come during the month driving tour that celebrates Black History Month. Here you can take a tour of the African-American Heritages sites of Columbus. Friday night, during the celebration, you can enjoy “Catfish in the Alley,” featuring Catfish and blues music downtown on Catfish Alley. The driving tours are at 9 a.m. 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. with stops at historic sites around town. The tours on Saturday are free.

A visit to the small town of Magnolia will be something you will really enjoy. There are two National Historic Districts in town, the Myrtle Street District is representative of a typical neighborhood at the turn of the century. The Southtown Historic District has a variety of late nineteenth century residential homes to take you back in time. There are three of Mississippi’s premier Queen Anne residences and an antebellum Greek revival cottage in this area that will be well worth seeing.

The town of Magnolia can be reached by Interstate 55, north or south, at exit 10, from the east on Highway 48 from Hattiesburg, Ms., and from the west on Highway 24 from Liberty, Ms.

Camping is one of the best ways to relieve stress and clear your head. That’s why it’s so important to buy a tent that’s easy to use and provide worry-free protection.

The first step to getting back to nature is buying a tent you can depend on. A good quality tent must be comfortable, easy to use and provide security for you and your family.

Camping tents can be as simple as a two-person pop up model, or an elaborate three-room family affair. What’s important is having a dependable tent that will save you from undue aggravation or danger.

There are lots of things to look for in finding the perfect tent to fit your needs. Consider the shape of the tent, along with the weight, types of poles and setup time. If camping alone, be sure to choose a model that’s easy to assemble. If you’re not sure, ask an associate at a sporting goods store or outdoor outfitters.

Remember to consider the transportation of your tent. If you’re looking at a big, bulky tent that will take up the entire trunk of your car and leave no room for food and gear, keep shopping.

Size

Your tent will be your ‘home away from home’, so size is a very important issue. Make sure that you, and your fellow campers, will all have ample room. Everyone needs to have enough space to sleep, stretch and move around. If using air mattresses, factor in the area they cover. Make sure that you can stand, or at least sit up. You can easily fit four full-grown adults into a four-person tent, but they’ll be much more comfortable in a six-person model. By the same token, you and your partner can sleep in a small two-man tent, but you’ll need to find somewhere else to stow your clothes and food.

A Weighty Issue

Nothing takes the fun out of camping like trying to portage or hike to a remote camp while lugging a heavy canvas tent. If you plan to carry your gear an extended distance, be sure to pack light. Remember, you’ll also be carrying food, clothing and gear. Lightweight tents provide ample comfort and security, and there are many models to choose from. If, on the other hand, you’re loading a van with gear and driving straight to the campsite, then a heavy tent will do just fine.

Fabric Facts

Campers are no longer obliged to sleep under heavy, damp canvas. Today’s tents are made with lightweight but durable materials like taffeta and nylon. While light as a feather, these materials are tough as nails and able to withstand the forces of nature. When choosing your tent, be sure that it is certified waterproof. It may cost a little extra, but will pay for itself if Mother Nature sends a little rain and wind along for the ride.

Ease of Assembly

Ask to see the assembly instructions before you buy the tent. Then, try assembling the tent at home before you leave on your camping trip. The tent you choose should be easy to assemble with few or new tools required. You’ll have a lot to do when you reach camp, and you don’t want to spend a lot of time fighting with a difficult tent. Camping is about relaxing and becoming one with nature, not stressing and struggling with a tent.

Tents are not luxuries for the faint-hearted, or copouts for rookie campers. They are necessary tools that satisfy the basic human need for shelter. Even the most experienced outdoor enthusiasts will agree, there is no thrill in coming face to face with a forest critter at four a.m.

The colors in the Upper Peninsula in the fall will be well worth the trip to see. There are nine different areas that are suggested. The first is a trip of 105 miles from Hancock to Lake Linden, on to Lac La Belle, Bete Grise and then to Copper Harbor. Leave Copper Harbor and go to Eagle River and on to Calument and Laurium and back to Hancock. The route covers Mackinac County with the peak color expected in mid-October, Chippewa County with the peak color expected the first two weeks of October, Luce County with peak color expected the first two weeks of October and Schoolcraft County with the peak color also being the first two weeks in October. This is called the Eastern Upper Peninsula tour.

The Central Upper Peninsula tour goes from highway 107 to 64 at Silver City, on to Ontonagon, then hwy 45 to Rockland and Victoria where you backtrack to highway 26 and go to Greenland. You split at Greenland and take highway 38 to Baraga then hwy 41 to Chassel and Houghton where you take highway 26 to Twin Lakes and back to Greenland. This tour is 200 miles and covers Delta County where the peak will be around the second week in October, Monominee County where the peak will be the first or second week in October, Dickinson County with peak being the first week in October, Marquette County with the first week in October being peak and Alger County where peak will be the last week in September to the first week in October.

The Western Upper Peninsula takes highway 2 from Ironwood and Wakefield to Watersmeet, Iron River, Crystal Falls where you go on highway 141 to Covington then highway 28 to Bruce Crossing and back to Wakefield. This trip is 220 miles. Counties included are Iron with peak color the last week of September and the first week in October, Baraga with peak being the first week in October, Houghton & Keweenaw with the last week in September or first week in October and Gogebic and Ontonagon with peak color expected the last week in September and the first week in October.

The fourth option is to start in Ishpeming on highway 29, go to highway 510 to Nagaunee and Big Bay, then 550 to Marquette and 28 to Munising, where you can take highway H 58 to H 15 to Singleton and highway 28 to Highway 94 to Chatham, Gwinn and then 35 to Palmer and back to Ishpeming. This trip is 165 miles.

Tour 5 is a little shorter beginning at Iron Mountain and Norway on Hwy 2 to Spalding, hwy 41 to Menominee and Hwy 35 to Cedar River and Escanaba. This is 125 miles long.

Now on to tour 6 which is from Esdanaba on highways 2 and 41 to Rapid River. Turn onto highway 2 and go to Manstique and Saint Ignace. Although this tour is 183 miles it runs quite straight along the bottom area of the peninsula.

Try tour 7 which starts at Whitefish Point and goes on to Paradise on hwy 123. Newberry is next on highway 28. Now go to Seney and take hwy 77 to grand Marais and H58 to Deer Park and back to highway 123 and Paradise. This route is 150 miles in length.

If you thought you had taken all the tours of this area you are wrong, there are two more stunning experiences for you to enjoy. Tour 8 starts at Saint Ingace on hwy 75 and toes to Kincheloe and Sault St. Marie. Now head south to highway 129 and Pickford to highway 48 for a visit to Goetzville and De Tour Village where you will get on 134 to Cedarville and then back to Saint Ignace. Another trip of 150 miles.

The ninth tour opportunity is off hwy 28 where you go to highway 123 and enter Eckerman. Following 123 north you will go to Paradise and then back to the intersection where you turn east toward Curley Lewis Scenic Hwy and follow that to Bay Mills and Brimley. This is the shortest route suggested for the fall viewing of just 90 miles.

Are you a member of the Silent Generation or the Baby Boom generation? If you are you may remember the Route 66 that took you on a trip through the panhandle of Texas and the other states from Illinois to California. Now you can relive those days on a historic trip on the old Route 66.

The influences of the years greatly impacted the type of personality the different generations have, such as the Silent Generation, born between 1927 and 1945, were impacted by the Great Depression, WWII, and the Cold War. In the middle of the route 66 trip you will enter the panhandle of Texas where you will meet some super people.

1946 - 1964 is the era of the Baby Boom generation. Being influenced by the civil rights movement, Vietnam War and the assassinations of President Kennedy, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy the this generation became more mobile as they searched for stability in their lives and the nation. Route 66 was the way you traveled from Illinois to California and had the opportunity to see the states between.

You can start you family vacation going from Illinois to Missouri, then on to Kansas and Oklahoma and Texas, now you enter New Mexico, Arizona and end up in California. The Route 66 will give you a chance to see the heart of America and meet some of the people that make this country so great.

You will either begin your trip in the Chicago area and then end in Los Angeles. It gives you the opportunity to see such places as the Arch in St. Louis, the smaller towns along the way and the middle sized towns such as Springfield and the wonderful people of Missouri. Kansas will take you to Galena, Riverton and Baxter Springs with all the history of these communities and all there is to see. Tulsa is a great place to stop off and take a tour of this beautiful city. The hospitality will certainly leave a warm place in your heart. Here the people are so nice they actually stop to let a car enter the stream of traffic from a parking lot!

Leaving Oklahoma for Texas you will get into the city of Amarillo. You will be able to learn about the history of the settlement of the panhandle of Texas. Crossing New Mexico will give you the opportunity to visit such cities as Albuquerque and see some of the fabulous museums in this city. You can learn about the Native American influence in the region including their fabulous artwork on display at the museums. Leaving New Mexico you will enter Arizona and then on to your final destination of California.

When you use carp bait blind without knowing how it works you are using blind faith. In contrast, if you understood far more how and why key aspects of that bait induced bites and had the power to manipulate these potent effect far more then your catches will definitely improve. Read on to find out more…

Bait always involves confidence and indeed many anglers constantly doubt their bait because they do not understand how they truly work, except having very limited and even incorrect ideas or impressions about proteins or flavours; as a result, many anglers are negative about certain baits, without even ever having used them personally! Confidence catches fish for many reasons because it makes you fish better and be sharper and more tuned-in and expectant of success, so you tend to do more things right at the right time, more often, but you can all the confidence in the world and still blank because of a lack of knowledge and understanding! Confidence is the thing that sells commercial readymade baits and anglers take second-hand opinions from so-called big-name anglers thinking they will emulate their success using the same bait, forgetting that many (not all) big-name anglers are the most skilled and talented anglers of their generation.

Now you might wonder what all this confidence stuff has to do with actually knowing something useful about vital carp senses beyond appreciating that they like a bit of protein or a maybe have a flavour preference now and again. In terms of flavours, not all are the same! If I suggested that chilli powder can help your bait be detected from greater range by senses involving various specialised receptor cells and specialised canal pits along the lateral line (and in the actual skin of the fish,) this might be new to many.

Many secrets are hidden from our senses but uncovered very easily by a little messing about with baits and some very elementary science, for instance, many carp bait substances change when in water into different ones to those we experience as humans in air… Garlic releases that pungent smell when broken in air and we are all familiar with similar compounds from onions and chives for example. But the smells from garlic we associate with its success are not strictly accurate, as certain of the key chemicals do not get produced in water the same as in air, and this might suggest to some thinking anglers that far more is going on, perhaps on a more deeper level to do with the biology of the fish in response to bioactive garlic substances rather than just a smell or taste.

Carp may be influenced far more profoundly by internal impacts on their bodies than a simple flavour or taste offers and many proteins are thermogenic involving extra releasing of energy, and salmon is a very successful example of this, but poultry too for instance, but bait ingredients and substances impact on the brain, some far more powerfully than others! I tried an experiment today by eating wheat-free biscuits and an wheat-free doughnut too! However, after even the first bite, even though ingredients were virtually the same as the wheat-containing biscuits and doughnuts (but for only one key aspect,) taking another bite was more of a pain than a pleasure. All those good sweeteners, taste-enhancers, fruit flavours etc should have made me want to eat more right, but they did not, because I had got used to expecting something else to happen that did not; a release of feel-good hormones in the brain…

On eating the wheat-free foods I did not want to keep eating them and certainly Homer Simpson would have a shock if his doughnuts were wheat-free as there is something internally potent missing in them! Beyond all the flavours, sweeteners, enhancers and other goodies already added to those biscuits and doughnut (I say doughnut as I could only eat one,) something vital was missing. That missing substance that in wheat for example causes the release of feel-good hormones in the wheat-free foods was gone, and I really missed it!

If you apply this to fishing, it is like using a bait with a flavour and sweetener, and fishing next to it a bait with the same ingredients exactly, but with that extra vital brain chemical releasing impact. Which food or bait will catch more fish and which might you go for preferentially?! As it is your brain the makes the decision for your body you may have no choice and you may have noticed that so many people over-eat wheat-based foods and store-up fat as a result despite this being far from a healthy thing to do; it’s natural drug-induced behaviour for sure, even though certain emotions are frequently still involved!

Many foods are made with substances that further impact on the brain to eat you to eat it more because it means the producers make more money and you actually get into a habit of eating it, and finding foods without such habit-inducing chemicals can be quite a hard thing to do if you try to rid your diet, body and brain to become free from their influence! Think tiger nuts or peanuts, now these are not exactly the most packed nutritional foods on the planet, but even though hemp is a super food in its own right, it too has substances with brain influencing impacts and practical consideration these aspects of bait ingredients, flavours etc can really get you the edge over fish, and other competing baits. You can term it using habit-forming or addictive substances to manipulate fish behaviours or just call it good use of what a bait should really be - i.e. addictive! The bait secrets ebooks author offering this has much more to reveal to those wanting better baits and bigger catches but this will certainly help you!

Tim Richardson.

As a plea to the average carp and catfish angler; it is possible to double and treble your catches (and more but you probably would not believe me,) by treating fish as swimming tongues! It seems to go right over most anglers heads that fish can be manipulated (big-time) by what is dissolved into the water that surrounds them from specifically adapted baits… So why not let this be the start of something big for you too!

To begin with, I will group carp and catfish together, because many anglers catch both or target both and seek the biggest ones possible. These fish share so many dietary essential requirements that baits meant for big carp or catfish will often catch specimens from each group. Carp and catfish are like swimming tongues because they are covered in receptors cells inside and out that maximise the ability to detect potential many food substances in concentrations as low as 1 part in a million or even 3 parts in a billion!

Humans tasting a bait substance is rather an exercise in personal taste and opinion as opposed to a scientific method of selection, as our senses have been severely dulled over the course of evolution and recent cultural revolutions such as that of farming; but some indigenous hunter tribes eyesight is perfect at 20 / 25! Another point is that specially evolved cells called receptor cells are found in various concentrations on the external and interior of fish. These have many various special adaptations.

Carp find many potential food substances including your baits by using cells adapted for the purpose which are extremely sensitive to essential substances especially, like various combinations of amino acids. The cells that detect very many substances are located externally in the facial skin, areas of the head and flanks, the lips, fins, in the nose, the barbels, in the mouth, throat and other lesser known significant areas too! The so-called receptor cells are very sensitive and so can detect oils in water not supposedly water soluble, however, even these are to a small degree and using lecithins with oils obviously improves their detectability and attraction!

Apart from cells involved in chemical detection in the water better known in olfaction and chemoreception, there are many others, such as the specialised lateral line pit cells. These continue from the tale, along the flanks and down around the eye and along the bottom of the jaw ending very near the mouth. These are so vital to Cyprindae fish for example, that the jaw of these fish is shaped to allow this distribution of nerves and sensory pit arrangements from millions of years ago in their evolution.

The potential food, opportunities and predator detection systems in carp and other fish represent a multipurpose aquatic scanner which we would be very short-sighted not to exploit using our baits for maximum effect! Knowing more about the sensitive systems of fish such as carp, can help us locate them in the water, and concentrations of carbonic acid or ammonia for example can lead to fish being located and feeding in one swim more than in others through different temperatures and seasons for example. The highly adapted cells in carp and other fish will often detect things humans cannot detect and often carp will appear to behave appropriately in advance of certain changing weather patterns, changing air pressures and temperature changes etc, and water density and pressure changes may be involved more than we might think.

The worm-like projections around the mouth of a carp help in the vital decisions and behaviours made in testing or eating an item, or rejecting it, and these are packed with high concentrations of specialised receptor cells; so getting your bait right is essential! You baits can absorb water so releasing substances, or even simply dissolve into the water in the case of highly soluble or hygroscopic additives, ingredients and flavour components like glycerol for instance. Now the chemical substances from your bait are most concentrated near your bait and this message in solution gets weaker travelling further away and this is obviously very significant in drawing fish to your bait!

Fish are able to detect these solutions and home in and follow the concentrations back to where they are highest and so find your free baits and hook baits for example. This is where balanced nutritional baits and nutritionally boosted readymade baits can really do manipulate fish feeding behaviours and dominate fisheries and catches! This is especially in the case where as many essential needs are covered as possible in a bait; so giving your fish multiple essential reasons to eat your bait and all the so-called bio-active substances used in baits all add to this impact!

Your bait exploitation of substances that intensely excite your big carp and catfish is simply one of the most potent edges you can give yourself; and this is why knowing more about bait is such a valuable, powerful advantage over competing anglers and their baits! Discovering more potent information about bait manipulation costs peanuts when compared to remaining perhaps relatively ignorant; and maybe blanking more, or not catching those dream fish you could potentially catch so much faster!

By Tim richardson.

If you are in search of a satisfying natural place to vacation in the UK, then therefore your immediate selection should be Lake District. This is a very nice area that is filled with all kinds of greenery, trees, a beautiful lake and of course, a beautiful landscape. If you are looking for a place filled with peace and quiet, then there is no alternative place that you can choose besides Lake District. Hence, this way not only your body, but in addition your mind will be rested and you will feel at ease after your vacation.

This is perhaps why many persons and families come to Lake District so that they can enjoy themselves in the wilderness. Especially in the United Kingdom , it is one of the most popular places to travel to in the summer time. Therefore, the roads leading to Lake District can be very full especially during summer time. One such reason for that is because internationally travelers come to Lake District too. Of course, this is also a beautiful place to visit in the spring time and autumn time. But, in the winter it can get quite chilly in that area.

When you go to Lake District Area, one of the suitable places that you can stay at is Lake District Cottages. These cottages are very cozy and they allow the traveler to enjoy the Lake District Area in quiet and peace. In fact, compared to Lake District Hotels, the Lake District Cottages are also much less costly with more of a chance to feel at ease.

On of the extra advantages of staying at a Lake District Cottage will be the fact that most cottages will come with a fully equipped kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and a living room with a TV. Thus, if you are traveling there as a family, then staying at one of these beautiful Lake District Cottages can be the best move that you can execute In fact, nowadays it is possible to find a cottage that can suit your needs starting from 35 Sterling per day. Therefore, as you can see, having a nice quiet vacation at Lake District does not need to cost a lot of money to be enjoyable.

Hence, many vacationers will travel to Lake District, so that they can spend some time together during a refreshing weekend getaway. In fact, for a 3-4 day vacation, Lake District Area was selected as one of the best destinations to go in the UK during the year 2007. Therefore, you can also avail yourself of such a solution by going to a nice vacation in the Lake District Area. Just with a budget of 200-300 sterling you can have a nice weekend holiday in the Lake District Cottages. However, due to the popularity of the location mentioned above, you must make sure to make reservations well in advance initial to traveling to the area. You can easily search for a place to stay in the area by using the Internet to locate a Lake District Cottage suited to you.

Big carp and catfish have been caught on very cheap but extremely effective sausage meat baits for decades. Homemade sausage meat baits and ground baits are enormously cheaper than many shop-bought baits and expensive popular luncheon meat and Pepperoni products. Let’s see how to make yourself some big fish baits that really save you money and catch big fish!

Using sausage meat is rather more ethical than basing your baits on very valuable marine resources, but you can use it to bulk-up certain fish or shellfish bait mixes to cut costs and create different nutritional profiles, tastes effects etc. you can easily get sausage meat fresh or frozen fresh and fresh is best although catfish are also renowned for loving baits just souring, but I would prefer to use this effect with blood based baits for instance and not pork. Often the biggest fish in your water will take a new safe bait pretty quickly and certainly sausage meat based baits are not trendy so can really give you many competitive edges!

Making baits from congealed or minced sausage meats is really simple, fast and easy. It contains many nutrients that stimulate big catfish and carp with many oils and amino acids etc. Although many sausage meat products contain rusk and cereal is great bulking and binding agent, you can use extremely cheap wheat flour for example, plus eggs to bind it into a dough, to use as bait, or to make paste baits or produce boiled baits.

Making one of the cheapest protein based homemade baits is simple, fast and very easy to do:

Use a large pan or bowl to make a bait mix using a test batch of about half a pound of meat plus about 2or 3 hen’s eggs and enough wheat flour added to bind into dough. This is practical bait to use immediately, or you can store it in plastic bags and store in the freezer or fridge for future sessions. Although these meat baits (like any bait ingredients) may vary in nutritional profiles and fish effects and catch results, they are normally instant type baits and reliable fish catchers straight from the first cast.

Pre-baiting with a new bait is definitely a good edge putting things far more in your favour. (This is not totally necessary with this bait though.) I got a friend to do this for me in a swim (not such a clever move,) and I never got in the swim as incidental catches by other anglers meant it was too popular as a result of the baiting; so bait less obvious swims! Even just introducing a few pounds of bait in golf ball sized pieces the day before fishing can make a big difference!

The effect of pre-baiting is that the fish will be far more prepared to eat your bait with even more enthusiasm when you start actually fishing; so hold onto your rod! Sausage meat in this form makes fantastic ground baits too. Fishing paste balls has always been extremely effective, but these days you might prefer to make your baits more resilient to smaller fish (by par-boiling,) so they are still intact when the bigger fish arrive; but add some dough to your bait or hook or PVA bag anyway too!

As most commercial rolled baits have uniform shapes, your homemade baits in odd shapes have the advantage over more wary fish by disrupting their reference points! Boilies are just made by placing your dough baits only a handful at a time in half a pan of boiling water in a pan for a couple of minutes; this makes a resilient skin when they dry-off on conveniently placed absorbent towels or trays etc. keep your water boiling at all times by not adding too many baits at once and keep taking baits out after around 2 minutes or so.

Boil your baits for anything from a minute to 5 minutes; the longer boiling makes them harder, but this loses more attraction in the process. To help attraction there are so many choices to add to your bait, or just to keep results coming. For instance you could add sea salt at about a teaspoon per 2 eggs worth of bait mixed, or add curry powder at a heaped teaspoonful per egg used in the mix or more depending on the form of curry powder used.

As sausage meat is a fatty, oily bait, incorporating additives and ingredients and flavours to boost digestion and fish metabolism is a very good idea indeed. You might simply add spice and herb powders, any of a range of essential oils and extracts, or boost attraction with parmesan or blue cheese powder and added garlic granules or seaweed granules etc. Adding some liquid amino acids supplements is always useful in boosting nutritional attraction and this can be made at home very easily although it’s not for this piece. For colder weather you might add liquid lecithins and add oat or wheat bran which improve digestion, liver function and the vascular system of fish being rich in the feeding trigger, betaine!

You can add almost anything to enhance the stimulatory effects of your sausage baits but it helps if you really know what your ingredients do inside your fish and how they work together in baits to contribute the overall effects and improve catch results, and this knowledge really does save you a fortune and boost your confidence hugely! There are many ingredients etc you might add to stimulate fish which may be very expensive over a season, but going to the supermarket, health food shop, Asian store etc can provide really potent gems for a fraction of the cost when you know what to look for in terms of bioactive substances especially… Even adding liquidised liver with a few drops of spice or herb oleoresins and liquid lecithins can make drastic differences to results for relatively little cost and your baits will always be unique of course which a big edge anyway!

The options are limited only by your imagination; but using proven fish feeding triggering substances and metabolically stimulating substances are among the best proven substances when you look at bait components… Homemade sausage meat baits (and ground baits) for big carp and catfish are well proven against any popular modern baits (even enzyme-active ones,) and I’ve proven this myself (although my baits are sometimes rather more complex than here.) So give them a try and you might decide to get much deeper into making your own homemade baits; but beware - they can become addictive!

By Tim Richardson.

Most anglers who buy baits use them with blind faith because they really do not appreciate what actually happens in the fish that induces them to take a bait into their mouths and in doing so get themselves hooked! Imagine the power of being able to harness this knowledge where applicable. How much do think this advantage over the fish and over other anglers will multiply your catches?

Confidence in a bag, (or bottle) when it come to bait is one of great personal opinions for every angler, because the truth is everyone has different experiences even on the same baits, at different waters, and many anglers with put down other baits even though they have never even used them, which is a tad bit short-sighted perhaps. Confidence mostly comes from perceptions in fishing, and certainly not from first-hand experience. But it is first-hand personal experience that is the only thing you can truly trust as fact, but I do not mean by this that claims about commercial bait quality and effectiveness are not true.

Why would you care of you knew anything more about bait anyway; after all you catch fish right, and you have confidence in your baits? The difference between you running against an Olympic champion and expecting to win is you can try hard as you can with the amount you already have or know, but the Olympic champion has prepared in as many ways as fully as possible for a very long time; and that is why he is the best; talent at the top is not enough! In many ways use of flavours is like a race, where so many are simple taste or flavour carriers and mere attractors, (not feeding triggers) but others are like live rocket fuel by comparison, but you could spend your life missing out by not finding out; because most anglers keep secrets to themselves…

Science is tricky and seemingly irrelevant for many anglers until they realise the enormous significance that chemicals change in solution with water and many substances are simply not the same in water as air, and fish are experiencing different chemicals all over their bodies and not just on the tongue like humans. Imagine garlic on the tongue; it is mixed with air and saliva, but in mixed just water, garlic produces different compounds and the tastes and smells we experience as humans will be different ones that carp experience. This means that the flavours or pungent smells we might imagine impact on the fish may well not be present in the same form at all, and this might mean that something else is triggering a response from carp, even an internal one where something in garlic is acting to produce thermogenic (metabolism and digestion speeding-up effects for example,) and even have very potent antioxidant and antimicrobial impacts etc.

Carp are turned-on by far more than a vanilla or strawberry flavour combination and in fact often these will provide no response at all as they are not true feeding triggers as such, but some bait substances compensate for this by affecting carp in far more profound ways internally! Science is hard right; well I did an easy test on carp baits today by eating wheat-free biscuits and a wheat free doughnut; all done in interests of science and in the best possible taste! Sometimes there are substances used in foods and baits which are naturally there or added deliberately which induce you brain create the sensation of pleasure so you enjoy them more…

On eating the wheat-free foods I did not want to keep eating them and certainly Homer Simpson would have a shock if his doughnuts were wheat-free as there is something internally potent missing in them! Beyond all the flavours, sweeteners, enhancers and other goodies already added to those biscuits and doughnut (I say doughnut as I could only eat one,) something vital was missing. That missing substance that in wheat for example causes the release of feel-good hormones in the wheat-free foods was gone, and I really missed it!

If you ate food frequently that tasted and smelled good but had no further incentive to keep you eating more of it, you will more than likely eat something else in preference if that food does has an extra feel-good brain chemical releasing impact. The bait or food which creates more pleasure is preferential in humans and it is the same in fish! You brain chemicals are directing your actions on a basic level and when it comes to the impact of a key part of wheat, your actions as a result of eating it can very easily be to eat more; more cake, toast, biscuits, doughnuts etc, this is one vital reason people so easily over-eat these foods and create behavioural cyclic eating problems!

In fact many of the same ingredients are in so many foods that in bulk are definitely harmful to the body, but induce people to buy them. Any carp angler knows that tiger nuts and peanuts for instance also have substances that also lead to this type of behaviour. Whether you term this induced habit-forming or addictive behaviour, it is just as profoundly significant, applicable and powerful when it comes to getting a bait edge over your carp and over other competing baits… This fishing bait secrets ebooks author has many more fishing and bait edges - just one might well impact very significantly on your big fish catches!

By Tim Richardson.