Boiled baits based upon bird foods are usually almost instantly successful with no need for extensive pre-baiting campaigns. Most of the bird foods feeds used in modern carp baits are in fact blends of various crushed or ground seeds such as hemp seed together with ground cereals, pulses, biscuit meal, bran and other goodies. As their name implies, bird foods were never intended to be used as fish feeds but were originally formulated as feeds that would maintain the condition of show birds such as parakeets, canaries and budgies. However, as luck would have it carp too find them highly palatable, not least because of the high-energy factor.
You see, the key to the success of most bird foods is their high fat content, and high fat equals high energy. During the summer months in particular, when a carp’s metabolic rate is at its highest, a readily convertible source of energy is very important, which is why bird foods can be at their most effective during the hot months of the summer.
Bird food baits are particularly popular with anglers on a budget as they combine low cost with long term effectiveness. Products such as Robin Red®, Nectarblend™, CLO, Red Factor™ , PTX™ and Prosecto for fishing™ are excellent ingredients and being quite coarse in texture they allow an almost instant leak-off of flavour and attractors. The swift leak-off of flavour from within the bait makes most bird food baits fairly instant in their attraction, yet it is clear that bird food baits with a reasonably low flavour level are often quickly accepted as food by the carp and heavy baiting can reap significant rewards.
Many bird foods contain their own in-built source of attraction. For instance, the famous Robin Red® Concentrate is a superb bird food ingredient, but it is also a brilliant attractor in its own right, never mind simply as a nutritional food ingredient. Its unique smell and taste have tempted literally thousands of carp over the years and it shows no sign of falling off just yet awhile.
So, as you can see, the world’s your oyster when it comes to putting together a top class, highly attractive and nutritionally viable bird food bait. Ignore them at your peril!
Written by Ken Townley
