Shelf Life or Frozen?

[Will Greenhill]

Carp, clever? - no doubt

 

However, one has to question how so, when I have caught them on fake sweetcorn with no groundbait or loose feed - essentialy just a bit of rubber or plastic....

 

It's a contentious issue - I use our Quantum range which are made by Browning and I think they work well - but then - I don't doubt it varies from lake to lake!

 

 

Experiment carried out on saturday

3 hrs 2 rods 1 on frozen 1 on shelf life no fish

3 hrs 2 rods 1 on frozen popped up 1 on shelf life popped up no fish

3 hrs on popped up rubber corn 9 commons to 11lb 8 oz

I fished a prolific lake where I was hoping to catch

I didnt expect these results though

It has to be a visual thing, bright yellow rubber corn agianst £9 per kilo boilies: you decide?

Edited February 20, 2006 by Will Greenhill

[Edenslakes]

Hi,

 

At Edens Lakes we only allow Fresh/Frozen baits, these are a lot better for the carp & help their growth rates.

 

When I lived in England I belonged to a syndicate & a group of six of us all used the same bait that I supply here in France, This certainly helped the carp put the weight on & we had great catch results on it. Fresh baits all the way.

 

Adam

[Alnath]

I prefer shelfies from the manufacturers that use human grade ingredients. Once they are in the water and they start to take on lake water i cant see the carp telling any difference whatsoever

[fatarse]

Shelf Life or Frozen Boilies?

 

Is there any difference nowadays with the superior ingrediants now available?

Are there any better leakage rates from one to the other?

I have caught fish on both over the years and cant really say if one is better than the other.

 

 

I bougt frozen marine boilies and after a day they went moldy,....can I still use them as i have had them in the freezer ever since HELP

[RobStubbs]

I bougt frozen marine boilies and after a day they went moldy,....can I still use them as i have had them in the freezer ever since HELP

 

I really can't believe baits go mouldy in a day - are you sure it's mould and not just a dusty covering ? If they really did go mouldy I'd complain to the seller as I'd say they were rubbish (perhaps stored unfrozen in transit or in the shop for too long). If I weren't going to return them I'd bin them and get something decent.

 

Rob.

[UK-Fishing-Tackle.co.uk]

This is one of those arguments that could go on!

 

Essentially the argument that fresh boilies are better for carp and improves growth rates just isn't really fair. Truth beknown all ingredients (fresh or otherwise) are certainly not usually part of a carps natural diet, and we are stunting their growth (probably in detriment to their health - remember a big fish isn't necessarily healthy), purely for the sake of catching bigger and bigger fish.

 

It's not something I take a morale ground on - but we shouldn't kid ourselves into believing that any boilie is either part of a carps staple diet or indeed any good for them!

 

I fish shelf-life, never had a problem catching and I don't believe they are any more harmful than a fresh boilie.

[RobStubbs]

This is one of those arguments that could go on!

 

Essentially the argument that fresh boilies are better for carp and improves growth rates just isn't really fair. Truth beknown all ingredients (fresh or otherwise) are certainly not usually part of a carps natural diet, and we are stunting their growth (probably in detriment to their health - remember a big fish isn't necessarily healthy), purely for the sake of catching bigger and bigger fish.

 

It's not something I take a morale ground on - but we shouldn't kid ourselves into believing that any boilie is either part of a carps staple diet or indeed any good for them!

 

I fish shelf-life, never had a problem catching and I don't believe they are any more harmful than a fresh boilie.

 

With respect that's twoddle. Just because boilies are not part of a carps' natural diet doesn't in any way indicate they are bad. Look at the evidence before you cast aspersions so strongly. Carp weights have increased significantly over the last 5-10 years, whilst carp mortalities haven't increased, except maybe due to known diseases. Shelf lives have preservatives in and they are most deffinately no good for carp. Please note I didn't say 'bad' they just play no positive nutritional role and at worse some are harmful, in high amounts. As a rule of thumb shelf lives tend to be lower in quality; more preservatives, less protein, more carbohydrate, less vitamins and minerals. Like everything there's good and bad but as a general rule shelf lives are at best less beneficial for carp, at worse ....

 

Rob.

[Dick Dastardly]

Whilst I agree in general with your remarks Rob, Ian is quite right in saying that weight/size doesnt necesarily equate to health!

 

You both must surely agree though that some of these guys make me laugh when they go on about the "quality" of ingrediants.I wish I could make people swallow sales pitches like the bait boys can the modern day carper.

 

What makes me laugh the most is all these guys who"know so much" about bait ingrediants,nutritional values etc etc never make their own bait! Just buy the latest in vogue brand and trot out the crap thats in the advert like theve a soddin Phd in nutrition.Jesus!

 

Ah well bet that home truth wont go down to well.....

[RobStubbs]

Whilst I agree in general with your remarks Rob, Ian is quite right in saying that weight/size doesnt necesarily equate to health!

 

You both must surely agree though that some of these guys make me laugh when they go on about the "quality" of ingrediants.I wish I could make people swallow sales pitches like the bait boys can the modern day carper.

 

What makes me laugh the most is all these guys who"know so much" about bait ingrediants,nutritional values etc etc never make their own bait! Just buy the latest in vogue brand and trot out the crap thats in the advert like theve a soddin Phd in nutrition.Jesus!

 

Ah well bet that home truth wont go down to well.....

 

Budgie,

Of course weight doesn't equal healthy but neither does it equal unhealthy. That's why I said about carp mortality - that's the only indicator of ill health we have.

 

There's a lot of people who think they know about bait ingredients and almost none of them really do. There has been next to no research on fish foods that is of any relevance to carp. Ditto for the toxic affects of any bait ingredients. I think I'm right in saying there has been zero studies conducted on toxicity of any bait ingredients to carp and I have scoured the literature a few times to find anything.

 

Simply put the only evidence is circumstancial. All we can get is an idea - and there is no such evidence that boilies are bad for carp.

 

Rob.

[Dick Dastardly]

Totaly agree Rob.Nor harmfull ( er directly any way)to any other fish for that matter.

 

Even some of the factual science is a bit questionable due to it being human biology applied to carp.I think the basics ring true and there has been a fair bit of work/research done on dietry requirements for all farmed fish including carp.Its just that applying human values to a fish just doesnt work!

 

Slightly off topic but one area that the use of boillies/HP/HNV baits can affect a fishery is that excessive use of them (and if you have a small couple of acre pond that is mainly carp fished it doesnt take a great deal of bait from each angler to become excessive) can artificially raise the amount of food available.This can cause a massive rise in the amount of silver fish.The water becomes hyper stocked with stunted small silvers in turn not being good news for silvers or carp! A lot of recent research on this.Off topic but I thought it was interesting?