november-2026-free-line-part-2 - Flipbook - Page 124
FREE LINE / FIELD JOURNAL
KRIS FORD
FIELD NOTES
From the day it hatches, a carp has an innate instinct to explore and forage
to find out what is edible, what is good to eat and what is not, where is good
and where isn t and what represents danger. Indeed all of this and more
goes beyond instinct; it is in their DNA.
None of this is intended to disparage HNV or food source baits quite the
contrary in fact. I make all my own bait and always have done, not to be
clever or because I didn t like or trust commercial baits but simply because I
want to be different. Back to my baseline theory I want to know what bait
others are using on a lake, but only because I want to be using something
different. Based on my logic, if every man and his dog are using Jimbo
Jim s Ultra Orgasmic Pineapple Pepperoni yellow 18-millers and catching
on it, then no matter how much is going in, I want to be on something very
different. Logically, every fish caught on that bait is one less to be caught. I
know repeat same bait captures can occur, but I d rather tilt the odds in my
favour. With confidence in my bait and all the other variables, why not? As a
matter of course, I do use nourishing ingredients in my baits but customise
the ingredients subject to the season of the year. It would be silly to ignore
the knowledge and expertise learnt from the gurus and masters in this field.
We are talking alchemy here and must be almost within touching distance
of turning lead into gold. However, there are so many variables in this
Pandora s box that give rise to a whole host of new questions with almost
infinite possibilities.
For instance, apart from the pure science of chemical reactions, what about
freezing bait? Freezing anything causes dehydration so what happens to
those special ingredients within the freezing and dehydration processes? I
know as a plus that the bait can be rehydrated using more liquid goodies,
but what else occurs? Also I know that certain elements can be destroyed
(denatured) by extreme temperatures, both hot and cold, and also that
other ingredients can counter this denaturing. So what happens when your
30 bottle of leusoaminoceprolenzymacarprocine gets boiled or frozen or
both? How are we to know?
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