november-2026-free-line-part-2 - Flipbook - Page 128
FREE LINE / FIELD JOURNAL
KRIS FORD
FIELD NOTES
Smell is an airborne luxury, but fish can sense a signal (label) in the
water and find it worthy or unworthy of investigation, as in the previous
paragraph. Their taste (gustation) gives them the flavour(s) of the bait while
their sensory system gives them the label (signal(s) or indicator(s)). Taste
is another element where I wholly agree with Hutchy. What is the point of
promising (label/smell/indicator) Strawberry accompanied by a flavour of
Brussels sprouts? Why would you? I have always thought that this tricky bit
of understanding is like a glass of cordial. Although the visual aspect doesn t
apply, imagine a glass of prepared blackcurrant cordial. You lift it and smell
it then without hesitation, prepared for refreshment and taste, start to drink
only to discover it tastes like vinegar and then hits your stomach. Yuk!
The ingredients in a bait all have their own signals and flavours even before
anything extra is added. Sometimes to me anyway a bait smells really good
without a need for additional flavouring. The ingredients will be emitting
their own unique and combined signals. I suppose you can enhance, stifle
or drown those signals with extra additives. The question is, for example,
suppose the bait has a large fishmeal content, the fish in our lake have been
hammered on fishmeals, and they have effectively blown as a bait. Even
to us, it is difficult to mask a fishmeal ingredient. Even if we could drown
it, wouldn t the carp still pick up the emitted fishmeal signal from within
by chemoreception?
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