Homemade flavors for fishing. What flavorings attract crucian carp? What flavoring for fishing on the Volga

Crucian carp is a very picky fish in terms of smells, and choosing the right flavor can be very difficult. Flavors do not act as the main bait: they are appetite stimulants, which increases fishing efficiency. Among all the odors, crucian carp is most susceptible to the smell of garlic, potatoes, corn, ginger, sunflower seeds, flax and oriental spices. You should not experiment with scents - an unfamiliar and too strong smell can scare away cautious fish.

Types of flavors

In specialized fishing stores you can purchase flavors in liquid or powder form. Such activators should make up 5-7% of the total amount of bait. Each product has its own characteristics of use, and not all may be suitable for fishing in any season. The range of smells is very diverse - from the sweet “Tutti-frutti” to the bright smell of salted squid.

Liquid fragrances are usually added to bait, and then, due to their composition, easily seep into the water and attract crucian carp. They are used in small quantities, so one bottle lasts a long time. Flavorings in the form of powders are often mixed with bait so that the crucian carp gets used to feeding in the place where fishing is planned in the future.

Flavorings at home

For lovers of crucian carp fishing, creating flavors at home gives special pleasure. To prepare the right flavor, you need to take into account factors such as the nature of the reservoir, the season, the number of neighboring fishermen, weather conditions and much more.

One of the most common options is a dung worm that has spent some time in a box of mint before being caught. Then the worm not only becomes clean, but also acquires an attractive smell for crucian carp. Crucian carp also bite well on black bread, which can be easily combined with different flavors.

The most avid fishermen prefer not to stop at such common flavors as garlic powder, dill seeds or sunflower oil. You can find a variety of recipes on the forums; some of them may seem quite surprising.

Oddly enough, crucian carp are very attracted to the smell of the Vietnamese balm “Zvezdochka”, which is sold in all pharmacies. One option for using the balm is to lubricate your hands with it, and then knead the dough with your hands. The result is an excellent bait that will provide a good catch.

Corn grains pre-lubricated with sunflower oil can also serve as good bait. Crucian carp is also not indifferent to the smell of anise, cocoa powder, vanillin and honey. By the way, although fish prefer natural flavors to synthetic ones, you can get an excellent catch by using kerosene.

Be sure to use flavorings for bait! But in order to make the right bait, you need to take into account that it must be in the form of a thoroughly ground powder. But you should not use substances that are too light, as they, settling on the bottom, can attract small fish, which will ruin the whole fishing.

For bait, it is good to use ground oatmeal cookies, sunflower oil, ground fried sunflower seeds, and oatmeal porridge. The flavoring for bait is selected by trial and error, since success directly depends on the fishing conditions.

Properly prepared bait should not break into pieces when it hits the water: ideally, it should disperse into a fine powder a few minutes after settling to the bottom.

Recipe for making bait for crucian carp: advantage,.

Rules for aromatization in warm and cold water

Why is it important to consider the season and weather conditions? The fact is that the principles of aromatization in warm and cold water are different. In cold weather, fish prefer mild odors, while in hot and warm weather it is better to choose flavors with pronounced odors, such as fruity ones.

The most important thing is not to overdo it with flavorings, since an excess of smell can scare away the crucian carp. In warm water, honey is the best sweet flavoring option. There is no need to be overzealous with nutrients, since in the summer the fish can easily find their own food.

The situation is completely different in spring and late autumn, when the water has already cooled. At this time, the fish are either preparing for spawning or gaining nutrients for winter. Therefore, when preparing bait, make sure that it contains a sufficient amount of nutrients. As for aromatization, it is better to give preference to such aromas as the smell of bloodworms or worms. But if the bait already contains bloodworms, then it is better to postpone the use of flavoring for another time.

In cold water, fish react very sharply to odors, so sometimes it is better not to use additional aromas at all than to overdo it. Pay attention to protein and protein flavors. They have a faint aroma and at the same time attract fish.

Results

To summarize, we can derive a number of simple rules for the correct flavoring of bait and bait for crucian carp:

Make sure that the scent you are going to use is suitable for catching crucian carp.
Between synthetic and natural flavors, it is better to give preference to natural ones: fish react better to them.
Completely different materials can become flavoring agents; the main thing is not to be afraid to experiment. But the most popular are the aromas of honey, garlic, bloodworm, dill seeds and sunflower. Interesting fact: of all synthetic flavorings, crucian carp gives the greatest preference to kerosene.
The right flavor can only be found through trial and error. Be sure to consider weather conditions, the nature of the lake and other fishing factors.
Pay attention to the fishing season: in cold and warm water, fish react differently to odors. In spring and autumn it is better to stick to weak protein scents, and in summer you can safely choose strong sweet and fruity scents.

Every fisherman has fished for crucian carp at least a couple of times in his life. Therefore, he knows that the key to successful fishing is properly prepared bait: groundbait, bait and bait. And in order for the bait to be more interesting for crucian carp, it must emit an attractive smell. Let's look at what baits he bites on most often and what flavors he likes most.

Knowing the taste preferences of crucian carp, you will ensure yourself a good catch

What smells do crucian carp like?

Flavorings are a kind of seasonings that improve the taste of the “dish” served to crucian carp. According to their condition, they can be in the form of:

oils;
syrup;
spray;
dry powder.

In addition, the wide variety of tastes and smells for fishing can be divided into 4 types:

Caramel-cream. From the caramel-cream category, crucian carp prefers the aroma of chocolate, cookies, and milk.
Nut. From this category, the best smells for fishing are considered to be hazelnuts, peanuts, and walnuts.
Fruity. From the fruit category, the aromas of pineapple, melon, raspberry, strawberry, and plum are suitable for catching crucian carp.
Spicy. Anise, vanilla, cinnamon, garlic, pepper, dill are suitable from the category of spices.

Flavorings can be in the form of a spray

In addition to the above smells, the aromas of peas, hemp, sunflower cake, corn and honey work effectively.

Flavors can be purchased at special fishing stores or prepared independently using familiar products. The most popular flavorings used at home:

anise;
vanilla;
carnation;
hemp;
cocoa;
cinnamon;
cake;
essential oils;
nuts;
fruit juice;
fennel;
halva;
garlic.

You can make flavors from available products

Some fishermen, in addition to the above-mentioned flavorings, use special amino acids. They effectively influence the crucian carp, encouraging it to take it. These amino acids contain the following ingredients:

calf liver;
insects;
animal blood;
maggots;
leeches;
worms

Which of these aromas is the best for crucian carp? After all, he loves many smells, but some of them are the most preferred.

Anise

Traditional scent to attract crucian carp. It is most often added to semolina and bread, 1-3 drops each, which is quite enough to attract fish. Anise should make up 2-5% of the total weight of the bait. In winter, it is better to use anise powder in an amount of 2-3%. And in the summer - anise drops or oil, which should be added as much as possible, about 5%.

You can make the bait more attractive to crucian carp by adding anise to it.

Vanilla

This pleasant smell is very attractive to crucian carp. Powdered vanillin, vanilla sugar, and vanilla pods are suitable for catching it. In addition, sprays and drops with a vanilla scent are widely used. You can add vanillin to any bait - bloodworms, maggots, worms, semolina, bread. 30 g of vanilla sugar is usually enough to make 1 kg of groundbait or vegetable bait appetizing. Drops are applied directly to the nozzle, directly at the fishing site.

Hemp

An excellent additive for sluggish fish bites. It is advisable to add roasted and steamed hemp seeds to the bait. And for attachments you can use a hood. For many fishermen, this aroma is the main one for bait. It can be used throughout the year for fishing along with other flavors.

Honey

Crucian carp sometimes crave sweets, and he prefers the smell of honey. It is advisable to use only natural honey, adding it to semolina and pasta. Most often, honey is used for fishing in the warm season. But it can be very effective in cold water, especially together with other aromas.

You can improve the bite of crucian carp by adding honey to the bait

Garlic

The garlic aroma attracts crucian carp in most bodies of water, and large fish most often react to it. Therefore, when attracting crucian carp with the aroma of garlic, the fisherman automatically excludes small fish. You can add garlic to almost every bait, flavor semolina, dough and bread crumbs with it. Bait animals should also be dipped in squeezed garlic or treated with garlic spray. Very often this flavor is an additional component to vanilla, honey, caramel and fruit aromas.

Aromas of crucian carp bait

For successful fishing, you need not only to find a good fishing spot and prepare your gear. It is also important to attract crucian carp to this place and “persuade” it to take the bait. Therefore, for fishing, they take bait with various aromas of natural or artificial origin. Such bait, once in the water, forms a fragrant food spot, which attracts crucian carp.

A good catch largely depends on how well the bait for fishing is chosen, and what aromas were used for this. Typically, fishermen recommend using natural flavors proven by experience: sunflower cake, ground roasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds, aromatic vegetable oil, dill. These ingredients are added to the bait at the end of cooking. For the basic composition of bait, cereal grains, millet, pearl barley and corn are suitable.

Bait with properly selected aromas will help attract crucian carp to the fishing spot.

The main thing in the process of preparing bait is not to overdo it with flavorings. Their excess can have a negative effect.

It is best to add fruit flavors or essential oils (anise, cocoa, mint) to sweet baits. In addition, sweet formulations can be combined with ordinary products: vanilla or oatmeal cookies, honey, nuts, halva, fruit juice or tea. It is better to increase the effectiveness of spicy baits with dill, garlic flavors, hemp oil and sunflower cake.

In early spring and autumn, flavors with animal scents will be very effective. Food products used for this include fish oil, boiled crabs or shrimp, fish meal and canned food.

In the summer, crucian carp becomes more finicky than in the spring. Therefore, you need to change the bait several times throughout the day. It is advisable to flavor the bait and baits with different flavors. The most popular summer scents are anise, vanilla, honey, and garlic.

In the spring, crucian carp are attracted to bait containing fish oil and other animal flavors.

There are no problems with garlic; you can simply squeeze the juice of 2-3 garlic cloves into porridge or dough. This bait can stir up lazy crucian carp and provide the fisherman with a good catch.

If the bite is still bad, you can try the next method. Take a few expanded clay stones, rub them with garlic and throw them to the fishing spot. The aroma of garlic attracts crucian carp, so the chances that the fish will take the bait increase. After an hour, you can add a little more garlic expanded clay into the water. Expanded clay perfectly absorbs odors, which last for a very long time. Therefore, expanded clay pellets can be impregnated with fragrant vegetable oil or any other flavorings.

The purpose of this method is to attract crucian carp to the fishing site without using a lot of bait. Because the more food he eats, the worse his bite will be.

Often, adding garlic to bait and bait helps to attract crucian carp.

Catching crucian carp with dill

It is recommended to add dill to baits as an effective flavoring agent. It works best in hot weather, when the pond is very warm. Dill seeds have a brownish-greenish color and a pleasant smell. Before use, grind them into powder and add 2-3 teaspoons to the bait. Crushed dill seeds can be added to a jar of maggots or worms, as well as to all plant attachments. For 100 g of vegetable bait, 1/4 teaspoon of ground seeds is enough.

You can also preserve the smell of dill and prepare an alcohol-based fishing flavor. To prepare, you need to take dried dill, pour it into a dark glass container and fill it with alcohol. The flavor must be infused for 3 weeks. It is recommended to use an alcohol solution using a spray bottle, so the alcohol quickly evaporates, but the aroma remains.

Another effective recipe for an alcohol flavor that dissolves quickly and attracts fish well. This flavor can be stored for a long time, and only a few drops are needed for bait. To prepare the flavoring, you need to take equal parts of anise, cinnamon, cloves, dill, and garlic. The ingredients must be mixed, poured with 1 glass of alcohol, then left to infuse for 3 weeks.

Crucian carp are attracted to the smell of dill seeds

You can prepare dill for fishing by drying. Dried dill can be used to prepare an alcohol flavoring, or added in ground form to bait. It is recommended to store it in glass containers tightly closed with a lid. When using dried and ground dill yourself, it is best to be guided by your own sense of smell. There are no exact instructions here, and the fisherman decides for himself which proportions to maintain.

When using flavorings, it is advisable to follow the following recommendations:

If there is no bite, you should not sit for hours and watch a motionless float. You need to try different bait options, use different flavors, and perhaps change the fishing location. After all, only by acting actively can you catch a lot of fish and gain precious experience.

What flavorings can be used when fishing for crucian carp - you will learn from the video:

Andrey Shalygin: For a beginner, you need to learn three basic rules that provide significant adjustments to the preparation of complementary foods - a change in the taste preferences of fish when the reservoir cools, the species preferences of fish that currently have a bite (and it simply may not exist at all for a given subspecies), and also a way to independently produce the most effective bait for freshwater fish - bloodworms - the most expensive and effective component of any bait.

Feeding fish in the fall - how to feed in cold water

Feeding fish is a whole science. As it turned out, in different seasons the composition of bait for the same fish has to be varied. How does autumn bait for carp, crucian carp and bream differ from summer bait mixtures?

So, what changes in the conditions on the reservoir with the onset of autumn? Which forces us to change the approach to forming the composition of bait for peaceful fish. How exactly to change the composition of bait in the fall?

Firstly, in the fall the water becomes colder. This means that the odors of flavoring agents used in bait will spread more slowly and over shorter distances. This can be explained very simply from the standpoint of physics. The higher the temperature of the substance (in our case, the water of the reservoir), the more active the spread of odors emanating from our bait. With the onset of cold weather, flavorings gradually lose their effectiveness. You can not use them at all or use others. It is good to use attractants with animal odors in the fall: meat, blood, fish odors.

Secondly, the water becomes much clearer in the fall. Now, in clear autumn water, you can use various tricks to make the bait visible from afar. Since smells no longer work as well, we will compensate for this with visual effects. In the autumn bait we add a maximum of components that produce suspension, dregs: milk powder; cereals; flour; bran; breading. A column of bait suspension will be visible in clear water for many meters and will attract large fish to your hooks.
Another option to visually attract fish to the bait is to use the addition of a small amount of chopped worms to the bait mixture. This is no longer 5-10%, as we added in the summer, but 20-25% of the weight of the bait. Such an abundance of wriggling worms will certainly attract fish from afar with their movement.

Thirdly, in the summer we were afraid to use excessively high-calorie bait so as not to feed the fish. Crucian carp and bream, carp and roach, could approach the abundant high-calorie bait, get drunk and completely ignore the bait, because... stuffed...

As a result, with the onset of autumn we can feed the fish more boldly. The approaching cold forces the fish to feed more actively and stock up for the winter. On the contrary, abundant high-calorie bait will keep a school of carp or crucian carp near the fishing zone for a long time.

These are the features of autumn bait for fish! Keep this information in hand when you get ready to feed your fish in cold water in the fall!

Smells for fish and flavors for fish - which smell attracts whom?

Perhaps all these are just deep-rooted myths, or maybe, to some extent, a reflection of some statistics - I don’t know. Something is probably a ploy by marketers to attract customers. But the fact remains: for each type of fish, leading manufacturers of baits and additives, such as the TRAPER company, offer certain flavors, and they do this for a reason, but in accordance with demand and generally accepted ideas about the preferences of fish.

So, let's clarify what these generally accepted ideas are?

Roach - smells and flavors for roach

The most heated debates flare up around the preferences of this fish. Vanilla is considered the most “roach” smell, and perhaps no one denies this. At the same time, it is rare that any manufacturer produces bait “for roaches” with a purely vanilla smell. This flavor is usually sold separately. Here it is necessary to clarify that high-quality vanilla flavoring has little in common with the vanillin sold in grocery stores. Vanillin itself is bitter, so you can’t add it in enough quantity to get a really rich smell. Branded “vanilla” can be added in the proportion of 300 g (!) per 3 kg of bait, and this will not scare off the roach at all. At least in warm water (winter bait is another topic).
It is believed that roaches are attracted to coriander. This additive is also good because it increases the activity of the bait: when it gets into the water, the bait ball begins to throw up fragrant particles of coriander.
An excellent additive for roach, according to many fishermen, is anise. Firstly, it itself emits a very pleasant smell. And secondly, anise, being a digestive additive, increases the appetite of fish. For this reason, Traper's roach baits contain anise in their composition.
In addition to the listed flavorings, roach baits may contain the following flavorings: “chocolate”, “almond”, “caramel”, “hemp” and some others.

Bream - smells and flavors for bream

Everything is easier with him. Classic bream flavors are cloves, cinnamon and fennel. They have a pleasant smell and stimulate digestion in fish, like all other spicy additives. It is also believed that bream loves everything sweet, so appropriate flavorings are recommended. But not fruity.

Carp - smells and flavors for carp

The carp classic is strawberry. I don’t know where this opinion came from, but today it is dominant among floaters. At the same time, modern carp fishing uses a huge amount of flavorings added to boilies. These are all kinds of fruity smells, nutty, spicy, etc.

Pond carp - smells and flavors

Pond carp love fishmeal, but it’s not a matter of smell, but rather the composition of this component, which is included in most feeds.

Crucian carp - smells and flavors for crucian carp

Crucian carp is one of the strangest fish in its preferences. “Folk additives” for crucian carp sometimes just make you smile: yogurt, garlic, dill... kerosene!

Western fishermen have a different opinion: Sweet additives work for crucian carp, and first of all, honey. Therefore, crucian carp baits produced in developed European countries quite often have a honey smell. I don’t think that our crucian carp and Western crucian carp have very different tastes. At least here, in Belarus, I used “honey” bait when fishing for crucian carp, and the result was positive.

How to wash bloodworms - 5 ways

Every fisherman, whether already experienced or just a beginner, probably knows that bloodworms are one of the best and most practical baits for catching many types of fish, used at any time of the year. A bloodworm is a small red worm, which is the larva of a mosquito (shaker, jerk, shaker, bell). Such bait can be purchased at specialized fishing stores, or you can collect and wash it yourself. Small collected larvae can be added to bait, and larger ones can be used for bait.

It is necessary to look for bloodworms in swampy, heavily silted and shallow water bodies. There are several ways to obtain bloodworms.

How to wash bloodworms - method one:

To obtain larvae using this method, you will need several devices, one for raking up sludge, for example a scoop with a long handle, special nets with hard rims or a shovel with a long pole; you can also use an ordinary bucket with holes drilled in the sides and bottom. The main thing is that with this device you can easily scoop up sludge from the bottom. A second device is necessary for washing the bloodworms from silt, for example, a sieve or special landing nets - buckets with a fine mesh, a drilled bucket is also suitable. And the third device is a tray with water, which can be washed in the reservoir itself, it is especially convenient to do this in winter, in an ice hole.

So, using a scooping device, they scoop up sludge from the bottom of the reservoir, then pour the collected sludge into a lattice cassette or sieve, and lower this sieve into a pan of water. Using sharp movements to the sides, wash the sludge out of the sieve. Then the sieve is raised above the water for a few seconds and lowered into the water again, due to this the bloodworm dries out a little and floats to the surface of the water in rings. Now all that remains is to collect it with a net.

How to wash bloodworms - with method two:

This method is more primitive, but also much easier. The second method requires a long-handled fork and thin metal wire. The fork teeth are bent at right angles, and wire is wound around them so that horizontal rows are formed 7-8 cm apart. With this device they row along the bottom of the reservoir, and thus hook the bloodworm larvae onto the wire.

How to wash bloodworms - with method three:

We will talk about spices and seasonings, dry and liquid flavors for fishing, and how to prepare them with your own hands and use them in bait and bait.

Fishing flavors are used by anglers to improve the attractive properties of bait and bait. A correctly selected aroma or combination of odors can attract more fish to the fishing spot, create competition between fish under water, and thereby significantly improve the bite.

There are anglers who believe in the power of aromas in bait and bait, and there are those who do not pay attention to their importance. The same is true with the meaning of color. But everything is learned by comparison, and many different experiments show that the smell and color of fish are distinguished and influence the bite. This is especially noticeable in fishing competitions.

Most special flavors for fishing are made from food grade ingredients and then go on sale under the guise of various boosters, attractants, and bite activators. Less commonly, proprietary extracts or extracts are used in the production of fishing flavors.

A scented bait is detected much faster by fish and is eaten more readily. In most cases, flavorings affect not only the fish’s olfactory organs, but also its taste. This is expressed in a greater number of bites with a significant reduction in empty ones. The fish swallows the bait more confidently and holds it in its mouth longer.

Aromatization of bait is carried out by adding aroma at the preparation stage or when moistening dry mixtures in a pond. The bait is flavored during the cooking process or during fishing by dipping it into dip (in fishing, dip is a liquid flavor for bait).

For bait, liquid and dry flavors are used. Their task is to attract fish to the fishing spot faster and from a greater distance. When using flavored bait, it is highly advisable to use a scented bait, which should stand out favorably against the background of the food.

Of course, flavorings are not a panacea for lack of bite. They cannot collect fish at a point if there are none. Even correctly selected odors will not be able to intensify the depressive bite to the level of gluttony.

Liquid and dry flavors

Based on their form, flavors are divided into liquid and dry. Dry flavorings can be culinary spices and seasonings. Liquid flavors can be natural and identical to natural or synthesized, based on oils or propylene glycol (E1520) or triacytin (E1518).

For fishing use:

Dry and liquid food flavorings;
Essential oils, extracts, extracts.

Liquid flavorings are food concentrates, extracts, essential oils. They are used to prepare flavors for fishing, and some are used as additives in their pure form.

Natural spices and food flavorings based on propylene glycol are most often used for fishing. Natural flavors are too sensitive to heat treatment, are poorly preserved, have a less persistent aroma and are more expensive.

You can make an alcohol extract (extract) from spices. For example: 100 grams of coriander pour 200 ml of vodka and leave for two weeks. Mix the tincture with vegetable oil and evaporate the alcohol by heating it in a water bath - you get a fragrant oil infusion. You don’t have to add oil, just evaporate the alcohol to get rid of its smell.

It is almost impossible to synthesize concentrate at home, so fishermen purchase ready-made confectionery and food flavorings and use them to prepare their own.

Flavor groups

Flavors for fishing are conventionally divided into groups:

A group of spices (anise, garlic, cinnamon, vanilla, coriander, etc.);
Sweet fruit and berry group (strawberry, plum, melon, etc.);
Meat and fish group (halibut, shell, red caviar, etc.).

Each group of flavorings is more or less suitable for attracting different types of fish, and works better or worse at a certain water temperature.

Flavoring methods

In dry bait mixtures, dry flavors are used, and liquid flavors are used to moisten the bait. In some cases, liquid flavorings and dyes are added to crackers at the stage of preparing the dough, which is then baked and ground into the desired fraction size.

The bait is aromatized during the preparation stage, and is also deepened during fishing by dipping or using a brush.

Confectionery food flavors are very concentrated, and therefore they are diluted before use. Moreover, diluted concentrates, before adding to bait, are diluted again with water.

The technology for preparing flavors and dips for fishing, in most cases, consists of mixing food flavors or spices with invert sugar syrup (inversion is the splitting of sucrose into fructose and glucose under the influence of citric acid) or regular (candied faster). After this, they can be stored for a long time and used as additives in bait or as a dip for bait.

Where to get raw materials for making fishing flavors?

Sometimes there is a problem with buying confectionery flavors, since they are not sold everywhere, then they can be replaced with special fishing concentrates. Specifically, concentrates (in dry or liquid form), and not ready-to-use boosters, etc.

Some essential oils you need can be found at the pharmacy, and spices and seasonings can be found in almost any grocery store or market.

Food and confectionery flavors are the most powerful and effective, but they are somewhat more difficult to buy. You should look for them in retail confectionery stores or special online stores.

To search for them, you can use the Yandex.Market platform (search example), or use a general search through Yandex or Google (search example). It should be taken into account that they have a delivery cost and a minimum order amount, below which the sale becomes unprofitable. It is beneficial to take assorted flavors for the entire season.

The organ of smell in fish (and in all other animals) is truly unique. He is able to quickly recognize a huge number of different substances, even if they are negligible - only a few hundred molecules in a cubic centimeter of the space around us. The natural odor analyzer is immeasurably superior to the corresponding instruments created by people.

As academician P.L. Kapitsa wrote, “physics has instruments many times more sensitive than our senses. Only... the sense of smell... is more perfect in animals...” In fish, the total number of perceptive (receptor) cells in the olfactory organ ranges from several tens or hundreds of thousands to several million or even more!

Among the fish studied, the common catfish is the leader in terms of the number of receptor cells - it has slightly fewer of them than a dog. If the catfish has approximately 160 million such cells, then the lamprey has 800 thousand, and the minnow has 900 thousand, the river perch has up to 3 million, the pike has up to 6 million, the burbot has up to 11 million, and the bream has up to 27 million

At the same time, in humans the number of receptor cells is 10 million, that is, it is in the range between pike and burbot. And heavy smokers are close to the minnow in their sense of smell - their number of such cells is only about 900 thousand! When planning to use flavorings, first think about what kind of fish you are going fishing for.

For example, most pelagic planktivores and predators rely primarily on vision in their search for food. But there is a fairly large group of fish (bottom-dwelling, nocturnal, deep-sea and others) in which the sense of smell is responsible for food search (this includes representatives of sturgeon, catfish, eels, sharks, carp and other fish).

Threshold concentrations of solutions of chemical compounds, to which fish exhibit a variety of behavioral reactions, range from 10-6 to 10-9 mol/m3. This concerns the sensitivity of fish to artificial chemicals. For natural odor stimuli, the thresholds are even higher. And this, of course, is a significant disadvantage of natural-based fragrances.

Unfortunately, to date, the exact chemical nature of the natural odor stimuli of fish remains poorly understood, but scientists are working in this direction. The list of chemical substances that are odor stimuli for fish is very wide - these include extracts of various origins, industrial washes, waste products of other inhabitants of the reservoir, as well as plants.

As natural aromatic additives you can use honey, sugar, garlic, musk, grocery spices, cherry laurel and valerian drops, anise, hemp, dill, linseed and sunflower oils, vanillin, halva, spicy cloves. This group can easily include camphor, kerosene, asafoetide, turpentine, creatinine, zooplankton extract, lactic, glycine, aspartic, glutamic amino acids and “Star” balm.

Here we list exactly odor attractants and do not consider food baits (for example, various cereals), which, of course, also release substances that are attractive to fish into the water, but this is a different topic. Each fisherman evaluates the effect of attractants on fish subjectively.

We cannot yet provide any accurate scientific data on the concentrations and distance of action of most natural attractants, but such research is currently underway. In fish (and other animals), the sense of smell is characterized by very slow adaptation to a new odor, and due to this, odors retain their signaling value for a long time.

That is, the fish can accurately focus on the source of the smell and move directionally along the “scent corridor” for a long time. This is a very important biological fact on which the action of most odorless food attractants is based: industrial and household, synthetic and natural.

At the Department of Ichthyology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, the relationship of fish of various species to different amino acids has been studied for more than 30 years. Under the leadership of Professor Alexander Kasumyan, a group of scientists studied the olfactory sensitivity, odor spectra, distance and mechanisms of olfactory orientation of fish of several dozen species.

The research of our scientists is of interest to ichthyologists all over the world, and the results of their research formed the basis for the creation of many attractant-flavorants, which can be seen in large quantities on the shelves of fishing stores. It was found that the most effective odor (and taste too) stimulants are amino acids.

For example, many sturgeon prefer the amino acid alanine and glycine, while cysteine, leicine, glutamic and aspartic acids are attractive to Atlantic salmon and other fish. Some amino acids and their mixtures in nature have a signaling value for fish. Thus, the eel finds the mollusk it uses for food based on the complex of seven amino acids it secretes into the water.

It has long been known that salmon try to bypass the place in the river where the bear fishes. It was found that the alarm signal is chemical in nature and is washed out of the bear's skin. It was called the “animal skin factor.” It turned out that the main component of this factor is the amino acid L-serine. Its addition to river water itself causes an alarm reaction in salmon.

Recently, it has been possible to experimentally prove the possibility of attracting certain marine fish using chemical signals. In experiments on Black Sea stingrays, which have a well-developed and easily accessible olfactory analyzer, the already mentioned L-serine and other amino acids were used as stimuli.

In all cases, membrane proteins were found that could efficiently bind amino acids. Today, ichthyological physiologists have no doubt that they are dealing with a new family of receptor proteins, the unique properties of which largely explain the record sensitivity and selectivity of the olfactory analyzer in fish. How to properly feed carp, what and in what quantities you will learn from this -

When offering fish boilies and other scented baits, do not forget about the season. The colder the water, the worse the dissolution of chemicals in water, the range of their action decreases greatly; as the water gets colder, the sensitivity of the olfactory epithelium in fish decreases - they sense the odors that attract them from a shorter distance. And the concentration of these odors should be higher.

Most modern flavorings (even those made from natural derivatives) contain a solvent as a base. The solvent has two purposes: the first is to provide a 100% guarantee of complete dissolution of all components of the flavor, and the second is to act as a preservative for the flavor.

If in the warm season you can use alcohol, glycerol or oil (or their derivatives) as a solvent and they all show high quality, then when the water gets colder, it is recommended to use ethyl alcohol as a base to increase the effectiveness of flavored baits.

Since your task in the cold season is to distribute the flavor in the water as quickly as possible, nothing better than alcohol has yet been invented, although at higher water temperatures alcohol dissolves too quickly in water, evaporates and loses its effectiveness. Recent studies have shown that as the weather gets colder, fish react more actively to natural ingredients.

Taking into account the harm from “chemicals,” it is better to use natural-based flavors. Nowadays, more and more odor attractants from leading manufacturers are appearing in fishing stores, which contain natural extracts that make bait and bait very attractive to fish.

Their correct use allows you to “lift” even deep-sea fish into shallow water and force them to actively feed there. But, as you know, the coin also has a flip side. If there is an excessive amount of different flavors in a reservoir, this can cause great harm to both the fish itself and the reservoir as a whole. And indirectly, people who catch and eat fish soaked in “Tutti-Frutti”, etc. may also suffer.

What happens to fish living in a “flavored” reservoir? Firstly, its olfactory receptors can be severely damaged, since they are open to the environment and are directly exposed to various external factors. Accurate scientific research on the harmful effects of flavorings on the olfactory system there are no fish yet, but there are many works on the influence of chemical pollutants in the aquatic environment (primarily metals and detergents).

It is known that even very short-term (just a few minutes or seconds!) exposure to these substances leads to rapid destruction of the olfactory epithelium and completely deprives fish of the ability to perceive and respond to odor stimuli. And for fish, which primarily rely on smells in their search for food, this will cause starvation.

And for those fish that rely primarily on vision when searching for food, the sense of smell is also very important, as it helps to find a source of food at a remote distance. It is important here that the fish does not have time to die of starvation, because the loss of olfactory sensitivity caused by various chemicals is reversible - after some time it is completely restored!

The process of restoration of olfactory function can proceed quite quickly and outstrip the restoration of the cellular structures of the olfactory epithelium themselves. Ichthyologists-physiologists have established that to ensure a normal level of sensitivity to odors, it is sufficient to restore only 1/3 of the total number of receptor elements present in the olfactory organ of fish.

This ability of fish has important adaptive significance - thanks to it, fish populations in polluted water bodies do not die out of starvation. It should also be taken into account that an excessive amount of flavorings only scares away fish, rather than attracting them. In articles about carp fishing, you may have read that adding a strong, powerful flavor to the bait and especially to the bait on the hook is effective for carp.

Many carp fishermen overdose flavors in boilies to make them different from groundbait. In fact, the new “heavy” flavors scare away the fish! You have to be very careful with chemical attractants - if a few drops really attract fish, then a few glasses can “drive the entire reservoir to the bottom” for several days.

In addition, do not forget that many invertebrate animals live in reservoirs - they also do not like strong chemical odors. One more point should be taken into account: if the reservoir is small and enclosed (for example, a carp pond), then an excess of odorous substances dissolved in the water will lead to the fish itself smelling of them.

And you will eat “flavored fish”; even onions and sour cream will not save you from the pungent chemical smell! So it’s up to you to decide whether to use flavorings or not, and if you use them, which ones. The main rule in this case is “do no harm,” that is, stick to moderation, and good luck with your fishing!