Homemade Carp And Catfish Bait Recipes And Ingredients For Big Fish!

The first point of reference you need to understand is this; how carp senses and adapted behaviors work in direct response to your hook baits in particular! This point will surprise most carp anglers who simply do not know or even care how carp end up on their hooks no matter what bait is used! On the part of catfish, fish are obviously the source of many natural feeding triggers such as those above and fish being what they eat contain stimulatory betaine just like us humans too!

Think of a bait that replicates some of the natural aspects of natural carp food perhaps in size and certain physical characteristics. You might use mussels, or shrimps or snails or bloodworm, or caddis fly larvae for instance. Sweetcorn is not notably rich in amino acids right being a predominantly starch based seed, but it does contain two very sweet substances attractive to carp; sugar and betaine and supplies soluble fibre, live enzymes and other things besides. Start off by getting a half a kilogram of very fresh or quality fresh frozen sweetcorn.

If you cannot get either of these then get the sweetest strain of sweetcorn with the highest sugar content you can find. Tinned is OK and has added sugar and salt but the taste is not as good compared to fresh stuff so do experiment with a few brands until you find one you find the sweetest! This point is very important and very worthwhile!

There are obviously lots of things you can add to a simple cheap bait to improve performance but I will keep this very basic and as cheap as possible here. Next get a food liquidizer and put some cheap cordial in natural fruit flavors in to the liquidizer so you have a layer about 1 centimeter deep of juice in there and add your sweetcorn. Next liquidize your mixture and if it is too thick to liquidize well just add some water - preferably mineral water or filtered water and not chlorine and fluorine poisoned tap water!

Carry on mixing until you have a nice thick flowing liquid! All you need now is some powder of some sort to bind your liquid into a paste. I have used the cheapest possible including white wheat flour and maize meal and these together work fine. I go for the yellow form of maize meal just like the yellow full fat semolina instead of the pretty much valueless while stuff.

To mix just put your liquid in a big container and gradually add your powder until l you have a paste. You might use a food mixer if you are making lots to save time. So why not go fishing, fish intelligently and get your simple bait made for pennies in front of feeding carp you will catch them!

Or try a smaller platter with half-serves of cheese, keeping the other portions refrigerated until needed (save any leftovers for making cheese-on-toast or scrambled eggs the next day). Steer clear of hot food, too, or at the very least serve it separately from chilled items. A medieval-inspired display from Your Platter Matters.

Don't be afraid to include plenty of variety and visual props or flowers, says Megan Fernandez from Your Platter Matters on the Gold Coast. She creates three-metre medieval-style platters inspired by the abundant feasts and marketplaces shown on Game of Thrones, and all sorts of arrangements that mix sweet with savoury.



Vermouth and grapefruit punch from Banksii at Barangaroo. Hamish Ingham and Rebecca Lines from Banksii at Sydney's Barangaroo incorporate a centrepiece of house-made punch made with vermouth into their platter party menu. They mix vermouth with grapefruit juice in a bowl with fruit alongside a jar of ice and a ladle for guests to pour their own drinks.