Elaine

From the past to the present time, there are many anglers quoting 'biological nutritional values' for carp baits and their ingredients. But are they 'correct?' or have we really been mislead for years?!

This is not the simple subject that it appears to be: This is based on the supposed conversion of carp baits and how they are digested and assimilated in carp to become of biological value to carp; to be used in useful bodily processes, syntheses, growth, repair, release or storage of energy, etc.

Some anglers are even offering computer programs to give you approximate 'biological nutritional values' of any particular bait mix you may be making from any of perhaps 30 ingredients in their list that they have analyzed.

I find this incredible, firstly because all bait ingredients from different sources and supplier can differ differ, not only in their quality, but age before packing and consignment, stated 'best before' dates, methods of extraction, storage times, storage containers, storage temperatures, quality control methods, and methods of contents analysis.

Not only does this render such a programme obsolete, for the above reasons; but for example the 'same labeled' fish meal you use in the UK, may be extremely different to that obtained in the States, or Europe, but it's beneficial effects at eating by carp will differ too! And this variable is multiplied as you combine various other different ingredients into your bait.

But the BIGGEST MISTAKE being made is that, the old measure of the 'biological nutritional value,' or the more recent and accurate 'fixed dietary protein percentage score' are only scientific results of tests on HUMANS NOT CARP! Even analysis values for fish rearing feeds pellets and powders for trout, salmon and trout are those designed for the specific scientifically proven dietary requirements for those specific individual fish and as such may differ from carp requirements so much, that used in quantities over log periods of time, these could even be harmful, causing vitamin deficiencies, or liver damage for example!

Now I don't know about your scientific expertise, but unless you happen to be a PhD marine biologist whose history is testing carp bait biological nutritional values in carp of differing stages of maturity, you definitely will not know the best answer to the following example of such a problem:

In the UK it has become very fashionable for most of the popular fishing paper to recommend using the now extremely popular 'halibut rearing pellets.' These contain an exceptionally high oils content and are formulated for maximising biological 'mass' gains in halibut rearing. These may be good for young halibut, but are they 'ideal' for mature carp to ingest in kilograms on a daily basis because they are thrown into carp waters by the majority of carp anglers who do tend to copy each other, and follow whatever the bait 'fashion' happens to be?

In carp bait design, there is a big problem that only a tiny percentage of bait makers ever hear about, and presents a real challenge! There is the small but very significant matter of 'first limiting amino acids.'

These will affect things biological terms, in carp baits, by limiting the proteins that carp can actually assimilate and use before wasting them. Adding to your problem, is that fish in different waters, and even within the same waters, can have different most deficient individual amino acids in their own personal diets and bodies at any time; and this obviously affects their dietary requirements and very likely;bait preferences too!

In bait making, you effectively need to know which amino acids each ingredient is most deficient in, and its very handy to know which amino acids each ingredient is highest in too! Maybe then, you can design a bait with a nutritional food content; with the correct ratios of fats, carbohydrates and proteins etc, including a 'balanced amino acid profile,' where all 'standard' carp amino acids requirements are met in sufficient quantities to meet dietary requirements.

Have you ever tried to make a bait that is proven to do this; where each of your ingredients cancel-out the 'limiting amino acid effects' of all the other ingredients?

This is part of the reason that the very high protein carp baits of the past do not produce MORE carp than baits with a 'balanced food profile' like the ones being used today. I.e. owing to the effect of 'limiting amino acids' in these high protein ingredients baits, very little of the protein in the bait was being utilized by the carp, and so was wasted and excreted! Even top body-builders do not eat a diet that is 90% protein; they recognise that the correct nutritional balance, energy and foods ratios are essential for optimum gains achieved!

So, back to making carp baits; there is a new American measurement, for the biological nutritional value of food. Its name is:

'The Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score.

The name of the old method most often used for making carp baits is the biological nutritional value or the BNV.

The new, more refined method is the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score or the PDCAAS.

For example, wheat germ protein has a PDCAAS value of about 0.4 to 0.5, and is limited by lysine. It has more than a carps requirement for methionine.

Haricot bean protein has a PDCAAS of around 0.6 to 0.7 and is limited by methionine. It has more than the carps requirement for lysine.

Consumed together in equal amounts they provide a PDCAAS value of 1. Number 1 denotes the highest protein value in human dietary terms.

Each protein food is balanced by the other. Carp can receive the full dietary requirement of both of each first limiting amino acid in each food bait ingredient, such as white fish meal, or fish protein concentrate.

There are many nutritional ingredients that produce this effect when combined together in bait. Fishing bait suppliers offer the most commonly known ones, although are not necessarily the most effective on many waters today.

Below is an ingredients list of aquaculture carp feed stuffs, ideal for carp bait and boilie making. Used in combination, these can also maximize carp health and growth by combining the negative digestive effects of their individual first limiting amino acids. (Indicated):

Whole egg: the first limiting amino acid is threonine. (Egg is an excellent whole food ingredient and bait binder.)

Whey: first limiting amino acids are methionine / cystine.

Whole milk: methionine / cystine.

Fish muscle: methionine / phenylalanine.

Fish meal (Herring): threonine.

White fish meal: threonine / phenylalanine.

Fish silage: tryptophan.

Fish protein concentrate: cystine.

Whole shrimp meal: histidine.

Soya bean meal: methionine.

Blood meal: isoleucine.

Meat and bone meal: methionine.

Liver meal: lysine.

Beef meal: methionine / cystine.

Poultry (chicken and turkey) by-product meals: tyrosine.

Hydrolyzed feather meal: methionine.

Spirulina maxima: cystine.

Groundnut meal: methionine.

Whole wheat meal: lysine.

Maize meal: lysine / tryptophan.

Potato protein concentrate: methionine.

Worm meal: cystine.

Leaf protein concentrate: cystine.

Coconut: lysine.

Sesame: lysine.

Linseed / flaxseed: lysine.

Sunflower: lysine.

Cottonseed: lysine.

Palm Kernel: lysine / methionine.

Safflower: lysine.

Crambe: lysine.

Rapeseed: cystine.

Chick pea: methionine.

Cow pea: methionine.

Mung bean: cystine.

Haricot bean: methionine.

Yellow (sweet) lupin: methionine.

Most pulses: methionine.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae: (bakers and brewers yeast): methionine.

Torulopsis utilis: (yeast): methionine.

M. methylotrophus: (bacterium): cystine.

Most animal, pet and commercial bait companies will supply an analysis of each product. These list for example, protein content, added amino acids, minerals, trace elements and vitamin, salt supplement content, type of oils or fat content, dietary fiber, any ash (for potassium) content.

Researching the PDCAAS value of your carp bait ingredients, is an excellent way to ensure you are balancing the wasteful limiting nutritional effects, of the first limiting essential amino acids in your bait. This ensures carps maximum utilization of your bait proteins for maximum bait attraction and available nutrition.

In a way, you balanced profile baits can become habit forming to carp you introduce more and they eat more of it over time. They will sense your baits superior energy efficient nutritional benefits and attraction. As a consequence, with good angling skills, your catches will grow, and the numbers of bigger fish you hook will improve.

The oily fish group, is ideal as a bait bulk protein provider. For example: meals made from anchovies, herring, mackerel, mullet, sardines, salmon, trout, tuna, and others like smelts and capellin. Most types of shellfish are ideal sources of protein for carp too, and have repeatedly produced excellent catches.

Plant sources like beans, pulses, grains, nuts, seeds, for example; soybean products, buckwheat, and millet, are also good sources of proteins. These also need combining with other protein sources for the best amino profile and balance, as they are often deficient in some important amino acids.

It is recommended to combine plant and animal proteins to best exploit the effects and benefits of each other.

Earlier biological measurement tests had in built faults and unknown variables. These popularly used evaluations were called the Protein efficiency ratio or PER and the biological nutritional value or BNV.

Of cause, the validity of any nutritional biological value, and its accuracy, only holds true to carp, if tested using carp nutritional values!

In the past, many anglers have attempted to apply the old BNV evaluation measurement to carp bait ingredients. These have been used produce a total figure for a high nutritional value bait, but were not accurate at all.

These were human nutrition values for foods and food group constituents, and not carp tested evaluations!

However, they can give us comparative guide to values for carp. The highest PDCAAS value is 1, (for humans,) with 0 as the lowest score. Examples of some PDCAAS values for carp bait ingredients are:

Soya: 1.

Egg white: 1.

Casein: 1.

Whey: 1.

Milk: 1.

Beef: 0.98.

Kidney beans: 0.68.

Lentils: 0.52.

Peanuts: 0.52.

Wheat: 0.25.

Although the PDCAAS is more accurate than the PER or BV, the following are important facts relating to bait design, which can be misleading to any evaluation:

A.The scores were results from nutritional humans testing only.

B.The BV measures nitrogen absorption, but ignores important variables affecting digestion.

C.The PDCAAS adjusts for proteins digested but lost from the body unused, or to bacterial digestion in the gut. Proteins are assumed to have been available when a food was digested, but were actually unavailable because of digestive inhibitors like soy tannins.

D.It is misleading because a diet very rarely consists of just one food source

E.Probably the most important flaw is related to amino acids, and this also is a big point to remember in designing your bait! Calculating the biological digestibility value of food constituents of human diet, purely based on the more accurate PDCAAS measure, is presently impossible to complete accurately. The same applies to carp bait too!)

A single ingredient in the diet could supply very many of a large profile of amino acids, which another ingredient is lacking in.

The PDCAAS evaluation result would show a higher value than any of the individual ingredients. This is totally inaccurate as all the individual amino acids would have to be analyzed, individually assessed and calculated!

All we can do is use human nutritional values in the design of carp baits, until science catches up with our needs. If any carp fisherman knows of a flawless evaluation method that provides true carp bait nutritional values, please let everyone know!

Obviously, using fish meal does have the added advantage of containing all the essential amino acids fish require, but there is also the 'biological digestibility factor; is it better to go for whey protein isolates, or predigested caseins, or predigested shellfish extracts? It seems that cost of ingredients is a factor most fishermen regard more highly than if their baits will provide amazing results more consistently than the 'average' angler's baits!

The author has many more fishing and bait edges up his sleeve. Every single one can have a huge impact on catches. (Warning: This article is protected by copyright.)

By Tim Richardson. The thinking mans fishing author and expert bait making guru.

*** FOR MORE EXPERT FISHING IMPROVEMENT INFORMATION AND EXPERT BAIT MAKING BOOKS SEE: http://www.baitbigfish.com

Tim Richardson is a leading big fish angler with many incredible catches to his name. He is also a nationally recognised carp and catfish bait guru in the UK. His best selling bait making and bait enhancing books / ebooks help beginners and experienced anglers alike to improve and enhance their baits achieving far greater catches of big fish. *His books are even used by members of the elite British Carp Study Group for expert reference. * If you feel your catches could gain from more expert bait experience, insights and fishing information and techniques, take a look at Tims dedicated website.

Tim Richardson:

'The thinking angler's fishing author and expert bait making guru.'