laguna
Well-known member
Nana's, pronounced "nar-nas" the yellow bent fruit kind (not your jaundiced gender bender grandma) 
are amongst one of the best natural fruit additives, but why and how do they work?
I shouldn't imagine for one moment that someone originally said, hey I know what, lets flog some banana flavoured boilies not because they work - but because anglers will buy anything if we can persuade them to! On the contrary bananas do work and they have been tried and tested for many years with great success by many individuals all around the world.
Are they the best ingredient/additive of all? Possibly not but on the day they certainly can be and will out fish any other bait, but of course equally on another day and another venue... any non-citrus fruit additive such as grape watermelon berries, strawberry, plum or pineapple might be the better option, although as winter approaches and the temperatures start to drop, I would suggest banana is the best of the bunch (pun intended).
But why?
I'll let you into a little secret. Not so long ago maybe 2 or 3 years ago I hadn't seen or known about banana baits and was largely ignorant of their potential. I never even considered them and this was despite all my years of bait preparation and testing in what was then just my kitchen, and it was only when I started to gain a better understanding of water temperatures and fish nutrition (and their remarkable ability to detect and seek out certain nutrients) that nanas came into the equation.
Subtlety and water temperature is key as to why they work.
This is not a scientific gobbledygook plug for Banana SAC juice, nor is it an exercise of teaching grandma (of whatever her sexual orientation) of how to suck on a peeled banana. It is simply based on my own findings and the research we have done to find the best winter bait.
Those of you who know me personally will know I am not a specimen hunter, preferring instead to catch numbers of fish rather than sit it out for the big one. But what we have recently witnessed ourselves and from the many emails received recently is that big older and wiser fish prefer banana more than most, and this is no coincidence as its becoming increasingly more apparent (now approaching our third winter of testing) where carp are stirring from their resting places after detecting what we have placed on the dinner table. Three years ago, following a heavy frost we had a friendly whereby maggots were presented for the roach on a well known coarse fishery match lake. After a short day session using banded soaked banana SAC juice pellets, I had around 3 times as many pastie carp as we did roach fished with maggot with an approximate weight of x 32 2-3.5lb for 100lb+ carp (estimated because we didn't use keepnets for the carp) plus our fair share of roach too. This was quite unexpected because normally carp are less active after a heavy frost and roach are more abundant and will readily take white maggot. That was 3 years ago this November and I have heard similar success stories since, but also compared to other fruits, banana is tops!
Bananas are rich in potassium which is an important mineral, it is also an electrolyte that helps maintain the fishes proper electrolyte and acid-base (pH) balance. Called electrolytes because they conduct electricity when dissolved in water which plays an important role in muscle contraction and nerve transmission.
Potassium is also involved in the storage of carbohydrates for use by human muscles as fuel, and I confess, I do not know how this correlates in fishes metabolism but I am learning it may play a similar role.
Potassium, sodium and chloride together comprise the electrolyte family of minerals.
Heres the boring science bit as I understand it (from my own notes)...
Freshwater species lose ions to the hypotonic environment and therefore suffer from hydration (take on water), whereas the reverse is true for marine species. The more soluble minerals (calcium. phosphorus, sodium, potassium and chloride) function in osmoregulation, acid-base balance. Other less soluble, but equally essential minerals are best provided for in their diet/bait. Okay so we're not here to feed them only catch them but using our knowledge of what makes a fish tick, may work to our own advantage?
My research leads me to believe that fish can utilize to some extent, minerals dissolved in the water to meet physiological requirements to satisfy part of their requirements and this is why I personally think that the soluble aspect of baits are more effective and detectable, including the activated enzymes and nutrients from a real-food item such as real banana.
Interestingly, the recent trend to include salt (sodium chloride) into your baits as an attractor, although detectable by fish, may not be as effective as sea salt which are rich in other minerals as without the inclusion of potassium, it is possibly ineffective, less effective or even detrimental? just as salt in excess can be in humans. This is to do with the "sodium-potassium" pump mechanism and saturation levels of overdosing with sodium chloride. Without the inclusion of potassium, sodium at elevated levels becomes less effective as an attractor and possibly from an anglers point of view; may not land you that big one! I firmly believe (although I am not a specimen angler) that the bigger fish will know better than a juvenile what it wants/requires and will actively go looking for it!
Is potassium the reason why bananas are so effective?
They are certainly not the best source of potassium, compared to chard, spinach, fennel or molasses. At best they can be regarded as being good along with turmeric, beets, strawberries, halibut, tuna etc. (starting to see a familiar bait pattern here?) but I wouldn't say bananas are exceptionally rich in potassium although they are amongst the best fruits that contain it.
Apparently bananas belong to the same family as the lily and the orchid - do fish eat water lilies? I don't know but I once heard that ornamental Koi do?
Creamy, rich, and sweet, bananas also contain very high levels of manganese.
Manganese is an essential trace mineral. Manganese functions as a cofactor in enzymes including those involved in urea synthesis from ammonia, amino acid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism.
In other words, as far as we anglers are concerned, it plays a significant role in digestibility but I also learned that manganese is not found in significant quantities in seawater, therefore absorption from the water by sea fish being unlikely and subsequently fishmeal used as a bait ingredient, is not a good source of manganese.
Other dietary sources of manganese include ground cloves, ground ginger, turmeric, wheat germ (not bran), rice bran, nuts, mussels, oysters and clams (presumably those last three derive their manganese from the sea bed as opposed to seawater?).
Bananas are an exceptionally rich source of fructooligosaccharide, (I googled) a compound called a prebiotic because it nourishes probiotic (friendly) bacteria in the fish ceca/gut. These beneficial bacteria produce vitamins and digestive enzymes that improve the ability to absorb nutrients.
What else is in bananas?
Bananas are a very good source of vitamin B6 and a good source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fibre, and manganese.
Anyone interested in an in depth "nutritional" profile should start googling now, my own understanding of why bananas work is based on this very subject but is already too large a word-count for a single post, possibly more suitable for an article submission, but hopefully you can at least begin to see why bananas are so effective.
Bananas, their subtle taste and smell are decidedly less apparent to the human senses but are detected by fishes olfactory senses which could quite possibly be as acute as that of a sniffer dog on heat!
The attraction from artificial baits (which accounts for most on the market) are a blend of alcohol/acid ester mix which gives it a stronger smell, more detectable by the angler (how many of us have opened a bottle in the tackle shop and bought them based on their pungency?), but are off putting to the bigger, older possibly wiser? fish including those pastie sized carp frequently recaptured on a match lake. These fish have learned or will learn quickly by association and will become accustomed to danger signals given off by artificial additives, only natural, less pungent baits (without artificial flavours) will repeatedly catch the biggest fish as they will have a need for what's in them, usually "bigger" means older, more needy of quality digestible nutrients?. Compare a juvenile fish to that of a kid in a sweet shop, eventually he/she will learn as they get older that they are no good for them, stick a hook in the child's lip and drag em round the sweet shop a few times till they are bruised and tired and they will learn even faster! :wh
Why do bananas work in cold water?
I used to use fruity baits in summer almost exclusively just because, well fruits are a summer thing aren't they?
Wrong!
Fruits are an autumn thing, at least in the natural world they are and ripened windfall is what a fish would eat if such a fruit was to drop off from an overhanging branch into the water - harvest festival of freebies! :w
I know what your thinking... bananas falling off trees in the UK? the blokes gone bananas! but a fruit is a fruit with inherent properties...
By the same logic, an autumn fruit fallen from the tree or blown into the water is doing the job of pre-baiting! Yes guys even nature thought of it first! so my logic suggested to me, that after a successful pre-baiting campaign (courtesy of mother nature) that it was obvious a fruit would be readily accepted. Its only been a couple of years since I first started using fruity baits in colder conditions but I have proved to myself at least that they do work and will continue using them in preference to a carbohydrate or high protein bait such as my confidence.
Now couple that with the fact that I only ever use 100% pure food grade ingredients (uncooked) and natures own antifreeze (Glycerites), and you can see why they are so effective in cold water detected by fish in extreme low temperatures to -46.5 (°C) without freezing!
I may be bananas about bananas but I hope you can at least appreciate some of the reasons why I use them. If you haven't tried them before (or any fruit come to that) now the temperatures are dropping why not give them a go?... you might be surprised just how effective they are, and as Christian (chav professor) has recently found out having used banana SAC juice for the first time mixed with a cheese paste for chub, has had the single best days fishing he has ever had with no less than 9 fish falling to his own concoction!
By the way, yes he did buy it himself as he says, he was not sponsored by us - but that's not to say his endorsement will go unappreciated in the future!
Christian is a great angler whose opinion is respected here on FM and his experimentation and willingness to share his ideas and address his critics with professionalism and composure hasn't gone unnoticed.
Thank you! :thumbs:
are amongst one of the best natural fruit additives, but why and how do they work?I shouldn't imagine for one moment that someone originally said, hey I know what, lets flog some banana flavoured boilies not because they work - but because anglers will buy anything if we can persuade them to! On the contrary bananas do work and they have been tried and tested for many years with great success by many individuals all around the world.
Are they the best ingredient/additive of all? Possibly not but on the day they certainly can be and will out fish any other bait, but of course equally on another day and another venue... any non-citrus fruit additive such as grape watermelon berries, strawberry, plum or pineapple might be the better option, although as winter approaches and the temperatures start to drop, I would suggest banana is the best of the bunch (pun intended).
But why?
I'll let you into a little secret. Not so long ago maybe 2 or 3 years ago I hadn't seen or known about banana baits and was largely ignorant of their potential. I never even considered them and this was despite all my years of bait preparation and testing in what was then just my kitchen, and it was only when I started to gain a better understanding of water temperatures and fish nutrition (and their remarkable ability to detect and seek out certain nutrients) that nanas came into the equation.
Subtlety and water temperature is key as to why they work.
This is not a scientific gobbledygook plug for Banana SAC juice, nor is it an exercise of teaching grandma (of whatever her sexual orientation) of how to suck on a peeled banana. It is simply based on my own findings and the research we have done to find the best winter bait.
Those of you who know me personally will know I am not a specimen hunter, preferring instead to catch numbers of fish rather than sit it out for the big one. But what we have recently witnessed ourselves and from the many emails received recently is that big older and wiser fish prefer banana more than most, and this is no coincidence as its becoming increasingly more apparent (now approaching our third winter of testing) where carp are stirring from their resting places after detecting what we have placed on the dinner table. Three years ago, following a heavy frost we had a friendly whereby maggots were presented for the roach on a well known coarse fishery match lake. After a short day session using banded soaked banana SAC juice pellets, I had around 3 times as many pastie carp as we did roach fished with maggot with an approximate weight of x 32 2-3.5lb for 100lb+ carp (estimated because we didn't use keepnets for the carp) plus our fair share of roach too. This was quite unexpected because normally carp are less active after a heavy frost and roach are more abundant and will readily take white maggot. That was 3 years ago this November and I have heard similar success stories since, but also compared to other fruits, banana is tops!
Bananas are rich in potassium which is an important mineral, it is also an electrolyte that helps maintain the fishes proper electrolyte and acid-base (pH) balance. Called electrolytes because they conduct electricity when dissolved in water which plays an important role in muscle contraction and nerve transmission.
Potassium is also involved in the storage of carbohydrates for use by human muscles as fuel, and I confess, I do not know how this correlates in fishes metabolism but I am learning it may play a similar role.
Potassium, sodium and chloride together comprise the electrolyte family of minerals.
Heres the boring science bit as I understand it (from my own notes)...
Freshwater species lose ions to the hypotonic environment and therefore suffer from hydration (take on water), whereas the reverse is true for marine species. The more soluble minerals (calcium. phosphorus, sodium, potassium and chloride) function in osmoregulation, acid-base balance. Other less soluble, but equally essential minerals are best provided for in their diet/bait. Okay so we're not here to feed them only catch them but using our knowledge of what makes a fish tick, may work to our own advantage?
My research leads me to believe that fish can utilize to some extent, minerals dissolved in the water to meet physiological requirements to satisfy part of their requirements and this is why I personally think that the soluble aspect of baits are more effective and detectable, including the activated enzymes and nutrients from a real-food item such as real banana.
Interestingly, the recent trend to include salt (sodium chloride) into your baits as an attractor, although detectable by fish, may not be as effective as sea salt which are rich in other minerals as without the inclusion of potassium, it is possibly ineffective, less effective or even detrimental? just as salt in excess can be in humans. This is to do with the "sodium-potassium" pump mechanism and saturation levels of overdosing with sodium chloride. Without the inclusion of potassium, sodium at elevated levels becomes less effective as an attractor and possibly from an anglers point of view; may not land you that big one! I firmly believe (although I am not a specimen angler) that the bigger fish will know better than a juvenile what it wants/requires and will actively go looking for it!
Is potassium the reason why bananas are so effective?
They are certainly not the best source of potassium, compared to chard, spinach, fennel or molasses. At best they can be regarded as being good along with turmeric, beets, strawberries, halibut, tuna etc. (starting to see a familiar bait pattern here?) but I wouldn't say bananas are exceptionally rich in potassium although they are amongst the best fruits that contain it.
Apparently bananas belong to the same family as the lily and the orchid - do fish eat water lilies? I don't know but I once heard that ornamental Koi do?
Creamy, rich, and sweet, bananas also contain very high levels of manganese.
Manganese is an essential trace mineral. Manganese functions as a cofactor in enzymes including those involved in urea synthesis from ammonia, amino acid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism.
In other words, as far as we anglers are concerned, it plays a significant role in digestibility but I also learned that manganese is not found in significant quantities in seawater, therefore absorption from the water by sea fish being unlikely and subsequently fishmeal used as a bait ingredient, is not a good source of manganese.
Other dietary sources of manganese include ground cloves, ground ginger, turmeric, wheat germ (not bran), rice bran, nuts, mussels, oysters and clams (presumably those last three derive their manganese from the sea bed as opposed to seawater?).
Bananas are an exceptionally rich source of fructooligosaccharide, (I googled) a compound called a prebiotic because it nourishes probiotic (friendly) bacteria in the fish ceca/gut. These beneficial bacteria produce vitamins and digestive enzymes that improve the ability to absorb nutrients.
What else is in bananas?
Bananas are a very good source of vitamin B6 and a good source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fibre, and manganese.
Anyone interested in an in depth "nutritional" profile should start googling now, my own understanding of why bananas work is based on this very subject but is already too large a word-count for a single post, possibly more suitable for an article submission, but hopefully you can at least begin to see why bananas are so effective.
Bananas, their subtle taste and smell are decidedly less apparent to the human senses but are detected by fishes olfactory senses which could quite possibly be as acute as that of a sniffer dog on heat!
The attraction from artificial baits (which accounts for most on the market) are a blend of alcohol/acid ester mix which gives it a stronger smell, more detectable by the angler (how many of us have opened a bottle in the tackle shop and bought them based on their pungency?), but are off putting to the bigger, older possibly wiser? fish including those pastie sized carp frequently recaptured on a match lake. These fish have learned or will learn quickly by association and will become accustomed to danger signals given off by artificial additives, only natural, less pungent baits (without artificial flavours) will repeatedly catch the biggest fish as they will have a need for what's in them, usually "bigger" means older, more needy of quality digestible nutrients?. Compare a juvenile fish to that of a kid in a sweet shop, eventually he/she will learn as they get older that they are no good for them, stick a hook in the child's lip and drag em round the sweet shop a few times till they are bruised and tired and they will learn even faster! :wh
Why do bananas work in cold water?
I used to use fruity baits in summer almost exclusively just because, well fruits are a summer thing aren't they?
Wrong!
Fruits are an autumn thing, at least in the natural world they are and ripened windfall is what a fish would eat if such a fruit was to drop off from an overhanging branch into the water - harvest festival of freebies! :w
I know what your thinking... bananas falling off trees in the UK? the blokes gone bananas!
but a fruit is a fruit with inherent properties...By the same logic, an autumn fruit fallen from the tree or blown into the water is doing the job of pre-baiting! Yes guys even nature thought of it first! so my logic suggested to me, that after a successful pre-baiting campaign (courtesy of mother nature) that it was obvious a fruit would be readily accepted. Its only been a couple of years since I first started using fruity baits in colder conditions but I have proved to myself at least that they do work and will continue using them in preference to a carbohydrate or high protein bait such as my confidence.
Now couple that with the fact that I only ever use 100% pure food grade ingredients (uncooked) and natures own antifreeze (Glycerites), and you can see why they are so effective in cold water detected by fish in extreme low temperatures to -46.5 (°C) without freezing!
I may be bananas about bananas but I hope you can at least appreciate some of the reasons why I use them. If you haven't tried them before (or any fruit come to that) now the temperatures are dropping why not give them a go?... you might be surprised just how effective they are, and as Christian (chav professor) has recently found out having used banana SAC juice for the first time mixed with a cheese paste for chub, has had the single best days fishing he has ever had with no less than 9 fish falling to his own concoction!
By the way, yes he did buy it himself as he says, he was not sponsored by us - but that's not to say his endorsement will go unappreciated in the future!
Christian is a great angler whose opinion is respected here on FM and his experimentation and willingness to share his ideas and address his critics with professionalism and composure hasn't gone unnoticed.
Thank you! :thumbs:
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