Funny you say that, first time I used red surprise - emptied a small mill pool of perch! I suspect that 'flavours' help fish find the bait and bring it to their attention.... Archie Braddocks is pretty specific regarding his flavours/feeding triggers. Red surprise smells like nothing on earth that is edible. but a switch over to floral surprise makes a distinct difference in warmer water conditions.
regarding artifcial flavours - you add a sweetener? the artificial flavours are quite harsh (to my taste)... traditional boily mix requires sweetners/cajousers/etc to round off the desired effect..... does the sweetener improve the effect on maggots????
CP, I got caught up in the carp bait syndrome when it burst on to the market in the early 80’s. Read everything I could get my hands on, made all my own mixes ( some right disasters ) etc. etc. But I learned an awful lot about what went with what and what didn’t etc. I’m not a carp angler but lots of big Tench were ( apparently ) getting caught on carp baits and that was the Tench anglers future wasn’t it ! ! ! . . .
By the mid 80’s I was back on maggot & caster with groundbait.
However, messing around with all the carp baits had opened up a massive can of worms that had to be explored. So I did. I tried lots of flavours, sweeteners, additives & assorted chemicals on maggots with varying degrees of success. Some of them stood out like a sore thumb.
I’ve tasted every flavour & sweetener I’ve used. Some flavours are naturally sweet but most taste nothing like they smell and have a really nasty after taste. Is this the solvent or the ingredients added to the solvent ? As most of them leave that afterburn I’d suggest it’s the solvent. Back in the early 80’s most flavours were on solvents of Isopropyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Ethyl Alcohol & Diacetin. The last is rarely used now as it’s cheaper to use Propylene Glycol or one of its derivatives, which is a shame.
Glycerol based flavours I’ve found to be very poor on maggots.
Some of these flavours work without sweetener despite the bitter taste that we notice. Therefore it must be down to the effect it has when in water and its water solubility. However, as most liquid flavours nowadays seem to be on Propylene Glycol or one of its derivatives a few drops of sweetener to take the edge off seems to work.
To save repeating myself I put a post in the "Tench and Bream Flavours and Additives" earlier this month which is relevant to this thread.
Regarding Archie’s gear. I didn’t do any good with his Peach Plus or magic range but in all fairness they didn’t get a lengthy trial. I did well with the spice & red surprise additives & the spice & red surprise flavours. An example is some years ago one September the missus & I had a float session on a club lake fishing adjacent swims. I didn’t tell her at the time but I flavoured her maggots with Red surprise & mine with Spice surprise. Her catch was predominately Perch, mine was Roach. Before & since across various waters the Spice surprise works for Roach & the Red for Perch.
My experience over the last 30 odd years has shown that different species do have different triggers/preferences.
All I can suggest is you pick a flavour you have confidence in and add a few drops of sweetener. Some are better than others. Fortunately there aren't as many bait dealers around now as there used to be when it comes to liquid flavours/sweeteners.
All the best,
Matty.
