Wikkelspies...
Are you the angler who used "youre the fire" womans deo? lol!
Last year, on the OP site, fresh water angling side, there was a dude who used this and claimed he's catch rate increased.
Man did he get it... even the conventional guys were blitzing him... I had a good chuckle, but its actually very sad!
He went into detail and said that it was made from natural ingredients and was harmless to fish! But I think he forgot about a couple of toxic ingredients, like oil, petrolium, alcohol etc, deadly to aquatic life forms.
By the way a lot of dips use alcohol as a suspender, preservertor.
When I started specimen (last month)...lol! I gave all my conventional stuff away, more than a 100 dips, 12 ball dips,10 bottles of small and large floaties, 12 bottles of flavoured maize, 2rods tackle, stands, reels, landing nets, etc. and have never looked back lol!
I was fortunate enough to have my first specimen session with an experienced guy, (KUSAF actually) and my eyes were opened, I could not believe the fish we caught and with what we caught them with. I was immediately hooked, no more pink and yellow hands LOL!
Since, Ive been with quite a few specimen angles and their styles are all different, the basics are the same,(tackle/carp care) but when it comes to attractors as in dips, they vary.
Some, like me, wont use flavours and dips, then others swear by them, Tjop tjop is a favourite for these guys when using tigernuts..
I feel, Tigernuts have their own unique flavour and if scraped, crushed or sliced in half, fish cant resist them, now why mask that with some man made flavour?
But with all that said, when it comes to boillies, there are glugs that specimen anglers use.
Flavourants are available in concentrates to put into the boillies when making them, (and then minimal amounts too!) I think these are fine, and if you look at them, they all natural, peach, pine apple, strawberry, chocolate, caramel, vanilla, mussels, squid, chilli, peanut etc etc etc, nowhere does metholated spirits (bloutrein) or TCP come into the equation. Hey Ive even heard of conventional anglers using brakefluid of all things...
I was taught long ago, that too much flavour has the opposite effect you desire, you could be repelling fish rather than attracting.. And I think, the bigger fish shy away from these strong flavours. We've even left boillies in the margins to soak and leach flavours out, then fished them. (known as washed out baits)
My theory? the bigger fish have gotten this big through being wary, they may have had some encounter in their earlier years with strong flavours and who knows gotten caught and released? or noticed their fellow fish being taken..lol! The BFC are survivors, they know more than they show.
In Specimen angling, this is the target fish, as Ive said before, the biggest fish in the dam, a true specimen of a carp, the trophy! The catch of a lifetime, thats what its all about. Not how many you catch in a session, but did you get that BFC? Well, that's how i see it anyway.
As MC said, dips are not or very rarely used in the specimen fraternity, where its natural all the way.
These are my views (naturally)but,if you have confidence in what you doing and using, albeit dips etc, just keep it carp safe.
...But would you mind listing your dips/concentrates/sprays, as I have collected a SH!t load of dips(without actually noticing until my last fishing session) over the years, and would want to know which of them to take with.
nice one wikkelspies!