I must be honest and say I have never researched whether or not the cooking would kill off the contamination. I’m sure the powers of Google etc would throw the answers up.

I would be inclined to think not or else a lot of grain etc I am sure would end up cooked so as to be able to re-enter the human food chain for maximum profit.

Personally I would rather live without doubt when it comes to food and bait. When you are sat there for days on end waiting for something to happen I would rather know my bait is as fresh and as attractive as I can make it, leaving me with out any worries that I could potentially be harming the fish.

I touched on my previous post about the dangers of birds eating ‘not for the human food chain’ nuts etc. Still waiting for the TV programme to highlight this. It will certainly be a talking piece the following day….

Whether or not Benson died due to not being able to rid itself of swollen particle is something we will never know for sure but much more likely in my opinion if particle baits have been the cause of the sad loss is through a very common contamination called Mycotoxin in nuts and Aflatoxin in other particles particularly Maize.

Unfortunately many particle baits anglers choose to use are at the very bottom of the food chain and with the vast price difference between human grade and not fit for human consumption it is little wonder many anglers go to the pet trade to purchase what could very misleading look like the same product.

It’s at the harvest stage where these contamimations start. If the crop isn’t moved on quickly enough and gets damp then the above mentioned toxins go to work and immediately the crop is deemed unfit for human consumption. Such is the sad state of affairs the same crop finds its way into the animal food chain rather than be destroyed.

It has been proven that all animals and birds die in a very short space of time when fed contaminated nuts and cerial.

Next time you hang a bag of nuts out for the birds in the garden just ask yourself are you really doing them a favour? If they are un-fit for human consumption then I will not use them for anything else.

This is a more reasonable theory as to what led to the demise of Benson although a high particle diet isn’t good for the fish anyway. I have seen it countless times where particle fishing becomes the most effective method (usually simply because everyone follows suit) and the weight drops rapidly off the fish. Just like us a total salad diet leaves us without a lot of energy and our metabolism slows. From a fishery point of view this means a slower repair to tissue damage etc.

As for carp being able to pass swollen particles – why make them have to in the first place?

Carp do manage to pass all sorts through them but not always that easily. When Tiger Nuts were first used heavily on my local water the carps vents were seen to be bleeding which we had never witnessed before.

Put something dry in a lake and it is going to soak up liquid. If that dry food is eaten straight away int is going to be soaking up internal liquid. Surely you can’t argue this is good for the fish?

Particle baits carp love. Particle baits can create lots of problems. Particle baits can help with a balanced diet. If I were to run a fishery open to anyone then I would seriously restrict how much particle is used. I would insist on seeing the particle and would insist on overseeing the preparation where possible.

Difficult to manage but easier than having to set a fishery up again if things go too far and the fish start to die. I will end with two words MYCOTOXIN and AFLATOXIN – BE AWARE!

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