Meet the Experts
Select an image to read the experts profile page.
Ask The Experts
Choose one of our experts......
Allan Parbery, Tim Wagner, Bob Roberts, Matt Brown, Andy Green and Stefan Hanff, for help and advice on any Carp or Coarse fishing topic. Just email your question using the form below and the following week your question will be answered by the expert you picked and posted below in the Question and Answer section.
Allan Parbery, Tim Wagner, Bob Roberts, Matt Brown, Andy Green and Stefan Hanff, for help and advice on any Carp or Coarse fishing topic. Just email your question using the form below and the following week your question will be answered by the expert you picked and posted below in the Question and Answer section.
Question and Answers
Allan Parbery Question and Answer >>>
01 July 2010
Mr Philip Basson asked:
My name is Philip Basson I'm 14 and live in south Africa and my life is all about carping.
All I wanna know is the following: I fish a lake (100acre plus) where there is a lot (and I really mean a lot of naturals like mussels bloodworm snails and thousands of crabs). So the one day I went out and I always try to do something different so I made a big bed of spread out boilies in a margin then I walked on and climbed up a tree and I saw two monster carp probably 40 plus and swam through the swim and one stopped next to a crab and ate it. I went and did research and saw that carp eat crab and know I know why 30 kg plus fish come out cause they thrive on naturals and don’t really need our bait so what boilie has enough qualities to beat all the naturals? I thought something like the crab crème or what suggestions would you give because as I said there are thousands of crabs, but that’s on the gravel when I stand in the silt in the margins with my wader and walk out there bloodworm and snails get stuck on my boots and its juicy red ones so if you name two baits one for the crabs on gravel and the other in silt that imitates the bloodworm.
Thanks and i'll let you know how I do (just started using your bait the other day and i'm very impressed I can see you have 22 years of bait making behind you)
Tight lines and good luck with the bait.
Allan Parbery answered:
You will have your work cut out here Philip - these waters are amongst the hardest to tempt a fish from especially if there is as much natural as you say. I fish a similar lake that I catch nothing from in 5 or 6 sessions and then I will catch 8 carp on the next visit. Infuriating.
What you have to do is plenty of fishing at this place and I am certain your results will mirror mine. I am tending to think that at certain times of the year much of the natural food either dies off, is eaten or is otherwise unavailable. This is when you may score well.
The Crab Creme is a good bait for this but you will need to keep it going in. If you bait up regularly with hemp and maize and add some boilies, eventually you will get the fish interested. In the meantime continue fishing this lake with these methods on 2 rods. I think the third rod you should use something different like our Rosehip boilies. Although not as good a food source as Crab Creme many hundreds of thousands of carp have been caught on this bait as far apart as Russia, the USA and South Africa. It comes into its own in the winter and as you have winter at the moment it would be a good time to try.
Keep us posted.
26th April 2010
Mr Daniel Joseph asked:
Are frozen baits really better than shelf life?
Allan Parbery answered:
One of my favourite questions this is.
There are several trains of thought regarding the difference between shelf life and frozen baits.
Let us look at the things we eat - just about everything from apples to zucchini's have a preservative on or in them and you can't taste it. That is a fact. Some people reckon they can tell the difference between an organically grown carrot to one that has had fertiliser chucked at it all year. Well I don't believe this - one is more likely to taste better than another because of what soil it was grown in, its variety and the age it was picked.
I can state categorically that fresh vegetables are better than frozen, fresh meat is better than frozen, fresh fish is better than frozen and frozen strawberries are close to inedible. So, freezing does something to certain foods that makes them slightly substandard. Fats don't freeze well but many boilies contain vast quantities of fish oil.
Some people reckon that all things with a chemical symbol are dangerous but this is certainly not the case. Would you put C12 H22 0II in your cup of H20 with a tea bag? I'm sure you would as do millions of others every day. That takes care of chemical symbols then so lets not listen to the uneducated on that score. Sugar, by the way, is one of the best preservatives around - have you ever seen a rotten sherbet lemon? All of the stabilisers that we would use to stop rot or mould are odourless and close to tasteless.
What about boilies then? Well we are looking at trying to catch a simple creature with food supplements. Sweets, biscuits etc would be our similar snack. So we need to make them tasty as well as nutritious if possible. This is relatively simple with experience of available ingredients so it now comes down to your question - is either better?
Let us look at shelf life baits. Most of the better companies about use very similar products to keep their baits from going off. However the most important thing to stop this is the quality of the dryers used in the factories. The less moisture you have in a bait the less likely it is to go furry so the better companies have spent much money getting this aspect right. Whatever is used in a bait to stop it going off is almost secondary to the drying process. Anything that is used is generally used at low levels too so don't listen to anybody who says shelf lifes are 'full' of preservatives. They just don't know what they are talking about - you wouldn't listen to a carpenter if you need the advice of a mechanic so why listen to a carpet cleaner talking about bait? Most anglers can only give an opinion rather than state a fact and that does go for some of the very big names in the sport too. Check out if they are sponsored by a company specialising in frozen baits. Always read between the lines too - it is very easy for anybody to start a business in their shed and create 'the best boilie in the world' . These will always be frozen baits due to one thing only - they do not have the expertise to offer anything else so they will possibly slate ready made shelf life baits.
In essence I believe that there is very little, if any, difference between the baits. The only obvious thing you will notice is that air dried/shelf life boilies will be harder than the frozen ones in general due to the freezer baits only being partly dried.
I hope I have been some help to you Daniel.
12th April 2010
Mr Lee Butler asked:
With so many bollies on the market how do you know which one is best for you? Is it how many you catch, is it the one that gets the biggest, or is it what every one uses. I have been Carp fishing for 4 years now i have got myself some nice 20+ which is great but I have still not caught the big ones on my club water and have tried every thing, all the new baits from all companies and I have tried using what every one else uses but still no look, so what should I look for in a bait which will let me use it any where and one that carp love and I am sure that if I give it time that one of them will be in my net thanks.
Allan Parbery answered:
The best thing to do Lee is to stick to one of the boilies - try the No Name or the new i40 and stick to the one you choose. Don't go off it and try other things - just keep on it. If you don't get the 'big ones' ask yourself a question. Are they in your lake? Many times they are not - its no good chasing rumours. There is always the story about the one that got away. If there are not enough big ones in the lake to chase with a good chance of catching one you may have to wait for a long time. Why not try another lake to see if your luck changes in this instance?
1st April 2010
Mr Chris Hancock asked:
I have been using fresh rolled fishmeal based baits and am back on a lake that in the past produced fish to your rosehip popups. I'm interested in using your isotonic basemix but would like to know if i should be adding fish oil, betain and multimino boosters to the mix. Also have you tried the base mix plus robin red as i've had good results adding this to previous mixes to give the mix a different twist. Any ideas would be very welcome.
Allan Parbery answered:
The Isotonic base mix was formulated to work as is - without the need for anything other than a flavour. However, we all like our twists and the Robin Red is one that works well. In fact we use this ourselves within many of the ready made baits we produce so yes use it by all means. As for fish oils carp do like them but keep the levels low if you decide to try this out. Don't use fish oils when the water temperature drops below 10 to 12 degrees though.
Betaine is best added to a finished bait in my opinion - just sprinkle on around 2 grams per kilo of bait that is drying and leave. Bag it up when it has dried and use or freeze as necessary.
Multimino additives are numerous - there are loads of them that could be classed as such, from our Spod & Stick Juices to products that other manufacturers supply. Most are great fish catching aids in my opinion and can be used either in or on a bait. Dosage inside a bait could be anything up to 20ml per egg generally but keep an eye on the suppliers recommendations. Ours are totally natural as I suppose are some others so inclusion rates are personal and can be adjusted to suit. I have never seen fish get on a bait as quickly as I saw when testing the Live R juice on my pond carp. They were straight on it. I'm not so sure I would use that in conjunction with Rosehip though - sounds a bit yuk!
2nd March 2010
Mr John Gurrin asked:
I would like to try something like the halibut dusted pellets or similar for sea fishing, this is just so i can carry some-thing around with me that is easy to use. Do you know if any one has had any success with these?
Allan Parbery answered:
Strange that I wondered exactly that some years ago so I tried them whilst on holiday. The good news is that you can catch sea fish on these pellets plus the fishy or meaty pastes we do. OK they are not going to take over the world regarding unimaginable captures but they are effective, easy to use products that will get you a few bites. We will be making an item especially for sea anglers within the next few months and I expect them to be put to the test just after that. If we can make something that fish will eat we will have won the battle - again we are not looking to replicate natural foodstuffs because this is just about impossible but something that you can keep in the bag as a reliable reserve is what we are striving for.
Good luck and if you get something good let us know.
25th February 2010
Mr Filipe Varela asked:
Can you give me some tips to try large wild fish for carp in a large lake where there are many small-sized carp? I am available to go baiting every day, just needed some tricks to help get big carp to eat in my fishing in the long term.
Allan Parbery answered:
This sounds like a fantastic challenge you have in front of you and one that I am sure I can help with, having set my sight on similar projects over the years.
First I would suggest that your local knowledge has identified that big fish are in fact present in your lake and secondly you have chosen a couple of areas where you think these fish might frequent. Sounds basic but a lot of people think there must be big fish in a lake when sometimes there aren't. You say there are lots of small carp and these can take a bit of shifting from an area.
My preference would be to choose a time of day when you know you will be free every day of the week. You will have to guess how many fish will come to your area - there is no way of doing this accurately - and start baiting up. Lets say you think that 10 kilos of bait will keep the fish interested for a while. Obviously due to the cost you will have to use mostly particle baits or pellets. I suggest hempseed, wheat, maize and soya to start with. Add a few large boilies to the particles and get baiting - the whole lot in one night. Leave things for a few days, maybe 5, and repeat the 10 kilo baiting at the same time of day. Repeat again a few days later and after that halve the amount of bait but put it in more frequently, say every three days. After a couple of weeks bait up every day with say a kilo or two. I would suggest that the fish should really be on your bait by now so ensure on your first session you get cast out several hours before the baiting up the fish are used to. However keep the amount of bait going in very light - just have enough to make the carp think that they have been beaten to it. I would suggest that the fish in the swim will be the larger ones and being much slower than small carp they will stay in the lightly baited area for quite a while. It is quite probable that the bigger carp will have bullied the smaller ones over the weeks and that they only feed after the bigger ones have left. It is a method called the 'Baiting Pyramid, which was often used during the 1980's in the UK and a method I have used many times on unpressured waters - especially rivers. I would probably use a 25mm boilie as hookbait or a double 20mm just to help keep off a few of the smaller fish - the Rosehip being my first choice.
One word of warning is that I would not let anybody see what you are doing and I would also clear up any spilled baits from the margins. I know that Portugal doesn't have the amount of carp anglers we have here but it would be horrible if somebody spoiled your chances for you. Good luck with this and let us know if you start catching some big fish.
11th January 2010
Mr Darren Griffiths asked:
I'm fishing in france in April at bills lake and am struggling to choose a bait to take, have you got any suggestions and why? I would like to try 1 of your baits so any hints and tips would be great.
Allan Parbery answered:
Bills Lake is one I have not fished but have heard good reports about from some of our customers.
When going to France I like to take a bit of a choice of bait. Firstly without any doubt I would take a few bags of Rosehip Isotonic. Carp love it but the nuisance species that may or may not be there seem to avoid it. Being April time it is unlikely that Poisson Chats and Crayfish will have ‘woken’ from the winter in many waters but why take the chance? Wherever I was carp fishing I, and countless others, would take Rosehip Isotonic.
The second bait would be a fishmeal offering such as one of our No Name baits. Over the years the UK anglers have chucked in tonnes of fishmeals all over the continent and now many waters respond very well to these baits. Around April time carp will be more active and thinking about spawning within a few weeks. Being masters of their environment they automatically know they need animal protein to rebuild their bodies from winter and to aid the forthcoming reproduction cycle. Baits such as the No Name fit the bill perfectly. My personal favourite is the standard No Name but many others prefer the Spicy Peppersarni or the fishy Tuna/Shellfish varieties. The base mix is all but the same so the choice is whether you like flavours or not. If cost is a factor our Oyster Fishmeal would be a good bet too at about half the price.
Have a good holiday.
27th October 2009
Mr Daniel Buckingham asked:
I have just received a bag of your Isotonic base mix for my 15th birthday and would like to know how to use it properly? I made a small batch and boiled them for 1 minute, and they seemed a bit hard but on reading your advert in Carpology I am wondering if I should have boiled them at all. I love the idea of not using any eggs and would also like to know how to store them once I have made them correctly?
Allan Parbery answered:
You have done everything correctly first time, however the baits must be boilied. If you would prefer a slightly softer bait just boil them for 30 to 45 seconds and let the boilies dry on an old tea towel or similar. When they have dried off a bit – say after 30 minutes – put them onto a dry towel and leave for a few hours. After this secondary drying process you should freeze the baits to stop them going off if you are not going to use them within a few days. Alternately, you may immerse the boilies completely in sugar. Baits prepared this way should last several weeks, if not, months.
Good fishing.
20th October 2009
Mr S Hays asked:
I've got 5kg of rosehip shelflife which i'm not planning to use until i go to france next summer. Would it be best to freeze it or will it still be ok as it is?
Allan Parbery answered:
The boilies you mention will be fine until next year as long as you keep them dry and away from greatly fluctuating temperatures. However, what may happen is that they may go a little harder and appear to lose some of their smell. This won’t affect their fish catching capabilities but it may affect your confidence. The flavour is still there but the boilies will not release it until it has had time to re hydrate. If this is the case you may spray over them with a bait wizard or simply drop a few teaspoons of dip into the bag and shake well. Personally I would not do either because I prefer baits myself that do not smell much and to be honest I have had some of my best French catches on older baits.
As for the freezing this will not affect the baits other than drying them out by a small amount. The flavour will still be there and I would expect most anglers would choose this option to be ‘on the safe side’ Lets face it – most people leave their bait in the garage or shed and mice love these places especially in the winter.
One thing however that puzzles me – Rosehip is one of the best boilies to use in the winter in the UK – it really comes into its own league and will outfish most other baits. Try them and see.
21st August 2009
Phillip Murray asked:
I have been using the Rosehip Isotonic, my question is what's the best way to keep this bait fresh once the packs opened till the next trip, also what if you have some left and won't be fishing again for a few months, do you just leave it, or freeze it, or glug it?
Allan Parbery answered:
If you keep it in the packet and re-seal it the bait should stay fresh for many months. I have some hanging around in the back of the van that has been there since last year and it smells fine, feels fine and looks fine. As long as you keep the baits away from direct sunlight and any moisture they should be ok to use for ages.
31st July 2009
Joe Cook asked:
I'm fishing a very quiet unknown gravel pit near my home in Yaxley near Peterborough. I've seen some great looking carp just over the 30lb mark, may be a little bigger though. My main base of attack has been tiger nuts as I don't know of any carp that will not eat them and they are very tentative feeders so tiger nuts seemed a natural option. I did a short night session a couple of weeks ago and hooked a large fish during the early hours. Unfortunately the hook pulled at the net, but I saw the fish at least and recognised it as one of my targets. Bearing in mind that there are as far as i know only a handful of carp in there so my question is; what chance is there that that particular fish has wised up to my tiger nut approach. Should I stick with my current tactics now the fish are relatively comfortable with the bait or should I change in case they now see it as dangerous?
Allan Parbery answered:
It is great finding these waters isn’t it? Unknown fish, no crowds and the element of surprise is what it’s all about.
I have a very easy answer for you here and that is carry on as before with 2 rods and maybe try a boilie, or a different particle on the third. Tigers are working and I know from experience that they will catch some carp time after time after time. Tigers are a bit of a random shape and it is very unlikely that the particular carp in question will realise what has happened.
For a sustained campaign on this water I do think that you will be much better off introducing boilies at some time in the near future. Particle baits seem fine to use in the warmer months but their effectiveness can be called into question after August on many lakes. I think that maybe this is due to the fact that carp must know they will need to put on reserves of weight for the coming winter. Particles, generally, are very poor food baits with little goodness in them. Even the cheapest boilies may be a better bet later in the year.
27th April 2009
Rodney Smith asked:
Congrats on being in business over 21 years. I just want to ask you if you could recommend one of your Euro-Boilies for me to fish the Thames & it's backwaters around the Oxford area please.
Allan Parbery answered:
Good question this one and many thanks for your congratulations.
Over the years I have done quite a bit of river fishing for carp from places like the local Nene to vast rivers such as the Saone and Rhone in France.
Generally speaking river carp are nomadic creatures and many fish known to have been in one stretch of the Nene are regularly caught miles away some time later. I am sure this will apply to the Thames too.
Bait then is something that has got to be good enough to stop the carp and get them feeding. As it is possible the fish you catch today will be from a different shoal to those you will catch tomorrow the protein content of the boilies does not have to be the same as you would use in your syndicate water. It is probably not worth the effort to get the fish used to one particular good food source because they are nomadic. If you do get repeat captures then the rules may change.
Baiting up is of utmost importance for river fishing and most of us would do this after work in the evening. The more regularly you can do this the better. Keep it at the same time too if possible. The fish will now be used to finding food available in the evenings and at night so the colour choice is probably not going to matter that much. I probably wouldn't use the fishmeal baits because bream may well munch through your pre baiting. I would look at something that had a decently strong flavour level without being too overpowering and in this instance it would be the Banana Tutti. Why? - well it has a good pedigree and has been successful for lots of anglers up and down the country, and abroad, in situations just like yours. It is as instant as you can make a boilie be and does have a surprising nutritional value for a cheaper bait. Chub don't like Banana Tutti as much as carp do in my experience so that's another bonus because chub are in the Thames by the bucketful.
Good luck.
14th April 2009
Trevor Jones asked:
Having used T1 on a lake last year to good effect I was wondering if you could suggest an alternative from your range that would be as good or better?
Allan Parbery answered:
I am glad somebody has asked me such a question to answer on the website - it is one that crops up regularly on the phone.
This may surprise you and many others but I have no idea what T1 is. Yes I have heard of it but have never seen it. The same can be said of any products that our competitors make - I suppose at least we could never be accused of copying that way. However this doesn’t answer anything so lets have a go at a proper answer for you.
Firstly I would never change a bait that is working for me in the hope the next one will be better. If you think the bait is losing its effectiveness or you weren’t 100% happy with it anyway then I would change.
I take it that the T1 is a fishmeal bait - most are nowadays. If your water responds very well to this type of bait you should stick to using similar offerings - Mistral’s ‘Bait with No Name’ springs to mind instantly. The original version of this bait is still the one to use on a syndicate I fish. Many hundreds of 20’s and 30’s have been caught on it since 2004 and last season was the best yet. Why you may ask? Well I think that it is because the ‘Bait with No Name’ has no flavours inside it at all. It doesn’t smell of anything bar the base mix so there is little for the carp to get wary of. Baits that stand the test of time will be of a similar type I’m sure.
However a well known angler once said ‘If you want to catch the same as everybody else - do as everybody else. If you want to catch more, experiment’. Good advice indeed. So what would the experiment be? You may notice that we have a new ‘No Name’ bait called ‘Live R’. Yes it is liver based and is an exceptionally high protein bait that I and a few others done really well on last year. At the moment it is on a ‘buy one get one free’ offer so the wise money may go that way especially if you get a few friends on it too.
30th December 2008
Mark Hibbitt asked:
I'm looking to use Mistral Baits this year, but don't know which bait to use? The water I'm fishing is about 7 acres, with fish stockings of 180, including 5 thirties, and around 30-40 twenties. They like their boilies, what sort of price would I pay for about 30kg of boilies?
Allan Parbery answered:
This is a question I get asked regularly and the answer depends upon lots of variables.
Can I suggest that this lake is a local club/syndicate water with many other anglers fishing it?
If so I would try to team up with one or two other anglers to save a bit of money on the bait firstly, but secondly and far more important it means that the bait is going in more regularly. You can share baiting up chores 3 ways and have a whole better season to show for it.
What type of bait? Well I would suggest that fishmeals are being used on your lake and have been for a few years. If this is the case I would certainly look at one of the No Name range of boilies or something similar. These are high protein fishmeal baits, with the exception of the new Live R which is liver and meat based. Any of this range contain all of the necessary ingredients suitable for catching carp and lots of them too. The prices for these are about £11 per kilo.
It is well worth keeping an eye on our ‘special offer' page on the website for some bargains. I know that we don't have any of the No Name range at present but there are many others that would get the job done for you. One that springs to mind is a Monster Crab flavoured fishmeal/birdfood bait that we make for the European market. They are great boilies that contain Robin Red, PTX, LT94 and loads of other goodies. We have a whole load of these boilies that are not quite round so we sell them off for £40 per 10 kilos. The ingredients are all there it is just that a part of the machine was worn just a little too much before we replaced it. If you get 2 or 3 mates to have the same 30 kilos or so you will be in with the very best chance to have a great season at a low price. At my local syndicate this is how we fish. Six or seven of us decide on a bait and stick with it - The No Name original still being the choice of most.
If price is the defining criteria most baits will catch carp for you - it just seems that keeping one bait going in all of the time will help you far more than if you swap and change every week.
The good thing about the No Name and the Monster Crab baits mentioned is that they are also effective for fishing in all but the coldest of conditions - the first time I tried them was in February 2004 and I caught a nice low twenty within 10 minutes followed an hour later by another one a bit bigger.
What you have to do is feed your chosen bait regularly and fish well with them. This may mean scratching your head and thinking about the lake, it's inhabitants and your successes and failures in past sessions. However as most of the lakes will be iced up now you should have plenty of time to do this.
Have a super 2009.
Mr Philip Basson asked:
My name is Philip Basson I'm 14 and live in south Africa and my life is all about carping.
All I wanna know is the following: I fish a lake (100acre plus) where there is a lot (and I really mean a lot of naturals like mussels bloodworm snails and thousands of crabs). So the one day I went out and I always try to do something different so I made a big bed of spread out boilies in a margin then I walked on and climbed up a tree and I saw two monster carp probably 40 plus and swam through the swim and one stopped next to a crab and ate it. I went and did research and saw that carp eat crab and know I know why 30 kg plus fish come out cause they thrive on naturals and don’t really need our bait so what boilie has enough qualities to beat all the naturals? I thought something like the crab crème or what suggestions would you give because as I said there are thousands of crabs, but that’s on the gravel when I stand in the silt in the margins with my wader and walk out there bloodworm and snails get stuck on my boots and its juicy red ones so if you name two baits one for the crabs on gravel and the other in silt that imitates the bloodworm.
Thanks and i'll let you know how I do (just started using your bait the other day and i'm very impressed I can see you have 22 years of bait making behind you)
Tight lines and good luck with the bait.
Allan Parbery answered:
You will have your work cut out here Philip - these waters are amongst the hardest to tempt a fish from especially if there is as much natural as you say. I fish a similar lake that I catch nothing from in 5 or 6 sessions and then I will catch 8 carp on the next visit. Infuriating.
What you have to do is plenty of fishing at this place and I am certain your results will mirror mine. I am tending to think that at certain times of the year much of the natural food either dies off, is eaten or is otherwise unavailable. This is when you may score well.
The Crab Creme is a good bait for this but you will need to keep it going in. If you bait up regularly with hemp and maize and add some boilies, eventually you will get the fish interested. In the meantime continue fishing this lake with these methods on 2 rods. I think the third rod you should use something different like our Rosehip boilies. Although not as good a food source as Crab Creme many hundreds of thousands of carp have been caught on this bait as far apart as Russia, the USA and South Africa. It comes into its own in the winter and as you have winter at the moment it would be a good time to try.
Keep us posted.
26th April 2010
Mr Daniel Joseph asked:
Are frozen baits really better than shelf life?
Allan Parbery answered:
One of my favourite questions this is.
There are several trains of thought regarding the difference between shelf life and frozen baits.
Let us look at the things we eat - just about everything from apples to zucchini's have a preservative on or in them and you can't taste it. That is a fact. Some people reckon they can tell the difference between an organically grown carrot to one that has had fertiliser chucked at it all year. Well I don't believe this - one is more likely to taste better than another because of what soil it was grown in, its variety and the age it was picked.
I can state categorically that fresh vegetables are better than frozen, fresh meat is better than frozen, fresh fish is better than frozen and frozen strawberries are close to inedible. So, freezing does something to certain foods that makes them slightly substandard. Fats don't freeze well but many boilies contain vast quantities of fish oil.
Some people reckon that all things with a chemical symbol are dangerous but this is certainly not the case. Would you put C12 H22 0II in your cup of H20 with a tea bag? I'm sure you would as do millions of others every day. That takes care of chemical symbols then so lets not listen to the uneducated on that score. Sugar, by the way, is one of the best preservatives around - have you ever seen a rotten sherbet lemon? All of the stabilisers that we would use to stop rot or mould are odourless and close to tasteless.
What about boilies then? Well we are looking at trying to catch a simple creature with food supplements. Sweets, biscuits etc would be our similar snack. So we need to make them tasty as well as nutritious if possible. This is relatively simple with experience of available ingredients so it now comes down to your question - is either better?
Let us look at shelf life baits. Most of the better companies about use very similar products to keep their baits from going off. However the most important thing to stop this is the quality of the dryers used in the factories. The less moisture you have in a bait the less likely it is to go furry so the better companies have spent much money getting this aspect right. Whatever is used in a bait to stop it going off is almost secondary to the drying process. Anything that is used is generally used at low levels too so don't listen to anybody who says shelf lifes are 'full' of preservatives. They just don't know what they are talking about - you wouldn't listen to a carpenter if you need the advice of a mechanic so why listen to a carpet cleaner talking about bait? Most anglers can only give an opinion rather than state a fact and that does go for some of the very big names in the sport too. Check out if they are sponsored by a company specialising in frozen baits. Always read between the lines too - it is very easy for anybody to start a business in their shed and create 'the best boilie in the world' . These will always be frozen baits due to one thing only - they do not have the expertise to offer anything else so they will possibly slate ready made shelf life baits.
In essence I believe that there is very little, if any, difference between the baits. The only obvious thing you will notice is that air dried/shelf life boilies will be harder than the frozen ones in general due to the freezer baits only being partly dried.
I hope I have been some help to you Daniel.
12th April 2010
Mr Lee Butler asked:
With so many bollies on the market how do you know which one is best for you? Is it how many you catch, is it the one that gets the biggest, or is it what every one uses. I have been Carp fishing for 4 years now i have got myself some nice 20+ which is great but I have still not caught the big ones on my club water and have tried every thing, all the new baits from all companies and I have tried using what every one else uses but still no look, so what should I look for in a bait which will let me use it any where and one that carp love and I am sure that if I give it time that one of them will be in my net thanks.
Allan Parbery answered:
The best thing to do Lee is to stick to one of the boilies - try the No Name or the new i40 and stick to the one you choose. Don't go off it and try other things - just keep on it. If you don't get the 'big ones' ask yourself a question. Are they in your lake? Many times they are not - its no good chasing rumours. There is always the story about the one that got away. If there are not enough big ones in the lake to chase with a good chance of catching one you may have to wait for a long time. Why not try another lake to see if your luck changes in this instance?
1st April 2010
Mr Chris Hancock asked:
I have been using fresh rolled fishmeal based baits and am back on a lake that in the past produced fish to your rosehip popups. I'm interested in using your isotonic basemix but would like to know if i should be adding fish oil, betain and multimino boosters to the mix. Also have you tried the base mix plus robin red as i've had good results adding this to previous mixes to give the mix a different twist. Any ideas would be very welcome.
Allan Parbery answered:
The Isotonic base mix was formulated to work as is - without the need for anything other than a flavour. However, we all like our twists and the Robin Red is one that works well. In fact we use this ourselves within many of the ready made baits we produce so yes use it by all means. As for fish oils carp do like them but keep the levels low if you decide to try this out. Don't use fish oils when the water temperature drops below 10 to 12 degrees though.
Betaine is best added to a finished bait in my opinion - just sprinkle on around 2 grams per kilo of bait that is drying and leave. Bag it up when it has dried and use or freeze as necessary.
Multimino additives are numerous - there are loads of them that could be classed as such, from our Spod & Stick Juices to products that other manufacturers supply. Most are great fish catching aids in my opinion and can be used either in or on a bait. Dosage inside a bait could be anything up to 20ml per egg generally but keep an eye on the suppliers recommendations. Ours are totally natural as I suppose are some others so inclusion rates are personal and can be adjusted to suit. I have never seen fish get on a bait as quickly as I saw when testing the Live R juice on my pond carp. They were straight on it. I'm not so sure I would use that in conjunction with Rosehip though - sounds a bit yuk!
2nd March 2010
Mr John Gurrin asked:
I would like to try something like the halibut dusted pellets or similar for sea fishing, this is just so i can carry some-thing around with me that is easy to use. Do you know if any one has had any success with these?
Allan Parbery answered:
Strange that I wondered exactly that some years ago so I tried them whilst on holiday. The good news is that you can catch sea fish on these pellets plus the fishy or meaty pastes we do. OK they are not going to take over the world regarding unimaginable captures but they are effective, easy to use products that will get you a few bites. We will be making an item especially for sea anglers within the next few months and I expect them to be put to the test just after that. If we can make something that fish will eat we will have won the battle - again we are not looking to replicate natural foodstuffs because this is just about impossible but something that you can keep in the bag as a reliable reserve is what we are striving for.
Good luck and if you get something good let us know.
25th February 2010
Mr Filipe Varela asked:
Can you give me some tips to try large wild fish for carp in a large lake where there are many small-sized carp? I am available to go baiting every day, just needed some tricks to help get big carp to eat in my fishing in the long term.
Allan Parbery answered:
This sounds like a fantastic challenge you have in front of you and one that I am sure I can help with, having set my sight on similar projects over the years.
First I would suggest that your local knowledge has identified that big fish are in fact present in your lake and secondly you have chosen a couple of areas where you think these fish might frequent. Sounds basic but a lot of people think there must be big fish in a lake when sometimes there aren't. You say there are lots of small carp and these can take a bit of shifting from an area.
My preference would be to choose a time of day when you know you will be free every day of the week. You will have to guess how many fish will come to your area - there is no way of doing this accurately - and start baiting up. Lets say you think that 10 kilos of bait will keep the fish interested for a while. Obviously due to the cost you will have to use mostly particle baits or pellets. I suggest hempseed, wheat, maize and soya to start with. Add a few large boilies to the particles and get baiting - the whole lot in one night. Leave things for a few days, maybe 5, and repeat the 10 kilo baiting at the same time of day. Repeat again a few days later and after that halve the amount of bait but put it in more frequently, say every three days. After a couple of weeks bait up every day with say a kilo or two. I would suggest that the fish should really be on your bait by now so ensure on your first session you get cast out several hours before the baiting up the fish are used to. However keep the amount of bait going in very light - just have enough to make the carp think that they have been beaten to it. I would suggest that the fish in the swim will be the larger ones and being much slower than small carp they will stay in the lightly baited area for quite a while. It is quite probable that the bigger carp will have bullied the smaller ones over the weeks and that they only feed after the bigger ones have left. It is a method called the 'Baiting Pyramid, which was often used during the 1980's in the UK and a method I have used many times on unpressured waters - especially rivers. I would probably use a 25mm boilie as hookbait or a double 20mm just to help keep off a few of the smaller fish - the Rosehip being my first choice.
One word of warning is that I would not let anybody see what you are doing and I would also clear up any spilled baits from the margins. I know that Portugal doesn't have the amount of carp anglers we have here but it would be horrible if somebody spoiled your chances for you. Good luck with this and let us know if you start catching some big fish.
11th January 2010
Mr Darren Griffiths asked:
I'm fishing in france in April at bills lake and am struggling to choose a bait to take, have you got any suggestions and why? I would like to try 1 of your baits so any hints and tips would be great.
Allan Parbery answered:
Bills Lake is one I have not fished but have heard good reports about from some of our customers.
When going to France I like to take a bit of a choice of bait. Firstly without any doubt I would take a few bags of Rosehip Isotonic. Carp love it but the nuisance species that may or may not be there seem to avoid it. Being April time it is unlikely that Poisson Chats and Crayfish will have ‘woken’ from the winter in many waters but why take the chance? Wherever I was carp fishing I, and countless others, would take Rosehip Isotonic.
The second bait would be a fishmeal offering such as one of our No Name baits. Over the years the UK anglers have chucked in tonnes of fishmeals all over the continent and now many waters respond very well to these baits. Around April time carp will be more active and thinking about spawning within a few weeks. Being masters of their environment they automatically know they need animal protein to rebuild their bodies from winter and to aid the forthcoming reproduction cycle. Baits such as the No Name fit the bill perfectly. My personal favourite is the standard No Name but many others prefer the Spicy Peppersarni or the fishy Tuna/Shellfish varieties. The base mix is all but the same so the choice is whether you like flavours or not. If cost is a factor our Oyster Fishmeal would be a good bet too at about half the price.
Have a good holiday.
27th October 2009
Mr Daniel Buckingham asked:
I have just received a bag of your Isotonic base mix for my 15th birthday and would like to know how to use it properly? I made a small batch and boiled them for 1 minute, and they seemed a bit hard but on reading your advert in Carpology I am wondering if I should have boiled them at all. I love the idea of not using any eggs and would also like to know how to store them once I have made them correctly?
Allan Parbery answered:
You have done everything correctly first time, however the baits must be boilied. If you would prefer a slightly softer bait just boil them for 30 to 45 seconds and let the boilies dry on an old tea towel or similar. When they have dried off a bit – say after 30 minutes – put them onto a dry towel and leave for a few hours. After this secondary drying process you should freeze the baits to stop them going off if you are not going to use them within a few days. Alternately, you may immerse the boilies completely in sugar. Baits prepared this way should last several weeks, if not, months.
Good fishing.
20th October 2009
Mr S Hays asked:
I've got 5kg of rosehip shelflife which i'm not planning to use until i go to france next summer. Would it be best to freeze it or will it still be ok as it is?
Allan Parbery answered:
The boilies you mention will be fine until next year as long as you keep them dry and away from greatly fluctuating temperatures. However, what may happen is that they may go a little harder and appear to lose some of their smell. This won’t affect their fish catching capabilities but it may affect your confidence. The flavour is still there but the boilies will not release it until it has had time to re hydrate. If this is the case you may spray over them with a bait wizard or simply drop a few teaspoons of dip into the bag and shake well. Personally I would not do either because I prefer baits myself that do not smell much and to be honest I have had some of my best French catches on older baits.
As for the freezing this will not affect the baits other than drying them out by a small amount. The flavour will still be there and I would expect most anglers would choose this option to be ‘on the safe side’ Lets face it – most people leave their bait in the garage or shed and mice love these places especially in the winter.
One thing however that puzzles me – Rosehip is one of the best boilies to use in the winter in the UK – it really comes into its own league and will outfish most other baits. Try them and see.
21st August 2009
Phillip Murray asked:
I have been using the Rosehip Isotonic, my question is what's the best way to keep this bait fresh once the packs opened till the next trip, also what if you have some left and won't be fishing again for a few months, do you just leave it, or freeze it, or glug it?
Allan Parbery answered:
If you keep it in the packet and re-seal it the bait should stay fresh for many months. I have some hanging around in the back of the van that has been there since last year and it smells fine, feels fine and looks fine. As long as you keep the baits away from direct sunlight and any moisture they should be ok to use for ages.
31st July 2009
Joe Cook asked:
I'm fishing a very quiet unknown gravel pit near my home in Yaxley near Peterborough. I've seen some great looking carp just over the 30lb mark, may be a little bigger though. My main base of attack has been tiger nuts as I don't know of any carp that will not eat them and they are very tentative feeders so tiger nuts seemed a natural option. I did a short night session a couple of weeks ago and hooked a large fish during the early hours. Unfortunately the hook pulled at the net, but I saw the fish at least and recognised it as one of my targets. Bearing in mind that there are as far as i know only a handful of carp in there so my question is; what chance is there that that particular fish has wised up to my tiger nut approach. Should I stick with my current tactics now the fish are relatively comfortable with the bait or should I change in case they now see it as dangerous?
Allan Parbery answered:
It is great finding these waters isn’t it? Unknown fish, no crowds and the element of surprise is what it’s all about.
I have a very easy answer for you here and that is carry on as before with 2 rods and maybe try a boilie, or a different particle on the third. Tigers are working and I know from experience that they will catch some carp time after time after time. Tigers are a bit of a random shape and it is very unlikely that the particular carp in question will realise what has happened.
For a sustained campaign on this water I do think that you will be much better off introducing boilies at some time in the near future. Particle baits seem fine to use in the warmer months but their effectiveness can be called into question after August on many lakes. I think that maybe this is due to the fact that carp must know they will need to put on reserves of weight for the coming winter. Particles, generally, are very poor food baits with little goodness in them. Even the cheapest boilies may be a better bet later in the year.
27th April 2009
Rodney Smith asked:
Congrats on being in business over 21 years. I just want to ask you if you could recommend one of your Euro-Boilies for me to fish the Thames & it's backwaters around the Oxford area please.
Allan Parbery answered:
Good question this one and many thanks for your congratulations.
Over the years I have done quite a bit of river fishing for carp from places like the local Nene to vast rivers such as the Saone and Rhone in France.
Generally speaking river carp are nomadic creatures and many fish known to have been in one stretch of the Nene are regularly caught miles away some time later. I am sure this will apply to the Thames too.
Bait then is something that has got to be good enough to stop the carp and get them feeding. As it is possible the fish you catch today will be from a different shoal to those you will catch tomorrow the protein content of the boilies does not have to be the same as you would use in your syndicate water. It is probably not worth the effort to get the fish used to one particular good food source because they are nomadic. If you do get repeat captures then the rules may change.
Baiting up is of utmost importance for river fishing and most of us would do this after work in the evening. The more regularly you can do this the better. Keep it at the same time too if possible. The fish will now be used to finding food available in the evenings and at night so the colour choice is probably not going to matter that much. I probably wouldn't use the fishmeal baits because bream may well munch through your pre baiting. I would look at something that had a decently strong flavour level without being too overpowering and in this instance it would be the Banana Tutti. Why? - well it has a good pedigree and has been successful for lots of anglers up and down the country, and abroad, in situations just like yours. It is as instant as you can make a boilie be and does have a surprising nutritional value for a cheaper bait. Chub don't like Banana Tutti as much as carp do in my experience so that's another bonus because chub are in the Thames by the bucketful.
Good luck.
14th April 2009
Trevor Jones asked:
Having used T1 on a lake last year to good effect I was wondering if you could suggest an alternative from your range that would be as good or better?
Allan Parbery answered:
I am glad somebody has asked me such a question to answer on the website - it is one that crops up regularly on the phone.
This may surprise you and many others but I have no idea what T1 is. Yes I have heard of it but have never seen it. The same can be said of any products that our competitors make - I suppose at least we could never be accused of copying that way. However this doesn’t answer anything so lets have a go at a proper answer for you.
Firstly I would never change a bait that is working for me in the hope the next one will be better. If you think the bait is losing its effectiveness or you weren’t 100% happy with it anyway then I would change.
I take it that the T1 is a fishmeal bait - most are nowadays. If your water responds very well to this type of bait you should stick to using similar offerings - Mistral’s ‘Bait with No Name’ springs to mind instantly. The original version of this bait is still the one to use on a syndicate I fish. Many hundreds of 20’s and 30’s have been caught on it since 2004 and last season was the best yet. Why you may ask? Well I think that it is because the ‘Bait with No Name’ has no flavours inside it at all. It doesn’t smell of anything bar the base mix so there is little for the carp to get wary of. Baits that stand the test of time will be of a similar type I’m sure.
However a well known angler once said ‘If you want to catch the same as everybody else - do as everybody else. If you want to catch more, experiment’. Good advice indeed. So what would the experiment be? You may notice that we have a new ‘No Name’ bait called ‘Live R’. Yes it is liver based and is an exceptionally high protein bait that I and a few others done really well on last year. At the moment it is on a ‘buy one get one free’ offer so the wise money may go that way especially if you get a few friends on it too.
30th December 2008
Mark Hibbitt asked:
I'm looking to use Mistral Baits this year, but don't know which bait to use? The water I'm fishing is about 7 acres, with fish stockings of 180, including 5 thirties, and around 30-40 twenties. They like their boilies, what sort of price would I pay for about 30kg of boilies?
Allan Parbery answered:
This is a question I get asked regularly and the answer depends upon lots of variables.
Can I suggest that this lake is a local club/syndicate water with many other anglers fishing it?
If so I would try to team up with one or two other anglers to save a bit of money on the bait firstly, but secondly and far more important it means that the bait is going in more regularly. You can share baiting up chores 3 ways and have a whole better season to show for it.
What type of bait? Well I would suggest that fishmeals are being used on your lake and have been for a few years. If this is the case I would certainly look at one of the No Name range of boilies or something similar. These are high protein fishmeal baits, with the exception of the new Live R which is liver and meat based. Any of this range contain all of the necessary ingredients suitable for catching carp and lots of them too. The prices for these are about £11 per kilo.
It is well worth keeping an eye on our ‘special offer' page on the website for some bargains. I know that we don't have any of the No Name range at present but there are many others that would get the job done for you. One that springs to mind is a Monster Crab flavoured fishmeal/birdfood bait that we make for the European market. They are great boilies that contain Robin Red, PTX, LT94 and loads of other goodies. We have a whole load of these boilies that are not quite round so we sell them off for £40 per 10 kilos. The ingredients are all there it is just that a part of the machine was worn just a little too much before we replaced it. If you get 2 or 3 mates to have the same 30 kilos or so you will be in with the very best chance to have a great season at a low price. At my local syndicate this is how we fish. Six or seven of us decide on a bait and stick with it - The No Name original still being the choice of most.
If price is the defining criteria most baits will catch carp for you - it just seems that keeping one bait going in all of the time will help you far more than if you swap and change every week.
The good thing about the No Name and the Monster Crab baits mentioned is that they are also effective for fishing in all but the coldest of conditions - the first time I tried them was in February 2004 and I caught a nice low twenty within 10 minutes followed an hour later by another one a bit bigger.
What you have to do is feed your chosen bait regularly and fish well with them. This may mean scratching your head and thinking about the lake, it's inhabitants and your successes and failures in past sessions. However as most of the lakes will be iced up now you should have plenty of time to do this.
Have a super 2009.
Tim Wagner Question and Answer >>>
7th March 2010
Mr George Merritt asked:
Time and time again i talk to anglers on the bank about rigs, and everyone seems to show me 3 or 4 different types of pop up rigs but only 1 type of bottom bait rigs! Shouldn't these bottom bait rigs be just important as pop ups! what type of bottom bait rigs do you use and recommend?
Tim Wagner answered:
Thanks for your question regarding rigs. I know exactly what you mean about how anglers and magazines alike talk about their preference towards certain rigs. Almost nearly all of the rigs that you see talked about or recommended show the hook bait fished off the bottom. However not all is lost and I can recommend a couple of different presentations to present your hook bait on the bottom because lets face it all of the free bait that you introduce will be sitting on the bottom or in the weed but basically it will be sitting “on” something, so surely that is the best place to have your hook bait isn’t it, on the bottom with your freebies.
I have been lucky enough to fish with and along side some of the best anglers in the country and on some of the best waters in the country and I can honestly say that you wouldn’t believe the amount of them who very rarely fish with bottom baits because they don’t feel confident in presenting a bottom bait amongst weed and chod, hence they nearly always use pop ups. So it’s not just the rigs that you have to look at but also your own confidence in using something. Presenting bottom baits in weed or silt can take an awful lot to get your head around. The best season I had when I landed 10 x 40’s and another 20 over 35 as well as numerous other 30’s, I would say 99% of those fish fell to bottom baits either fished hard on the bottom or in the weed and the water in question is very weedy. So far this season I have landed 27 different 30lb commons whilst field testing Mistrals new i40 boilies and all of them have come to baits fished on the deck.
The first thing to look at is the hook length material and what it is made of. Personally I try to stay clear of the subtle braids and mono’s and tend to favour the very stiff coated braids. The reason being that the soft hook lengths will collapse under the weight of the boilie and will sit in a mess on the lakebed. My favourite is sold under the Wychwood label and is called Hidden Deception which I am happy to use in either brown or green in the 15lb version. The hook length is a dyneema braid and is very fine with the coating being of a matt finish, which doesn’t shine and stand out on the lakebed.
To tie the actual rig is very straight forward, and I simply cut a piece of approx 18in and strip 6in of the coating off one end. With the braid now uncovered I use a simple knotless knot tied to a Korda wide gape hook. Hook size is dependent on bait size and for baits of 24mm and larger I use a size 4, for baits of 20mm and 18mm I use a size 6 and any baits smaller I use a size 8. You want to leave about 12mm of uncoated braid between the eye of the hook and the start of the coating. Anymore and the rig doesn’t work as it should.
Once I have tied the knotless knot I then slide on two pieces of shrink tube, one is positioned on the bend of the hook and is approx 2mm in length and will trap the hair and cause the hook to become point heavy therefore helping it to drop down into the bottom of the carps mouth. The second piece, which is approx 10-12mm in length is positioned over the eye and will basically turn the hook into a long shank bent hook and will help the hook turn in the carps mouth. I then measure from the hooks eye 10in back up the hook length and then strip off the excess coating after leaving on 10in of coating. A third piece of shrink tube of about 3in is then slid on the hook length before I then use a size 8 swivel and secure the hook length to the swivel with a simple over hand loop knot making sure that the knot is formed in the uncoated braid. Any knot formed over the coating will only strangulate itself once under tension and will probably snap. The third piece of shrink tube is then slid up over the eye of the swivel. The whole rig is then steamed over the kettle making sure that the shrink tube is all in the correct place before hand. The coating is also steamed to make sure that it straightens, I then place 3 or 4 small pieces of rig putty on the hook length to help pin it down.
The reason for using the shrink tube on the swivel instead of the purpose made rig sleeves, which are available is that it is stiffer and longer and will help kick the bait away from the lead easier and will improve presentation.
If I am using a single bottom bait then I also use some dissolvable rig foam on the hook. This is to hold the rig up off the bottom and once it has dissolved the stiff coating of the braid combined with the shrink tube on the swivel will push the bait and rig away from the lead so that it sits perfectly away from the lead between 11 and 1 o’clock on an imaginary clock. If you want to use a snowman of a popup and a bottom bait then you can do away with the rig foam as the popup will hold up the bottom bait sufficient enough before it sinks and sits perfectly on the deck.
For the snowman version I would use 24mm b/b and a 20mm p/up, a 20mm b/b and a 18mm p/up, an 18mm b/b and a 15mm p/up and finally a 15mm b/b and a 10mm p/up. Personally I believe this rig to be the most successful I have ever used or seen being used if fished correctly. I have just started a new series in Carpology, which is just about to go on sale and we will cover these rigs in detail at some stage.
I hope that has helped a little and not made the water even muddier for you!
All the best for 2010.
15th February 2010
Mr Andy Wooding asked:
I was just wondering whether you can rehydrate tiger nuts? I recently bought a tub from dynamite baits. I took them out of the tub and put them into an air tight bucket with some sugar so they could ferment and slime up. I did take some of the preservative out but I did save some. I did notice they just started to wrinkle slightly and just started to rehydrate. I added some of the preservative back in along with some water but will they rehydrate and be okay to use?
Tim Wagner answered:
You should have no problem in rehydrating Tiger Nuts but I am unsure why you put sugar on dry nuts. The best way would have been just to add sugar to the tigers whilst in solution. If you don't like the solution the tigers came in just throw it away and mix your sugar with some water and add to the nuts. These will keep for several weeks and go nice and gooey within a few days.
Mr George Merritt asked:
Time and time again i talk to anglers on the bank about rigs, and everyone seems to show me 3 or 4 different types of pop up rigs but only 1 type of bottom bait rigs! Shouldn't these bottom bait rigs be just important as pop ups! what type of bottom bait rigs do you use and recommend?
Tim Wagner answered:
Thanks for your question regarding rigs. I know exactly what you mean about how anglers and magazines alike talk about their preference towards certain rigs. Almost nearly all of the rigs that you see talked about or recommended show the hook bait fished off the bottom. However not all is lost and I can recommend a couple of different presentations to present your hook bait on the bottom because lets face it all of the free bait that you introduce will be sitting on the bottom or in the weed but basically it will be sitting “on” something, so surely that is the best place to have your hook bait isn’t it, on the bottom with your freebies.
I have been lucky enough to fish with and along side some of the best anglers in the country and on some of the best waters in the country and I can honestly say that you wouldn’t believe the amount of them who very rarely fish with bottom baits because they don’t feel confident in presenting a bottom bait amongst weed and chod, hence they nearly always use pop ups. So it’s not just the rigs that you have to look at but also your own confidence in using something. Presenting bottom baits in weed or silt can take an awful lot to get your head around. The best season I had when I landed 10 x 40’s and another 20 over 35 as well as numerous other 30’s, I would say 99% of those fish fell to bottom baits either fished hard on the bottom or in the weed and the water in question is very weedy. So far this season I have landed 27 different 30lb commons whilst field testing Mistrals new i40 boilies and all of them have come to baits fished on the deck.
The first thing to look at is the hook length material and what it is made of. Personally I try to stay clear of the subtle braids and mono’s and tend to favour the very stiff coated braids. The reason being that the soft hook lengths will collapse under the weight of the boilie and will sit in a mess on the lakebed. My favourite is sold under the Wychwood label and is called Hidden Deception which I am happy to use in either brown or green in the 15lb version. The hook length is a dyneema braid and is very fine with the coating being of a matt finish, which doesn’t shine and stand out on the lakebed.
To tie the actual rig is very straight forward, and I simply cut a piece of approx 18in and strip 6in of the coating off one end. With the braid now uncovered I use a simple knotless knot tied to a Korda wide gape hook. Hook size is dependent on bait size and for baits of 24mm and larger I use a size 4, for baits of 20mm and 18mm I use a size 6 and any baits smaller I use a size 8. You want to leave about 12mm of uncoated braid between the eye of the hook and the start of the coating. Anymore and the rig doesn’t work as it should.
Once I have tied the knotless knot I then slide on two pieces of shrink tube, one is positioned on the bend of the hook and is approx 2mm in length and will trap the hair and cause the hook to become point heavy therefore helping it to drop down into the bottom of the carps mouth. The second piece, which is approx 10-12mm in length is positioned over the eye and will basically turn the hook into a long shank bent hook and will help the hook turn in the carps mouth. I then measure from the hooks eye 10in back up the hook length and then strip off the excess coating after leaving on 10in of coating. A third piece of shrink tube of about 3in is then slid on the hook length before I then use a size 8 swivel and secure the hook length to the swivel with a simple over hand loop knot making sure that the knot is formed in the uncoated braid. Any knot formed over the coating will only strangulate itself once under tension and will probably snap. The third piece of shrink tube is then slid up over the eye of the swivel. The whole rig is then steamed over the kettle making sure that the shrink tube is all in the correct place before hand. The coating is also steamed to make sure that it straightens, I then place 3 or 4 small pieces of rig putty on the hook length to help pin it down.
The reason for using the shrink tube on the swivel instead of the purpose made rig sleeves, which are available is that it is stiffer and longer and will help kick the bait away from the lead easier and will improve presentation.
If I am using a single bottom bait then I also use some dissolvable rig foam on the hook. This is to hold the rig up off the bottom and once it has dissolved the stiff coating of the braid combined with the shrink tube on the swivel will push the bait and rig away from the lead so that it sits perfectly away from the lead between 11 and 1 o’clock on an imaginary clock. If you want to use a snowman of a popup and a bottom bait then you can do away with the rig foam as the popup will hold up the bottom bait sufficient enough before it sinks and sits perfectly on the deck.
For the snowman version I would use 24mm b/b and a 20mm p/up, a 20mm b/b and a 18mm p/up, an 18mm b/b and a 15mm p/up and finally a 15mm b/b and a 10mm p/up. Personally I believe this rig to be the most successful I have ever used or seen being used if fished correctly. I have just started a new series in Carpology, which is just about to go on sale and we will cover these rigs in detail at some stage.
I hope that has helped a little and not made the water even muddier for you!
All the best for 2010.
15th February 2010
Mr Andy Wooding asked:
I was just wondering whether you can rehydrate tiger nuts? I recently bought a tub from dynamite baits. I took them out of the tub and put them into an air tight bucket with some sugar so they could ferment and slime up. I did take some of the preservative out but I did save some. I did notice they just started to wrinkle slightly and just started to rehydrate. I added some of the preservative back in along with some water but will they rehydrate and be okay to use?
Tim Wagner answered:
You should have no problem in rehydrating Tiger Nuts but I am unsure why you put sugar on dry nuts. The best way would have been just to add sugar to the tigers whilst in solution. If you don't like the solution the tigers came in just throw it away and mix your sugar with some water and add to the nuts. These will keep for several weeks and go nice and gooey within a few days.
Matt Brown Question and Answer >>>
8th April 2009
Bob Lewinton asked:
In December 2007 I purchased 2 sizes of Shell Fish No name boilies for barbel fishing. I have one unopened pack and some still remaining in opened but sealed packs. I cannot find any use by date but should I throw the boilies away or would they still be useable. Which bait in your current range would you recommnd for the Kennet.
Matt Brown answered:
A good question and one to which I can't answer 100%. Even though you know when you bought them, you don't know when they were produced and how long the shop has had them in stock. This is true of all packaged bait, by all manufacturers. However, I do have my own rules that I abide by;
If the bait looks wrong in any way, such as signs of any mould or a white residue, I'll bin it. If it doesn't smell right I'll bin that too. Other than that I'm happy that the bait will perform and be good for the fish.
The great thing about No Name is that it is air dried meaning that the bait is unlikely to go off if kept dry. I take great care to ensure I don't contaminate any bait left in the original zip seal packaging. That means no water, other bait, dips etc is allowed inside. I can honsestly say that I've never had any Mistral boilies of any type go bad on me. This is not true of other brands and I do think it is because of the air drying process used and the excellent re-sealable packaging.
Regarding what bait to use on the Kennet, it depends where you are fishing. I only have experience of the waters on the Reading ticket. Many of these stretches are now heavily fished for barbel and see a lot of bait. If this is the case where you fish you'll have to work harder, otherwise just stick with elips pellets.
Let's assume that your tackle, tactics, timing and location are sorted and just concentrate of the baiting aspect. I'm also going to assume you're fishing for barbel on a stretch that sees plenty of anglers. (The same applies to chub though).
There are two routes I would take.
The first is to start a baiting campaign. I don't mean you should go and fill it in, but two to five boilies in each likely looking swim, three times a week should be enough to switch enough fish onto feeling safe, eating freebies that aren't attached to a hook. It's better to bait where you aren't fishing. Don't put too much in or you'll end up killing the fishing for everyone else. I try to spread the bait out a little in the hope that different fish get a taste rather than only one or two mopping up the lot. Look to introduce the bait at the time you'll normally get to fish, rather than training them to feed in the dark, after you've gone home, for instance. A quality food bait such as No Name is exactly what you need. Avoid over flavoured attractor type baits when fishing this way otherwise any sucess will be very shortlived. If other anglers are using boilies they are more likely to switch onto your bait sooner
If you fish all season then it's good to start a baiting campaign in late autumn. You'll put yourself in with a great chance of catching the largest, cutest of fish through the winter and the back end of the season, while the fish are in their best condition and at their heaviest.
This seems like a lot of effort and it is, but it really can make a difference on pressured waters.
The second tactic I would employ is to look at what everyone else is doing at do it smaller and better. By this I mean that it's a safe bet than most anglers wil be using 11mm and 14mm elips and halibut pellets or 10mm and 15mm fishmeal boilies as hookbaits. They'll be feeding hemp, small pellets, broken boilies and so on. Therefore the fish are most likely to be wary of these hookbaits while feeling less pressured feeding on smaller baits.
My starndard tactic that I now use almost everywhere, is to fish a small bait on a small hook. 95% of the time I'll glue a couple of small (3mm) elips pellets onto the hair. I'll use a strong size 14 hook (my favourite being the Drennan Super Specialist Barbel hook). A few grains of hemp works too, but is a little fiddly to set up. The whole point is for your hookbait to emulate the freebies that every other angler is baiting up with. Their actually baiting up just for you!
There is a downside to this tactic and that's the small hooks. While I have confidence the the Drennan SSB hooks in the size 14, I think a larger stronger hook it more suitable in hit and hold situations or very pacey swims, specially when there is a chance of a real monster. Then I'll go for the Gamakatsu GP201 Super Strong hook in a size 10. This needs to be coupled with a larger bait ,so takes will be less frequent in normal daylight conditions ,but that's better than the agony of loosing the fish of a lifetime.
If you're planning to fish just the one or two stretches then it makes sense to start a baiting campaign while using the small pellet hookbait. As the weeks roll on, try switching to the No Name. There's a tipping point where the food bait will out perform pellets, but the short and mid term attraction of pellets is likely to work better to start with.
I hope that gives you plenty to go at! Let us know how you get on.
25th November 2008
Michael Weedon asked:
I've been using No Name boilies this year for the chub on the river Thame. Up to now I've hardened off the boilies in my airing cupboard to avoid signal crayfish. Am I affecting the attraction of the bait by doing this? Catches have dropped a bit recently.
Matt Brown answered:
There's no easy way around the crayfish issue but hardened hookbaits is certainly worth a go. I think that further air drying your No Name boilies may reduce the attractor signal of the bait slightly but not significantly (although it would depend on how hard your making the baits). I think the value of actually having a hookbait in place is far more of an issue. If you get the chance in clear water through summer, try placing a few of the regular baits and a few of the hardened bolies in front of some chub you can see. You'll find that they'll eat the lot and that bait placement, size and how you introduce it is far more important.
To add attraction to your hookbait, simply add a PVA bag of crumbed boilies to your lead. The crayfish will make short work of that too but the attraction is there while still giving you the benefit of a hard hookbait.
As far as your catches tailing off - this could be a number of things. It might be that the chub are moving to newer areas as winter colour comes into the river and changes the light values or that they need more security as the weed dies off. Quite likely is that simply being caught makes the chub much more wary. A trick here is to place your bait in areas of the swim that are unlikely to have been fished much. If you've been using 15mm baits, switching down to 10mm can really make a difference too.
It is also worth chucking two or three freebies into each swim at the end of each trip to get the fish used to finding bait without a hook in it. Don't use so much that you fill up the fish and ruin the fishing for others. This will work better if you can get to the river two or three times a week. With a quality bait such as No Name, the longer you use it the better the results should be.
I hope that helps!
Bob Lewinton asked:
In December 2007 I purchased 2 sizes of Shell Fish No name boilies for barbel fishing. I have one unopened pack and some still remaining in opened but sealed packs. I cannot find any use by date but should I throw the boilies away or would they still be useable. Which bait in your current range would you recommnd for the Kennet.
Matt Brown answered:
A good question and one to which I can't answer 100%. Even though you know when you bought them, you don't know when they were produced and how long the shop has had them in stock. This is true of all packaged bait, by all manufacturers. However, I do have my own rules that I abide by;
If the bait looks wrong in any way, such as signs of any mould or a white residue, I'll bin it. If it doesn't smell right I'll bin that too. Other than that I'm happy that the bait will perform and be good for the fish.
The great thing about No Name is that it is air dried meaning that the bait is unlikely to go off if kept dry. I take great care to ensure I don't contaminate any bait left in the original zip seal packaging. That means no water, other bait, dips etc is allowed inside. I can honsestly say that I've never had any Mistral boilies of any type go bad on me. This is not true of other brands and I do think it is because of the air drying process used and the excellent re-sealable packaging.
Regarding what bait to use on the Kennet, it depends where you are fishing. I only have experience of the waters on the Reading ticket. Many of these stretches are now heavily fished for barbel and see a lot of bait. If this is the case where you fish you'll have to work harder, otherwise just stick with elips pellets.
Let's assume that your tackle, tactics, timing and location are sorted and just concentrate of the baiting aspect. I'm also going to assume you're fishing for barbel on a stretch that sees plenty of anglers. (The same applies to chub though).
There are two routes I would take.
The first is to start a baiting campaign. I don't mean you should go and fill it in, but two to five boilies in each likely looking swim, three times a week should be enough to switch enough fish onto feeling safe, eating freebies that aren't attached to a hook. It's better to bait where you aren't fishing. Don't put too much in or you'll end up killing the fishing for everyone else. I try to spread the bait out a little in the hope that different fish get a taste rather than only one or two mopping up the lot. Look to introduce the bait at the time you'll normally get to fish, rather than training them to feed in the dark, after you've gone home, for instance. A quality food bait such as No Name is exactly what you need. Avoid over flavoured attractor type baits when fishing this way otherwise any sucess will be very shortlived. If other anglers are using boilies they are more likely to switch onto your bait sooner
If you fish all season then it's good to start a baiting campaign in late autumn. You'll put yourself in with a great chance of catching the largest, cutest of fish through the winter and the back end of the season, while the fish are in their best condition and at their heaviest.
This seems like a lot of effort and it is, but it really can make a difference on pressured waters.
The second tactic I would employ is to look at what everyone else is doing at do it smaller and better. By this I mean that it's a safe bet than most anglers wil be using 11mm and 14mm elips and halibut pellets or 10mm and 15mm fishmeal boilies as hookbaits. They'll be feeding hemp, small pellets, broken boilies and so on. Therefore the fish are most likely to be wary of these hookbaits while feeling less pressured feeding on smaller baits.
My starndard tactic that I now use almost everywhere, is to fish a small bait on a small hook. 95% of the time I'll glue a couple of small (3mm) elips pellets onto the hair. I'll use a strong size 14 hook (my favourite being the Drennan Super Specialist Barbel hook). A few grains of hemp works too, but is a little fiddly to set up. The whole point is for your hookbait to emulate the freebies that every other angler is baiting up with. Their actually baiting up just for you!
There is a downside to this tactic and that's the small hooks. While I have confidence the the Drennan SSB hooks in the size 14, I think a larger stronger hook it more suitable in hit and hold situations or very pacey swims, specially when there is a chance of a real monster. Then I'll go for the Gamakatsu GP201 Super Strong hook in a size 10. This needs to be coupled with a larger bait ,so takes will be less frequent in normal daylight conditions ,but that's better than the agony of loosing the fish of a lifetime.
If you're planning to fish just the one or two stretches then it makes sense to start a baiting campaign while using the small pellet hookbait. As the weeks roll on, try switching to the No Name. There's a tipping point where the food bait will out perform pellets, but the short and mid term attraction of pellets is likely to work better to start with.
I hope that gives you plenty to go at! Let us know how you get on.
25th November 2008
Michael Weedon asked:
I've been using No Name boilies this year for the chub on the river Thame. Up to now I've hardened off the boilies in my airing cupboard to avoid signal crayfish. Am I affecting the attraction of the bait by doing this? Catches have dropped a bit recently.
Matt Brown answered:
There's no easy way around the crayfish issue but hardened hookbaits is certainly worth a go. I think that further air drying your No Name boilies may reduce the attractor signal of the bait slightly but not significantly (although it would depend on how hard your making the baits). I think the value of actually having a hookbait in place is far more of an issue. If you get the chance in clear water through summer, try placing a few of the regular baits and a few of the hardened bolies in front of some chub you can see. You'll find that they'll eat the lot and that bait placement, size and how you introduce it is far more important.
To add attraction to your hookbait, simply add a PVA bag of crumbed boilies to your lead. The crayfish will make short work of that too but the attraction is there while still giving you the benefit of a hard hookbait.
As far as your catches tailing off - this could be a number of things. It might be that the chub are moving to newer areas as winter colour comes into the river and changes the light values or that they need more security as the weed dies off. Quite likely is that simply being caught makes the chub much more wary. A trick here is to place your bait in areas of the swim that are unlikely to have been fished much. If you've been using 15mm baits, switching down to 10mm can really make a difference too.
It is also worth chucking two or three freebies into each swim at the end of each trip to get the fish used to finding bait without a hook in it. Don't use so much that you fill up the fish and ruin the fishing for others. This will work better if you can get to the river two or three times a week. With a quality bait such as No Name, the longer you use it the better the results should be.
I hope that helps!
Andy Green Question and Answer >>>
15th December 2008
Paul Rogers asked:
I am having real difficulty in casting accurately. I keep ending up in the trees and bushes and wondered how i can stop this. I need to get tight to the snags. Can you give me any tips?
Andy Green answered:
Before I start to answer your question I must say that casting tight to snags should only be done if it is possible to land a fish safely! Many snags have hidden underwater branches etc and although it appears as if the area is clear it is important to be 100% sure as a 'Fish at all cost 'attitude is not acceptable.
The problems you have with regards to accurate casting are the same experienced by many anglers so don't despair. The method that I have found to work best for placing baits close to islands and snags as well as open water spots is to use the line clip on the reel spool. You need to start by casting towards the feature that you want to fish to,make sure that you cast short to start with and then let some line off and clip up. Make sure that you are standing in the same spot and cast again and see how short you land, gradually increase the amount of line you pay out and you will then find that you can place baits accurately every time, it is best to be patient and take your time as it is better to have a few extra casts and stay out of the trees/snags. Once you have clipped up to the right distance it is time to mark the line so that you can place it in the clip for re casting, I prefer to use a coloured pole elastic for this as it is visible and doesn't affect the distance especially when the marker is placed at the bottom of the reel spool for casting. It is up to you where you tie the marker, my preference is to line it up with the spigot of the rod while the line is still in the clip, when you need to re cast all you need to do is have the marker in the same position, clip up and stand in the same position in the swim. One thing to be aware of when using this method is to make sure that you lower your rod just before you hit the clip, this stops the lead springing back and also helps to avoid line damage. As with most things this is something that becomes easier with practice.
I hope this is of help.
Paul Rogers asked:
I am having real difficulty in casting accurately. I keep ending up in the trees and bushes and wondered how i can stop this. I need to get tight to the snags. Can you give me any tips?
Andy Green answered:
Before I start to answer your question I must say that casting tight to snags should only be done if it is possible to land a fish safely! Many snags have hidden underwater branches etc and although it appears as if the area is clear it is important to be 100% sure as a 'Fish at all cost 'attitude is not acceptable.
The problems you have with regards to accurate casting are the same experienced by many anglers so don't despair. The method that I have found to work best for placing baits close to islands and snags as well as open water spots is to use the line clip on the reel spool. You need to start by casting towards the feature that you want to fish to,make sure that you cast short to start with and then let some line off and clip up. Make sure that you are standing in the same spot and cast again and see how short you land, gradually increase the amount of line you pay out and you will then find that you can place baits accurately every time, it is best to be patient and take your time as it is better to have a few extra casts and stay out of the trees/snags. Once you have clipped up to the right distance it is time to mark the line so that you can place it in the clip for re casting, I prefer to use a coloured pole elastic for this as it is visible and doesn't affect the distance especially when the marker is placed at the bottom of the reel spool for casting. It is up to you where you tie the marker, my preference is to line it up with the spigot of the rod while the line is still in the clip, when you need to re cast all you need to do is have the marker in the same position, clip up and stand in the same position in the swim. One thing to be aware of when using this method is to make sure that you lower your rod just before you hit the clip, this stops the lead springing back and also helps to avoid line damage. As with most things this is something that becomes easier with practice.
I hope this is of help.