We are the Mistral Team!
The Mistral team are a collection of successful anglers – some of them household names, some not, but all are equally important for varying reasons. Lets take a closer look....
Allan Parbery, the owner of Mistral Baits and Tim Wagner have been around for years and seen just about everything. Between them there are more than 60 years carp fishing experience – the sort of back up a professional bait company needs. Both are considered as being quite good at catching large carp whilst holding down jobs of more than 40 hours per week. Not an easy task but just look at their records.
Readers of carp magazines will know of Richard 'Fat Bloke" Adams due to the regular features he appears in plus many people will recognise the face of Duncan Arrandale who appeared in Carp Talk about a dozen times last year with big thirties. Malcolm Grice is a technical angler who is madly into the mechanics of rigs. His steadfast attitude catches him a fish or two when everybody else struggles. Malc, Duncan and Rich have started making short tuitional clips of fishing sessions and these can be seen on both You Tube and our website.
Who could possibly be better than Bob Roberts and Matt Brown to provide us with feedback on the specimen scene. Anybody who has seen one of Bob's Barbel Society slideshows and his new DVD's just couldn't fail to be impressed with the solid dedication and hard work he and his friends have put in. Bob and Matt fish together regularly as part of the Don Valley Specimen Group. For a bit of banter check out Bob's blog - nobody is safe from his acerbic wit.
Ian Gemson & Stef Hanff are our qualified PAA coaches who earn their living by teaching the novice and experienced angler alike, to fish effectively with their available time, and baits from Mistral have been chosen for their reliability. Stef is also a very successful Enduro (Carp match) angler.
New to the team are John Hope and Kevin Ralph. John hails from up t'north and is a successful angler who concentrates on some of the well known waters around Yorkshire. He regularly appears in the angling press and is a great character who is larger than life in many respects. Kevin is from the other end of the country and has been spectacularly successful in the short period of time we have known him. Five thirties in one short session on the i40 says it all. We welcome both lads to our team and wish them many sleepless nights in the coming years.
Nottingham's' Malc Miller has knocked up an incredible amount of 'wild' continental fifty pound plus carp. What he would catch if he concentrated on some of the easy pay lakes in France nobody knows.
Alex Osborn is our sole junior angler and he has been showing the grown ups a thing or two. His UK pb is a whopping 40lb plus common that is backed up with many twenties and thirties. Alex is an energetic angler who just won't give up. Top marks.
Allan Parbery, the owner of Mistral Baits and Tim Wagner have been around for years and seen just about everything. Between them there are more than 60 years carp fishing experience – the sort of back up a professional bait company needs. Both are considered as being quite good at catching large carp whilst holding down jobs of more than 40 hours per week. Not an easy task but just look at their records.
Readers of carp magazines will know of Richard 'Fat Bloke" Adams due to the regular features he appears in plus many people will recognise the face of Duncan Arrandale who appeared in Carp Talk about a dozen times last year with big thirties. Malcolm Grice is a technical angler who is madly into the mechanics of rigs. His steadfast attitude catches him a fish or two when everybody else struggles. Malc, Duncan and Rich have started making short tuitional clips of fishing sessions and these can be seen on both You Tube and our website.
Who could possibly be better than Bob Roberts and Matt Brown to provide us with feedback on the specimen scene. Anybody who has seen one of Bob's Barbel Society slideshows and his new DVD's just couldn't fail to be impressed with the solid dedication and hard work he and his friends have put in. Bob and Matt fish together regularly as part of the Don Valley Specimen Group. For a bit of banter check out Bob's blog - nobody is safe from his acerbic wit.
Ian Gemson & Stef Hanff are our qualified PAA coaches who earn their living by teaching the novice and experienced angler alike, to fish effectively with their available time, and baits from Mistral have been chosen for their reliability. Stef is also a very successful Enduro (Carp match) angler.
New to the team are John Hope and Kevin Ralph. John hails from up t'north and is a successful angler who concentrates on some of the well known waters around Yorkshire. He regularly appears in the angling press and is a great character who is larger than life in many respects. Kevin is from the other end of the country and has been spectacularly successful in the short period of time we have known him. Five thirties in one short session on the i40 says it all. We welcome both lads to our team and wish them many sleepless nights in the coming years.
Nottingham's' Malc Miller has knocked up an incredible amount of 'wild' continental fifty pound plus carp. What he would catch if he concentrated on some of the easy pay lakes in France nobody knows.
Alex Osborn is our sole junior angler and he has been showing the grown ups a thing or two. His UK pb is a whopping 40lb plus common that is backed up with many twenties and thirties. Alex is an energetic angler who just won't give up. Top marks.
Ask The Experts
If you have a particular burning
question then why not submit it to one
of our Experts.
Choose from one of our experts......
Allan Parbery, Tim Wagner, Bob Roberts, Matt Brown and Stefan Hanff, for help and advice on any Carp or Coarse fishing topic.
Select here for the Ask the
Experts Section >>>
question then why not submit it to one
of our Experts.
Choose from one of our experts......
Allan Parbery, Tim Wagner, Bob Roberts, Matt Brown and Stefan Hanff, for help and advice on any Carp or Coarse fishing topic.
Select here for the Ask the
Experts Section >>>
Features
Keep up to date with Team Mistral, the latest news, blogs, on-line videos, magazine features, hints & tips, and product testing.
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Team Members
Allan ParberyI have been carp fishing for around 35 years and at times have been quite successful.
My first carp came in 1973 and took a bait intended for tench. It weighed about a pound and a half and came in a bag of tench with many over 4lbs. These were big tench then but the carp stuck in my mind. They were supposed to be difficult to catch but I got one by mistake.
Very soon the roach rods were cut down by 18 inches and I was in business. Quite a few carp came my way to just under 20lbs in those years but the high light must have been when I met the legendary Jack Hilton. This was part of an Angling Times feature and not only did I make the paper I even landed his last ever carp for him...
Tim WagnerI started fishing when I was 5 which was 37 years ago but more importantly I have spent the past 29 years in search of our beloved carp. One of my very first carp sessions in 1980 saw me catch three fish by design on a home made bait. The biggest fish was just over 24lb which was a big fish for then, that fish went on to become very famous indeed at over 50lbs now and called ‘The Pet.’
I have been lucky enough to fish some of the country’s best venues including Yateley, Horton, Kingsmead, Linch Hill and Wellington. Contrary to popular belief I actually hold down a full time job and only manage to fish a maximum of two nights per week which normally only results in an over nighter if I am honest.
Malcolm GriceI am proud to be part of the Mistral team and very excited about the top quality bait they produce. This has helped me catch lots of good carp over the past 2 years.
I started carp fishing by accident while tench fishing the local canal in Milton Keynes. I caught a 10lb Mirror carp on sweet corn one Saturday night on 4lb line, from then on I was hooked.
I then learnt my carp skills fishing around the Milton Keynes area on the canal and several different lakes catching carp on a regular basis. I have now been carp fishing for 27 years...
Duncan ArrandaleI started fishing at the age of 6 when my father took me out to the local canals and rivers around Worcestershire. My interests progressed from there to catching as many fish in a day as I could, to wanting to catch bigger fish.
My first carp came from a local canal on floating crust over 20 years ago and weighed in at 2lb. The fight was like nothing else I had ever experienced and the spell was cast – my passion for carp had begun. The following year I set out to pursue carp on a local 20 acre gravel pit, where I caught many doubles and the largest fish in the lake graced my net twice in my second year....
Rich Adams "Fat Bloke" My first memories of fishing were way back in the 70’s when I can remember my Dad sorting out his cane rods and centre pins ready for an overnight session on the fens in search of eels. How I used to pester him to take me with him, I never did go on one of those trips but did eventually start going with him to local canals and gravel pits at the tender age of five. We caught all kinds of species and my knowledge of angling grew as did I and by the age of thirteen I had spread my wings and was fishing for the local junior angling club, a good way of travelling further afield on the many matches they arranged. I believe these early experiences have made me the angler I am today.
I believe it is important to fish for different species and over the years I have accumulated a creditable list of personal bests however I always seem to be lured back to fishing for my favourite species, carp...
John HopeI started fishing at a young age, going sea fishing with my dad. My carp fishing started off by complete chance, I was pike fishing and getting plagued by eels so after borrowing some rigs and bait from a mate I managed to catch a 12lb common, that was 14 years ago and I've been hooked ever since.
I do alot of my fishing on Hull and district waters as I live up north in East Yorkshire. These are not the easiest of venues, Brickyard is 10 acres and only has 5 carp in so when I got my night ticket on there i was over the moon. Little did i know 7 hours later I would have the pretty common in the net, result 33lb 8oz of Yorkshire common. I also fish Motorway pond alot and when winter comes I turn my attention to Windmill. Last winter was especially good for me banking ten 20lb plus carp and breaking the lake record in the process...
Dave JonesWhen I was 10 years old I started fishing on my local stretch of the Thames in search of big chub.
One winter morning when the river was unfishable my father and I visited a small still water, this was when the obsession began for me, as I caught my first carp (all 5lb of it) on a float fished maggots in the margins.
Growing up in the Cotswolds I was fortunate to have plenty of lakes to choose from, but I learnt the most on a small water opposite the Carp Society's Horseshoe lake...
Bob RobertsSome folk endorse baits for money, some because it's fashionable and one or two may even do it because they catch fish. As a long standing friend of Allan's (Mr Mistral!) you might feel I'm biased. I am, but possibly for different reasons to those you might expect. I've used Mistral baits regularly for ten years and will continue to do so because I know and have seen what goes into them. There is and never will be any compromise on quality and that's all that matters to me.
I don't get paid to use them, I am not tied to an exclusive deal, I just use them because they work. Having appeared regularly in newspapers, magazines, DVDs and on TV for the past 20 years I need to have total faith in my baits. Allan's baits give me that faith.
When you see my articles in Improve Your Coarse Fishing, Coarse Fisherman and elsewhere and you see I'm using Mistral baits that's because I AM using them. They're not in the photographs just for effect...
Matt BrownFor as long as I can remember I was one of those kids who would be trying to use a net and cane pole, or my hands, to scoop out newts, water boatmen, sticklebacks and so on. At age eleven this developed further when an uncle took me spinning for pike and I somehow managed to catch a jack from the River Idle. Every birthday or Christmas after that saw me with a new fishing rod kit from Woolworths, or some hand me down cane or glass rod.
My mates and I would venture off to the River Torne every Saturday and fish for gudgeon. There were other fish there but we couldn't catch 'em. I learned a lot there as we could see the fish and their reactions to out attempts to catch them. By my teens we had somehow swerved towards fishing a local pond, Cusworth Lakes, where we could catch roach...
Ian GemsonI am a professionally qualified angling coach (PAA level 2) and the founder of Smart Carping - a company that offers tailored tuition to anglers of all ages and abilities, specialising in carp fishing.
www.smartcarping.com
I started fishing as far back as I can remember for what ever came along, mainly in Hampshire/Surrey area. I'd fish for pike, roving many of the now well-known lakes, and later switched to the match scene with success on rivers, canals and lakes at club and national level.
Stefan HanffI am a French professional fishing guide and consultant for Fox International. I find it a bit awkward to talk about myself, so I'll quote my friend Ian Welsh.
"There are few better qualified French fishing guides; an angler since his grandfather took him out at the age of six Stef is well schooled in top flight match and carp fishing techniques and has passed the PAA coaching course. With a teaching background, an English wife and having lived and worked for five years in the UK he has a unique insight into British and French angling, - and a sense of humour which cuts through both nations!"
Adam MorrisI've been a keen angler since I was a child and my progression from general fishing on the rivers for anything that swims to specialising has taken me far into the carp scene in the last 15 to 20 years. I fish home and abroad mostly for carp and have been very lucky with a good run of bigger fish into and beyond the 50lb bracket.
In my eyes there is nothing more satisfying than slipping the net under a huge beautiful carp in the early morning mist, especially if it might just bust another pb! I've had my share of luck off the lakes by meeting and becoming friends with some household names, with their many years experience and being involved with design and development of equipment, bait and all the goodies we now take for granted its amazed me how open and helpful they are. I love our sport as most of you do and to a degree can't get enough of it, it keeps me sane in this increasingly mental world.
Malcolm MillerI have been fishing ever since I could hold a rod. My grand dad Stanley Brett had fished for over 40 years and he taught me on the rivers and lakes of Nottingham. When he passed away he left a hole in my heart that could only be filled with fishing.
I started to use Mistral a few years ago knowing the bait were up to catching carp, whilst helping me avoid nuisance fish. As I spend a few weeks each year at Lake Cassien in France the choice of bait is of utmost importance. The baits have certainly helped me catch big carp...
Rich Shelley
From the age of 8 I can clearly remember the thrill of wondering the back streams and "ditches" for sticklebacks, gudgeon and if I was lucky, one of those red fined Roach as every exploration around those little streams captured my thoughts and dreams, every chance I got. Today that same passion and desire remains as I think myself lucky to see what I have seen and be where my fishing adventures take me within what Mother Nature shares amongst all us anglers...
From the age of 8 I can clearly remember the thrill of wondering the back streams and "ditches" for sticklebacks, gudgeon and if I was lucky, one of those red fined Roach as every exploration around those little streams captured my thoughts and dreams, every chance I got. Today that same passion and desire remains as I think myself lucky to see what I have seen and be where my fishing adventures take me within what Mother Nature shares amongst all us anglers...
Trev ChildAt a young age I found myself drawn to angling. It started at my local pond in Essex and has grown over the years to become the passion many of us experience.
My first carp was only a 4lb'er but since that day I've chased its bigger, harder to catch, brethren. I have fished many waters up and down the country culminating in having a syndicate ticket on Wellington Country Park, Berks. I became the lakes manager and committee member of the RDAA...
Chris WithallI started fishing aged 9, on the local Dorset Stour, catching small roach, perch and pike. I returned to this every summer holiday during my childhood and early teens, just having fun with my friends and catching some pretty decent perch!
My first experience with carp fishing came when I was 19, at Todber Manor, catching carp with floating bread- these were huge fish compared to the roach and perch we had caught on the river, when I look back I guess they were only about 6lb! I was hooked on carp after that...
Jay TaylorI started fishing at a young age on the River Stour in Dorset, mainly for Pearch, Chub, Roach and Pike. I also visited local Carp lakes and small fisheries and really enjoyed it.
After a few years "fishing free", I hooked up with my old fishing buddy from the River Stour, Chris Withall and we decided to film our progress and put the videos on 'youtube'. Our fishing series is called Back Of The Landing Net and it follows the pair of us rediscovering Carp Fishing and making new discoveries in terms of tactics and different approaches along the way...