Bait 101
What would you get rid of and how would you replace it? Our guest this time around is Nutrabaits's Bill Cottam
01 Boilie Preserving
“Boilie preserving, or to be more precise, the use of outrageously dodgy boilie preserving techniques should be of serious concern to all carp anglers. Some of the horror stories I have heard in recent years clearly show that some companies out there care far too much about an extra dollar and nothing like enough for the fish we all supposedly love so much.”
02 Sponsorship
“In truth, I have no problem with anglers being sponsored; all I ask is that some of them show a little more loyalty towards the company who is generous enough to take them on board in the first place. Bait is a vitally important part of the whole carp fishing conundrum and surely the choice of which brand to use should be made on that particular bait’s perceived effectiveness, not on how many pots of pop-ups you can ponce for nowt!”
03 N-Butyric and Caproic Acid
“It is with considerable hesitation that I include these two magnificent carp catchers in Bait 101, but the truth is I hated the smell of them when I first encountered them in the mid-eighties and the passing of time has done nothing to change my mind in that regard. The problem of course, is that we use them in a number of our top selling products and that means Nutrabaits HQ invariably stinks of at least one of them by the time I arrive in the morning!”
04 Listing ingredients
“You can’t buy dog or ferret food or anything else for that matter, without the basic ingredients used in that particular feed being listed on the product packaging, so why can manufacturers of carp bait seemingly continue to get away with giving customers no idea what they are buying? Come on people; we are not asking you to give the exact recipe away, just the ingredients used!”
05 The weight of bait
“I have been friendly with hooklength supremo, Dave Chiltern from Kryston for over twenty years, but I have forever been envious of the fact that he can get a ten-grand order in a shoebox, whereas I need to hire fleet of artics to ship a boilie order of a comparable value. This of course, is the reason why I have to spend six zillion quid a year on transport and he spends £1.27!”
