Head and shoulders above the rest

To be totally honest I feel that way every time I go carp angling. Confidence in your bait is paramount to success; it just cannot be something that you ever worry about as there are so many other variables to work on that bait choice should be sorted before you even leave home.

Bait domination in full swing

It’s no secret that I am an avid fan of Mainline Baits and one of the original team from way back in 1992 when the brand was first launched. I have now caught six fifty-plus carp from the UK on six different Mainline baits as well as countless other big carp from every sort of venue. I always thoroughly test the prospective new releases for at least a year or more before they hit the market and this takes confidence, because I am not using a product because of a proven track record but using one to try and create that track record in the first place. This really isn’t intended as a blatant advert for the company, just an honest reply to the question, or at least a way of setting up my answer because, with such a good track record, one single bait would really have to stand out from the crowd.

Horton’s Moonscale: not seen for two years and then he found the bait

Horton again, and the Essential Fish Mix proving too much for the ‘Woodcarving’ to resist

When I first met Steve and Kev from Mainline it was on the banks of Horton Church Lake back at the end of the 1991/92 season and we approached them to put together a bait for use by myself, Chrissy Pearson, Keith Jenkins and Phil Thompson. At the time we were still labouring under the misapprehension that we actually knew something about bait formulation but, in reality, we just had a flavour and a couple of ingredients that we liked. The result of this meeting was a large supply of the ‘Essential Fish Mix’ with a plum flavouring for the forthcoming closed season. Between us, four anglers, we undertook a baiting campaign throughout the final two months of the closed season, I forget how much we actually used but it was far more than any of us had previously tried, and sharing the costs made this all the more possible. What happened that next season on Horton was the biggest eye-opener I have ever known; I still always quote it today when discussing the possibilities of ‘bait domination’ on a water.

Shoulders: the last of the A-Team to fall to my rods, all on the same bait

Bruno, from Dinton, always been a tricky bait water but I had the confidence in what I was using

There was a logbook in the lodge at the lake and all captures were recorded and, at one stage, we had taken forty nine out of fifty consecutive captures. That equates to ninety-eight-percent of the fish caught in that period, between a syndicate of fifty members. Yes, there were other things to take into account, carp fishing isn’t just about bait but, without a shadow of a doubt, that bait was so acceptable to the fish that they would actively seek it out and eat it without hesitation.

That level of confidence in your bait spreads throughout your whole approach, it makes you fish even better than normal and lets you try any method or location on the lake knowing that, should the carp be there, you will definitely be able to get them feeding.

I’m dreading having to test the next one: I don’t want to change!

By the end of that season I had caught a ridiculous amount of fish, including a brace of forties which, twenty years ago, was the equivalent of a brace of fifties today. The bait carried on working throughout the next season as well, although there were now so many different ‘baiting teams’ that I opted to just use single hookbaits and rely on the pulling power of the bait and it worked tremendously. After this, when I moved onto Wraysbury, the biggest challenge so far, I was more than happy to try the ‘Grange’, Mainline’s flagship bait. Anyone that was fishing in the early nineties will be well aware of the devastating effect of this bait; it just caught every carp that ever swam!

From there on in I had so much faith in any bait I received from Steve and Kev that I just stopped worrying about that part of the jigsaw and, to this day, I still test the new baits and still catch consistently on all of them. The ‘Cell’ was something special though, even by their standards, and I had great fun testing that one on a water in Norfolk. I was the only angler using it at first and I was up against established baits and long-standing baiting teams but I ended up catching almost every big fish in the lake, all on the Cell and all in a very short space of time. I then confidently took the same bait to much lower stocked venues and had amazing results everywhere I went, as have thousands of anglers since then.

One of a string of big Norfolk fish taken on the Cell

The newest bait to hit the shelves ‘The Hybrid’ I have been using for two years now, and I am dreading having to test a new one, as I have the same level of confidence in this bait as I did in the Horton mix way back in the nineties.

So, once again, I apologise if this comes across as an advert but, the truth is, all the best baits I have ever used in my life bear the same logo, simple as that.

Bait bushcraft

Laney with a couple of bait edge stunners

“I tend to spend a bit of time preparing my bait nowadays. I like to air-dry big batches of boilies and chops. I either use the sun if it’s possible or just spread them on a big piece of netting on the shed floor. After 48hrs I then treat them with the Mainline Hookbait Dips and then pack and re-freeze them. This toughens the bait and also keeps them fresh for ages.”