Question & Answer with Gary Bayes

Gary, how long have you been looking into carp bait yourself?
"More than 30 years and before that using "specials" for other species. I know I'm not the best angler around but have always thought of bait and bait techniques as being a big advantage and try to milk this. I get told a lot that my rigs are crude, as is the rest of my tackle, but the way I've always thought is the most important part of fishing is to get them to eat the food we give them. If they don't eat it then the rest is irrelevant."

What in your mind is a good carp bait?
"Good carp food is paramount; it's important to me that overall the fish benefit from what we feed them. Many anglers might disagree and think a good carp bait equals a quick bite, if that was so then I suppose a bit of plastic or a tiger nut on the end would do but to me that is far to short-sighted. After running my lakes for over 10 years now with the prominent bait being Nashbait, the fish are 99% all in excellent condition, still growing and fight like tigers – healthy! I don't have any bait bans and yes, all methods and reasonable baits will catch them but they do love a Nashbait of any description, because it's good carp food. "My statement: "99% all in excellent condition" could have been higher except for a couple of fish that had been towing lost rigs, often baited with plastic."

How do you go about formulating a carp bait and has the thought process changed much over the years?
"Well, I get there quicker now. Years of accumulated trials, good and bad have taught me not to get overexcited so easily. I've always had a knack for identifying whether or not a new ingredient will help catch a few extra fish and where it might fit into a new bait and it doesn't take as long as it did to get worthwhile new products to a nearly finished conclusion."

Do you have favourite bait ingredients which you tend to use time and time again?
Now this is a very good question. I think all bait companies do. Nashbait has its own identity in the way I use fishmeal and birdfeed ingredients together for example, and the general ratios that I know work well. I have a lot of "favourite" ingredients and have lent on them heavily to produce the baits I have. Although it isn't detrimental to any new bait I might develop, it wouldn't hurt to re-formulate a little and move away from the norm. If I look at the baits we make now, knowing they will easily keep going for years, why would I want to change them."

What about flavours and liquid additives? What line of thought goes into designing these?
"We have two categories at Nashbait: the ones that are bought in and the ones that are made at the factory. Bought in attractors can be made to measure if we like and it used to be rare to immediately accept something "off the shelf" but then lately I have had a few very good additives "turn up" so I have to keep an open mind on that. Attractors made on-site are another matter. We make them up from scratch, blending each and every item to accomplish the desired effect. Recently I've been looking to make up totally 'new' attractors, re-analysing some of our best attractors with a view to creating the ever-challenging 'ultimate attractor'. I know more now than I did and am sure it's possible to make up some very interesting products." 

What do you look towards, in terms of bait (be it pellets, pop-ups, boilies), as we move from winter into the spring?
"That's the situation I'm in now, just starting back proper fishing on just one water again after just dabbling really with the intention of moving onto another water after the carp have spawned. I'm going to use a new boilie with our Monster Carp Pellet and a sweetcorn pellet (not really new), over-flavoured with the attractors that go into the new boilie. If the roach give me to much grief then it will be just the boilie. My primary flavours will be Banana Oil and Sweetcorn but I might change the background a little. Pellet, crumbled boilies, food type dips and a variety of pop-up, slow sinker and bottom baits on the same or similar attractor system as the boilie is my choice. You have to plan for bad weather by the look of it this spring so keep away from fishmeals, high-oil content pellet and stick with the colder water baits."

What would you say to those anglers that feel the need to change foodbait every year, regardless of whether they've had a good previous season?
"If you've had a good previous season keep on the same bait or at the very least only change it a bit: over glug a neutral food additive such as Amino Liver Concentrate if you buy your bait or have a slight flavour change if you can. A good foodbait will last years."

Have you got any advice on how our readers can get more from their chosen foodbait? Soak it; add a powder additive; wash it out?
"I just mentioned glugging Amino Liver Concentrate and food liquids. There's a lot of different Fish Protein Concentrates (FPC's) about; many anglers will know L030, possibly one of the best. I had good fishing using L030 years ago and intend to go back to the method of glugging all baits, free offerings pellet etc. again this season after talking to a few close friends recently. I'll be watering down the glugs and adding salt, Betaine, GLM and other powders for some venues. It all helps but is mostly best kept subtle."

There still seems to be two crazes: tipping your hookbait with something bright and lightening your hookbait. In these situations, is it worth doing the complete opposite?
"I like using straight bottom baits, the same as the free offerings but wouldn't dismiss the use of bright or semi-buoyant hookbaits, they do catch fish. You've got to keep an open mind on that one."

Talking of bucking the trend, do you think it's worth getting on the going bait or is it worth trying to establish your own foodbait, even if it's you versus a baiting team of, say, five to ten anglers, all putting in the same bait?
"I always like to keep my bait to myself or a chosen few for my serious fishing. It means more to me to do my own thing instead of being just one of many. I also don't trust anyone else to pre-bait in the right amounts for the conditions or to put it in the right places. If I fish other waters as a one off than I like to be on the "going bait" as long as it's a Nashbait."

Tell us a little about the field-testing aspects. What stages do your mixes and flavours go through before they reach the market shelf?
"Start to finish can take many years to fully test if it's a bait from scratch, although I can be 99% sure within a year-and-an-half. It depends on just how new the concept is.  I've got recipes in the book that have been used by anglers for over 15 years, they've been used on lots of waters. To fine-tune such recipes, if it was necessary, wouldn't take long, especially if the bait has ticked all the boxes already: all season success, large cross-section of water types, low stock to over-stocked waters, heavy angling pressure venues, etc, etc."

Who are your field-testers? Is it difficult to become one?
"We have a lot of field-testers on the books and it isn't easy to become one as we have to limit it due to administration restrictions. I also have a close team of dedicated field-testers who love to experiment with bait and are willing to accept the knock backs that really early testing can give out. Recently we have re-organised initial field-testing and tightened it up to get information and responses analysed quicker by forming an A-Team as such. Good bait minds, good anglers, some specialised some not, but all with one aim: to make awesome baits. It's a very exciting time for us and we're expecting great things to come out of it."

You hear a lot on the grapevine about chemists working for some of the bait companies. Does this happen at your company?
"I used to employ a flavour chemist full time; I now employ an analytical chemist full time and we make our own flavours. I work with the technical departments from many of our suppliers. I can read and understand most product specification sheets and work very closely with someone who can read and understand them better than anyone can read and understand the latest Chod Rig article. It isn't hard to employ a chemist but it's really hard to find one that understands carp, their nutritional requirements, the ingredients to use in a bait and how to use them, attractants both natural and synthetic, carp behaviours, effect on feeding under fishing pressure, surrounding influences such as natural foods etc. etc. That's not chemistry, it's passion. I work with someone who knows more about bait chemistry than anyone else I have ever dealt with but he would agree with me, it's a passion."

From a personal point of view, which type of bait do you prefer: ready-mades with preservatives or frozen baits?
"Ready-mades with mould inhibiting qualities, not preservatives. Our process doesn't use preservatives, our baits will go off if there is mould contamination in our ingredients or if we pack them with too high moisture levels. If you're in doubt of this, add water to our shelf-life baits and watch them go off within a few days. Some baits have mould killer preservatives in them, always food grade as far as I'm aware, but these mould killers are not good fish attractors. I use our shelf-life baits and frozen baits about 50/50 throughout the year, if I had to choose I would use just the shelf life, it's much more convenient."

Talking about some flavours attractive anglers, do you think there are a lot of gimmicks in the bait field?
"Yes, I do, but if the latest plastic wonder dipped into the latest sniff-in-a-bottle catches a carp it isn't such a bad thing is it? I caught a few on bits of foam dipped into my latest shrimp aroma last season. The only thing is my shrimp has nutritional properties, boosted with my own little twist or two and will be catching carp for a long time to come."

What can you see as the next big craze?
"Several of the new Nashbait products due out this season."