Dave Lane: Life as a consultant

I have been involved with Mainline Baits for almost thirty years now, which is a very long time indeed. Originally, I was just a sponsored angler, paying a reduction on bait in return for advertising, through magazines and word of mouth; back before social media was even a thing.

Over the years, as I got to know the guys at Mainline a lot better, I was taken on as a consultant and bait tester, getting to try out and give input into the latest baits way before their release dates.

Testing times?

To be honest there is never really a date planned as the testing has to run its course fully and the bait be proven under all conditions before it would even be considered fit for market. There have been a few baits along the way that have never made that transition from testing to retail but, usually, that is more to do with availability of certain ingredients more than anything else. Some ingredients are seasonal or may suffer from a bad year which leads to a shortage in the market and massive price increases and, obviously, once a bait is released, we need to be able to ensure an ongoing supply of the same ingredients and quality throughout that bait’s market life. Most of the baits that I have been involved in, however, are now firm favourites or have been at some stage.
Having the opportunity to test a bait for anything up to two years or more before its release can have big advantages, particularly if it’s something as devastatingly effective as the Cell was, for example.

I was fishing on a small syndicate water in Norfolk when the first batch of Cell arrived at my door and I just knew straight away that it would be an exceptional bait. I had actually enquired about something along these lines the previous year when I came across one of our shelf-life baits that had a similar smell and taste but, as soon as I saw the finished freezer bait, I just knew we were on to a winner.

A lot of work goes into a bait long before I get to see it, however, there are all sorts of tests that go way above my head. Tests on solubility, digestibility, various triggers for different compounds, tastes, smells etc., but I leave that to the experts; my job is to see how well it catches carp.

My first year on the Mainline… sold for life!

The early years on Cell

When I first started using the Cell on the syndicate water, I was a new member and up against a group of four or five anglers who had been baiting as a team for quite some while and were catching well on their established bait and this made for the perfect testing ground; how well would the new bait stand up against an established food source? I think the fact that by the time a year had gone by I had all the other lads practically begging me for the bait says a lot! Those Norfolk carp couldn’t get enough of the stuff. There was even one fella who used to follow me into a swim I had pre-baited, after I left the lake, and scoop the margins with a net to get any baits I had dropped in the edge! Two separate anglers told me about this, so I hatched a cunning plan…

I got hold of a couple of kilos of a bait from Europe that was also on test with another UK company but had been written off as useless; it was a similar colour to the Cell but that was all. I started leaving the odd bait tucked in the grass and underneath leaves in the swims I was baiting, and I also scattered half-a-dozen in the margins as well, crafty but funny!

I started catching from the off on the Cell but the more I put in, the better and better it got. I witnessed some incredible scenes that year as carp literally tore the bottom up to get every last scrap of bait. If there was any way I could have held up the release I would have, as it was an edge that I wanted to keep all to myself. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one having these sorts of results on the Cell, however, as the whole team of testers were submitting similar findings all over the country.

A big linear caught while testing the Cell

All year testing

A bait is not a bait unless it has been tested in the winter, though, and that is also part of the job, making sure that the results are there in cold water conditions as well as during the warmer months. As I have already said, a bait usually goes through a testing period of two to three years and that is every month of the year, regardless of conditions.

During this period any minor changes that need to be implemented will be investigated and resolved, such as splitting in a stick, too soft, too hard or whatever, but usually this has been addressed within the first few weeks and by the time it goes out on general test amongst the wider team of testers then it is ready to rock.

Those Norfolk mirrors loved the Cell

Cell again, they couldn’t get enough!

Switching to a new bait

People have asked me in the past about the confidence factor in testing a new bait, or indeed any item of my tackle as I also test all sorts of fishing equipment for various companies. With bait it is an easy question to answer really, I have no issues whatsoever because I know that it will be a very good bait before it reaches my door. Over the years I have caught eight different fifty-pound plus fish on seven different Mainline boilies so how could I be anything but confident?

The more research and experience that goes into a new bait the better it will become, better than the last one not worse and because of this I am always keen to start a new test. Actually, there have been a few times when I have not been quite that keen as I have been having such good results on the current bait but Kev at Mainline has a way around that problem. If I am hesitant to swap for any reason I will, generally, open a new batch of bait when it gets delivered and find that, hey presto, I have just changed anyway, and the following phone call is met with an unconvincing apology for the ‘mistake’ and “why don’t I just use that new lot and see how I get on for now?”!

Such was the case when I came off the Cell two years ago and started using one of the two most recent ‘test baits’ which is usually referred to in-house as just ‘The Pink One’ but also goes by the more technical name of ISO Sweet.

I had just started on a new 140-acre lake at the time, so it was a perfect opportunity to try out something a bit different and what a good move that turned out to be. I have had an amazing two years on what is quite a challenging water, catching by far the most fish per angler both seasons and I am totally sold on the bait already. In fact, the guy who had the second most fish this year was also on the same bait.

It’s very different to the sort of bait I would normally choose but, to be fair, so was the Cell and that proved to be outstanding. The Pink has a sweet and almost creamy type top note and is a highly digestible bait - following in the footsteps of the Cell - it can be eaten in large quantities and just seems to get better and better. Although I do not like re-capturing fish from a personal standpoint, a re-capture helps to show that the fish have no qualms about eating the bait again and again, even when they have been caught on it before. I have had three fish from this big lake four times each over the past two years, so I know that the bait remains attractive even with an element of danger present.

I have also taken this particular bait to various day ticket lakes in the winter and caught instantly on it regardless of water temperatures.

The other bait that is currently on test is known as the Fybre and, although I know a lot about it, I don’t feel that I qualify to go into too much detail as there are testers who are using this bait exclusively, as I am with the Pink One. I don’t really fish the sort of waters where you can use two different baits on two rods and draw any major conclusions in a short space of time, so I concentrate on long-term testing on hard waters, and long may it continue as I love my job!

All year round, a winter 50lb common

A recent one on The Pink