It is now nine years since the takeover of Nutrabaits by owner Richard Hughes. We thought it would be a great time to catch up and get to know a little more about the changes at Nutrabaits and Richard’s own personal carping journey. As a little added filler let’s also find out a little more about bait production on a large scale and what goes into producing the quality you expect and deserve.
What does it take to understand bait?
For many, understanding bait production and the process of producing bait must seem a dark art. As always a very small percentage of self proclaimed bait guru’s, play down the larger production processes on the many bait related forums around in Social Media these days while claiming to be experts. Like any profession, experience, knowledge and dedication is what will always shine through. Reading a couple of bait books and proclaiming to be an expert on forums is sadly not the grounding required. Oh if only it was that simple! I liken it to letting a self-proclaimed brick-laying expert, with very little experience, professing to build you a house after reading a couple of books. Would you be confident he could do it? Your time is precious and something you will never get back, so using the best bait possible, is in my opinion, what puts you the angler in the best position to create memories to last a lifetime.
What does it take to produce a quality bait that will consistently catch carp across the globe?
Firstly, knowledge! This comes from thousands of hours of detailed research. Add personal tests, trials and experiments with raw ingredients as well. Both success and failure are essential, the latter being an important part in the journey. On paper some ingredients can look perfect and be marketed as the next wonder product to revolutionise fishing baits. But in reality, most never pass first trials; being either average at best or in some cases, acting as a deterrent rather than an attractor.
Our ethos at Nutrabaits has always been the same, to give you the highest quality and most effective baits available while giving carp everything to flourish in reaching their full potential.
So let’s start with my bait journey. I started fishing way back in the late 1970’s. Initally pleasure fishing was the order of the day. I did try match fishing but this wasn’t for me. I was obsessed with catching the biggest of fish from a young age. Lining up in the hope of catching the most never interested me. I was targeting at the time, big tench and roach on local ponds and rivers in my native South Yorkshire, along with playing football, these were my two hobbies in my younger, formative years.
When did you get the carp fishing bug?
It started on a summer morning session back in 1981 and being 12 at the time, fishing a local pond in the hope of catching a rumoured 5lb plus tench, which at the time was classed as huge by Yorkshire standards. The pond was a bus ride followed by a couple of mile walk. As I look back now, I can’t image doing this now with all the fishing gear we take. During this particular session my carp fishing addiction started. I knew this pond had a handful of elusive old carp, which very occasionally, if you kept out of sight, you might see drift past. However back then they were deemed as impossible to catch. Fast forward to that eureka moment and to my total shock, I hooked and landed what to me was a huge beast, all 18lb of mirror carp and from this very moment my addiction to carp fishing was set in stone. I’m sure many of you reading this have had similar stories to regale. A lifetime obsession now took over where there’s never been a day where carp fishing hasn’t been in my thoughts.
Back in the early 80’s there was no internet, very few books on carp fishing and even fewer tackle stores selling dedicated carp tackle. The few carp anglers that were around were secretive and sharing information was deemed a definite no-no. For a 12-year-old with a thirst for information about carp fishing took on a life or death scenario as I’m sure many of you reading this will have had similar journeys. Information simply wasn’t available back then! Bait, rigs and even tackle wasn’t available like it is now. You had to make do with ledger rods and their accompanying reels and this was seen as the normal set-up to have. So for a 12 year old with a very limited budget and no mentor, it was down to myself along with friends to search for anything that would improve our fishing.
My first set up was a pair of second hand ledger rods and Mitchell 410’s reels and not to forget Fairy Liquid bottle tops as bobbins.
What I did realise early in my fledgling carping career was getting the bait right was more important than investment in tackle. Soon I was investing the little money I had, on either tackle or bait. Ultimately there was only ever going to be one winner for me…bait every time. In my opinion, and I still hold to this today, it was better to catch than look good. Fast forward to today and my, how things have changed in fishing. Anglers just starting out fishing have the latest tackle and look like a magazine advert for tackle brands! Yet a close look at their bait shows they are cutting corners by investing in the lowest cost bait available. A unfortunate cycle that has been repeating itself as long as I can remember. Carp anglers bursting onto the scene with no previous angling knowledge. Instant carp anglers who invest heavily in the hardware of fishing, rods, reels, buzzers, bivvy, etc etc only to get disappointed with the sport after two or three years after little success. Often this leads to selling up and moving on to the next sport. In my humble opinion serving a general fishing apprenticeship is essential. By this I mean start by pleasure fishing, learn how to catch fish before advancing in whatever journey it takes you, match fishing, specialist fishing or targeting carp / barbel etc.
What were your first carp fishing baits?
So my baits of choice at the beginning of my carp fishing were sweetcorn and luncheon meat. Both prolific catches of carp and still catching carp today all over the globe. However, what I found early was by raiding my mum’s kitchen cupboards or picking ingredients up from supermarkets, all manner of flavours and colourings to over flavour my offerings gave me an edge over fellow anglers. A word of caution quickly follows here as sometimes you would get it wrong. So learning was essential to have an edge even back then.
Then came boilies and these really were a game changer. At last baits that you could leave out for hours without the need to reel in every 10 minutes to see if you still had a bait left on. I learnt fairly fast that many of the baits available at the time, were baits that were not only capable of catching carp but many were designed to catch the angler too. Unfortunately as time has moved on in this respect, nothing has changed there sadly. A nice aroma, bright colour and throw in some marketing and it’s amazing how many anglers get firmly hooked. If only carp were as easy to catch as some anglers lol.
Why did you start making your own baits?
Seeing the results on many of the boilies available at the time, it was clear they were capable of catching carp, but not consistently. Baits at the time being mostly basic and loaded with artificial flavours. So my journey into bait making started. There were a couple of companies producing 50/50 base mixes that were affordable on my tight budget and what I used as a building block. I would experiment by adding spices, sweet products along with natural flavours and gauge the feeding reaction of the carp at close range. Back then I started out with three egg mixes for my trials and strategically presented these boilies in the margins of my chosen venue. I followed this up by climbing trees and watching for hours carp and other species reaction to my experimental offerings.
Over time a clear pattern emerged of what worked better than others. The start of a bait making obsession began and many of my findings back then are still in my thoughts now. Carp are no different now than back then, there definitely far bigger now but still have the same likes and dislikes.
Tackle and bait became more readily available throughout the 1980’s along with marketing of the latest ‘must haves’ to dazzle the impressionable angler. Therefore you can imagine my delight when Bill Cottam and Tim Paisley started Nutrabaits back in 1986. The timing was quite poignant, this being the year I left school and became an apprentice joiner. I was not on big wages, but at the time I remember my £50 weekly wage made me feel like a millionaire….more money to buy bait ingredients. As Nutrabaits was a local company with a whole host of my favourite ingredients this made experimenting far easier than searching the local supermarkets. Plus Bill’s and Tim’s many publications became ‘must reads’ of the day for anyone with a thirst for knowledge.
I look back now at the hours I spent clearing up the mess in my parent’s kitchen after making just a few kilo’s of bait and smile. I can now understand why they encouraged me to buy my first house at the young age of 20!
Looking back around this time, I was lucky a school friend and fishing buddy worked at the Nutrabaits factory along with knowing several of the guys in the factory through fishing the same waters at the time. So bait talk was part of daily life. Also trips to the Nutrabaits factory to collect baits and occasionally roll baits in the factory at night, saved on the mess at home.
As life took over with less time to roll my own baits, I would have the guys at Nutrabaits roll bespoke orders which pretty much stayed the same for over 20 years. I had settled on a recipe that had served me well and one I had total faith to take anywhere. Even when the Trigga revolution started where it completely took over lakes, I was still happy with my Big Fish Mix recipe that served me well everywhere I used it.
The recipe:
500g Big Fish Mix
6g Green Lipped Mussel Extract
20ml Nutramino
10ml Salmon Oil
4ml ml Tutti Fruiti
1ml Sweet Cajouser
Now let’s fast forward to 2012. During this time Nutrabaits sadly went into a gradual decline. Not for one moment had I ever considered using another company’s bait. Unsurprisingly the thought of using anything else was simply not an option, but in 2015 that option of Nutrabaits being my bait of choice was sadly taken away with the sale of the company and very little being readily available. Over this period I was in contact with the guys still left working at the factory, but supply of bait was sadly slow, mostly due to raw ingredients not being in stock. Over these two years I found myself sampling baits from other companies, some being of poor quality, others looking good but sadly failing in producing good feeding reaction. Many of my fishing trips over this period I was putting my faith in hemp, tigers and pellets to compensate the lack of quality in the bait I was using.
How did you become the owner of Nutrabaits?
In June 2017, the company sadly fell on hard times where liquidators were brought in. Through long time association with the company, I was offered the opportunity to take over the reigns at the company. Over the previous 20 years I had been running my own successful Shop Fitting company where perfection every time is an essential part of daily life. I guess I suffer a little OCD as anything I do in life has to be done right with no corners cut.
So, after much pondering, my decision was made to save Nutrabaits from disappearing forever. My number one ethos being to take everything back to original Nutrabaits quality, where the very best raw ingredients, that had stood the test of time, where still available to be used. This redefining would make it possible to improve each bait while still keeping the foundations of tried and tested recipes. Once this was established again the decision was made to make minor changes after trials. The rest being history now with the amount of huge carp once again being caught daily.
Whats changed at Nutrabaits over the last 9 years?
The major changes being all bait production has been brought in-house to assure only the highest quality baits leave our factory every time. What I found was several products were sub-contracted out which is sadly a common practice in the fishing industry. After seeing first hand the lack of pride and cutting of the base mixes by contract rollers, this was stopped almost immediately. Our customers are and will always be our number one priority who deserves only the best.
I wanted Nutrabaits to have full control from purchasing ingredients, right through to production, guaranteeing quality throughout every manufacturing process. With huge investment in plant machinery, we can now proudly confirm all our baits are manufactured in-house. Investment in three rolling lines, pressurised steamers, drying rooms, ventilation systems, mezzanine floors, large base and dough mixing machines, bagging machines, labelling machines, liquid blending machines, bottling machines, new design packaging and labels to name only a few of the changes that were essential. Also surrounding yourself in good, loyal people with knowledge to share and discuss ideas is a must. For this reason I approached Jason Callaghan to work alongside myself and the rest of the team. Jason being local and someone I knew from fishing local lakes, an angler with vast knowledge on bait and the industry. For those of you who don’t know Jason’s back ground in fishing, he was the founder of Sticky Baits and regular contributor to many of the carp related magazines throughout the past three decades. Jason was on a sabbatical from the fishing industry to raise a young family but fortunately the timing was right to make a return to work.
What we found was the first two years were challenging with so many longtime stockists and customers worldwide leaving the brand due to poor supply and quality concerns over the previous five years prior to our takeover. Which was totally understandable after what had happened. But over the last seven years, it has been an honour to see long time Nutrabaits anglers returning to using our products once again, in large numbers after seeing first hand our whole range of baits returning to the very best available and in some cases improved even further. Meeting customers at shows was daunting for me, having never being in this position before. However after nine show seasons at venues across the U.K. and Europe, it is something we look forward to now. In fact getting feedback face-to-face, hearing of your success and future fishing / baiting plans etc. really does keep our enthusiasm at a high level. In fact coupled with being asked for advice to help you achieve your goals and seeing over the following months your success stories is what makes working in this industry so special.
Seeing the positive feedback first hand from anglers once again, having total confidence in Nutrabaits products with photos of big and beautiful fish to share.
What’s planned for the future?
We are constantly on the look out worldwide for ingredients and additives that will give you the ultimate edge. Our ethos is producing the highest quality and most effective baits available and this will never change.
We are currently working on a new bait range that we hope to release to our field testers over the coming months, so watch this space.
We are looking at new machinery that will improve production times whilst maintaining the quality. Also a larger factory is on the horizon as we have outgrown our current premises.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch and share your success stories with us, as it gives everyone at Nutrabaits HQ a lift seeing your captures using our baits.
Tight Lines
Rich Hughes
