<title>Let Me Take You On A Journey

Nutrabaits Diary, Part One

Well. As they say in common parlance, that was a long time between drinks. But actually not as long as people may think! It is actually just 10 years. That’s the gap between the last time I used Nutrabaits as my bait supplier. But 10 years in my carp fishing seems a long time, but is nothing as this is my 47th year of fishing for carp!

However, when Shimano could no longer supply bait to the UK, I knew where I was headed. I did smile when the usual social media brigade started giving it the, “he’s had more bait companies than anyone bollocks”. In my many years of carp fishing, this is the third commercial tie up with a bait company. However, the usual suspects love to pass negative comments.

This piece isn’t going to be a load of backslapping, that’s not my style, but the introduction of Richard Hughes and his right hand man Jason Callaghan has been a massive factor in my return to the Company. Without these two, not only would there be no Nutrabaits, but the products available wouldn’t have returned to there original recipes and been improved where needed. As mentioned, I was a big Nutrabaits user, but this was over many, many years. In fact their range of essential oils in the late eighties had seen me taking a lot of interest in the early years of the company and its products. There were recipes galore and being skint as a youngster, I used the 50/50 boilie mix, dehydrated the baits and rehydrated with crushed peanut juice. The results I had were staggering if I’m honest and with Three County records, including Yorkshire, that fell to my rods over a five-year period. It was during these ‘skint days’ that I realised the importance to ‘bespoke’ not only your bait but also more importantly the application of it. I could see the ‘boom’ in carp fishing coming and I foresaw that boilies would be massed produced and edges on bait had to come from individual thought rather than a simple bag of goodies.

So I started my search for the best way to use bait as an advantage not a simple afterthought. Now throw in the mix that I entered the media trade of carp fishing some 18 years ago and you can imagine I’ve had bait galore at my disposal.

Now I could list my catches, could list my achievements, could list my effect on the application of bait, could list my use of liquids, wraps etc, etc but I won’t …NO. Why? Simple it’s of no use to ‘grass root’ anglers of today, achievements of yesteryear are good reference points, but you must keep relative and that means still out there doing it. I think even my main detractors couldn’t argue I’m still not out there fishing regularly. Yes it brings creditability but I’ve never publicly had that from the trade as someone once said,” You give things away for free!”

Amen to that and long may it continue.

Yes I am a sponsored professional angler these days but that situation has come about only recently.

So, from March all the necessary non-fishing contractual stuff was completed and I was let loose on the Nutrabaits 2022 range. The first thing that struck me was the sheer volume of products available. The attraction to me was not only were the boilies, exactly what I wanted but their manufacture was not boiled but steamed. This opened up a huge edge in my opinion, which I will keep saying again and again…SOLUBILITY. That is the most important part of successful bait making…. INCREASED SOLUBILITY. Of course, giving information and tactics rather than the in-house secrets of Nutrabaits will temper this diary series. That’s not mine to give but I will, where I can, give an insight into why I think Nutrabaits will help you to catch more carp. Now the steaming of the boilies have been stabilised, developed and checked to the n’th degree. When I realised that a temperature difference of 20C is applicable to boiled versus steamed, I really was over the moon. That difference will certainly help to reduce denaturing of certain boilie ingredients particularly amino acids. More importantly it allayed my concern of steaming bait. The counter arguments I’d heard in the past were that you couldn’t stabilise and systemise steaming boilies…well you know what Nutrabaits have.

Armed to the teeth with the range I quickly realised I needed time to try and evaluate the benefits of such a big range. Now that can only come by angling experience and on the bank realism. So often bait people do not have time to ‘idle away’ on the bank, so for me that’s where I come in handy, as I’ve spent all my life idling LOL

Making sense of the range has to come in different weather seasons and over the course of a full year. So I started in March.

Now coldwater carping is ruled by water temperature not air temperatures.

My first few sessions the lake was only 6.5C which are still cold for carp. Remember their 100% body functions don’t kick in until the water temperatures hit 18C. With this in mind, I started out on the White Liver Supreme Pop Ups. Research has proven that white and light pink are the two colours in the carp’s sight spectrum that they are attracted to the most. That’s quite a bold statement but one I comply with, as my experience with single, high visual pop up fishing has been very limited. However, a little tip for you. If you are skint, can’t afford to be putting a lot of bait in, then white pop ups work well. Simply because they replicate ANY old bait as they all eventually turn white and leech out their colours.

My syndicate does not normally do a bite until Spring so when I look back on the results in March I was very encouraged with half a dozen carp over four sessions that included a brace of coldwater commons of 30lb and a 28lb. Much to Richard’s dismay LOL I applied one drop of the Garlic Essential oil to the tub of Liver Supreme pop ups. Now I did this and would recommend the same in coldwater conditions for one important reason. Spices or Oleoresins are perfect for agitating the Carp’s olfactory system. Now this isn’t the Gustatory system where they eat the bait, NO. The Olfactory system is the carp’s sense of smell that brings them to the bait in the first place. Vital in coldwater conditions where a few mouthfuls can be all the carp want to eat. Now surely one flavour would affect another but in my opinion, flavours formed by powdered attractors react differently to fluid flavour additions via hydro slates or oils. Now I don’t want to get overly technical in this first monthly piece but lets just say that during the evolution of this diary piece, there will be lots of bait theory from my head. One important point AGAIN. It can only ever be my opinions but I get off the fence and right or wrong try to direct a view that leads to more carp anglers asking questions about their bait choices…not just slavishly following a company edict because they get free/discounted bait. Both Richard and Jase know that I’m not like that and will ask questions.

Now as March progressed into April the water temperatures began to climb and at present, early May they are 15C. This is a green light for me because I have found once the water temperatures climb over 12C; carp will actively look to prepare their bodies for spawning. These lead to many things such as saline adjustment and of course spawn retention. Now this correlation is very important. As they get nearer spawning they search more for food than saline. I have done the salt/saline thing to death so that’s not for here. However when they need boilies in spring I look for solubility. That’s why my number one choice was the Trigga Ice. After careful discussion with Rich and Jase my mind was set on this bait, as the solubility is so much stronger. Now what that can do is lead to a quick response and result from the carp. However, as with all things that you look for in longevity, instant does not always equal constant. Fortunately, Trigga Ice is a soluble relative of the excellent Trigga . This means I have enough adaptability to decide when to change from one to the other.

So as the water temperatures climbed so did my baiting levels. Now one thing I must say is that I look to feed the carp in the long game. Only because a feeding carp is easier to catch. However, today so many baits and tactics are nicking bites, a little like the coldwater white pop up approach, that you can forget what bait does. Feeding carp lowers their resistance to inspecting every offering and therefore easier to hook. In the long run this approach will ALWAYS catch the most and biggest carp in your lake of choice.

So with this in mind my deadly combinations have been the liquid foods, the steamed boilies and a flavour combination that I’m still working with the guys on. Nothing ground breaking but something I’m still working on. Throw in the mix a combination of salted spices and a powder amino and my attack was formed.

As the temperatures have increased so have the catches. I have been very lucky to catch quite a lot of carp, last count over 20 in four sessions with a couple of biggies at 44.14 and 49.2 so the decisions seems to be working. However, here’s another quick tip. If you can, get into the habit of randomly introducing boilies while you are fishing. I usually put out 100 baits every 5 hours and of varying sizes. That way there are always different stages of bait breakdown in your swim and as I stick them out, the carp will move from spot feeding. This is so important as we come up to summertime.