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And my biggest common came on a white shrimp cork ball...... ....... so it's settled..... yellow, pink, orange, white, and match the hatch are good for big commons. And mirrors. 🤣

On the bank for an overnighter28lb on the nose hopefully have a few more

Made a couple of 1 egg mixes with the AA Baits super buoyant fishmeal pop up mix, my sausage gun was perfect the last couple of times but I think this mix just expanded a bit more, so the sausages came out a bit big and I ended up with some pillows and odd shapes, but never mind flavour wise they are pretty banging one is scopex, black pepper and bergamot and the orange ones are banana scopex, black pepper and bergamot. They are very buoyant though, and one is holding up my rig nicely next time I will make some matching wafters and I'll have made enough hookbaits to last a life time.

" On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors. " Well that's blown that theory then , emmcee , Just don't tell Kev. as he's after a big Common ! . 😁

When i first started out carp fishing i met a bloke on a lake i fished in the Colne valley. If I recall, it was before the hi viz hookbaits were all the rage was about but they were starting to appear more and more in the shops. Anyway, this bloke was a margin fisher, made his own bait but all in pellet shape. His hookbait though was always a hi viz pellet so he could see it better in the margin. He'd catch a few fish but he saw that the hi viz hookbait would be ignored mostly when one or two carp were on his spot but readily taken when 3 or more were feeding. I think most would agree that carp are easier to catch when they are competing with each other. He wanted to catch though when they weren't competing. One day i watched him bait a spot with his homemade pellet and slip in a hi viz one as well, the difference being the hi viz one was a freebie and his hookbait was a match the hatch (clever angling I thought to myself). His catch rate more or less trebled by making that change. When he couldn't get a margin swim he'd fish pva bags in open water and fill the bag with his pellet and one "decoy " hi viz pellet and he caught plenty. On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors.

Dark moody and damp February session

Pretty sure he’s gone in to some level of detail about the process and how long it takes. Also in to how the cure works on the baits and why. I thought I recognised your style and tone from the other forum. end of the day, you don’t think they are worth £22 a pot, plenty do. Personal choice eh. As I’ve said, can’t deny the baits catch plenty of fish and they are used by plenty of sponsored anglers on the sly, or more recently publicised that they use them. This speak volumes on its own when people that get free hookbaits chose to buy something different. plenty more expensive air balls out there that are nowhere near as effective based on catch reports. Massively publicised in mags and things, SHB is irregular social media and a paid for thread on a forum and has an incredible customer base. Again, that says a lot. Enjoy your fishing as you say, probably don’t focus on continually trying to discredit SHB. Especially when you obviously have no idea about what goes in to creating the baits 🤷🏻‍♂️

That's a can of worms Kev, I'm sure someone will be able to assist but I used Co pilot to try and understand bio active ingredients a bit better. Still don't properly but this is something I learned which may help 😱 😂

I did start a thread on this back when I had a Yately ticket (& more than 3 people posted on here🤔), must have been around 2018-19. My take away was scope baits seemed to catch slightly more commons, yellow was favoured, but not a given. Although, my mate did the lake record (Slate grey (along with a few named ones) with a yellow topped Cell snowman.

I've been buying some bits for the upcoming year. 12 cans of ngt bargain gas 28lb katran wild carp camo line And I have had to remodel the spinner rig as some key parts have become less easily sourced. So I've been on JPrecision and ordered some gape x hooks and some different kickers and bait screws and bits to play with. I have used kranks before and seem to remember them giving decent hook holds. I looked at alternative rigs even made a nice soft hinge rig , but it all seems too much faff 😱

Hinders pop-ups are 7 quid and a bottle of their pop-up glug is a tenner so you're actually not far off after inflation.

Thanks for the input chaps.

Can’t stop it. At least they’ll get a good hookbait to use instead of rubbish. But Mark doesn’t push his baits apart from the other forum and posting catch reports on socials. He doesn’t need to. The baits do the talking. Can’t deny how good they are in the right hands, even in Mediocre hands to be fair. Think you’re the only one classing them as a “wonder” bait though so keep your point going.

Over thinking imo. Crack on. Personally prefer bigger baits but I have used PJPU 13mm with size 4s in the past and caught, on a fairly tricky water too.

Just my thoughts, didn't realise this thread was started so long ago and now has sparked to life again! As for the 'company' involved: 1. Can't deny any of the carp pics posted elsewhereare very impressive. 2. Are those venues actually available to the 'average' angler?... I very much dought it 3. Can you question the blokes comittment in early days? Deff not as I believe he had some great catches from the Thames. 4. He provided some valuable 'insights' into tiger nut, maize and other stuff preparation. However, should a certain company appear to have so much influence, on say, another forum? I don't think so. It appears this company are now planning to ditch the web site in the coming months and sell direct to shops instead, probably an economic consideration? Anyway, just my personal view.... I don't need to say this to the long standing members on here, but no one will convince me a so called wonder bait will ever be replacement for location and hard work on any venue, Sorry, mini rant over 👍

yep, got my account banned on there during the scamdemic time, though i had no interest in shb at that time, i remember him really having a go at peeps big time for not getting jabbed, quite a few got banned for being so called conspirloons ..fast forward today and the truth is finally coming out, even in the msm.....

Yep that does it. Think it was crayfish meal so same thing. Very light ingredient! to be fair they good alternative ingredients to make pop ups with basemix! Take some testing on inclusion levels though.

I use SHB pretty much exclusively for pop ups nowadays. Caught plenty. Probably would have caught a proportion of those on another brands pop ups. Do I believe they’ve caught me fish that I may not have caught on a different hookbaits? I’d say maybe a few. But I’ll never know. Have I blanked on them? Yes. Down to the baits? Probably not, my decisions on location, rigs, baiting approach, etc at fault. you’ll catch a carp on a lego head in the right place. You’ll blank using an all singing all dancing hookbait in the wrong place. I’d choose SHB above any other pop up though. As Yonny said it’s a confidence thing. Plenty of options priced similarly with much less to them. I’ve looked at making my own, similar but obviously not comparable as I don’t know his process in and out. I’m talking cork chunk pop ups with a curing process of my own. Doable but I don’t have the time. IMO buy with confidence but they aren’t a miracle worker.

The NGT canisters if you are talking about the 500's are actually some of the best gas canisters out there. The ones to avoid if possible are Coleman!

I bought 20kg of S7 and failed to catch anything but 3 tench from St Ives, might have been out my depth at the time though. So possibly not a fair reflection. Their hookbaits never seemed to set the world on fire for me either though. But might again be me.

Personal experience is years and years ago now so probably not much use. Tried the switch when first released and found it poor compared to fishmeals. a friend has done extremely well on the bug in recent years.

Hi, Is a size 4 Korda Choddy hook on a hinge rig too big for a 14mm pop up? There's no issues with the pop ups I'd like to use, they're super buoyant. I've previously fished this rig with a 16mm hook baits so using these 14mm ers makes the hook looks a bit too big! Am I overthinking this and the set up I intend to use is good to whack out in the pond? Thanks

sorry i should of been more clear, its a slightly different design from the other 2 alarms - whereby a circuit wire keeps the back cover close to the main cover, i'll post a pic next time i do a battery change...

Obviously you’ve not seen the hookbaits yourself. None of them are bright colours, like fluoros. The coloured ones are pretty muted. The white is an off white, washed out pink, yellow is a dull yellow, even the orange isn’t fluoro and washes out pretty quick as orange always does. So depends on what your definition is of “bright” is. they’ve also sold hookbaits that are white, yellow and Red for years and years. Whatever grievance you have with SHB, you’ve not seen the hookbaits, used them nor know much about them despite what has been posted by SHB themselves. Kinda makes anything you’re saying moot tbh. zero credibility in trying to put people off using SHB. im sure you’ll be back here in a year under a different username or on the other forum saying the same things once again, all whilst the hookbaits are catching fish up and down the country all year round for thousands of anglers.

Is this the right room for an arguement? LOL

The colour doesn't affect the process which is what you were questioning originally though. I guess it makes them more saleable as most pop ups are bright. I take it you have read the part about the process though? Also you are now calling them liars, even though you don't really care. 😂 So you can't recommend any but having not tried them you are keen to slate specialized hook baits. Also you spelt your best mates name wrong It's Bryan Jarrett. 😉

Hi, Does anybody use a size 8 swivel instead of putty and a size 11 swivel for their hinge rigs? I can balance mine perfectly with a size 8 Korda PTFE ring swivel (cutting the ring off with crimp tool) and an ESP large balance bead. I would like to know if anyone else has had success using it set it up like this or something similar using different components? Thanks

Thank you.

It's written on the website.

With repect mate, from another forum I dip into, this bloke not actually shared anything about a 3 week process? Maybe you know better and would share? Anyway. guess the guy will have made loads of dosh from his well documented elsewhere exploits on gambling winnings 😀 Think I will dip out of this thread now, probably going to be a lot of his 'fan boys' his phrase defending the 'company', coming on here if they even know it exists? Just for others, don't be taken in by a lot of bullsh*t about bait, been going on for sooooo many years.... just do your own thing and enjoy being out on the bank 👍

I really don't follow your logic then, you are disagreeing with people purely about the cost. When you read the process they go through it doesn't seem that expensive to me, especially when you are comparing it to a tub of off the shelf pop ups that need a bait spray, glug or whatever to make them standout ? Some pop ups are overpriced I agree but these actually go through a 3 week process other than just rolling and boiling.

That’s just reel porn … I’m surprised the mods let you get away with it

Yeah it's good stuff I've used it before, I've also used katran though and just fancied giving the heavy stuff a go. I remembered how cool it looked on my reels 😱 😂

I fish a very snaggy venue that has all manor of junk on the bottom, so after good advice i went onto Hydro tuff and never looked back, does just what it claims

No publicity, sorry… and not at all that big compared to some.

Still the only one mentioning the term “wonder bait” 😂 Tbh I’d rather pay £22 a pot of SHB, a food based base with cork chunks for buoyancy and whatever processes used to cure them, clearly effectively, than £45 for a pot of airballs like over at the baitroom. Depends what you class as a rip off or whatever agenda you have eh 🤷🏻‍♂️ I’ve caught plenty of carp on pepperami, I’ll still buy SHB because 1. They suit my fishing and 2. I have confidence in them getting me a bite if I put them somewhere in the area the fish are.

Actually mate, sorry to disappoint you on prices, my fishing mate at the time was a best mate of Brian Jarret (ex Hinders Bait when in a glorfied shed), so pop ups and glugs at mates rates 😀 Anyway, the pop ups were probably the cheapest avaiable back in day, and glug was probably a Gycerine based 'flavour' who knows? Deff in those days, nowhere anything like rip of prices now..... To pre-empt, any replies, YES, they were a 'wonder bait' for me and others at the time,,,, were they 'double or triple or whatever cured' of course not 😂 Believe what you want, it's still the ability I had at the time to be on a venue to study fish movements etc and shared knowledge that caught me a few lovely fish..... Oh best not mention Chum Mixers before flying rats invaded.... not sure how much that bait cost!!

I'm not saying you won't catch on other colours BTW, more that if you are targetting a big common using a visual hookbait such as yellow might not be a bad idea.

I decided to start making bait for myself recently, now I've got a lot of the bits I needed I thought I would start with some hookbaits. Not perfectly round but good enough 😂 1egg, liquid preserve, 5ml creamy scopex, Betaine, milk B and butterscotch sweetener. Pop ups are mainline polaris dyed yellow and wafters are AA Baits pink wafter mix + a bit of tropamino basemix as I run out of wafter mix whilst mixing. I think the wafters turned out better and actually came out fairly round, both do what are they meant too when attached to a rig so that's good, now air drying and will give them a splash of extra flavour once they are dried,then all I've got to do another time is match the hatch hookbaits and start rolling kilos and kilos of boilies. Don't think I'll buy polaris again though will get some AA Baits pop up mix next time. I've also been using Copilot to make up loads of recipes, I've got 20kg of tropamino basemix to use up first though. But I've started down the rabbit hole.

I nearly always used a 13mm or a 15mm with a size 4 although now I'm a home roller they seem to vary in size so will use a size 4 for whatever size I pull out the tub 😂 I use a size 4 trig hammer xt btw which is a pretty big hook. I wouldn't worry mate will be fine.

No one ever said it was? So not quite sure what your entire point is. also to answer point 2. The big common from a club pit has been caught on SHB multiple times over. It’s a club ticket. Plenty of day ticket and easily accessible venues amongst the catches. Can’t understand the point you are trying to make about venues tbh. Makes no odds on if they are effective or not. People might look at the fish and go “I’d love to catch that I’ll try get a ticket”. But no one goes “SHB is catching those fish, I’ll get a ticket so I can use it on that venue”

Targeted ads, I'm quite tempted by the cat!Although I can't see any l8nk on how to get my hands on it??? Weird

It will almost certainly be krill/shrimp meal. I've heard a few cases of this. Very buoyant stuff!

Yeah I think with egg albumen it would have made them less soluble and firmer but yeah I've learnt I'm not going to bother with cork dust,the AA Baits wafter mix seems pretty good so will use that if I need bright or alternate wafters but tbh i will probably just add some pop up mix next time to my basemix to make wafters. Keep it simple and all that. Is 50% sodium caseinate not too high? I just used Copilot and it recommented 20% max? I know it's AI but it does seem quite useful for stuff like this? I know it also might be wrong though 😂

Many premium brands as @yonny has said are pop-up mix and flavour, that could be any brand, although there are some that have that something. Garlic is one of those additions that can really put fish on the bank, but it is finding the garlic that works; in pop-ups I never found powdered versions work, possibly not enough smell, and I am not scientific enough to work it out, but in a food bait they may work well. Oh those coatings can be fun to make, can be as simple as rolling dried baits in egg, then rolling in powder. Funnily enough I have caught far more on a food bait equivalent than on a yellow pop-up on most waters. The yellow pop-up produced fish on 'small fish' waters, but not on big fish venues, although the past couple of years did produce stocked fish rather than original fish on the syndicate. Thinking back to various 25lb+ commons I have caught, none came on yellow baits, all but one were on snowman baits, food bait with an identical coloured pop-up (not necessarily same flavour), the one that didn't was on a single 15mm food bait. As an add, I did remove the 'disagreement', not going to have it get nasty. Express an opinion, give your point and don't have a go.

They're no better or worse than any other 'premium' brand. I've tried 3 types, caught on the first pot, absolutely stuff all on the subsequent purchases, same lake, same spots. Bloke goes bananas on there if you don't sing his praises, what epic ranting.

I used to fish some of the South Cerney waters many years, mainly Ham Pool, Bradley's and Hill's for the tench before Watermark took the last two over. The Bailiff they had then was a annoying old curmudgeon and he used to check my ticket every single time I was there. I think it was a 2 rod rule then and I had an old pike rod set up with Heath Robinson spod made out of an old washing up bottle. The good old days, if you wanted something, you had to make it, not like the kids of today........(better stop there, I'm sounding like one myself!) After he checked my ticket, he shouted that it was a 2 rod rule and so I fired back at him that it was a spod rod and he turned away laughing to himself - the old [censored] got me! One day when he was in a more agreeable mood he told me a funny story. At Ham Pool there was a club house and bar and it included a fruit machine and one of his jobs was to empty the cash from it. You could buy day tickets on the bank then and for juniors it was £1 in advance or £2 on the bank - I did say it was a long time ago! Anyway he came across 2 lads and they came out with the old "I've only got a £50 note trick". Quick as a flash, he went to his van and dumped £46 in pound coins on them! I bet they didn't try that again!

Just fitted my new rod locks ready for spring - hopefully no more flying rods 😆

Thought I recognised some of the bait names in this thread. Got sucked in by the hype around these baits, bought some and instantly thought they looked rubbish - haven't given them the time of day tbh and won't be, massive chunks of cork, badly hand rolled, just over hyped, over priced. Would I have caught more on these than my bait matching pop-ups and NS1's, can't see it.

agree 100%! i'll tell ya my experience with the s2, a couple of years ago i was really struggling, and came across s2's and the info on that forum, got suckered into the hype and buying 2 pots, the reason i say this is cos i should of known better as i've been a home roller for over 30 yrs! i continued to struggle, it was just a period we all go through (blanking) at 1 time or another, AND it wasn't until another old-skool angler told me ya gotta just go through it, (blanking) ...anyway i was in Morrisons doing some evening shopping and they had "Bacon Grill" on special offer, i thought this was a devastating bait back in the day, what have i got to lose lol next trip 1 rod with "Bacon Grill" AND early morning the rod screamed off, lovey mid-twenty in the net! went back to my home-made caught a few up until winter (stopped using s2's & haven't used 'em since, as i have 100% confidence in my home-made) - posted similar to this and got banned at that forum! i agree for some it works and gives them confidence,great! but why can't you have a balanced discussion?