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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. 🤣

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.

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.

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.

I can't say I pay too much attention to branding. The value of branding is down to one's individual perception based on the product and, I hate to say it, marketing. Most of what I would consider to be 'premium brands' offer their fair share of stuff I'd never use but I'd not want to devalue any brand based on that fact (apart from Nash, obviously 😂). A brand is just a name for a company imo. Do I think SHB make decent/premium hookbaits? Yes, absolutely. I only use them for certain applications, but I've done so for probably 10 years + now. They have caught me some very special fish and that breeds confidence. Confidence is as important as anything in carp angling imo.

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.

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.

" 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 ! . 😁

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.

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.

Heard of 50kg pop ups that went on a trip to France with some mates once 😂😂 can’t remember which ingredient did it though.

Well the Big Common would be the icing yes, but No the remaining target on my syndi is a 50 common 'white tips' so the yellows will be coming out, thinking of maize or corn as feed possibly. On the syndi I've concluded that baited patches are not the one, Kingy and Sandmartin PVA sticks and maybe a few with the stick, cannot see me using much bait this year TBH but you never know

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.

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 😱 😂

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!!

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

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”

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 👍

To answer both questions at the same time. @framey Yes purchased directly from them, I believe shipped direct ex factory. @elmoputney When I buy bulk spools of line I normally expect it to have 2 ends not 4. Funnily enough this happened once with Berkeley who instantly refunded me and despatched a replacement which I took to be great service. When I tried to bring attention to this latest problem I first went to the contact us section of the website and the way the page behaved when I hit send just felt as if nothing had happened so after 5 days without any response or acknowledgement I emailed direct from my email and again after a week still no response, Last attempts via phone with full mailbox constant response has soured my opinion with the company. Cheers Ian

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!

That's where I used 50% base mix and 50% sodium caseinate to have a matching pop-up to the base mix. The base mixes I used that ratio with were New Concepts Mariner mix and Nutrabaits The Biollix, which were both fairly heavy base mixes. Usual procedure was make a 4egg mix of normal baits. While the base mix was out I would put around 1eggs worth of powder to one side for the bit for pop-ups and I would sieve the base mix to get rid of larger lumps and then add the same amount volume of sodium caseinate. So if I had 1 measuring cup of base mix, I would add 1 cup of caseinate. One egg in a bowl, add the required flavours/liquids if using any at 1/4 of what 4eggs took then mix as per normal. I usually had enough pop-up mix left over for another 1 eggs worth of pop-ups. A mate did the same when he used Enervite for his pop-ups, and that must be sieved!

I feel like I've heard that story before somewhere. Could you find out what it was and what level please 😂

Do you consider SHB a premium brand or not ?

AA baits suggests 10% for pop ups Sodium Caseinate is a milk protein derived from using sodium to remove the protein content from milk. It has a protein content in excess of 96% and makes a very functional binder. Being one of the lightest of the milk proteins caution should be used as to the inclusion levels as 10% plus can make baits buoyant. Recommend inclusion level is up to 10% – (100g) per kg base mix.

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 😂

Maybe keep at least one on a yellow all year then, is that "the big common" 😍 I do kind of agree with the give them a choice kind of hookbait still though. Maybe just tone it down a bit later on in the year, and go for something similar but different if that makes sense. At times I've done quite well on the brown proper jobs. Something a little different but not greatly. Also I've never been one to use the same hookbait on all 3 rods, so I can't ever be conclusive about it 😂

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?