Gaffa22

I don’t think flavour matters too much when fishing over food bait, once they are feeding well they pick up everything in the area. I agree with Elmo it’s worth putting a different colour on each rod, if one particular colour gets more bites then change to that colour on all rods

Dave was a top bloke, fished a few sessions next to him at Waveney in the 80’s unlike some others he was happy to share

Yes I would say so, even though there was no social media back then, word spread pretty quickly. There were some nasty comments made towards him at the carp society show that year. I was there and witnessed some of it, felt really sorry for him.

Yes I remember Geoff Kemp well, knew him a bit as also used his flavours, especially his Dairy Cream. He went out of favour after someone spread rumours he was watering down his flavours, I personally never believed it but the damage was done.

Yes indeed one mans nectar is another mans poison. Flavours are a very subjective area, and it’s difficult to accurately compare one against the other as there are too many variables. Baitwise I just use what gives me confidence, I was brought up with Rod Hutchinson flavours and ingredients, as started carping in the late 70’s I dont use flavours in my main loose feed boilies, a good base mix should have all the attraction needed. So the only baits I use with artificial flavours are a few pop ups and wafters I buy, as it’s difficult to make them as good as you can buy off the shelf.

I thought the original Rod Hutchinson bun spice was the best

The Shimano are definitely worth a look, I have some TX9 for long distance but all the Shimano range use very good quality Japanese carbon which they can buy at a good price, and therefore produce rods that give excellent value for money

Yes that sounds good

I don’t use man made flavours either Carpmaster, I prefer to use additives that give off food signals, and investigation triggers. As you probably know fish don’t smell like us, as smell is attributed to scent in the air. fish use olfaction, the reason most flavours work is because they are either acidic or alkaline and therefore detectable by the fish and are considered investigation triggers. i like additives like belachan and fish sauce, so not concerned about them staying fresh as they are pretty rotten to start with as they are partially decomposed already.

Yes indeed there were some characters on there, and some great discussions on bait

I used the PeteB mix and my variations of it for quite some time, I still have several kilos of belachan block kicking about 😀. Were you on the black forum carpepecheur ?

I started the other way round, there were no base mix’s when I started or ready made boilies come to that. so I spent many years trying to come up with the ultimate recipe, then I started working with a few like minded mates, we were buying ingredients in 25 kilo sacks and 15 dozen eggs at a time. Eventually a couple of the mates gave up fishing so I was back on my own, I had come to realise there was no such thing as the ultimate base mix, all the theories and scientific papers I have read over the years can be debunked in a real fishing situation. Even Fred Wilton’s HNV theory is full of holes. So as satisfying as it is making it all yourself, I no longer see any advantage in doing the base mix’s. I do prefer to roll them myself as most commercially made baits are boiled too long and are too hard. I can also tweak the additives and add my own little special tweaks. I think what you are doing is great and perfect for an intimate water where you can watch the fish and see the patrol routes and their reaction to your different shapes, I’m currently fishing a large windswept gravel pit where I need to use quite a bit of bait to pull them down and hold them in a swim.

It should look tidy it’s Cell 😀 I used to make all my own base mix’s but then I was rolling 200 kg for 4 of us now I just roll for myself I buy ready made base’s It’s more expensive but I still manage to roll top end bait for £4.25 a kilo

I admire your patience, the most adventurous I get is making barrels but then I do have a Machine

I used to think colour did not matter until I had first hand experience. i wasn’t using pop ups as such but topped bottom baits, I’d been catching well with white toppers, then one weekend I could not get a bite yet I was on fish. Eventually I changed the toppers on one rod to Orange and caught two fish very quickly. So now I do vary the colours, to see if they prefer one to the other.

I have used Gardner PRO and Gardner GTHD, I use the PRO for distance casting in 15lb where no leaders allowed, this was recommended by Terry Edmunds, when I had casting lesson with him. It casts very well as its very supple, but lacks a bit in abrasion resistance for the same reason.

Here’s mine loaded for a few days

That sounds very much like the syndicate I have just joined, did he offer you a ticket ?