A Xmas gift

[OldBoy]

A mate of mine suggested I might like a pot of some 'wonder hookbaits' for a pressie.

When it turned out they were at least £20 a pot I had to say, are you joking, save your money, apparently they are 'cured' not in salt as I understand that is what used to be meant, but no they have gone through some sort of 'mystic process'.

Oh but they have been backed up by loads of big carp captures, well that's as maybe but I had to say save your money, get me something else instead.

Obviously a bit provocative, but what a waste of money for 99% of normal anglers?

Anyway, Happy Xmas to all 👍

[framey]

2 hours ago, OldBoy said:

A mate of mine suggested I might like a pot of some 'wonder hookbaits' for a pressie.

When it turned out they were at least £20 a pot I had to say, are you joking, save your money, apparently they are 'cured' not in salt as I understand that is what used to be meant, but no they have gone through some sort of 'mystic process'.

Oh but they have been backed up by loads of big carp captures, well that's as maybe but I had to say save your money, get me something else instead.

Obviously a bit provocative, but what a waste of money for 99% of normal anglers?

Anyway, Happy Xmas to all 👍

Are they his from the other forum ?

[kevtaylor]

On 13/12/2025 at 15:46, OldBoy said:

A mate of mine suggested I might like a pot of some 'wonder hookbaits' for a pressie.

When it turned out they were at least £20 a pot I had to say, are you joking, save your money, apparently they are 'cured' not in salt as I understand that is what used to be meant, but no they have gone through some sort of 'mystic process'.

Oh but they have been backed up by loads of big carp captures, well that's as maybe but I had to say save your money, get me something else instead.

Obviously a bit provocative, but what a waste of money for 99% of normal anglers?

Anyway, Happy Xmas to all 👍

I bought some special cured special special pop-ups cost 20 quid a pot, bought 2 types - both are in the garage along with many other pots of retired baits.

I now just go for Northern Specials for anything coloured or the matching brown baits for my freebies.

The special specials may have worked but I didn't like the look when they arrived - felt like a mug for paying it tbh

[OldBoy]

On 13/12/2025 at 18:35, framey said:

Are they his from the other forum ?

Plenty of similar hookbaits out there apparently, without the constant rants that guy gets away with on one of the many forums available out there 😂

[salokcinnodrog]

On 13/12/2025 at 15:46, OldBoy said:

A mate of mine suggested I might like a pot of some 'wonder hookbaits' for a pressie.

When it turned out they were at least £20 a pot I had to say, are you joking, save your money, apparently they are 'cured' not in salt as I understand that is what used to be meant, but no they have gone through some sort of 'mystic process'.

Oh but they have been backed up by loads of big carp captures, well that's as maybe but I had to say save your money, get me something else instead.

Obviously a bit provocative, but what a waste of money for 99% of normal anglers?

Anyway, Happy Xmas to all 👍

 

On 15/12/2025 at 10:50, kevtaylor said:

I bought some special cured special special pop-ups cost 20 quid a pot, bought 2 types - both are in the garage along with many other pots of retired baits.

I now just go for Northern Specials for anything coloured or the matching brown baits for my freebies.

The special specials may have worked but I didn't like the look when they arrived - felt like a mug for paying it tbh

Super special mega expensive hookbaits, I wonder how gullible we are? 

I used to keep on buying tubs of pop-ups; strawberry ice cream, cranberry, dairy cream, squid and octopus, tutti-frutti, monster crab, pineapple, and goodness knows how many others. 

The honest answer is I found that the majority of the time that I got takes on 3 of them: squid and octopus, monster crab and my own spiced garlic. Those 3 produced fish as single hookbaits or as the topper on a snowman setup, with other baits like the pineapple and the green zing, tutti-frutti producing occasionally. 

I can't forget one session over winter, for two days 4 takes came on high attract pop-ups, after that the bait that produced was only the food bait tipped with the spiced garlic, and I constantly kept a high attract bait on one rod.

 

[kevtaylor]

On 20/12/2025 at 19:53, salokcinnodrog said:

 

Super special mega expensive hookbaits, I wonder how gullible we are? 

I used to keep on buying tubs of pop-ups; strawberry ice cream, cranberry, dairy cream, squid and octopus, tutti-frutti, monster crab, pineapple, and goodness knows how many others. 

The honest answer is I found that the majority of the time that I got takes on 3 of them: squid and octopus, monster crab and my own spiced garlic. Those 3 produced fish as single hookbaits or as the topper on a snowman setup, with other baits like the pineapple and the green zing, tutti-frutti producing occasionally. 

I can't forget one session over winter, for two days 4 takes came on high attract pop-ups, after that the bait that produced was only the food bait tipped with the spiced garlic, and I constantly kept a high attract bait on one rod.

 

Whilst I should play it down - last 3 trips were successful to a degree and all fish taken on Halibut Pellet wafters that barely smell of anything and very dull.  Proves the point really, who are the special specials attractive to?  US!

[Roughtor]

 I know those supersonic baits you speak of ...I tried them ,had more on two plastic fake corn critically balanced and a few crumbled freebies in a mesh bag ...

 

 

[salokcinnodrog]

19 hours ago, Roughtor said:

 I know those supersonic baits you speak of ...I tried them ,had more on two plastic fake corn critically balanced and a few crumbled freebies in a mesh bag ...

 

 

Funny you should say that, on my local park lake it was 3 grains of corn held up by a single piece of fake corn over Vitalin that produced the vast majority of the carp caught. It is a very silty lake and most people tended to fish boilies which sunk into the gunk. The Vitalin and sweetcorn sat on top. I had some very successful sessions, and watched many others fail to catch.

 

Boilies did work, but only in specific places where the bottom is slightly harder.

On 22/12/2025 at 10:16, kevtaylor said:

Whilst I should play it down - last 3 trips were successful to a degree and all fish taken on Halibut Pellet wafters that barely smell of anything and very dull.  Proves the point really, who are the special specials attractive to?  US!

I think there were or are some specials that really work, but I think many have changed as flavours have been regulated. The Solar Squid and Octopus, original Scopex (not later copies), Monster Crab, Green Zing, or Pineapple really did have something about them, there are still others now that work, but is is finding them.

Add to that, fishing over bait whether groundbait, particles or beds of boilies may make our 'non smelly' baits effective, or even the single bait that the carp think 'here's one I missed earlier'. 

[Roughtor]

Back in the mists of time, I used to make my own baits ,I mean they were based purely on attraction ,semolina ,soya flour and so on ,known then as a 'stinky winky bait ' only thing was ,they totally outfished well known carp catching concoctions from the main bait companies at the time...

 

It was so successful I caught someone stealing my bait from my titan ,if they'd asked I'd have given them the recipe..the main constituent was low boiling points  ethyl alcohol flavours and Asafoetida essential at 2 drops in a pound mix .....it was coloured yellow or orange ..it was truly devastating..

Especially when critically balanced with a round bean bag foam thingy pushed inside ,then a coke bottle cut in half to hold up infront of myself biting tiny bits of putty off ,until it sank ,ohhh so slowly....

 

I reckon  and I'm always honest ,around 90% of stock , of the several waters I fished in the 90s fell to that bait ...thats no bs ...Good fun at that time ...