Catch Reports

Pete Springate smashes Somerset record with a 60-pounder!

Posted in Catch Reports on 08th July 2013

Well the above heading rocked the carp world for several hours recently when Mike Willmott posted it on his facebook page, but despite frantic calls from the weeklies begging for the exclusive story and the rumour mill going into overdrive, it was indeed a massive tongue in cheek wind up!! 

However, it was actually a true story because Mike never even mentioned it was a fish, and left this to the imagination of the media and general public to draw their own conclusions. The truth of the matter is that Pete put a trail of B5 out to tempt 'Victor' (one of Mike's giant tortoises) out of his home and to the waters edge before having his picture taken!! The pair then giggled furiously as the phone lines went into meltdown!

The following day Mike and Pete visited Ashmead as guests and Pete used the B5 to very good effect yet again, but this time on a fish! The result being a lovely 29lb 8oz common. The pair then returned to Mike's Springwood fishery and caught several fish between them up to 28lb 8oz. What a wonderful week of wind ups and whackers!

Long may we all continue to smile in this often too serious carp bubble we live in at times... 



Nutritional Base Mixes

Rob Fielding knows the importance of using a high quality food bait and as soon as he switched over to using Essential Baits, it completely transformed his fishing.

It almost goes without saying just how important I believe a good quality nutritional base mix is when it comes to catching carp on a consistent basis. You’ve only got to look at the success of the B5, year after year, to understand that a good quality food source will completely out-fish baits with lower nutritional values.

One of the most important things to remember is that carp have the ability to search out and recognise food signals prior to consumption. In other words, a good quality food source will spell the word FOOD as it releases ‘attractor signals’ into the surrounding water.

Baits constructed with little or no food value are unable to do this, and once any added attractors have been dispersed into the surrounding water, there will be no more food signals coming from the bait. In short, a good quality food bait will continue to send messages of food long after other baits have stopped working, and will continue to prove more successful, both short term and long term.