Catch Reports
Target accomplished
Posted in Catch Reports on 08th July 2009Following a successful campaign on a large Cornish reservoir Chris Douce from Plymouth has been targeting a Devon estate lake in search of a big elusive common that resides in the picturesque venue. His efforts were recently rewarded however when he banked the immaculate fish at a spawned out weight of 37.06. This was the first time the fish had been caught this year but as always, the temptation of a very good food source coupled with good angling ability eventually led to its downfall.
Chris used Shellfish B5 boilies to track down the elusive common and caught a number of other good carp from the venue before he nailed the long lean specimen. Excellent angling by the west-country based carper and congratulations from everyone at Essential.
Boilie Paste

Mark Stubbles with yet another fine cold water carp. Mark is an extremely succesful and consistent angler and instinctively knows the rewards little edges can bring.
Many anglers tend to overlook the advantages that paste’s can give. Throughout the colder months I nearly always wrap a thin layer of paste around my hook bait. This not only gives the bait a better ‘leak off’ in terms of attraction as the paste slowly dissipates, but also gives the hook bait a completely different texture.
Paste is also an essential requirement if you prefer to make your own cork ball pop-ups or balanced baits. A 10mm cork ball with approx 3mm of paste wrapped around it will give you a nice balanced 16mm hook bait. To make pop-ups however, you will need to wrap a thinner layer of paste around the cork. I find that a 12mm cork ball with approx 1.5mm of paste wrapped around the outside creates pop-ups buoyant enough for most presentations.
Top Tip
We make the paste soft enough for most applications, but if you find the paste starting to dry out a little, just dampen it down with a ‘Bait Glug’ or a ‘Liquid Food’ and re-mould together. (Rinse hands in warm water first)
If you need to leave the paste standing for any length of time, make sure you wrap it up in cling film otherwise it can quickly dry up. It will be fine to wrap up in cling film and leave in the fridge for 24 hours if needed.