Team Essential

Our ethos

Essential Baits have a wealth of knowledge at the very heart of their company due to the input from Mike and his son Lee, who have been studying underwater nutrition & attraction and making carp baits for a combined 70 years! However, we are very different from most bait companies in as much as we don't tend to get involved with 'bait politics' and tend not to overly rely on advertising or sponsored anglers. We have a select number of consultants we respect and trust, however, experience has taught us that many 'so called' field testers and consultants tend to jump from ship to ship looking for their next cheap bait deal as opposed to looking for the best bait! Our ethos therefore has always been to invest our time, energy and money into a range of baits perfectly suited for the every-day angler who has limited time constraints due to family or work commitments. This of course is great news for our customers, because they can be assured they're using the very best bait available as opposed to hearing it from an angler that was 'plugging' another bait company's bait a few months earlier!  A good bait will always be judged on it's reputation and after 37 years of developing cutting-edge carp baits, Essential Baits are not only the longest standing bait company in the country, we have a reputation that is proudly second to none. 

Experience, knowledge, loyalty and integrity – these are the 4 major components I look for when choosing team members to represent Essential Baits. As mentioned above, you won’t find any of these guys jumping from one company to another just to get their next cheap bait deal, which is so often the case with many, so called, ‘field testers!’ They choose to use Essential Baits simply because they are 100% confident they are using best quality food bait available.

Mike Bromfield

Mike's incredible ability to catch carp on a regular basis, coupled with his awesome photographic skills have turned lots of heads in recent years and many fellow anglers had him down as their 'carp angler of the year' in 2017 - and every year since! Mike is a valued member of the Essential team and catches some of the most sought after carp in the country on a very regular basis from some highly pressured venues using Essential Baits to help him achieve his success. He enjoys his fishing with a passion for all the right reasons and just wants to go out and catch some of our best looking carp and rare visitors to the bank, knowing full well he is using the best quality bait available.

Mark Stubbles

Mark is a long-standing user of Essential Baits and is a highly respected member of the Essential Team. Over the years, Mark has caught an enviable amount of big carp, including a hat-trick of UK 40's on the B5, however, his ability to catch big carp doesn't stop on home soil. He was recently awarded the Continental Carp Catch of the year award by Carp-Talk following his incredible brace of 80-pounders from Les Telliatts in France, weighing in at 83lb 8oz and 83lb 12oz respectively! Once again, the B5 being responsible for yet another historic brace and further proof that this bait has no equal when it comes to catching big carp on a consistent basis. 

Clint Bullock

Clint has had an amazing 12 months since switching over to Essential Baits and has landed no fewer that 5 different UK 50’s on the B5 during this time! Catching big fish on a regular basis from venues that see lots of angling pressure and a vast array of different bait, demands a great deal of effort, sacrifices and 100% confidence in your chosen bait. If there's one bait that stands out from the crowd and consistently produces the goods when fished alongside other baits, it has to be the B5. However, it not only has to compete with other baits, but also with the carp's natural food availability, and Clint has proved time and time again that the B5 will consistently produce the goods, long after other baits have stopped working. 

Dave Gawthorn

Dave is another highly experienced old school angler that is highly respected in all aspects of the specimen world. His appetite for fishing is second to none and he is what we call a proper angling historian. He has caught numerous carp from a variety of different venues for the past forty years and knows more than a thing or two about bait. Apart from being one of the most genuine people we have ever met, Dave is an extremely popular person and if you mention Dave’s name in any carp fishing circles up and down the country, they will all know him. We are extremely pleased to have Dave as part of our team and his help and feedback is invaluable. 

Martin Finan

Martin is a prolific angler and a friend that we have a huge amount of respect for. Not only because he is an extremely competent angler who catches lots of big carp, but because he has morals and integrity. In fact, Martin will be including a chapter within Carp Life 2 detailing an extraordinary campaign at the famous Frampton Court Estate Lake where he managed to bank no less than three different 50's on the B5! Over the past few season’s Martin has targeted three different venues with great success on our range of bait and was responsible for the most prolific winter catch report ever recorded when he banked no less than six different 40's and eleven fish over 35lbs in just a few cold weeks in Jan/Feb on the Salami Cream! 

David Acreman

When it comes to catching very big fish on regular basis, few anglers can hold a candle to Dave and his results have been remarkable. Dave has been using Essential Baits for many years and we can remember him catching forty pound carp from difficult waters over a decade ago! Since then his results have just got better and better and he has banked three fifty pound plus carp this years alone, let alone several forties! He is a carp catching machine and he openly attributes much of his success to the awesome B5, which he says is key to his success. That’s typically modest of Dave, but there’s no doubt that the combination of good angling coupled with a good bait is a sure winner. 

Richard Morris

Rich is a long standing member of the prestigious British Carp Study Group and has been around the carp scene for many, many years, boasting an astonishing amount of 30lb+ carp. When it comes to getting ‘up close and personal’ to your quarry, such as surface stalking or margin fishing, Rich is in an absolute league of his own and no carp is safe! This is great for us because it can provide valuable feedback on the carp’s reaction to our baits, but judging by the amount of carp Rich has caught since using Essential gear, we get the impression the bait doesn't hang around for too long! 

Merve 'The Swerve' Pennell

Any bait team line up would not be complete without its own residential ‘Gloebetrotter’ and Merv is exactly that man. Having caught massive carp from all over Europe and as far afield as South Africa, he boats an impressive album of mighty fine carp that very few could compete with. The 'free-spirited' Merv loves his carp fishing and from our point of view, seeing the results Essential Baits achieve in all corners of the globe confirms that even on waters stuffed full of natural food, the carp will continue to recognise a good food bait. It’s great to have Merv on board, both in terms of feedback and of course to see a steady stream of enormous carp to well over 80lbs!