The A bait

A Bait - the future

2011-11-04T01:32:00.000-07:00

November saw the 50,000th visitor to the website http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk

On the graph it displays website visits from September 2008 to yesterday 3rd November. As you can see the graph shows a pretty much constant upward trend with the most visitors last month. Over the last 4 years I have tried to run the site as professionally as possible but this has not always been easy with a full time shift work job. However I do pride myself on good service and treat people like I would like to be treated. I think with the best intentions in the world you still need to offer a good product or there is no point.

I have always made my own baits because I want something that I cannot buy elsewhere, all the bait that is sold on my website is the bait they I actually use for my fishing. Over the last couple of years I have tinkered and changed the baits and I apologise if this has been frustrating at times and 2011 has been the biggest year for development yet. Up to now every A Bait has contained the original pH changing additives but this is to change a little in 2012. The baits on the site are the product range for next year and will not be changed for at least 12 months. I am not saying that there will not be more research and development but the baits are all now very different and efficient carp catchers in their own right.

The Plum Zing. In 2008 this bait went through many changes but has stayed the same for the last 3 seasons. The current mix , originally a winter blend, will once again stay the same. A high quality red fish mix which has been responsible for a whole list of 60lbs plus captures and is pretty consistent everywhere. Quite simply there is no reason to change it and it is the bait that I measure all others against!

UPX. A very nutritional bait with only natural attractors including the awesome oil based ultraspice flavour. This has been a very subtle bait that does not appeal to everybody but undeniably effective especially for those that bait it heavily. In 2010 I have removed the pH additives and replaced them with 3 new products. The first in Flavatex which is designed to improve the health of salmonoid fish and whilst a trout is not a carp the principal is the same. Flavatex is acidic and made from plant sterols and has actually increased the life span of the fish it has been fed to. The UPX now contains a creamy palatant at 10 grams that gives the bait a real identity. It smells a bit like skunk oil with slightly fruity notes that make this bait very individual now. Lastly I have included a German yeast powder that goes in one of the most successful baits currently on the market.

Excel. A lovely light beige colour and quite soft with a quick breakdown time. Quite simply this bait is carp food and it is something the fish will recognise very quickly. A great follow on from lakes that have been hammered on the more popular baits! The base mix contains, oats, barley, wheat, digestive biscuit meal, bird foods and milk proteins. 2 types of light yeast powder are combined with low levels of the creamy palatant and pH part 1 and 2. The flavour is another unique blend of Butterscotch, cream and banana oil. I will by the end of next week have hard hookers for this bait which will be 50% harder, 25% lighter in weight and 25% more flavoured.

NB2. A powerful blend of savoury products combined with a very unique flavour and the original pH additives. This bait is dyed black with a natural product with an intention to be bird friendly, and I definitely do not mean the wife! The NB1 was good and caught from the off but this is another dimension. This bait is so exciting and will be awesome next season. I have no doubt about this as it was incredible in field testing and literally tore up lakes from the off. I will have about 100 kilos up for grabs in the coming week and it will be on show in trial size bags at the Brentwood show.

I am in the process of rolling cork ball pop-ups for all the baits at the moment and whilst the cost is high they are undeniably the most buoyant pop-ups you can use. I will probably do these in small 20 bait size pots to keep the price affordable.

New carp book. It has taken me a whole year to compile the latest offering but it is nearly ready to go the the publishers. It is a mix of historical chapters, interviews and tips and tactics. This time around it focuses on mainly UK fishing and has an incredibly line up. The book will once more be priced below other books on the market and there will be a limited amount of leather bound books also. All profits will support angling charities.

Best wishes to all the people who have supported me over the last few years and best wishes to you all.

Jay

Autumn

2011-08-31T01:31:00.000-07:00

Traditionally we are about to enter one of the best months for fishing of the whole year, a time when fishmeal baits are at their best in my opinion. Too many people are all to quick to look to a winter bait, especially considering that many lakes were frozen for long periods last year and fishing was hard to come by after December. Most of the A Bait range are ideal winter baits as only the Monster spice contains any significant amount of oils. It is also worth considering that all the baits contain additives to increase the digestion and palatability of the base mixes.

I currently have the highest level of stock I have ever had and this is because of the Mega carp show in Southend in November. Although it is 2 months away I will need to get the stock organised now in time to fill the stand. The baits I will be taking to the show are as follows.

Plum Zing

NB2 (New black fishmeal with a very unusual flavour combo and pure liver extracts)

A Plex (Red Bull concentrate with Berry palatants, with added dark yeast and protein sweetener)

XL and XL white (digestible sweet base with yeast cell walls, milk and fruit palatants)

Tangerine dream (a lime green birdfood base with the nicest fruit label you have smelt)

Skunk and blackberry (a lilac birdfood on a classic theme)

Purple red Bull

All the show bait will be in 750 gram bags as usual and I also have 300 pots of eye candy pop-ups already.

I will not be ordering very much bait before the show for the website and the stock I have in this week should last me until this date.

I will also be taking a break from the bait from the middle of November until the 1st of March. This is a very slow period as a rule and I will be looking to reorganise the garage or even a small unit locally, I will still be open during this period but the stock will be limited to what is in stock.

I have been testing new products all year which I think will make a major difference to the baits effectiveness and one in particular is as good as anything I have ever seen. They are from a variety of sources mostly from Europe and from the aquaculture industry. With everybody offering reasonable fishmeal baits it is necessary to look for the edges in order to offer something very different which is what the A Bait has always been about.

My recent trip to Slovakia did not pan out as I had hoped but pioneering is always risky compared to fishing established commercial fisheries. My trip to France was also cut very short and I was forced to come home 4 days early but I hope to do a bit of autumn / winter fishing this year and have already started baiting a new water.

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Best wishes

Jay

Overview

2011-07-03T02:08:00.000-07:00

Preserved baits

It is now 28 years since I made my first batch of bait and the 3rd season of doing the "A" bait on a much larger scale, although I have always had freezers full for a few selected friends. The best decision I ever made was to move to a shelf life bait, not only in terms of storage and use but also in catch rates. The most important thing in a carp bait is that they are good for the fish, easy to use and most importantly that they catch a lot of fish. The first one here is easily solved as I have always looked to the best suppliers for the best possible ingredients. The second point was not really possible until I started working with the pH components. The baits now will stay fresh and good almost indefinitely in a dry and stable environment and revert to the equivalent of fresh baits when introduced to water. Put simply the baits will break down in the lake at the same speed as fresh or freezer baits and sometimes a little bit quicker! If you have a freezer at home for your bait you will do no harm at all by freezing the "A" bait but you should from then on treat it as you would normal freezer baits.

Any bait should eventually "go off" if exposed to condensation or bright sunlight and if this is not the case then please avoid using it, this is the sort of thing that will sit on the lake bed forever. Thankfully I think we have pretty much seen the back of these things in the modern age.

The "A" Bait does not need handling with kid gloves though, it is designed to be convenient and will store really well in most garages and cupboards. Those of you that have seen my garage will know what I mean.

The only bait that I have had problems stabilising was the nut mix and here the problem is typical of one of the ingredients, baby milk. Anybody who has used this or complan in there baits will observe the skin of the bait turns white, by feeling the bait you will soon see that it is merely discolouration and not wet mould and the fish like it! However it does not look good and I no longer use that type of product.

Whats new?

Within the next month or so I will be bringing out a new range of pop-ups

firstly there will be the eye candy range - these will be 16mm and 2 different colours in each bait designed to break up the shape of a normal round bait. They will be mainly essential oil / oil palatant combos that will be super buoyant!

Secondly there will be 10mm toppers in yellow pink and white as sight bobs to complement the the existing range at

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Rods

I do not imagine that I will be going into full time rod supply but I have a couple of very good manufacturing contacts and can produce a very high top spec rod at an affordable price. By September I should have a good number of these rods on the ground ready to go.

To find out more about these rods and other products sign up for regular newsletters at

1jayrider@googlemail.com

During August I will be exploring Slovakia and once again facing my nemesis - Lake Bled in Slovenia. I will be gone for about two weeks and hopefully settle an old score. For any large orders for bait I will need to know about by the middle of July as I am also working on the new book. I still do not have a title but it could well be ready by October. This is going to be an awesome book and the line up of contributors is a bit like a whos who of carp anglers past and present. Most featuring the UK scene past and present with a lot of tactical and personal viewpoints.The book will also have no less than 5 chapters on bait by myself, Ken Townley, Tim Richardson,Geoff Bowers and Keith Jones.

Best wishes & tight lines

Jay

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

The right Bait for me

2011-05-07T00:56:00.000-07:00

I really believe that no one bait will be right for every occasion. One big bait supplier claimed this and has since changed his mind judging by the new range of baits he now makes. Due to my nature, I am always looking for something new and just about every time I go fishing I am looking for new products to include in the baits to improve them. Below is a run down of the current range to help you make the right choice for you.
Plum Zing
This is the oldest "A" Bait in the range and for a good reason, it is an incredible catcher and is consistent in most waters. I resurrected the incredible green zing flavour and looked for a second flavour that would mellow it out and complement it. I could not find the right one so I made it from scratch and the plum zing was born. This has a medium flavour content that is pushed into the water by the low pH additive. An amazing smelling bait that is "wife" and definitely carp friendly. The base mix has a superb fishmeal content and will keep catching all year round, the current version was actually a bait that was tweaked for winter use and I kept with it as it proved to be so good. The bait was responsible for the world record day brace of commons last year and is as good as anything costing double the price.
spice UPX
Most companies work on the principal of cheap base mixes with lots of liquids to pull fish. This is exactly the opposite! It is just about the best fishmeal bait you can make with very little added flavour. I wanted a bait where the fish can smell the pH additive and the greatest flavour of all time, Ultraspice is added with clove at a very low level. I added piperine to the ultraspice and produced a fantastic flavour on a natural oil base. Piperine is the substance that gives black pepper its smell. The UPX is a very serious bait for the discerning angler.
Monster Spice
This base mix has been about for ever but with a proven track record. It is made from mostly salmon fry crumb which is more relevant now than ever with more pellets than ever going in. It contains a very high level of the UPX flavour which offers massive attraction, as I said it is an oil based attractor and cannot really be over loaded. I initially thought that this would be an instant attractor type bait but it has proved itself on some really hard waters. Due to the high mixed oil content I would expect this bait to be best in the summer months. On my recent trip to France I absolutely smashed it on this bait and the water was far from warm. Some people have done well using this bait in conjunction with the spice UPX.
A Plex
This is the newest bait and combines some very advanced chemistry. This bait contains no oil and is designed to be used for 12 months of the year. Enzyme treated meat meal is the central ingredient and offers something very different from the norm. It also looks like a fishmeal so nobody will suspect you are doing something unusual. The Red Bull flavour started life as a gimmick but you always have to back it up with something good and I believe this flavour is as good as any ever made! I am quite serious about that as well. I have included a raspberry palatant which is also something very unusual. It has a pH of 2 and absolutely no smell but an amazing taste.This is the lowest pH bait of the range which I have buffered perfectly with the flavour label. I have also included satsuma essential oil to enhance the bait in the way it attracts. The bait is a little bit firmer than the rest of the range in order to offer something different.

overview
If you stand still you will fall behind! Just look at Woolworths. I want to catch fish when I go to the pond and explore as many avenues in bait technology as possible. I know which companies make the effort and which do not as I am always following contacts and looking for leads and the salesmen tell you when you mention that there product is going to be used for fishing. Some people are still not convinced about preserved baits but the informed will make there own choices. Put an A Bait in a glass of water for 2 days along side a freezer bait and see which breaks down the fastest. The baits on my website are the baits I use because I am only interested in making the best baits possible. The fact that they are cheap compared to other baits is because I have few over heads and I believe that if you give people a fair deal they will appreciate it. Money is not a factor but the best quality is. The baits are set up so the pH works with the bait and interacts with the water to create a response. This was something I created 4 years ago and other long standing professional companies are now trying to copy. Remember you saw it here first and I have moved on a long way from that stage already.

Domaine De Boux

2011-04-19T04:26:00.001-07:00

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Monster spice paste in conjunction with wafters and 10mm baits. Bait was applied as rolled un boiled boilies ans it was clear how much the fish were relishing these. Fish caught away from the baited areas were showing clear signs of feeding on the bait, see the fishs red mouth in the picture which was not an uncommon sight.

All in we caught 104 fish between 3 of us for a total haul of 3,500lbs.

A Bait different versions

2011-03-05T02:39:00.000-08:00

Looking back over the last 3 years and about 20,000kg of bait I have compiled the following list of all the different low pH A Baits I have produced. Quite a few are show specials and therefor one offs. It has proved to me that just about anything that you put the additives in will be successful and also that onward development leads to a quality rounded bait. I think that 4 baits is enough in the range and I would feel confident in catching from anywhere with the baits available now. As for which one is the best, I really could not tell you and it would probably be influenced by the angling situation. Any of the previous baits can be reproduced subject to minimum orders of 100kg. The purple Red Bull will be back shortly due to popular demand in a one off roll. Also I have had a number of enquiries about the nut bait. I really liked the concept of this bait and it did pretty well but was just not that popular.

A1 white strawberry amber birdfood

A2 white amber contreau birdfood

A3 white amber raspberry and green beast birdfood

A4 amber with pimenta birdfood

A5 bacon powder red fishmeal

A6 pimenta red fishmeal

A7 green zing red fishmeal

A8 Plum Zing (current version)

A9 skunk oil fishmeal

A10 Spice UPX fishmeal

A11 golden syrup, red karpi birdfood, show special, orange

A12 condensed milk birdfood, show special, yellow

A13 plum zing birdfood, show special

A14 ginger & cream birdfood, yellow

A15 ginger & cream nutmeal

A16 purple tangee peach

A17 purple monster

A18 robin red monster

A19 Monster spice, current version

A20 pineapple zing birdfood, show special,orange

A21 winter A cream & ginger birdfood

A22 formula 1 with banana, show special, black

A23 purple red bull

A24 coconut birdfood,pink

A25 A Plex red bull meat meal, current version

A26 aniseed , fennel and sting fishmeal

A27 peach oil and raspberry, red fishmeal

I am constantly looking for new products that will improve the range and move the baits forward. I have never been interested in making commercial or mediocre carp food and the baits that I sell are the ones I use. Last year I spent a ridiculous amount of money on creating flavours and have at least 5 which are top draw and unused so this is an area where no more development is required for a while. Half of the current range; monster spice and A Plex are brand new baits to most venues and the other two; plum zing and spice UPX have showed no signs of slowing down. Due to the relatively few people using the A Baits they should always represent a good advantage on most waters.

Best wishes

Jay

Brentwood carp show

2011-01-20T01:18:00.000-08:00

Just over a week to go and the weather seems to be holding for what traditionally is one of the best carp shows of the winter. The "A" Bait stand is sited next to the main entrance number 131.

The 2 deals above will be available on both days and represent a fantastic bargain. The Nash bait are special containing my own unique flavour blends and low pH additive and 4 bags come with a limited edition hardback copy of carping journeys for just £20.

As usual I will have the normal range of baits as well that can be found at

http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk/.

I will also be unveiling my New bait the A Plex 2 which is a blend of all things non fishmeal with my Red Bull flavour, 6 months in the making, I think you will agree it is spot on. I will also be doing a special deal on the Monster spice X with a 4kg bag of 15mm for £18. This is on a first come basis and there is about 100kg up for grabs. This bait was launched in its current format in October and did exceptionally well on some tricky waters. A full range of pop-ups and wafters will be on display as well as some of my full strength liquids at clearance prices.

Hope to see you there, we will be able to to take card payments at this years show also.

2011 Range

2010-12-31T04:10:00.000-08:00

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Well another year is over and with plenty of good fish and pb's have added up to another good year for the "A" Bait. The UPX has overtaken the plum zing as the best selling bait but the plum has been as consistent as ever with 4 fish over 65lbs! Hopefully somebody will take the baits to Rainbow at some point. These 2 baits will be completely unchanged for the 2011 season.

The monster spice took a lot of time to crack but the current version is a very exciting bait and caught very well from some tricky lakes at the back end of the season. The base mix has an outstanding record for the spring and it would be no surprise to see it get off to a flyer. Swapping red dye for the robin red proved to be one of the main factors in the improved catches and I can only conclude the smell of this product was masking the pH additive somewhat.

I will be bringing out a new A Plex in 2011 but it will be completely different to the original. I had good feedback on the nut bait but it just did not seem that popular, to be honest I am only calling it the same name as it has been printed on the bags! The Taurine was a key factor to this boilie and I have found my mixing it with salt and another amino it is even more appealing to fish. Due to the bad weather the normal winter field testing has not been possible and this is the first bait that I have designed solely from tank tests. A very unconventional way of doing things but what the heck, all I will say is that the reaction to this bait is the best I can achieve in this environment and I have done over 100 hours of tank observation. The bait contains my newly developed Red Bull flavour with liver oil and B vitamin complexes. 1kg bags of the A Plex will be available at Brentwood and from the 1st of March.

B complex glug. I have always had my doubts about how you can boost a hook bait and prefer to use paste but the B complex liquid is a blend of the most stimulatory items I have found. The captive fish react very strongly to it and it can be customised with only a couple of mils of flavour to complement the whole range. These pots will be launched at Brentwood in very strong 250ml medical bottles. Pouring the liquid over any bait can only enhance it!

I hope to see a few of you at the Show and wish you all very best wishes and tight lines for 2011.

Jay

Where did 2010 go?

2010-11-29T04:04:00.001-08:00

2010 has been a pretty big year on the bait front with a major escalation in orders and ordering with trips to collect bait almost every week. I have certainly learnt about budgeting recently and have certainly done enough research to liven things up in the new year. I have also come to tems with the fact that some projects are just too big at the moment. I have been working on some new base mixes but unless I can suddenly find another 4 tons of storage spage or increase the turnover 400% they will have to wait a while longer!

One of the aims of the "A" bait was to always provide bait that was as fresh as possible and to constantly rotate the products and I am sure that by going bigger some of this may be lost. I have recently had the opportunity to do some serious tank testing and when I say tank I am talking about one of the bigest fresh water aquariums in the UK. Some of the results were suprising and other absolutely staggering. As you will know I have always believed in quality bait ingredients and the HNV theory but it is harder to get an edge with these baits than it has ever been. The reason being that most people are using really good quality baits and the fish are getting it all the time. I believe the key to it is giving the fish a signal that they really respond to and I have found quite a few new things, some quite by accident. I have also proved that a few of the existing products on the market are either not as good as we thought or just part of them is useful!

The "A" Bait powders came through the test particularly well porooving to be an attractor on their oen and very good at ejecting other liquids faster than normal mixes. I have mentioned in the newsletter email to 1jayrider@googlemail.com to join about bringing out a soluble paste containing some special attractors that will not stand up to boiling. I will have to put this on hold for the time being as I do not have the room or the budget but it will be a big feature of next years fishing for me. The baits for the Brentwood show are nearly all finalised now and the final one will be the red bull flavour on a purple bait, this is a really nice version now it is finished and smells even closer when extra citric is added, it also works!

That is about it for this year for the blog so I hope you all have a great holiday season and hope to see as many people as possible at the Brentwood show at the end of January.

Tight lines

Jay

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

October blog

2010-10-17T01:06:00.000-07:00

Not a very exciting title I know but I have been doing a few articles lately and planning the contents of a new book. Publication is a long way waway but the cast list looks very exciting. The book will feture many of the guys who have been in the sport a long time and rarely seen in print. The book will follow the developement of carp fishing through the ages going back to the 50's. Bait will also be heavily featured and covered by a lot of the best bait brains in the business.

2010 has been a good year for bait developement or tinkering, and I have worked out a lot about the additives and products and the best ways to use them. The red version of the purple monster was a bit of an accident but is a very exciting bait and certainly something I look forward to using in the coming year. The winter A has had a good start and if it is as good as I think it will be I might keep it as a replacement for the A Plex. The liquids are the same but it would be fair to say that the nut bait has not been hugely popular. A bit of a shame really as the anglers using it have been enjoying a fair bit of sucess. The idea behind it was to create a totally synthetic free bait but this virtually applies to the Spice UPX anyway. The winter A contains a mind blowing amount of additions but all at low levels and all based around sugars and aminos.

Ideally I would like to only stock 4 baits maximum for next year but I still have an idea that I would like to do a purple bait and a project is lined up for this, the prototype should be available for the Brentwood show along with many more specials. These are either baits that I have used in the past or have been messing about with over the last 12 months.

The pop-ups are now a very good product and there is no problem with bouyancy or leakage. Wafters are available for most of the range and apart from being a better presentation they are also a lot more durable than the standard baits.

I think glugs and bait dips are an area worth exploring and a lot of you will have had some very weird and wonderful offerings over the last 2 years, with some mixed results! The dip range in the future will represent the liquids that are in the bait and will be fish friendly and a bit of a boost for the hookbaits.

From the start of next year I will be starting a cheque spread/bank debit system for anybody who wants to pay for the bait gradually.I will also put in a structure system with discounts for larger amounts.

Best wishes

Jay

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

http://carp-bait.blogspot.com

Summers end?

2010-09-22T00:36:00.000-07:00

Really another quite bizarre year for weather. A very cold winter with constant high pressure through June and July and downhill from there, still there have been some very nice carp caught. The plum zing has been very consistent this year and the UPX has done well for the people using it. The A Plex has done well for the few that are using it and I might still make a few changes to this bait next year. The purple monster project has hit a few stumbling blocks but has still done very well in places. The monster pursuit base mix is not ideal for the colder months although I have done well on it in the past. I expect this to come into its own big time in the spring as it draws naturals to the bait like a magnet, I will pit it into hibernation now for the colder montha and revert to the white amber. This will be my own favourite version of the bait with caramelised plum and peach oil. The A Plex nut will now be replaced with the winter "A". This bait is an orange birdfood containing; pH liquid additive, Kemp dairy cream flavour, ginger essential oil, Taurine, Dried Guiness powder, maltodextrin, Glycine, Betaine, Tyrosine, L glutamine, lactose, Tryptophan plus other aminos, sugars and a brand new plant sterol that I have been very fortunate to get. It might look like an ordinary orange ball but this is a far from average carp bait and is designed to provide a very high mineral and sugar content to the fish in a digestible form. I expect to have the white amber plum by the end of the week, 22nd sept, and the winter "A" within 2 weeks.
If you have not seen the website lately http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk/ I am doing a couple of trips to Slovakia and Romania next year and anybody who would like to come on these are more than welcome as there is plenty of room. Also have a look at the cost price clearance, there are a few deals left mainly in the bigger sizes at cost price or better.
Tight lines
Jay

The A Bait today

2010-08-29T02:51:00.000-07:00

The A Bait has come a very long way since January 2009 and the first rolls be given out at the winter carp shows from the boot of the car. Fundamentally the the core principal of pH change and quicker gut transit times are still there and the powdered additives are a major part of the plum zing and the spice UPX baits. I always wanted to use the best and freshest base mix ingredients and in my mind I knew straight away who could do this for me. I have a massive interest in flavours and attractors and whilst I appreciate a fishing bait has to be "cosmetically nice" to fit in the market place at the same time it should only be included if necessary. Experience has told me what chemicals carp find attractive and I have a different approach to building flavours now. Rather than set out to make a nice smelling coconut because that is what is selling, I prefer to blend some known good components together until I find something appealing!
The A Plex bait has been a work in progress this year and has been tweaked constantly. The powder palatant complex has become very involved but the theme of the bait has changed the same, a very basic food,(nutmeals) that tastes very smooth and above all natural. The magic ingredient that changed this bait from a good one to a major player has been the addition of the pH liquid. I am really happy with the A Plex nut but cannot see it as a viable bait for the winter months. The base is oily in its own right and is supplemented by 15ml of mixed oil on top. The bait will be great up until the really cold weather and frosts but the logical answer is to move the whole package into a birdfood. How the pH liquid will operate with quicker leakage is a bit of an unknown quantity but a very exciting one I should think!
The purple monster bait was a project I have had in mind for a long time. The monster pursuit base mix is very underrated in my mind and is very good at attracting invertebrates and having a larder of these around the bait is never a bad thing especially in the spring time. The purple colour worked so well in last year "winter show special" that it had to be worth including and my intention was to use the Red Bull type flavour that I have been working on for about 6 months. It is nearly there but not quite and I will continue with the Spice UPX attractors until I get it to a position where it catches carp very well and smells like the real thing. It is an expensive thing trying to copy a diluted substance onto a full strength liquid but it is very close. Initial fishing trials have been very basic but look good. I can honestly say that I have spent more money on purchasing products than I have earned from the bait in the last 6 months!
I will probably only be doing the Brentwood show this winter but will be doing the show special again which will include; white amber plum, Red Bull amber with Taurine, Pineapple zing.
We are now approaching probably the best period of the year for fishing and I will up my ordering levels as September was a very busy time last year. Good luck and a big thank you to all the A Bait users who have helped me with the bait development and feedback in 2010 and a reminder that if you have any photos to send them to me and I will add them to the catch blog at http://carp-bait.blogspot.com

If anybody would like to subscribe to the regular news letter just drop me an email at 1jayrider.googlemail.com , these are generally published every 2 weeks.

Best wishes and tight lines
Jay

Back from Bled

2010-08-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well the annual pilgrimage to Lake Bled in Slovenia has come and gone with the usual set of angling problems. Some chronic bad weather and a flood on the campsite left my bivvy under 6 inches of water and feeling really glad I put the bait in cardboard boxes. No night fishing meant that I was lucky to get 4 hours sleep a night and a hot meal, don't mention the toilets. Well done to Steve and Malc though who stuck with it and had about 20 fish to near forties. I had at least 20 chub and fishing the margins proved hopeless. The lads went for 50 feet of water at 180 yards and did pretty well on the spice UPX.

The pop-ups worked very well and an 18mm bait is so bouyant it actually lifts up an 18mm bottom bait as well. Most of the lads fish were on snowman presentations.

A fair bit of the purple monster bait has gone out and feedback is starting to come in. The reddish version is proving the more poular but it might be because it is on the 15mm. I have had to order more purple dye and may do a few more test baits with Nash before returning to it. I want to try a Winter A - amber attract with pineapple zing. This is a bait I have done very well on in the past and would be an ideal substitute for the A1. Also I have been trying to replicate the Red Bull flavour for about a year, I am now very close to getting it right , it will be interesting to see how well it works but a few of the components are proven catchers.

I have revamped the website a bit and all the products are available at the moment.

I have also had A Bait bags printed up and most of the baits will now be supplied in these in 5kg amounts.

tight lines

Jay

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Bait tweaking

2010-07-01T03:44:00.001-07:00

I have been spending a lot of time lately on doing what I like, bait development. I would prefer some more fishing but another trip to Slovenia at the end of the month should rectify this. It has been a while since there was a blog update but the guys that have registered for bait updates at 1jayrider@googlemail.com will know there has been a lot going on.
The new Purple monsters should have been with us this week but Nash have been undergoing a major modernisation and they should be with us by the end of next week, 10Th July. The bait is untested and is available at cost price originally. However, every component of the bait is a winner and sure to be a really good fish catcher.
I have been trialing a low pH liquid which has proved to be a very big success. For various reasons I was not keen on it to start with but cannot ignore the results and it has left me with a problem in what to do with it. Most of the trials have been on the Spice UPX and it has made the bait darker and a bit softer. I have decided not to trial it in the plum zing as this bait has been incredibly consistent and as it took a while to get it spot on I am reluctant to ever change it. The A Plex is the ideal candidate really as the vanilla and coconut powders are non soluble and a bit of extra softness will be counteracted easily, the darker shade will not be a problem either as this is quite a light coloured bait. This is easily the most complicated nut bait out there but everything is in there for a reason and I think with the new additions it will be equally as good as the other baits in its own right. The new stock of this will start arriving in about 2 weeks time.
I have one more batch of experimental UPX arriving on Monday and this is rolled with half powder, half liquid additives.
I must stress that nobody will get an experimental bait unless they ask for it and all bait sent out will be to the original recipe.
I am keeping the prices of all the baits at £5.50 but have as we speak ordered A Bait printed 5kg bags. The cost of each bag is about 20p but I will absorb the cost. With the cost of enzyme fish meal going up again I may have to go to £6 a kilo later in the year but there will be no massive jumps "just because the bait is now well known".
I have also started a range of pop-ups suitable for more buoyant presentations and these are all on my own flavour blends and available on the website at www.booksoncarp.co.uk in 18mm and five different colours.
Flavours are also now in 250ml bottles at £12.50 which again is a lot more competitive than the 50ml bottles in the tackle shops.
The dates for my Slovenia trip are still unsettled but I intend to do 9 days at the end of July,start of August.
Tight lines
Jay

p.s I have another article called sheflife vs fresh in this months, July 2010, at
www.freshwaterinformer.com

Product updates

2010-06-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a journey the last 18 months. Some of the early products were a bit roar with the occasional hickup thrown in for good measure. I always new the additives were special and fully believed in the pH affect and the increased digestion times. I think that I underestimated just how attractive the fish actually find the smell of the powders. The plum zing was a bait that took a while to get exactly right but it is definitely spot on now and has figured in some awesome catches this year. The UPX, I knew was a winner from the start and I believe these baits are as good as they can be but I have been doing a trial with the UPX and the use of a liquid additive. The baits containing the liquid come out a bit softer and darker as well. The UPX will not change though unless the liquid proves to be more effective and then a combination of liquid/powder is more likely.
The monster pursuit purples in UPX should also be ready soon in 15mm and 20mm and this is a definite summer winner and is going to be very popular from the enquiries I have had. The purple baits that we did for the winter shows sold out everytime.
The A Plex has started very well and I have just got some glugged wafters done for these and another version that is slightly darker.
Hoodies are now available as sported above by Mark with half of his record brace of commons.
Also new this month is a range of extra bouyant pop-ups and possible polo shirts as well.
To recieve regular product updates via email, just send me a mail to
1jayrider@googlemail.com

Tight lines
Jay

The future is purple

2010-06-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

If April and May belonged to the Spice UPX, June has started with a bang for the Plum Zing. This week it has accounted for one of the biggest braces of commons ever, if not the biggest. Congratulations to Mark who is still out at Teilats now, who on Tuesday had commons of 76-08 and 68lbs just twelve hours apart! (pictures to follow at http://carp-bait.blogspot.com/.

The top rods on the lake have used the Plum Zing on no less then four occasions this year so far.

I have just collected the last roll of strawberry amber for a while, due to it's colour and reputation as a winter bait it can take a long time to produce at this time of year. In it's place I will be doing the Monster Pursuit mix with the Spice UPX flavour combo. Instead of the normal Robin Red this bait will be finished on a dark purple, similar to the bait I did for the winter shows. The bait with the normal additive inclusion is sure to be a winner and a popular choice.

Just a short update this time as I have not managed to do very much fishing or testing, May was an incredibly busy month for bait and it is nice to see some photos coming in for the catch blog. Pictured above are Gary and Rob who both had great results from very tricky venues.

Tight lines for the rest of June

Jay

A Bait range

2010-05-20T03:47:00.000-07:00

"I pity the fool who doesn't use The "A" Bait"

After a really cold protracted winter I have been inundated with orders and have neglected the blog for a while. There has been no need for any product development with the Plum Zing or the UPX as these baits are very definitely the finished article. The plum zing underwent about 5 changes last year to get where it is now and the bait seems to catch just about everywhere and also accounted for four of the top ten barbel caught last year. The UPX is now living up to the faith I had in it right from the start and I think if it was a bait from mainline it would already be an all time classic. The ultraspice/clove oil combo is the best I have ever used and I am confident that the low level also allows the A Bait additives to shine as well.

Although I always new the 2 additives were really special, I now think that the actual smell of them is just as important as the pH change they bring to the bait. Heavy baiters and long term users will also get the benefit of the increased digestion rates, which the fish will surely recognise. The results are also indicating that this is the case.

Gary Bayes at Nash is conducting trials with the additives in their new bait and some of the other products, hopefully in the not too distant future the soluballs will be available with the additives. The A Plex started out life as a potential new bait for the Nash stable but has quickly morphed into a further nutritional bait. Stocks of this will be available in 15mm and 18mm from the 21st May on a nutritional nut/milk mix. It is a light caramel colour with with a high content of light oils and a very special cream flavour. The bait has a wonderful taste and will be great for deep waters, day tickets and for places that have seen a lot of fishmeals. A wonderful stick mix can be created by soaking nut granules in the oil blend, adding boilie crumb and the base mix. The base mix bags contain taurine, the A Bait additives and some white powder dye. It forms a bit of a sticky sludge that can be added straight to pva. A friend has fished 8 sessions on five different day ticket lakes (day only) with the mix and never blanked. This is a system that I am really looking forward to fishing at Lake Bled although one rod will definitely be on the UPX.

Although still as popular as ever I am considering stopping the white amber. This time of year it is hard to get orders rolled due to the colour of the bait and the machines and boilers need to constantly be changed. Having said that I should have a roll of 15mm and 20mm to collect tomorrow.

A valid replacement will be a purple bait with the UPX attractors, probably on the ic1 basemix. The purple specials we did for the shows were incredibly popular and effective as well.

In the next few days the hoodies should arrive. They are a dark green, fishing friendly colour, They have the picture and catch phrase from the top of this page and the insciptions on the front: The "A" Bait http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk/ Have your balls got the minerals!

Please keep the catch photos coming in and I will transfer these to the catch blog

http://carp-bait.blogspot.com/ Hoodies and signed books are available in the photo competition.

Also the thread on the carp forum will be returning in the next few days and I have agreed this to last for the next three months.

Best wishes and tight lines

Jay

persistence is everything

2010-04-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

Well I was lucky enough to have had 2 weeks in France but could not have picked a worse year for selecting two early trips. When we got to Jo Jo's it was very much in the grip of winter and continuing frosts did not help . Landing 3 fish to 38lbs on the first day with the A Plex was a great start but the trip went down hill from there although Steve did pretty well and Malc had a 46-08 PB on the A1.

Arriving at Boux it looked like more of the same and the north wind cut into us for the entire trip. Steve chose the deep water and by Tuesday it had proved to be a great decision as he had caught about 20 fish to 39lbs and all I had to show for it was a small koi and a couple of twenties. All the fish were being pushed into a small corner of the dam, in fact the deepest part of the lake. Tuesday morning I packed the boat with a couple of rods to do some pva bagging from the dam wall and things really turned around. I was rationed to 3 hours fishing by Steve,lol, but had blind eye within half an hour. Down in weight like all the fish he went 44-10. Five minutes later he was joined by a 42-10 and then the leather at 40-06, not bad for a couple of hours. I had taken the plum zing with me as it was the only bait I had left as the orders had been so busy before I left. My next fish was a common of 41-o8 which was the only fish to come from summer bay all week. Steve charitably let me have a rod to the left of his which at least kept me ticking over with the odd fish as they continued to show over the deep water. I only saw four fish show in the shallows all week. My deepest spot of nine feet did produce every night though about midnight.

I ended the week with 25 fish and also had fish of 45-02, 43-00, 37-10, 38-08 and 37-13. The amazing thing was that I had nothing between 27lbs and 37lbs as Steve had 30 fish in this range.

6 forties in a week has to be classed as a great week when the fishing is difficult but as Steve puts it struggling is the new bagging up!

Time for some fishing!

2010-03-01T01:34:00.000-08:00

At last the weather is starting to improve and the count down has begun to my first trip accross the channel. I am only looking at 18 days before heading off to Jo Jo's and will be away for the best part of a month. Sandwiched between a trip to my favourite venue Domaine De Boux I will also be getting a bit of sun in Cairo.
I have four baits that I want to try out and only two trips to do it in! For the purpose of the trial I will be fishing the Plum Zing and the new A Plex together at Jo Jo's and the Spice UPX and a new bait from Nash together at Boux. Fishing two diferent baits together is not something I have done a lot of in the past but I am looking forward to see which one will come out on top.
The A Plex base mix is something I have used on and off for years and I have a lot of faith in it. The logistics of getting it rolled at a competitive price has been a headache and I have sourced a similar basemix that for the time being is ideal for the trial. The base I am now using is based on nuts, birdfood and milks which will complement the sweetness of the new powders and liquid combo. I will still be adding the "A" Bait additives at the same inclusion levels but the new powders should hopefully add a new dimension and is something I am a little excited about. The flavour combo is Burnt sugar with a hint of coconut, Banana oil palatant and ginger essential oil, the bait will be left the natural colour of the dry ingredients. Some of the A Plex should be available to order before I leave for France, in 15mm and 18mm.
The plum ing is in stock and more of this will be collected on thursday along with the Spice UPX in 15mm and 18mm. I will also book further rolls to arrive before my departure.
The A1 will be available from tomorrow (tues 2nd) in 15mm but most of this is subscribed already and the rest will be on a first served basis.

Show aftermath

2010-02-24T10:42:00.001-08:00

The big one show was absolutely exhausting but great to meet a few of the guys. The Sunday was a particularly good day and some really nice orders came out of it. Frustrating at times especially the guy who wanted 20 kilos of the yellow baits until he found out they were not pineapple! I think I got about 4 hours sleep over 3 days and had leaking glug everywhere until I realised that I had not pushed the lids on hard enough.

The plum Zing and the Spice UPX are now the finished article as far as I am concerned and after all the development tweaks they will stay the same for the rest of the season. I have tried to up my game now and there will be new products such as criticals, glugs and pop-ups every month and I will put these in the best packaging I can sauce. I have embarked in an exciting project with Nash baits to trial the additive and I will be comparing a new product of theirs containing the additive against my range. I had hoped to give a few others the chance of this field testing but it looks like the cost might be restrictive.

I will however have a new bait the A Plex for launch at the re-arranged Brentwood show as long as my own field testing proves it to be as good as I think. It is based on natural sugars with two exciting new products along side the additives and a flavour blend of coconut,ginger and burnt sugar. I will have these in 1kg bags at Brentwood if all goes well.

I will be away fishing for 3 weeks after the 20th march for some well deserved hauling, I will not be able to send out any bait during this time but will add a reminder to the website.

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

A Bait update

2010-02-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

Steve Ross the Boux biggy March 09 53-08

A year earlier at 47-08 How big this year? and will it fall for the A bait for the third year running?

2010 has started with a bang, more bait going out the door in January than any month last year and this is with most of the lakes frozen for a lot of the time.

Stock rotation has been a juggling act with the Brentwood show cancelled. Large quantities of the Nash bait has occupied my garage but as these are only promotional items I have to give them away with the books and hopefully these will go down well at the Farnborough show Feb 20-21st.

A lot of people have been asking what the shelf life is on the baits. I do not like the term shelf life because everything has a best before date. The bait will last indefinitely if kept free from condensation but I prefer to work in terms of the additives. The best before on these is 9 and 12 months respectively. I only keep the additive 3 months(wishfull thinking, often only 3 weeks) and all rolled bait is sold within a month or reduced in price. This leaves a best before date of roughly 6 months based on the additive life.

As yet I have not run out of stock of the nutritional baits but the first batch of Spice UPX all went on the first day! Luckily I managed to re-order the same time. The plum zing now smells even nicer with the plum palatant and more has arrived today.

The A1 has been a different story but new supplies are due in next week including a new custom sized monster barrel of 24mm x 20mm.

I have no plans to stop doing the bait this year and even though I have declined a couple of cash offers for the additives both the A5 (plum zing) and A+ (Spice UPX ) will be available all year.

By the end of febuary I should have airballs in 15mm for both of these baits and I am working really hard on trying to do a breakdown pellet containing the additives.

I would like to thank all the people who supported me last year and all the feedback that has got the baits where they are today. It has come an awful long way in the last 12 months and when the weather improves it will be time to cash in big time!

I will be away for 3 weeks during the end of march and beginning of April with a bit of sunshine sandwiched between trips to jo jo's and Boux.

2010-01-17T04:08:00.001-08:00

It was so cold that I did not even need to keep the glacon in a thermos!!!
Near 40 www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Hi attract hook baits for spring – Jason Rider

We have just had one of the most severe cold spells for a many a year and most of the lakes have been frozen over for a while. By the time you read this the temperature will be warming up, hopefully, and we will be looking at introducing our new bait for the season ahead, but it can still be a little bit tricky and verging on very hard going at times.

When choosing a venue the shallower lakes that warm up quicker will be a good choice for a bite or two in early spring and if they are popular fisheries, bait has probably been going in through the winter. Most anglers tend to use far less in winter and if the food is not available the carp will often shut up shop. Like any wild animal a fish has to balance food against the effort it takes to find it and if nutritious items are not readily available the fish's metabolism will slow down to compensate. You may think from the title of this item that I am going to talk about bright yellow pineapple flavoured pop-ups and whilst I am sure they will catch fish, they might even be detrimental in the long run. The commonly practised winter method of fishing single hook baits will end up in the fish shutting up shop quicker than everything. If every time they pick up bait, they get caught, their energy is used up and very quickly an aversion to little round balls will occur. I am not advocating that we should all fill our lake in with bait throughout the winter as the carp will naturally slow down with the temperature anyway but the more consistent winter lakes are the ones that continue to see feed.

Pretty coloured and over flavoured bait will catch an angler and in theory be more visual to the fish but possibly send out more warning signs than good ones. Most good quality waters have a pH greater than 7 and if the pH of the flavour is also greater than 7 it is likely to be locked in. To produce bait that expels a signal and Works with the water you need to fully appeal to the way a carp smells, known as chemoreception. This can be done in a variety of ways and the angler willing to put in a little bit more thought and effort can reap some significant results.

As I mentioned high concentrations of chemical flavours are not the answer and success will be achieved by getting our attractors into the water column. I will be looking to use soluble products and applying these with pva products, spodding and little frozen cubes known as glacons. In all of the A baits I sell on my website I include two special additives that are highly soluble and when introduced to the water in powder form, which actually change the pH of the water around the hook baits. Other items you can use are Betaine of Lysine HCI, milk powder, csl, yeast, enzyme treated fish, MSG, salt or any form of sugar. The list is endless really and one very simple edge is to add powder dye to your pva, spod mix or paste. Purple or brown dyes are very affective indeed.

Glacons are a method that is practised widely across the continent but neglected in the UK as most anglers feel they are too fiddly but they do have many redeeming qualities. Simply tie up a hooklength with the bait and attach the hook bait which is then dropped into an empty film canister or similar. Slowly introduce boilie crumb and hemp whist still feeding in the hooklength. You also want to be adding a nutritional liquid or diluted soluble at the same time. Once the canister is full only the swivel should be visible at the top and then place into the freezer. Make up half a dozen or so and take to the lake in a thermos flask. Hold the glacon in your hand and your body warmth will soon allow it to slip out of the canister, attach the swivel and cast out. They cast like bullets and will thaw out even in the coldest water very quickly. Find a recipe you like, the only rule is that you need enough solid items to sink the ice cube. It is a great way of getting liquids to the lake bed and achieving total attraction around hook bait. Another method practised in Europe is coating a boilie in amino powders, this could not be simpler. All you need is sticky sugar syrup to act as your glue and dip the whole hooklength in your powder tub and shake. A practise that only takes seconds but will get you extra fish over the course of a season guaranteed. I have started doing a dip and stick system with the A bait additives and the feedback so far this winter has been awesome.

Lastly do not neglect the paste. Silver fish and nuisance species are also less active at this time of year and used in conjunction with one of the paste leads this is another great way of getting active attraction working for you. As the fish become active they will be looking for some food to build themselves up after the big freeze. Rather than cutting down your odds of a pickup, try introducing your bait as you are ready to go home. Start introducing small amounts of bait in likely spots on a little and often basis and you should soon start to reap the dividends.

2009 A Bait – Review of the year (12 months down the line)

2009-12-30T07:00:00.001-08:00

The new limited edition Nash bait free with each book at the Brentwood show or from http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk/

2009 A Bait – Review of the year (12 months down the line)

January. Having experienced unbelievable results on the first sample of additives I had to get more and the suppliers were good enough to grant me this. 3okg of bait was made up with a 10g inclusion of each additive and added to each kilo of sardine fishmeal base mix. Small amounts were sent out for pond and tank tests and apart from one failure in an acidic water environment all the feedback was encouraging. More than one person took them fishing and caught from the off.

February. Nash kindly agreed to let me test the additives in their amber attract base mix and an order for the additives, enough to make 3,000kg of finished bait!

March. The first 350kg of Amber strawberry arrived in time for the 5 Lakes show and sold out in 15 minutes.

April. I went to France with Steven Ross and shared a catch of 84 fish with 40 over 30lbs and 15 carp over forty pounds. Great results on the bait all round and upped the level of additive to a combined level of 30 grams, A2 and A3. The feedback was that this made the amber to soft but boy did it catch carp and catfish.

May. Continued great results but problems in keeping up with the demand, it was just impossible to get the bait made fast enough. The small barrels 8mm x 14mm proved too brittle to fish with practically and in future these would be 12mm x 20mm. The first A5 was launched, a red HNV fish mix with a variety of flavours including Bacon, pimenta, Red Karpi and eventually Green Zing. This bait was particularly popular with the barbel boys and was responsible for a fish within 8 ounces of the British record.

June. More supply problems and hours and hours of research and development. A friend did some under water filming in France and the A Bait was torn apart to the exclusion of all other baits by the poisson chat. Further evidence that all fish species are attracted by the A bait. Anything with whiskers or barbells seems to love it.

July. Had to re-order the additives and production increased but still unable to keep up with the demand. I went to Slovenia fishing for a fortnight and received a whole lot of new product samples all of which were rejected. The time spent sending out the orders as well as owning a full time job was beginning to take a toll on the bait development side. The flip side of this was the amount of satisfied customers who had caught PB's.

August. I had been working on a number of flavours all year and the Ultraspice I had ordered came out as a 99% match of the original; I added slight amounts of pimenta leaf oil and skunk oil to make spice upx. Toward the end of the month Geoff Bowers started to make the A Plus for me, a really high quality fish meal with skunk oil and liquid fish protein.

September. Great results for the first users of the A+, the biggest disappointment of the year for me was that more people did not get the chance to try it. This will be awesome bait in 2010 and will be stepped up to the 30 gram level and maybe switched to the spice UPX flavour. Many anglers have asked to keep the skunk oil however.

October. My eyes were well and truly opened to the other potential uses for the additives and working out the right levels when applied in pva products and ground bait. The A5 was switched to a winter version which has proved to be equally as good if not better.

November. Further new flavours arrived including a diacetin plum to make the plum zing and the liquid illusion an incredibly complex blend that took an astonishing 6 months to complete.

December. The dip and stick product was finally finished. A bought in sugar syrup that is used to coat the boilie before lowering in the powder. The leak of is controlled and will gradually release the additive over a period of time depending on the water temperature. The additive is complemented by, Betaine, CSL, MSG, dextrose, condensed milk powder flavour, soluble milks, enzyme treated fishmeal, yeast and more. 4 different limited edition baits rolled on the amber attract using my flavours finished and ready for the Brentwood carp show, 9-10^th January.

For the last four months I have been looking at making an A Bait from scratch to best utilise the additives. I have christened the project FUDE. (Feed utilisation Dietary Enhancement) The concept is a base that will be stripped back to its crudest form in order for the carp to digest in under an hour. I know this is possible and have witnessed it. The Bait will have an incredible vitamin and mineral profile and there will be nothing in it that does not serve a function. I have a liquid product that quite incredibly has the same components as the liquid illusion on a base of liquid minerals. If the product ever sees the light of day will depend on a large scale production as the base mix needs to go through an industrial grinder to make it possible to roll.

I would like to thank all the A Bait customers for all their support and incredibly feedback which has made the whole project a reality. Back in January I knew I had something special and wanted to create bait with a difference. This is still the motivation and I for one will be out there reaping the rewards again in 2010.

Very best wishes and tight lines 2010.

Jay

Additive and new products

2009-12-05T00:28:00.001-08:00

For the last couple of months I have been sending out the neat additives for people tp play around with. The results have been a mixed bag and I am nearly at a stage where I know the right levels for any given situation. Anglers have had great results adding the additives into paste, pva and even spod mixes. As you know the powders are extremely soluble and it is clear that they can be overdone quite easily. However the signal will only disperse over a wider area and reach more fish and in time the level will be corect.
Some matchmen friends of mine have also been using the additives and with the emphasis being on maximising your time and catches and the best results have been on a lower level or an initial and then leave alone baiting. 50 kilos of additive have gone out with the samples and I have decided to customise a product for further use. Powder coatings are part of the armery of all the continental anglers but are hardly used at all in the UK. I will be adding a 250ml pot of powder containing. The additives at the higher level, betaine,soluble milks,fenugreek powder,spirulina,csl powder, MSG, creatine, yeast, hemp powder and a protein sweetner. I have also sourced a sugar syrup that will be ideal for bonding the powder again a 250ml bottle.
I am not interested in average or similar products and the idea of A bait was to break new ground and put extra fish on the bank. The new product could not be easier to use, just dip the bait in the bait glue and shake in the powder the process can also be repeated for freebies. A trail of soluble food signals will be dispersed all around the hookbaits. These will be available at the Brentwood show on stand 29 along with the limited edition baits in barrels 18mm x 12mm and the A5 and A5 baits .
www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Brentwood show

2009-11-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

I will have a stand at the Brentwood show January 9th - 10th. This is probably the best of all the winter shows now and is always well attended. The stand will be a book stand but I will be doing a free bait give away with every book sold. As well as the A5 and A+ I will be doing a limited edition range on the amber attract base mix to try out the new flavours which have now arrived. The idea being to see if any of them are better than those used in the bait currently.
The limited edition range will be as follows:
White- Liquid illusion ( 6 months in the making, you get a different smell every time)
Yellow- Ultraspice UPX , condensed milk powder
Orange- Red Karpi, golden syrup powder
pink- Plum Zing, Raspberry powder

All will contain a slightly elevated level of additive at 25 grams per kilo.

All of these liquid flavours are available from the website
http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk/
supplied in a 100ml aluminium flask for £8.99

What's happening

2009-11-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

As winter approaches fast it's now time to take stock of the last year. What started off in March as one bait has now become three. My intention was to prove that my findings were valid and I am more than confident that has been proven without doubt. I have been carping for 25 years now and I know that one round ball will never be the answer to everything and good angling will always bring dividends. The truth is most people use boilies for most of their carping and my intention was to produce something that was both different, of great benefit to the fish and would bring more bites and ultimately more fish to the bank!

A1

The year has ended with the bait in its original form. The A2 and A3 contained elevated levels of the additive with cointreau and Blackberry oil respectively. Both caught really well (especially catfish) but were ultimately too soft because of the higher levels of solubility. As the bait is made by Nash to their recipe this was out of my control. The barrels proved hard to hook up and were in the whole a bit of a disaster although I had 23 fish over 35lbs in a week on them! The A4 with Pimenta was very promising but hard for Nash to roll due to the unique colour. The bait was devastating on some waters on the home front and especially at Dreamlakes.

A+

This was to be the flagship A bait. An awesome nutritional bait that would stand up against anything in terms of quality. It was meant to replace the red and contains just 1 ml of skunk oil as an attractor thus letting the additives do the talking. In the future it will be teamed up with 1ml of the recreated ultraspice, 99% match, and a little sweetener to soften it up. This is an awesome bait and the one I will be using in 2010.

A5

This is the crossover bait with high nutrition and a strong attractor package. I did intend to stop doing it but it has become the best selling bait of the 3 and ridiculous amounts have been going out to the very secretive Barbel boys, I know for a fact it has broken 3 river records at least! The green zing has proved to be the most popular of the flavour combinations and will become plum zing in 2010. Yet another flavour I have had custom made.

Liquid Illusion

I was told about this attractor blend by some friends in Holland and it has taken the chemist four months to Annalise and replicate. It has 2 distinct smells but contains neither! In fact there are at least 12 components being mainly a blend of oils both essential and bulk. I am working on combining this with a liquid food and one of the two A bait additives. I expect to have this ready for the Brentwood show and will be compatible for use with the A5 and A+.

I have strived to make sure that all the bait I have sold is fresh stock. Although 90% of the baits are shelf lifes no stock has been held more than 4 weeks. Just about all the money I have made from the bait has been put back into product development, after all I do have a full time job. Furthermore I have tried to reply to every E mail the same day and to dispatch orders as near to the next day as possible.

I would like to thank all the guys for their help and support and valuable feedback throughout 2009 and hope that every A bait user finds the fish they are looking for.

Best wishes

Jay

Fishing and Testing

2009-10-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

The trip to Jo Jo's looked like it was going to be tough from the word go but it looked more and more like a blank for the whole lake as the week progressed. With high pressure, bitter cold north winds and nights that got colder with every passing one the run-less days added up. By Wednesday I had gone through about 20 rigs and the fish were active and looked to be catchable. My fishing friends Steve and Malc had taken 10 gallon of maggots and could not even get a take on these and would wind in after 12 hours to find them untouched.

I had decided to stick with the new A+ for the week and to carry out pH tests at regular intervals. The results for these were a little suprising but not as suprising as what was to come!

Initial pH test 5.2

12 hours in the water 5.2

24 hours in the water 5.3

36 hours in the water 5.3

48 hours in the water 5.3

The lake water was recorded at 7.3 and during the trial dropped from 14 degrees C to 11 oC . After removing the sample from the water it was allowed to air dry for an hour so as not to take the reading from the lake water. As the additives are very soluble it surprised me that there would not be a greater leakage into the water and I now believe that you cannot influence the pH of the water with a big bed of bait.

With time seriously running out I knocked up some paste as following; 1 part neat additive, I part casein, 1 part tiger nut ground bait mixed with eggs.

Ground bait was put together with water with 4 parts ground bait to 1 part additive.

I have never tried introducing the additives in these concentrations but the result was immediate!

A brace of 30's on the mat within 4 hours!!! The other lads used the paste and ground bait until it run out and 10 fish were banked in 36 hours including a 100lbs+ catfish to Malc.

After the additive was gone the fish were as well and the last 24 hours were again un-productive.

A completely surprising but quite conclusive all the same.

Update

2009-08-25T03:33:00.000-07:00

Eight months on and the biggest problem has been keeping up with the demand! Almost everybody who has used the bait has had a result and an awful lot of PB's have been broken. The concept behind the A1 white bait was to achieve the most awesome instant attractor bait but the results keep coming on it. One syndicate lake has had 100's of kilos and nearly the whole syndicate are still using it and still catching at the same rate. The red HNV bait has also been in circulation for a few months now and results again have been almost instant. Remarkable really as the bait contains hardly any flavour and is aimed at long term use. In my mind this has proved what I have thought all along and that the additives are the only signal the bait actually needs. Quite a few carp that rarely get caught have fallen to the A5 red bait.
Most modern carp baits are made from the same pool of ingredients and the only thing that changes are the percentages and flavour combination. Samples have now been thoroughly tested and pH readings have confirmed that the baits vary from 5.6 - 6 , truly something really different that the carp respond t0!

Field testing

2009-05-11T07:03:00.001-07:00

Field testing
I approached the suppliers again about the possibility of a further sample as other sources and searches had proved fruitless. I got two 30g samples enough to produce 30 kilos of dry mix and 40kg of boilies at 10g / kg inclusion. Through the Carp Forum I sent out 1 kilo bags to about twenty people to do some tests on their ponds and tanks. The first feedback was nearly the end of it all with the chap saying the fish in my tank like it crumbed but it has sat in my pond un-touched for five days. The dry mix was a high quality dark fish mix with no other attractants whatsoever; this would give me the best indication of the strength of the additives. We were now in January but I would not make any excuses for the fishmeal, there had to be a better answer. Later that evening I asked the guy if he could test his ponds pH for me and he said he could, the result was a low reading which suggested that it had worked against the additives. The next day the guy rang me back to tell me about a fish he had caught on the bait. The lake only contained a few very old carp but he had caught a new one that nobody knew about, it was not new it had just evaded capture for years, very exciting stuff indeed! The next weekend his friends talked him out of using the bait and twelve rods caught nothing until putting on the prototype A bait which brought instant success. I could not believe the amount of catch reports that were coming in as it was January and each angler only had a kilo of the stuff.
A friend of Mine Paul Russell happened to mention to me that he had a good relationship with the guys at Nash bait and that they were always looking for revolutionary products. A few phone calls later and they would be prepared to let me have their Amber Attract at a good price in order for me to test the additives fully. I decided there and then to take the plunge and order the two products in quantities. I set up the European trade agreement that was necessary and obtained the safety sheets that confirmed both products were totally safe for all aquaculture. Furthermore the mineral and vitamin profiles were excellent and with a built in digestive aid the company assured me that the benefit to the fish would be immense in the long term.
The first run of Strawberry white amber bait was called the A1 and arrived late February in time for the Carpin on show at five lakes. Daryl Dunn had the first bait and ended a six month blank with commons of 39 and 35 from an ultra difficult Essex venue. Absolutely everybody who had the bait was catching and very quickly it seemed that the acids were kicking out the flavours very quickly even in the cold water. After a few hours the skin of the bait would be clammy where the oils and liquids were exiting so fast. We had the perfect winter bait but I have always been a HNV user and still had ideas along these lines. Also I needed to prove it was the additives that were making the difference and not just the Amber bait. The second roll was the A2 version where I replaced the Strawberry’s with blackcurrant oil and raspberry powder to give the bait a more natural profile. This bait was also stepped up to 12g of additives and the A3 at 15g. The A 3 was stripped back even further with just Cointreau powder and sweetener added. There was no noticeable difference in catch reports with the increased levels other than it was apparent that all fish wanted it. In one week I had reports of a 14lbs tench, 16lbs Bream, 8lbs chub and a 3lbs 12oz roach. The catfish at Keith Moors’ lake went mad for it and eventually he had to stop using it so good was it at catching catfish.
My return to Boux in April 2009 was nothing short of incredible with 39 fish, more than half of these were over 35lbs with seven over 40llbs to 49-08. Half of the fish fell to a spice version with Pimento berries and Sting oil and 10g of both additives. This is on my base which hopefully will be cost effective but in the meantime will be used in conjunction with the Amber and known as “spiced amber”. At this point in time (May) everybody is catching on the bait and its ultimate destination is unknown but I have enough additive to get me through 2009 and I am looking forward to doing some serious damage with it on Lake Bled in Slovenia in July.

www.booksoncarp.co.uk

Idea becomes reality-2 years down the line

2009-04-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

The birth of a carp bait
Part 1 ; The idea
Any new carp bait should be at the very least different and in my opinion better than existing products on the market. Through magazine influence and the need to find an edge the situation that currently exists is one where the big bait companies have to bring out a new bait every year. This is because the angler demands it and the “new wonder bait” will almost certainly out sell the tried and trusted one. Of course new products do become available and there is always the new buzz ingredient of the year such as Belachan, Green lipped Mussel etc have been in past years.
It is actually quite scary when you find something yourself that is much better than everything out there. An addition to a bait that, when you give it out to people, everybody suddenly catches more than they were currently doing so before. By March 2009 this is exactly where I found myself but rather than being at a final destination this was just the beginning of the troubles. I could have quite happily just kept it to myself but when you consider the minimum order of the two compounds, I would have been looking at the most expensive bait of all time. Also to satisfy my own quest for knowledge I would have to ascertain the correct level of inclusions and under what circumstances the additives should be contained.
Throughout 2007 I had been tinkering around with a few ingredients in order to lower the pH of my baits. There was definitely a common theme with relation to acids and Carp’s preferences. The very word acid puts the fear of god into some people; an acid is simply a mineral with a pH of less than 7. My early acidic baits encountered quite a few problems such as soluble boiling away and the most successful edge was to wash the baits out/in with a solution of citric acid made from elderflowers. Despite the problems my catch results were on the increase which suggested to me that the concept was worth pursuing.
Through the winter of 2008 I was busy to say the least finishing Overseas Carp Adventure and starting the second book Carping Journeys, my thoughts rarely touched on the bait problem. One of the contributors of both books Keith Moors called me for a chat about his Moorland fisheries and the problems of fishing in the silt. It seemed it was very hard to catch the fish bubbling in the silt and if you did you would get one bleep and then the fish would sit there hooked up until the angler reeled in next. I had a few conversations with Keith and I thought that the fish were simply not finding an alkaline object, the bait, in an acidic environment, the silt. The next part of the jigsaw came together when out of the blue a scientist based in South America contacted me through my website, he had a book written and ready to go on the science of fishing and would I publish it!
There has been much speculation about carp leaping and clearing their gills and also rolling tight to the bottom etc. Now this guy had been studying carp in a test environment for years and explained in greater length than I can how carp will ingest silt of periods of up to three days at a time to condition their gut. By absorbing acid material they are better able to digest and process their foodstuffs. These fish at Keith’s were not looking for food in the silt they were eating the silt!Through this contact and an old non-carping friend I managed to source two products from Europe that sounded ideal for making not only an acidic bait but also one with an incredible vitamin/mineral content and a formula for healthy accelerated weight gain. Having sourced the products getting them was a different matter altogether and I had to sign no end of trade agreements and set up international bank funding just to get a sample of 200 grams.May of 2008 I set off to France armed with 25kg of boilies made from the additives on a very high quality base mix. I was a very busy boy and ended up coming home a day early as the fish were spawning and the fish were taking a while to revive. I was still catching even though they were spawning and I had banked no less than 61 fish with the majority over 30lbs and five over 40lbs up to 47-09. The most incredible week of action I have had in fifteen years of fishing in France, I even gave up on night fishing. I had to produce this bait but as I have already said I would have to buy the ingredients by 25kgs sacks, so the implications financially I could do without especially as I had two carp books to finance. I knew the bait was a winner though it was just a case of how much? Would it be an extra fish a session, a month, a year or would it be instant success in a bag for whoever used it?
http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk

"A" Baits currently available

2009-03-31T01:25:00.000-07:00

15mm White Amber with cointreau powder and 15gms per kilo of "A" mix additives.

20mm White Amber with Raspberry powder,Blackcurrant oil and 12gms of additive.

Coming soon
white amber Wafters and pop-ups (1 week)
White Amber Strawberry small barrels (10 days)

call Jay 01375 406553 to order
http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk/

The "A" Bait

2009-03-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

The "A" Bait is a mix of two additives, synergistic compounds. Having created my own bait for some 25 years I noticed that most of the foodstuffs carp find attractive have a low pH value. 5 years ago I started trying to create a purpose built Acidic nutritional bait. Many early teething problems included additives boiling away and the negative affects of eggs.

The combination we now have is the fine tuning and we have created a purpose built low pH bait. Currently all the field testing has been done on white Amber attract .first baits were tested with an inclusion rate of 10grams per kilo and these baits have caught from the off from many hard waters.

In the picture is a 39-01 common for Daryl Dunn from a notoriously difficult Essex venue. Darryl had not had a fish from the venue since August 25Th 2008 but caught first time out on the A bait without any pre-baiting.

I will be constantly tweaking the inclusion levels and the attractor profile to get it just right and some bait will be available for field testing from my website.

http://www.booksoncarp.co.uk/

The products are totally safe for Carp and have an incredible mineral and vitamin profile, they are scientifically produced under laboratory conditions to aid digestion and encourage healthy weight gain in Carp!