A few years ago I was in a local tackle shop with a friend he wondered off for a look round and I headed off to look at the hooks a while later he returned asking if I was ready my response was no I can’t find anything.
He stared at me and said we have been in this shop for nearly an hour and you can’t find a hook you like you are paranoid about your hooks and come to think of it you’re the same with bait!
I walked out of the shop empty handed and could not stop thinking about what he said. There’s no way I am paranoid but the more I thought about it the more I knew he was right but is it a bad thing?
To my way of thinking it’s not.
I have been fishing for well over thirty years and Carp fishing for over twenty and as I think back I have always been the same. I have found it very hard to change my hooks and bait.
I can remember nearly every hook I have fished with and it’s not a lot. There was Oshawnase, piggy backs, B800, B175, Owner, Fox series 5 and now I use the Korda wide gapes. I only started using these because the water I am fishing do not allow long shank hooks and I must admit I experimented with loads of hooks before I decided on the Korda. That’s not a lot of changes for over twenty years of fishing.
I know a lot of anglers who carry loads of different hooks that would just confuse and frustrate me. When I find a hook that doses every thing I need it to do I can’t see the point changing it. It is all down to confidence and I am convinced that confidence puts fish on bank.
I find that Korda hooks do blunt quite easy so I change them every fish and at the start of every trip it can be expensive but well worth it. I must admit I love to play about with rigs and presentation I know that sounds a bit of a contradiction but I do like playing with different hook link materials 99% of these never see the water I just end up taking them apart.
I use to fish with Frank Warwick now he could come up with some mind blowing rigs but I would always stick with the same hook and if the rig didn’t look right I wouldn’t use it.
It was Frank that got me really thinking about bait prior to this I would use particles, ready mades or paste. He use to produce several very good base mixes and I did a lot of experimenting. Hutchie was bringing out loads of flavours like monster crab, shell fish, autumn harvest ect it was mind blowing. I did like a few of his original flavours my favourite being chocolate malt.
When Franks shop closed I lost the base mix but by a stroke of luck I found out what was in it. With a few bits of my own added I and my fishing partner have used the same base mix ever since and caught a lot of big fish on it and also I have total confidence in the mix where ever we fish.
So for me to consider changing my bait to a ready made the new bait had to be a bit special.
I first got my hands on a bag of SBS Blood worm of a friend of mine Warren.
He was fishing on Acton when Dez gave him a couple of bags blood worm boili pellet he phoned me saying you will like this mate and when I pinched a bag of him he wasn’t wrong.
As soon as I smelt it I knew it was something special.
The smell reminded me of some of the older flavours I had used many years ago like shell fish and monster crab but this was mellower it seemed more refined not bitter.
When I broke the bait open you can tell the base mix is quality.
For the first time in years I got excited about a new bait I just knew it would catch.
The fist thing I did was dry some out for hook baits. These dried great they shrunk down and turned rock hard perfect.

My first trip out with them was my second trip of the season on Acton Burnell. I did ok at the start of the season on my bait catching two twenties and a thirty two.
On this trip I had decided to take none of my bait so I would not be tempted to use it. If I was going to give the blood worm a good go I did not want to be tempted to fish my own bait on one rod.
I decided to fish a swim called the African tree it offers plenty water. The swim has shallow water in front and to my right and slightly deeper water to my left.
I did not bait heavy due to me only having a kilo of bait. There was no way I was buying any they might not work. No matter how good they seemed the only real test is fishing with them.
I lightly baited four areas one to my right down to the shallows about forty yards out the second left of this about sixty yards out. Luckily the water is shallow so by using chest waders I could bait up quite tightly. My first rod was cast to the right hand area in the shallows.
My second rod was cast straight in front of me with a PVA bag about fifty yards out  this left me a good gap between my right and middle rod so I could bait up the area between the two without line going near my baited area.
I baited this spot for twenty four hours before I put a rod on it. My third rod was cast to the deeper water slightly to my left I used a single hook bait.

I watched the water for the rest of the day only seeing two fish and these were on the far side. I decided to re-bait for the night. I started to reel in my right rod when my left decided to give me a one toner. I dropped the right rod and hit the left. I use 2 3/4lb Infinity X rods they are quite powerful but this fish bent it double the fight went on and on I started to get a funny feeling I had been fighting the fish for nearly forty minutes when it dawned on me I had caught a fish from the same swim a year earlier and it had done the same as this one. It was tearing my arm of when the fish finally came over the net I knew it instantly.
The fish is called the Atwell Common I caught it last year at 41lb it’s a real warrior it took me over 45 minuets the first time I had caught it this time it weighed 39lb 12oz.
I had wanted to catch this fish for nearly ten years then I go and catch it twice from virtually the same spot.
That was my first fish on the lob worm and it came to a single hook bait good sign but it could have been a curiosity take but it was looking good.
I re-baited all three rods and put some more bait on my forth spot and settled down for the night.
Nothing happened through out the night and the next morning. I kept baiting up my forth spot and decided to move my right rod to it about three in the afternoon.
Within in ten minuets of casting in I was playing a very angry Carp. I forgot to mention that there was a fair bit of patchy weed and the fish found every bit but after a while I began to win and a stunning 36lb Mirror came over the net.
I was over the moon my little baiting plan had worked and I had caught two big thirties on the Lob Worm Awesome!!
I re-baited all three for the night and had an early tee.
That evening my fishing mate Dave Treasure Came round for a brew and to give me some abuse. He went back to his swim about nine and I fell asleep within in seconds.
I woke up about 5am to a stunning morning. I got my chair out and watched the lake come alive. It was one of those mornings that I could not stop drinking tea I was on my fifth cup when I got two beeps on my right rod which was on the baited spot. Dave came round and I put the kettle back on again we had just sat down when I got a bleep and noticed my right had rod tip starting to bend I hit it and it felt like I had hit a wall nothing moved. Dave helped me on with my waders and I walked down the bank a to try and put a different angle on it., Slowly something moved the line started to cut through the water there was nothing I could do to stop it. Finally it stopped behind a weed bed and stayed there nothing I did would move it. I slowly started to walk towards the fish I got a cold feeling down my leg and realised my waders were filing up.
I carried on walking when the fish came to the surface it was huge but the line was still in the weed.
My net was a good foot away from the fish I took a few more steps and finally got my net under it.
I managed to get the line free and turned to the bank only to see Dave grinning, “It’s a bigun then boy?”
I looked at him and smiled “it’s huge!”
I dragged myself and the fish back to the bank. We lifted it on the mat and removed the weed and the most stunning fish I have ever seen appeared. I was scale perfect and looked like solid gold. The fish sent the scale needle to 45lb 8oz a new PB Common.
Dave did the honours with the camera and we put the fish back asap. It slowly swam off Dave shuck my hand and told me to put the kettle on. I changed my cloths and did as I was told and tried chill out. Not a chance I was on a high a big high.
Dave went back to his swim after half a dozen brews and I started to do a slow pack up.
My mind was on what had happened as I drove home. I had landed three hard fighting big fish on Korda size 8 wide gaps and had no problems and the bait had worked and worked very well, deep in side me I knew it would. I always trust my instincts some time it works sometimes not but this time I knew it would.

BE GOOD
LOZ