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If you could only use one bait

Alex Gowney

Alex Gowney

Senior Member & Supporter
It seems barbel baits have evolved much as carp baits did over the past 15 years or so, with pellets, especially Elips, proving to be phenomenal baits. But many times I have resorted to meat and it's proven it's worth time and time again. It got me thinking what bait I would choose if I were only allowed to use one sort ever again for barbel. My initial choice was Activ8 but as the original recipe is no longer available I would have to say meat. It can be coloured, flavoured, shaped how you want, fished static or moving, and best of all barbel love it!

What about the rest of you, what bait would you choose if you only had one choice?
 
If the original Baitcraft T1 was still available, then that, without the slightest hesitation. But it's not, so the ever faithful garlic Spam is top of my list.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Garlic Spam or any garlic meat when my stocks finally run out.
 
I'll stick with Bullock's Pith:)
Seriously?...probably pellets, if you can count the mash and all the wraps and pastes you can make from it. Meat second.
 
Bob Gill said:
Juicy lobworms.
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A great bait Bob but availability is the problem. Also, every thing that swims loves them! I've had a few barbel on lobs, my first Thames barbel fell to double lobworm fishing at Tadpole Bridge. I also caught a small barbel on free lined trundled lobworm while fishing for trout on the Windrush.
 
Hi Alex - yes, I agree that not the most specific bait but have really done well over the years. In fact, didn't take anything else with me for 4 to 5 seasons.
Availability - I keep - well used to - two wormeries so not really a problem and if that fails I buy them from one of the few worm importers.
Garlic spam - got very many tins of the stuff and didn't use it that much.
Cheers
Bob
 
Alex Gowney said:
Not heard of Baitcraft T1 Dave, what was that?
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Hi Alex, the T1 was the first (and probably most popular) of a small range of boilies produced by a very small company (Baitcraft), based in Harefield. The guy that ran it, Mark McKenna, was not renowned for his 'friend winning' personality, but his knowledge of bait and bait making was phenomenal.

The T1 became a huge success locally, and nationally to some extent. Unfortunately, whether because of his less than friendly character, or, as rumour has it, the fact that his top ingredient became unavailable, he was unable to continue, and ceased trading a number of months back.

A great shame, because the T1 really was a superb bait. A new company (BaitBug) are now marketing what they claim is the same bait, made to the original mix, with McKenna as a 'consultant' :rolleyes:. Again, as rumour has it (on carp forums) there were some very sad offerings sent out by Mark to loyal customers who ordered T1 during the death throws of his company, so apparently it will be a very long time before anyone involved in that farce will buy anything carrying his name. We shall see.

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Hi Alex, the T1 was the first (and probably most popular) of a small range of boilies produced by a very small company (Baitcraft), based in Harefield. The guy that ran it, Mark McKenna, was not renowned for his 'friend winning' personality, but his knowledge of bait and bait making was phenomenal.

The T1 became a huge success locally, and nationally to some extent. Unfortunately, whether because of his less than friendly character, or, as rumour has it, the fact that his top ingredient became unavailable, he was unable to continue, and ceased trading a number of months back.

A great shame, because the T1 really was a superb bait. A new company (BaitBug) are now marketing what they claim is the same bait, with McKenna as a 'consultant' :rolleyes:. Rumour has it (on carp forums) that considering the very sad offerings Mark sent out to customers who ordered T1 during the death throws of his company, it will be a long time before anyone involved in that farce will buy anything carrying his name. We shall see.

Cheers, Dave.
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Thanks Dave. Interesting how often a certain ingredient suddenly becomes unavailable. It happened with Activ8 (original) but I have no idea what the missing piece of the jigsaw is or why it's suddenly become unavailable. It' hard to think of an ingredient becoming extinct!
 
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