I've bought freezer baits for year's (mainline). Recently I've had sticky frozen and shelf Life.
To be fair I've not noticed any advantages on either.

Are the ingredients today safer/better than 20 odd years ago when you'd scoff at shelf life?

I know the purist's and masterbaiters won't touch ready mades, however I've caught and blanked with no significant differences with freezer or shelf life boilies

Cheers Mike

In reply to Post #1
These days shelf life are very good , I have not noticed any difference either.

In reply to Post #1
You mention Mainline and I think it is worth noting that their most successful baits are only available as freezer baits. This suggests to me that they cannot replicate these baits as shelflife...which should make us think.

Other companies sell baits in both versions, shelflife and freezer. Now it might be my suspicious nature with the bait and tackle industry but I suspect that both versions are probably identical, ie all shelflife but some badged as freezer. Just think of the saving only having to make one recipe and not having to store the baits in a freezer until the point of sale to the public, ie the tackle shop.

Off course I might be completely wrong on this.

In reply to Post #3
I've had this " conspiracy theory" a while too

I think there's a world of difference between a short shelf life and a full on preserved s51tter biscuit. I had some shelf life baits from a major manufacturer in a bucket for five years that I'd completely forgotten about. They still looked exactly the same as when I put them in there. I'd never use shelf life baits out of choice.

I think the difference nowadays is negligible to be quite frank, shelf life's of the modern ilk are nothing like they used to be, that also seemed to be the concensus on here when the topic came up a while back. I was talking to, maybe Jason at DNA, or was it someone else, in any case whoever it was said to see modern shelf life's as short shelf.

Personally I'd use either, but being of a certain age if I was fishing for a hard target fish the shelf v frozen would pop up in my mind, probably my own insecurity based on past opinions of shelf being less desirable, and then I'd forget about it

In reply to Post #3
Mainline do Cell in shelflife,is that not their most successful bait

In reply to Post #3
Which of their best sellers haven't they released as a shelf life?

In reply to Post #7
You are correct they do now but I doubt it's anywhere near as good as the freezer bait. The original cell and active8 were once both active baits, no idea if the current versions are. You cannot have an active shelflife bait so the shelflife versions have to be different.

In reply to Post #9
A good bait in both forms is still a good bait
As a man who only ever used freezer bait in the past I would never think to buy a shelf life.
But over the years I have had to use our shelf life's when I'm fishing the far side of Europe and beyond and it's opened my eyes to how good they can be.
I have seen some good anglers swap to shelf life in recent years and none of them have seen a demise in results.
But........why oh why can't anglers just make a tiny bit more effort, make a bit more room
In the freezer and remove any doubts and use freezer baits? I think that technically a freezer bait works faster, is softer, retains moisture. It will let bacteria grow and it will turn quickly if you have nice things in the basemix and use eggs. It's no surprise some of the best baits out there turn white very quickly! The amount of people that ring me up happy when the bait starts turning after 3 days is a sign that many people have forgotten about proper fresh bait!
So for the U.K. I'd say fresh bait. For travels beyond and if your lifestyle doesn't allow it then use a good shelf life!

I can only get chelf life baits here & I won't use them apart from occasional hookbaits.

While shelf life baits have the same nutritional makeup, adding a preservative is detrimental IMO.

this is because the preservative is added to stop bacteria growing on / in the bait & even though it stops the baits going off, it may not be as good for the fish.

there are a hell of a lot of scientific papers published that state bacteria included in their feed is highly beneficial to them with increased immunity, better gut health, improved growth rates & lower oxidation effects than feeds without it included...

In reply to Post #9
Mainline cell is an active bait , really.? What makes it active.?

In reply to Post #1
Shelf-life baits are all I use these days, if using a decent firm they are completely different to the baits 30+ years ago.

The ones I've used from a number of firms have been soft & also turn if a small amount of water is added and warm.

Being able to watch the fish ripping up the bottom over & over is enough for me to be confident & results have been good.

I don't use loads and I understand it's a leap of faith for many including myself but I've been pleasantly surprised.

In reply to Post #12

Depends how far you want to take it - i'd say the minimum requirement for the label 'active' would, to be water soluble then that takes you down many paths

In reply to Post #14
Surely active means there is some sort of reaction going on , like the use of enzymes.?