In reply to Post #14
What he said

In reply to Post #15
Agreed. The amount of time I have had 3 rods on a spot and only 1 go repeatedly is immense. Even 2 foot is a big difference in a pick up or not.

The only true test would have been for the OP to try his mates bait on 1 rod and that start to produce more than his other...

As other have said it's likely it was the spot. One crap boilie on the right spot is better than the best boilie on the wrong spot and a matter of inches can make all the difference. I bet if you'd swapped baits your results would have been the same

In reply to Post #17
My friend was fishing in numerous different spots throughout the day. I find it quite hard to believe having a good knowledge of that water that someone else baited up in exactly the same spots where he dropped various rigs. One or two spots maybe but not 6 or 7.

Also there is a very big head of fish in that lake, I can remember seeing the water in spawn a few years back and being quite surprised by it. I am entirely confident that had I fished the same bait as my friend from the start of that session my catch rate would have improved from the 1:3.

I agree there are always numerous variables at play, this is usually the case. But it was so obvious on that occasion what the material difference was (.i.e the bait) that it was as plain as the nose on the end of your face.

However, I'm certainly of the view now that Caperlan Scopex at £3.49/kg is a very effective bait indeed

I stopped caring much about bait when I realised people were catching loads of fish on random bits of foam, which is about as logical as trying to enter a dead dog into Cruffs. I'd imagine these Decathlon boilies are theoretically much better bait than some of the stuff I've caught carp on, even if they are just soya flour and lint from a tumble dryer.

In reply to Post #20
People are catching carp all over europe on decathlon boilies... Must be a lot of lucky anglers out there to chuck it to perfect spots.

In reply to Post #1
Why did you think they would not be effective?

In reply to Post #22
I did think they'd work, what I didn't envisage was that they would outperform what I was using 3 times over.

It's all subjective and variable..bait is only a small part of carp fishing,I'm talking boilies here..

I gave all my bait making kit to junior,previously I made my own for years and years..and did nicely,one day I bought a bag of this so called super rubbish ,crapo bait ,plum flavour made by Ocean fresh,...'you won't catch on that mate'..I was told

Six months later,every fish in the lake I was aware of came to this crap bait,,so that made me change my mindset ,a lot,whilst a couple of others were on the going baits at the time..and struggling like hell.

My mate used decathlon white chocolate and Tbf he catches well everywhere on it

In reply to Post #25
Decathlon probably get it by the artic load, none of this faffing around with a pallet load

In reply to Post #26
Lets face it, if they were crap and didn't catch fish, no-one would buy them again and they would stop selling them. Not a great business model however cheap they are.

In reply to Post #27
I read the reviews on the Decathlon website, most are European but are giving it 4 out 5 or even 5 out of 5.

I have ordered a 10kg bag for £34.99.

Hopefully out over the Bank Holiday so if it arrives in time I might take it to a difficult water and put it on one rod.

In reply to Post #28
Also, if you think of Marco's economy of scale.........

In reply to Post #29
Their monster crab and strawberry doesn't look bad either.

I'm committed this year bait wise, but if a bit of experimenting goes well this year then next year it will be cheap and cheerful