In reply to Post #35
There have already been big moves by the EU for labelling of all animal food ingredients and best before dating. I would imagine putting glass in bait will be banned very quickly and people will start being put out of business by heavy fines sooner than you know it (and good riddance)

Sounds like an absolutely dreadful idea and typical of an industry that has a very shady and gimicky side to it

What the hell is wrong with pop up mix, cork dust, cork balls and microwaved's??

Polyballs are horrible things too but not in the same league as glass

Stop covering your pop ups in glug if you want them to stay really bouyant, and keep them lovely and dry by putting a load of cheap table salt in the tub to soak up all the moisture, simples

Anyway I don't know why more people don't just stick two pop ups on if they want a really bouyant bait. Carp are not afraid of big double baits

In reply to Post #26
Don't worry about France too much, I spent a whole summer there bailiffing and brought very little with me apart from a basic setup and bedchair carried on the train.

The venue will have everything you need and if they are a decent place you will have a great time. Just relax.

One thing I noticed being just a few of us lads working there was that we loved the punters who were friendly and up for a bit of banter and a few beers with us

Don't take the fishing too seriously and make a point of 'going in' to HQ and getting drunk with the staff

It's good for morale and makes everybody feel at home and we got quite bored sat together while everybody was out there doing the hard hours fishing.

Don't worry about language barriers, if you need anti mozzy gear etc. they have all that in the villages. Just say Bonjour, smile, and ask in plain English what you want. You don't need to be shy of the locals, they love the business and I found them all really friendly. I can speak a little bit of French and that helped me get a bit more in and friendly with them of course but they really don't care. Don't be shy and don't ever feel isolated. Just march into the shops and into the bars. They know who you are, remember, they have seen hundreds of Pecheurs Anglais from the lake before you!

And somebody else mentioned it and it is a brilliant idea, not just for holiday fishing but for your own domestic fishing too:

I started a ''fishing list'' on my computer as I am scatty and have a times been in a terrible state on the bank stranded miles from home with no phone, no alarms, no wallet, no reels, all sorts

The fishing list becomes a real living, breathing thing, and really organises your head

The thing I noticed was it got me to really visualise a session happening and loads of good little idea sprang from it, just neat little tweaks of all sorts of things

We might as well be happy and sorted on the bank and make damn sure we have everything sorted and can just relax and focus on the job in hand

Let's face it life is too short and stressful without having our wonderful passion also ruined by stupid mistakes that ruin our fishing before we have even started

I don't really do cheap bait any more. Never liked or rated particles much, hate the stink and mess basically, and gone right off pellets. Pellets can at times be deadly, especially in the later months before the freeze up, but are too inconsistent for me and I feel that on some waters they are just done to death and blown a bit. They aren't very nice for fish either, far too fatty.
There are some great low oil pellets about though, headed of course by Sticky Baits lovely award winning ones..

I have a bit of a special mix of one or two fine delicacy type foods that are very unusual in carp circles and I put them in a mix with one or two twists that I have developed over the years with two different crumbed premium fresh frozen boilies from two completely different bait companies (which is something I very rarely hear of people doing).. both are unusual boilies, and both are new on the scene, one is very new.. they seem to work magic together and switch the carp on.

I don't use any potions, mainly because I'm on a budget but I found that glugs can often work against you. I prefer to mix up my own ''glug'' of sorts using hemp juice and one or two things from the kitchen cupboard

I made sure I told the bailiff what I was using without telling him my whole mix as he doesn't need to know the other stuff what with it being the usual acceptable frozen boilies etc. and asked him to keep it quiet and if the stuff was acceptable. I got the green light from them. I told him that as it was so dear I hardly use much.

I've baited very light for some years now and found I like the softly softly approach anyway.

I think that with the rising costs of fishmeals and overfishing of krill etc. in the news recently we all need to be aware of these things and take our bait a bit under our own wing as it were.. I mean use your imagination, be different, and experiment with making up some mixes not always going down the premium expensive fishy readymade route.

Most of the top companies provide very simple 50/50 type base mixes and suggestions and they are of course a brilliant starting point, they are often very happy to help people interested in their gear, just ring them up, appreciate that they are busy, be polite and ask them for a quick simple mix. They have all sorts of nice ideas of their own personal use and you would be amazed what neat little edges you can gain, tweaking a bit of this with a bit of that, off the radar little tips. Don't forget these people work with bait day in day out and are all experts. I particularly like emailing Gary Bayes, he is so down to Earth and friendly and helpful, a real mine of knowledge.
The trick is don't be tempted to go on at these people too much and be cheeky as they are very busy trying to help masses of people just like you

Get imaginative and be different with boilies is my advice, like I said cheap baits like particles and pellets are not the way forward in my opinion. If you are on a budget, continue buying the top gear but just use less of it.