In reply to Post #49
Haha Kells here's another interesting fact. When the worldwide shortage of pharmaceutical grade liver happened due to foot and mouth disease and it's price went through the roof Ambio could no longer be produced. However at the same time Minamino and it's variants still continued in production, there was no shortage of supply and strangely no increase in price whatsoever. So here's a little food for thought for all of the anglers who believe Ambio was nothing more than Minamino dressed with a new name. Interesting eh'.

In reply to Post #43
Hi Duggs if you find your Driftwood has hardened due to its age not all is lost, using finger and thumb simply work a small amount of vegetable oil into it. Apply a small amount first then add a tiny bit more if required. It should revert back to its original consistency in no time at all and be perfectly OK.

In reply to Post #41
Hi Duggs thanks for sorting the knot link out for me it's an age thing lol. Re Heavy Metal I'm not in touch much with the new owners Ockert in Germany so haven't seen the latest version of it. What I do know is that the previous owner of Kryston (the less said about him the better) made a complete balls up of everything. All of the documentation Ockert needed to make the product somehow went missing. They had the machinery and the raw materials but not the know how. It took me over three years and many trials to perfect it.

I first bought it ready finished in pots from that wonderful angler Harry Haskell But even Harry did not have a clue how to perfect it. Harry had a friend who was some sort of industrial Chemist but importantly not an angler so for the first couple of years Heavy Metal was certainly heavy but not as user friendly as it could of been. We bought it in 30,000 lots because you couldn't make it in small batches. Eventually the mixing company they used went bump so that was the end of it unless we bought the suitable type of machinery, industry heavy duty mixers, extruders and the rest of the stuff to make it ourselves.

After months of trials I found the chemist friend of Harry's had miscalculated the recipe and was using far too much dye to make the green and brown versions which made the end result almost solid and not easy to soften without the aid of a lighter. So bit by bit I added to the original black putty small increments of dye which was four different colours to make the green and five different colours to make the brown. The end result often working till three in the morning was I only needed 10% of the dye to what the chemist suggested. This made the product easy to soften by hand and easy to shape but importantly far more stickier and harden once in water.

When Ockert first made Heavy Metal themselves it did not have the stretch that my version had and I pointed this out to them. It's not easy to make if you've never done it before. It appears because of lack of communication and the previous owners neglect they were using the wrong mix. The all important adhesive which we used for Bogey was the wrong grade giving it far less stretch and stickiness. The good news is I have spoken to them late last year and they tell me they are using the correct grade now so the latest batches of Heavy Metal should be a near example to what I made.

I'm still amazed that all the Far East copies of Heavy Metal that all the brand names seem to buy from still contain wax to make it stick to the line better, it's certainly not a small amount they use but here's the thing. Wax floats!!!...And if you want to make a heavy putty the last thing you need are buoyant materials in the bloody stuff. Heavy Metal contained 98% pure tungsten withoutany wax whatsoever. Hope this helps.

In reply to Post #38
Hi Andy struggling to get the link to the knot demo, if your on FB or messenger send me a friend request and I'll post it to you.

In reply to Post #38
Hi Andy its a knot I devised and you can make the perfect non slip loop as small as you like even down to 5mm. It's on U Tube somewhere, have a look on Dave Chilton Loop knot. It's the one they filmed at the 5 lakes meeting while you were there. I'll try to send you a link but struggle with these social media things being an old fart.Hope your doing OK fella keep safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoqPo5UwlwY

In reply to Post #35
When we launched Ambio one of its greatest advantages was when soaked in absorbent baits like fish meals the liquid leached out of the bait to remain on the bottom and slowly spread in the vicinity of the bait. At that time Minamino and many of the other soaks floated to the surface only to be driven by the wind well out of the location of the baited area. Judging by the results that followed there is no doubt that Ambio broke the mould at the time breaking numerous water records up and down the country. Ambio as a pure liquid food was totally unique. We were the first to tell the angler exactly what he was getting for his money by giving it's typical analysis on each and every bottle.

This pharmaceutical reference was a stone wall guarantee that every bottle contained each and every single ingredient but also their exact quantities and measurements...In other words it's guaranteed recipe. I remember getting a call from a Northern bait baron at the time saying we were crazy to give out such information. I then got an irate call from a very well known bait guru who was a prolific writer of books and articles, he was incensed and didn't believe the PPC ingredient existed. I sent him proof and heard no more. He was I believe miffed that such an authority such as himself should have known about it rather than some string maker on the other side of the Pennines. Lol. I published the TA because unlike many bait companies it wasn't made in house or bottled by ourselves but produced for us by a leading pharmaceutical company in tamper evident bottles straight off their production line. in other words we couldn't tamper with it or water it down.

When you buy medicine you will see lots of information and warnings in the supplied leaflet you will also find the products typical analysis. The TA can only be given by acknowledged pharmaceutical companies. Since my retirement I have published on many occasions it's formula on various social media sites and still amazed that that Ambio has never been replicated by the big boys. I can only conclude that it would be too expensive for them or is it that they cannot fiddle with it? Lol. . Ambio came to an end because of foot and mouth disease which ravaged the whole of Europe and many parts of the world. Pharmaceutical grade liver then only became available in Canada and Argentina and due to its scarcity and demand its price increased almost 100 fold. This would have meant that we would have had to increase the price way beyond what the average angler could afford so sadly as good and as groundbreaking the product was it had to come to an end. Yes we could have bought liver powder but which liver? Bovine liver is the key, poultry liver is readily available but miles behind bovine and king of the castle is pharmaceutical grade bovine in terms of its effectiveness.

Couple of things you didn't know about Ambio. We had to add a raspberry scent to it otherwise we wouldn't have sold a single bottle. One of its major ingredients was fresh spleen, fresh spleen was once described to me like the smell of opening a twelve week old grave! The stench apparently is horrendous, if you think Monster Crab would empty a house fresh spleen would vacate a bloody street. When I spoke to Bernie about Ambio he said he loved it as much as the carp did...He did do well on it especially the flash and also caught the big un from the small pool that was eighteen inches of water and eight foot of silt lol. Bernie's comments were ‘trouble Is the flies love it'!...When he was catapulting his soaked fish meals out he got covered in the backlash leaving him sprayed. The next thing was every fly in Cheshire descended on him leaving an image of some poor starving African child you see in the charity advertisements. Flies obviously love the fresh spleen even with added raspberry scent.

Now you know a bit more about Ambio...Good luck lads and keep safe until things get back to normal.

In reply to Post #25
Hi Ken sorry your wrong my old friend, PPC was simply one single ingredient contained in Ambio, some of the other all important ingredients were pharmaceutical grade liver, fresh spleen and gastric mucosa. PPC on its own is far removed from Ambio. Also Ambio bears little resemblance and is different as chalk and cheese to Minamino which is basically a syrup, to make a syrup you need sugar...lots of it which is why Minamino contained no less than 95% sugar! Ambio contained zero sugar. Hope you are keeping well and safe Ken.