In reply to Post #22
Months! From now….

In reply to Post #2
I still do it, I also do it in 500ml bottles and larger quantities on request.
One of my favourite products

Soon you will see a pineapple come out from us.
Can't rush these things!

£16.50 for 500ml of fresh Celmanax isn't terrible. Mine was £10.70 for 500ml and I made practically fack all.
This is one of those ingredients that you most definitely want to be fresh, avoid the cheap out of date stuff.

In reply to Post #188
Those kind of expenses are well out of budget unfortunately!

In reply to Post #187
Hi Mark.
It would be great to have you on to chat about bait etc.
Absolutely no worries if you don't fancy it though, I'm easy 👍

PS great to read that you're making up with people 👌

In reply to Post #182
I did email him asking him to remove my stuff from Substack as I didn't want to get dragged in to it, I think that's why he emailed you and said to leave me out of it.
At the time I thought you thought it was me as you sent the email to me! I now realise it was just because I was CC'd in to it.

Jeez, as I type this I am cringing. This is all so petty.
Come on fellas, we are all anglers and should be on the same team.

In reply to Post #180
Well I was really hoping I wouldn't get dragged in to all this, but here I am! Probably due to my own naivety.

I am all for free speech but I think it this conflict needs to either be forgotten about by everyone or talked out properly and put to bed. Either way it's not good for anyone for it to continue.

I think it's worth saying that Mark came to me and apologised before this all kicked off, and has seemed extremely sincere in doing so. He has shown me a few things since apologising to me that have genuinely opened my eyes to the hassle he has had over the years, a lot of it is quite unbelievable. I have to be honest, and I know Mark won't want me to say this, but I do feel sorry for him. That being said, he definitely has his moments and we all know he can fly off the handle unexpectedly 😂, and I'm sure he would agree with that.

In the interest of balance and transparency I will post my reply to email Mark shared with you below-

Good evening “A”.

I appreciate your concerns and what you're trying to do. I felt a similar way when I had the friction with Mark.
If I were to do a podcast I would ideally want it to be purely about Marks angling stories and maybe his ideas on bait if he's open to talking about them.
However, I am a big believer in free, non-edited speech. I imagine he wants to come on and get some things off of his chest. I am open to that too, as long as no specific names are mentioned as it's not fair if they aren't there to defend themselves.
If Mark does want to go down the route of talking about his conflicts then I think it's only right I take the role of mediator (for want of a better phrase) and try to balance things up with apposing views and playing devils advocate.
Maybe I'm naive, but maybe talking it through would help all party's see things in a better light and ease the tension.

In the interests of transparency and keeping in-line with my idea of having everything balanced and even I will send Mark a copy of this email. I have also sent him a copy of the initial email you sent me so he can see the concerns. I assume you're all ok with that as you've remained anonymous.

Thanks for reaching out,

Sam Barley
OptiBaits

In reply to Post #169
Thanks Mark. Fair play to you for putting your hands up and apologising, I certainly didn't expect you to come on here and do it publicly but it's decent of you and I really do appreciate it

In reply to Post #28
Thanks Kells.
Lots more to come in 2026