We are proud and honoured to have so many of the World's major bait firms as customers and all the top names in the bait trade use at least one of our products (in fact it is usually half a dozen or more). Our flagship product, one that identifies us, is Robin Red - if Carlsberg did carp bait!
Now if you have read my previous blog on the subject you will know that due to new regulations covering the use of what can and cannot be used in our baits we have changed the recipe of not just Robin Red but also several other products in our line up that contained synthetic materials. These are not now permitted in animal feed (yes, fish are classed as animals) so we have changed over to a natural colouring food in our raw material bird food bait range.
You can read more about the new rules and regulations in my two-part blog:
Part 1: https://www.haiths.com/haiths-baits/a-new-robin-red-part-one/
Part 2: https://www.haiths.com/haiths-baits/the-new-robin-red-uk/eu-part-two/
The Trade has been very supportive, none more so than top bait company CC Moore. Ian Moore, head of CC Moore has been a strong advocate of the new rules governing the permitted foodstuffs that can be included in carp bait. This is what he has to say about our new 100% natural Robin Red UK/EU:
"The new 'Robin Red (UK/EU) delivers a more subtle, natural colouration to baits and, combined with the same potent natural attractors that Robin Red has always contained, is now even more naturally attractive than ever before. This means that you may notice some of our Pacific Tuna products, and our popular Liquid Robin Red 'liquid food', becoming slightly less 'blood red' in colour and a little more natural 'rusty red-brown' instead.
"Due to its legendary reputation, fish attraction properties and product consistency we have used Haith's Robin Red in a number of our core baits for many years. From speaking to customers worldwide and from our product trials and years of personal angling experience, we know this not only adds credibility to each bait but that it also adds significant angling-related performance benefits for our customers.
"Like many of our customers, we feel that our recent change to Robin Red (UK/EU) where the synthetic dye has been replaced with a natural colouring agent, was a very positive step that has undoubtedly had a positive impact on our finished products that contain it. We now use Robin Red (UK/EU) exclusively and would never swap back to using the former product since experiencing the improvements the Robin Red (UK/EU) has made to our baits".
This is a ringing endorsement of our new Robin Red UK/EU from Ian Moore, a Director of top bait firm CC Moore & Co Ltd. The Pacific Tuna is one of the bait ranges from CCM that feature the new Robin Red (UK/EU).
These tiny 2mm Pacific Tuna Pellets are superb and - while they are highly attractive in their own right - you can boost them with a liquid attractor of your own choice too. These are two highly effective liquids that you can use to glug the pellets.
I like to create small areas of attraction using glugged pellets, which are then enclosed in PVA stocking mesh.
Here I have applied a generous dose of Pacific Tuna Liquid Additive to a kilo of the 2mm Pellets.
Don't they look appetising! OK, maybe they don't ring your chimes, but they would if you were a carp!
Next, I make up a small PVA stocking mesh parcel of soaked pellets (NB: the Liquid Additive is PVA-friendly). The parcel can now be attached to the hook before casting out thus drawing attention to your hookbait. Alternatively, you could make up a dozen or more such parcels, which you can then fire out using your catapult. The result will be several small areas of high attraction dotted about the lakebed. These will keep the carp grubbing about looking for more food…hopefully your hookbait.
There is a 6mm pellet available in the range and these too are ideal if you want to spread attraction more widely over the greater area.
Here I have added 20ml of the Ultimate E-Liquid to a kilo of 6mm Pacific Tuna Pellets.
I like to leave the pellets for a few days to allow the liquids to penetrate fully so I return them to their bags and mark the contents accordingly. Note to all bait manufacturers…Please make sure you put a use-by date on the packet.
For fans of ‘shelfies’ you will be pleased to know that there is a shelf life version of the Pacific Tuna. It is highly digestible and its open texture allows the attraction to flood out. It is rich in our new 100% natural Robin Red UK/EU and includes tuna, shellfish and vegetable extracts. The shelf life version contains the same ingredients as the freezer equivalent and is available in sizes 15mm and 18mm. Incidentally, I have found it makes a fabulous boilie crumb.
This is the Pacific Tuna Bag Mix, designed either for free-baiting or introduced as a Stick in PVA mesh.
This combination of Bag Mix and Pacific Tuna crumb is great for the cold-water temperatures we will be getting once into the new year.
Make up a short hooklink using supple braid and bait a longish hair with double Pacific Tuna boilies (15mm).
Now using a stringer needle thread the Stick lengthways onto your hooklink so that the hookbaits are flush with the bottom edge of the Stick.
Now I am going to use the Pacific Tuna Base Mix along with a few specially selected attractors to make some boilies, but my method may be familiar to many of you. If you have read my blogs here, you will know that I often create my bait differently to the accepted norm. Here are several reasons why I turn to alternatives to the traditional round boiled bait:
1) I am convinced that carp on some of the harder fished lakes are becoming suspicious of round baits. Regardless of how good they look, smell or taste, they have one thing in common: They are round…uh-uh! thinks Mr Carp.
2) Many of my alternative methods offer the advantage of having two or more sides open to water ingress. Water seeps in; attraction seeps out.
3) I seldom fish big waters these days so don't need my freebies to fly for miles out of a throwing stick. Nine times out of ten I bait up using a catapult, by hand, from a boat, or in the margins, or by bait boat, so my need for round baits is greatly diminished.
So far in my blogs, I have shown you paste baits, jelly baits, boilie crumb, boilie soup, boilie morsels, boilie
chops and boiled sausages. Now let me introduce you to… BOILIE PANCAKES…Da-Da! But first I'll run through the attractors I'll be using.
1g Citric acid. This is known to be a distinct investigation trigger.
1ml Carboxylic Acid (in the brown dropper bottle) backs up this trigger and can trigger an active feeding response.
5g Green Lipped Mussel Concentrate (the light brown powder). Widely recognised as a superb bait ingredient.
3g Stevia-Butterscotch Sweetener…carp like sweet baits!
1ml John Baker Plum flavour. Doesn't sound like much of an inclusion rate but it is a powerful attractor so 1ml is ample.
40ml Ultimate E. This attractor is about as near irresistible as it gets!
First, add 40ml of Ultimate E to the eggs.
Whisk the eggs and the E together lightly with a fork and then add the Green Lipped Mussel Concentrate.
Now add the citric acid, just a pinch is ample.
Now it's time to add the Caproic Acid. 20 drops = 1ml…
…followed by 1ml of the Plum Flavour. A small syringe is handy for small amounts, but a rubber bulb dropper bottle will do just as well. You can usually obtain these at a chemist shop.
Finally, bring everything together using a hand whisk.
Add the dry Pacific Tuna Base Mix to the eggs and attractors in your bowl…
…and blend with your fork to form a fairly wet paste. You will find that it stiffens up after a 30-minute rest.
If the paste is too sticky add some Good Hemp Oil. This will make it a lot easier to work with.
Roll the paste into a fat sausage and then divide it into two, three or even four equal portions.
Using the palm of your hand pat the paste against a hard work surface so they are roughly flat.
Use a rolling pin - not one of the other half's favourites - to roll the paste into equal-sized pancakes. I am using an empty wine bottle as a rolling pin.
Use a rolling pin - not one of the other half's favourites - to roll the paste into equal-sized pancakes. I am using an empty wine bottle as a rolling pin.
Flatten all the portions into equally sized pancakes.
Fill a wide shallow pan (known as a cook's pan) with boiling water and then put all the pancakes in at one. (You can cook then individually if you wish.) Boil them hard for three to four minutes. The longer you boil them the harder the texture.
Once they are cooked take them out of the pan with a fish slice or similar flat kitchen implement.
Place the cooked pancakes on a clean dry towel to cool.
After 24 hours on the towel, the pancakes will have cooled completely, and they are now ready to be processed into boiled baits.
Cut away the edges of the pancakes to leave a square pancake.
Dice the cakes with a sharp heavy kitchen knife such as a cleaver.
You can cut the cake to whatever size you wish, large chunks or tiny chips. I aim to get 200-220 individual baits out of a 4-egg mix.
The baits should be air-dried for at least 24 hours to harden them up ready for glugging. Remember, you want to aim to remove as much moisture from the baits as possible before glugging to achieve maximum penetration of the glug. You can air-dry the baits on an open tray as shown here, or in an air-dry cage or bag.
I prefer to air dry my baits in a cardboard box. I find this method draws moisture out faster and more effectively. I air dry them for at least three weeks, longer if possible.
When the baits are properly dry tip them into a bowl or a bucket ready to receive the final part of the possess, the glugging. The dedicated Pacific Tuna Bait Booster is ideal to use as a glug with Pacific Tuna bait chunks, not least because it contains fish and vegetable proteins as well as glucose, a sweet natural additive that has a preserving effect on the baits once they have been thoroughly dried out. It is also highly soluble in freshwater so as soon as the baits hit the bottom, they start to release their tantalising attraction.
I would suggest about 100ml of Bait Booster per mix. Pour it directly onto the bait chunks and the agitate the bowl or bucket to ensure each bait received a good coating of the Booster. Though the bait can be used more or less straight away following the boil/cool/chop stage, I always think it better to allow them to air-dry. The glug is an optional extra, if you like, a tweak to boost an already high-powered bait. I also think that any boiled bait with an HNV profile benefits from being frozen, even if it is only for a short while. The baits will, therefore, be popped into the freezer until I want to use them.
Included in the range are several alternative hookbaits such as these heavily glugged 10mm Pacific Tuna barrels.
While for those of you that like white baits CC Moore offers this very buoyant pop-up flavoured with all the Pacific Tuna goodies.
The good old Ronnie Rig is ideally matched to these very effective alternative hookbaits.
Also, there are Wafters and Pop-ups in the same natural colour as the base mix.
Trophy shot. A magnificent gnarly old forty-pound common caught on Pacific Tuna by CC Moore's Head of UK and European Marketing/Media.
We would like to thank CC Moore for their loyal support, and we look forward to many more years supplying them and the rest of the trade with our premium grade bait ingredients.
Written by Ken Townley
"Casting Tranquility: The Art and Joy of Carp Fishing"
