Mike’s Diary
Autumnal thoughts
Posted in Mike’s Diary on 20th November 2013It’s hard to believe December is just around the corner as I look out across the lake to see the trees still holding most of their leaves! What a long autumn it’s been. Great for anglers and a prolonged growing season for the fish!
I’ve been plugging away on my Glos no publicity water and it’s been an incredible season for me with 28 fish landed. To be fair I’ve been fishing it most weeks but they don’t come easy on there. Five of the fish have been thirties I’ve never caught before so that’s been the icing on the cake for me. By the end of October I’d managed 35 bites in 49 nights, which even if I say so myself, is an incredible achievement from such a difficult water. A combination of Black Snail & B5 has been doing the damage on there again, further proof that a good food bait will always p
Our seasonal release of our Arctic Freeze boilies has had an instant impact once again. Just like last winter a customer banked a forty on the ‘quick hit’ bait on his first session using it! Well done Matthew Wride. We’ve had so many customers relating stories of ‘quick hit’ captures on the AF in recent weeks, including a lovely shot from Kenny Emson (see below) with 2 fish in his landing net first time out on the Arctic. Every picture tells a story! I kicked off my winter campaign using the Arctic Freeze at Springwood, which hadn’t p
Talking of which, we are slowly working on a few bait videos to enhance this site further. The first one has just gone up on the Arctic Freeze p
Lastly, but certainly not least, Deb and myself celebrated 30-years of marriage last week. We started Essential Baits the following year in 1984 and built our family around it. Here we are nearly 30-years later looking back at where all the years have gone, but mostly looking forward to where we want to go next. But make no mistake, any company is only as strong as the people who support it, so with that in mind, I would like to say a very special thank you to all of our friends and customers for your tremendous support over the years. It’s been a long road, but without your support the journey would have ended a long time ago!
Cork ball advantages
Although we provide cork dust pop-ups, we also appreciate that some customers prefer cork ball pop-ups and I think that it's generally accepted that cork ball pop-ups are the best method for long term buoyancy. This can be particularly advantageous for many modern day rigs such as chod rigs and Hinged Stiff-rigs. These clever little packs allow anglers to create their own cork ball pop-ups with little effort. You can also regulate the amount of paste you use to make them more buoyant or turn them into slow sinkers.
Top tip
If you are having problems with diving birds or nuisance fish, you can combat this by 'meshing up'. The best method we have seen to do this is to cut a small section of tights (we recommend you get your missus's permission first!). Wrap the pop-up in the fine mesh, pull tight, tie off with floss, 'blob' the excess with a lighter and away you go.
