So here we go for the last time of 2018 ...... The End of Month / Year Review and the whole thing is in one place
2018 was on paper a fantastic year, the baits continued to serve all those who used them, bringing about NEW PB's and memorable sessions for all manor of reasons.
We had plenty of new users join us and they to made an impressive start on waters that haven't done them a lot of favours on other baits in the past, but is often the case something just clicks and all the bits fall into place and the fish start to be a little more of a familiar sight in the net.
In January we were under way despite -0 plus temperatures across the country, which became progressively worse as the days and weeks went by. But even that never stopped more fish being caught than the previous year. #MilkOne and #SpicedNut ran the gauntlet, with a fair number of fish going to both baits or a combination of the two.
6 twenty's to 22.5 and a highlight pb 35lb Mirror which fell to Richard Hammond on the already mentioned #SpicedNut
February saw “The Beast from the East” drop the temps right down and bring snow to most of the country, but if lids weren't on lakes and people could get out they did. February was once again dominated by #MilkOne and #SpicedNut, with the exception of some #Stench #PopUps used by Consultant Chris Claire, who was back in France hacking his way through the iced up lake just to get a rod in the water. Around 11+ fish, all in the 20+ bracket fell to Chris up to 29.14.
March also kept on producing the goods for many Mark and Gary Blackwell had two very prolific sessions a few weeks apart, the first producing 15 fish on #Squilberry and #Stench and another 11 during a second session. A lake record Bream fell to Chris Clare at 14lb.4oz and this month saw the first mention of the NEW “TestBait” ,as it was then, which of course we now know as #Beast. It was the first of many from Consultant Matthew Roberts. We also saw the emergence of our #BaitOils and #Liquids, #Pellet and powdered #BaitAdditive.
April was a full on onslaught of fish catching in comparison to the previous year, 94 in 2017, 174 in 2018. It was also a huge leap from the 54 in the month before, the fish were on it big time. The main taker #SpicedNut was killing it out there for us, the months catch report included 35 twenty's to 29.10 and 3 of those were PB's of 27.10, 21.8 and 22.4. There were also 6 thirty's to 36.4 and one of the 6 was a PB going 30.4 which fell to team member Luke Roberts on #Beast,also two of the 6 came from France at 36.4 and 34.8 long with two forty's from the same session that weighed in at 41, and 46.12. #Beast made it's presence felt with no less than 26 captures which included Luke's.
May was yet another triumph for #BigFishBaits users, #TeamMembers and #Consultants, with no less than 169 fish caught, against last years total of a mere 48 in 2017 over the same time period.
108 captures going to our bait user friends and 61 to Team Members.
May was another great month for PB's, one from Team Member Cliff Fiske with a Mirror at 33lb.8, Steve Cooper hit a 31 Mirror from Coston and back with the Team Members, Michael Peake had his long awaited 35lb Common. Consultant Chris Clare also had a 33 Mirror . We also had 12 French 30's from 30lbs to 39.8 thanks to Mark and Gary Blackwell again. #Beast had it's biggest capture so far for the year from Lee Moore with a Common going 31.8, that would be broken four months later.
#MilkOne and #SpicedNut were yet again the front runners for May, but a good few fish were also falling to #Squilberry and #Stench and all the associated add on's you can use with the bottom baits, like the #Wafters, #PopUps, #CSL, #LiquidLiver, #Krill as well as the #AdditivePowders, #Milk+ and #GLM.
June arrived and now “The Beast from the East” was truly a distant memory. Long warm lazy days didn't slow the fishing down a all, numbers wise it was almost the same as May +1. 170 were logged for this month and out of those 170 fish there have been 128 caught between our lowest set weight which we put at 7lbs to our highest at 19, which includes fish up to 19lb 15oz's. Now we jump to the 20 to 29lb bracket and there have been 34 fish caught up to 29.7 and this also included another PB this month of 23lbs for Todd Pitcher, which fell to Stench.
June also saw another 6 30's grace the mat to 39lbs. One of the 6 was a Cat and 3 came from France. There were 2 40's, once again 1 being a Cat at 45lbs and a French capture at 40lbs 8 for Matt Wood. And lastly two more Cat's going 50 and 52 for Paul Curtis on a mix of #SpicedNut and #Stench with the addition of some #LiquidLiver.
July saw the catch rate increasing against figures from last year, although down a little from the month before, but as always it was a step the right catching direction and we weren't catching any less. We were now also #MatchingTheHatch with our #CorkDust pop ups and #Wafters. Paul Pardon put these to the test and nailed no less than 17 fish on the #MilkOne and #SpicedNut versions with an added boost from the matching #Glug.
Also doing rather well over the pond in France was Gary Mackney with a 17 fish session, which included 7 20's, 7 30's a 40.2 and a couple doubles, 14 and 19, all on a mix of SpicedNut and Stench.
The #CorkDust #PopUps have accounted for 31 captures, either as a pop-up or as a surface bait, thanks to it's buoyancy and its attraction property's. It's also been used with our #BaitOils to cause an extra slick of attraction while surface fishing.
A #Stench and #SpicedNut combo has also accounted for 31 captures, a favourable combo this month without doubt.
The #TestBait made 30 Captures, 16 alongside #Stench, 5 with a #MilkOneand #SpicedNut Mix and 9 fished on it's own.
August and four more Pb's made there way into the catch reports. One 20 going 29.8 a Ghosty for Charlie Blake, Two 30's which went 31lb for Jay Harris and a Mirror coming in at 37.10 for Team Member Chris Clare, which I think was caught of the top with a match the hatch pop up if memory serves. There was also the biggest fish a U.K caught Carp, the biggest for us so far, a whopping 46.2 on the SpicedNut for April Chiverton. Notable catches were also made by Team Member Billy Fisher who had a great run of some 17 Carp using some of our Liquids and #Oils and #Beast. Team Member Cliff Fiske also racked up a nice tally of fish when making the most of the warm weather, Dog Biscuits coated in our #Liquid Krill was the order of the day. 18 fish fell to Carl Wigglesworth, a fantastic session using #Stench and matching pop-ups. All told those and all the other fish caught clocked up a rather impressive 157 against last years total of 119.
September was a month of overseas captures and with 2 months to go we has already beaten last years figure of 776 fish caught in 2017. That total from 2017 was 1,039, we took off the overseas captures to give us the (U.K captures of 776) as we wanted to see what our baits would do the following year.
We had 40 fish from Mid to high Doubles the biggest going 19.12 which featured in Joe Turell's report.
39 - 20's / 17 caught in France the biggest was from Carl Hales report which went 29
The other 22 were U.K captures the biggest here was caught by Stephen Pratt a Mirror at 29 also.
Into the 30's now and there were 11 30's caught in September with 9 coming from France again, the biggest again from Carl Hales at 38.
We had 2 U.K. 30's a 30.2 for Jason Bennett and one I'm sure you all read about Lee Moore's NEW UK PB Mirror at 36.9.
2 more 40's bang on the nose from Carl Hales again
1-50 from France care of Lewis Mower which went 54 and finally for the weights section Joe Turell's 60.2 Mirror also from overseas and our biggest Carp this year.
Now that little lot should add up to 95 captures for September, which coincidently was the same amount caught this time last year in 2017. We also had 4 PB's from Team Member Stuart Petty 26.2, Russell Clark's 24, Russell Humphrey's 26. And here is a final mention for Nathan Bull who took on the mighty Lake Bled and came away with 2 fish from this huge piece of water. They went 24lb and 40lb.8 a great achievement.
October - With temps going down the catches were still on the up 122 for October and still up on last year to.
There were 76 fish in our Low to 19lb range to 19.11
41 fish in the 20+ range to 29.4 including 2 new PB's which were 23.10 for Lian Green and23.6 for Ryan Grey.
And finally 4 30's to 31 which was also a new PB for Carl Hales, making 3 new PB's broken this month, 24 for the year so far.
And the baits that performed so well were #Beast with 22 on it's own with a further 9 with #SpicedNut and another 9 with #SpicedNut and #MilkOne.
18 went to #SpicedNut fished on it's own with 6 used with #Stench, 5 with #MilkOne
#MilkOne caught well again with 11, 13 more with the #Squilberry
The remaining 29 captures anglers used #Squilberry and a mix of all 4 baits.
November was already upon us, the year had seemed to fly by. 76 fish caught for this month, but again we were still catching more than the some 30+ fish from the previous year. By this time on our catch reports we had logged 846 low to 19lb fish caught by Team Members and our bait users, last year that number was 499. So as you can see by that figure alone more fish were coming out overall through the year.
49 fish from low double to 19lb's
23 fish from 20 to 29lb's
3 fish in the 30lb bracket, from France at 30 caught by Richard Floate and 38 from Consultant Matthew Roberts and finally a 38.8 from Kevin Dent
And lets not forget 1 fish coming in at 53.8 also caught by Kevin Dent during the same session.
The use of bait varied yet again, it always does but front runners in the usage stakes were #MilkOne and of course #SpicedNut.
#Beast is still holding good form with 12 captures this month.
#Squilberry had 6 captures with a further 10 coming when paired with #SpicedNut and not far behind with 11 was #Stench with 7 and 4 more paired with #MilkOne.
December in the grand scheme may have not been a busy one out there, but compared to some in stark comparison, we got fish on the scoreboard, which also included a 30 for Neil Williams on the good old #SpicedNut. There were also two 20's, one from Zac Howard and of course our Christmas Day cracker for Jonathan Grace going 23lbs.
17 other fish fell to #SpicedNut and #MilkOne with a few others on #Beast and #Tropical.
But when all is said and done we smashed last years total thanks to you and of course the team and here's how.
2017 ............ TOTAL CAUGHT 1,039 - overseas = 776
2018 ............ TOTAL CAUGHT 1,271 - overseas = 1,148
2018 ............ 862 (7 to 19lb) Biggest caught 19.14 Nathan Carper John
..................... 313 (20 to 29) Biggest caught 29.14 Chris Clare
..................... 78 (30 to 39) Biggest caught 39.8 Marc Blackwell (France) 38.8 Kevin Dent (Poland) 38.8 Kevin Dent (France) 37.10 Chris Clare (UK pb) Lee Moore 36.9 (UK pb)
.....................14 (40 to 49) Biggest caught 48.8 Liam Gowing (France) 46.2 (UK pb) April Chiverton
..................... 3 (50 to 59) Biggest caught 54 Lewis Mower (France) 50 and 55 cats (UK) Jason Elvin
..................... 1 (60 to 69 Biggest caught 60.2 Joe Turell (France)
Total overseas captures = 123
Total #Beast captures from March 27th =277
Total PB's Broken 25
It as been an epic journey over the past 365 day's and all the numbers show that compared to last year. There has been a significant move forward in the amount of fish being caught on the baits and we have been happy to share it all with you as much as you have shared with us.
These are not bold claims, they are hard cold facts that show our baits do catch fish and not just because WE say so.
Info is key, well informed is to be well armed and we can hope that all the info we have given you over the past year may go some way in helping you decided if #BigFishBaits can be part of your angling in seasons to come.
We are already preparing for 2019 ...... we hope you will join us again ......... Tight Lines from all of us here and we will continue to #LetTheBaitDoTheTalking
Happy New Year