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Confidence is King
by Jan Porter
Having enjoyed a hugely successful match angling career that’s literally taken me all over the world, I consider my key elements to success has always been top quality bait. Once you know you have the right bait then you can concentrate on the other aspects of your angling terminal tackle as well as watercraft and technique.
For a long period of my competitive angling days I ran a small tackle shop in Nottingham, during the last couple of years I started to branch out and diversify my stock catering for the growing band of carp anglers living in my catchment area.
Not knowing anything about carp baits or flavourings I made a few enquiries and attended a couple of carp society regional meets which were both illuminating and fascinating. It was quite an alien angling world I had entered into but Richworth was the name that kept popping up, not just because of the reliability of the bait as a carp catcher but also that they were a very professional company to trade with.
By this I mean always well stocked up on bait and fast delivery times, two crucial factors when considering opening a brand new account an entering unfamiliar retail territory. There were plenty of other bait companies about but Richworth had the edge by supplying frozen boilies nationwide as well as shelf life. Although it mean’t I had the additional expense of purchasing and running a second hand ice cream freezer, I felt that this unique aspect of the companys products held the commercial and catching edge over the others who primarily supplied preserved bait.
Along with a couple more “blue chip” carp tackle brands I took on board I built up a small but loyal following of carpers who new much more about boilies and flavours than I did.
It was very much a secret squirrel society and often customers would walk up to the counter and just show me the price sticker on the Richworth flavour lid but not let me see which they had decided upon. Their logic, I can only guess, was that I would inadvertently divulge this to one of their peer group thus blowing their secret. Not that this was founded in any way, because in reality all I had to do was check the shelves to see which flavour had been bought if I wanted to grass on them.
As much as I didn’t understand boilies or how and more importantly why they caught fish, I did like stocking them as they always smelled great, the Pineapple, Honey Yucatan,, Strawberry Jam and the tremendous bubble gum aroma of Tutti Frutti made for a refreshing change to the ammonia fumes given off by the maggot counter.
The other thing to like about them, as a tackle dealer, was that they sold well and I had to make regular repeat orders for the favourites, Salmon Supreme wasn’t as pleasant as the fruity ones previously mentioned but they sold really well as did the “secret” flavours in 50ml plastic bottles.
I did play around and experiment with some of the latter as an additive to my maggots, casters and groundbait prefering the fruity versions which worked well and I won plenty of matches using these without telling anyone. It seems the secret society carp thing is an extremely infectious mentality and although I’ve always been a relatively open book with all my angling practices over the years, sometimes it isn’t bad idea to give the game away until you have moved onto the next thing.
After I sold the retail business in 1989 I accidently strayed into carp fishing on and off the match scene, this is when I seriously rekindled my fire for carping, before I embarked on my match winning ways I used to love angling for carp although luncheon meat, floating crust and sweetcorn was the only bait I’d ever used.
A chance trip to Naseby reservoir with my angling companion Ian McNeil in 1990 saw Ian take the lead in the way we approached the venue, opting for a buzzer and boilie approach. On the way to fish we stopped at Banks and Burr tackle shop in Rugby and picked up some Richworth Salmon Supreme and Tutti Frutti boilies, to be blunt about it and brutally honest I’d never used a boilie let alone tied a hair rig so I was less than confident.
However, that lack of faith vanished forever just 15 minutes of casting out, when my white monkey climber shot up and I was into my first ever boilie caught carp, a low double but a revelation, I went on to catch another 12 fish that session and we didn’t fish for more than 6 hours at the most.
Since then I have used Richworth bait with growing confidence as my PB’s have gradually got bigger over the years, I don’t claim to be a carping great but I do know more than most about the importance of top bait and when Bob asked me to come board I didn’t have any hesitation in saying yes.
I’ve been fortunate in my angling tie ups (of which there has only been a few in a career spanning 27 years) all the companies I work in partnership with are the same companies whose products I used by choice and freely recommended before signing up.
I really feel for anglers who chop and change their tackle, rigs and bait on an almost daily basis to give them the edge, I think it’s fair to suggest that many average anglers get caught up in the crossfire of choice on the shelves. It does little or nothing to maximise on any individuals limited resources, many anglers end up chasing a pipe dream, when in reality they would be better served by sticking to a winner from the beginning, using this as a foundation and building up confidence and developing angling skills and knowledge from this solid platform.
Lets face it, the angling media is full of who’s caught this on what and we all know that on a good day carp will take virtually anything offered up to them in the right swim, the truth is most angling time spent by many is at weekends on pressured waters that can be tricky to negotiate.
So why not cut through the confusion like I did and choose a winning bait in conjunction with a simple rig, leave all that fancy stuff up to the experts or the ones with more money than sense, I’ve caught both my PB carp on Richworth boilies they might not be the biggest in the carping world but they are my biggest.
A 34lb 4oz French fish on an air dried hardened Tutti and Warwickshire Avon Common of 29lb 15oz on a crab and mussel shelf life, I’ve caught hundreds of carp since I retired from match angling and the bulk of those have been taken on Richworth boilies in one form or combination.
Being part of the Richworth set up is more than just the run of the mill “sponsorship” package, I feel like a member of the family which may come as a little surprise to the Baker household, but I mean it.
They look after me and in return I get to use their great products, which I was using anyway, it’s a perfect relationship that has been going for over a decade and it’s nearly 20 years since I first caught my Naseby carp prior to being a boilie virgin.
The word in the trade about Richworth bait today still echoes the same hallmarks as it did when I was a “maggot bashing” tackle dealer in the mid 80’s, It is highly reputable, hugely reliable and considered a top quality commercially available range of products. I’ve never heard a bad word about the bait, or the company and if you did a straw poll on many big name carpers there is a good chance that Tutti Frutti’s would figure on their top ten list.
As I stated at the beginning of this piece, confidence in your angling ability is probably the single most important aspect of catching fish whatever the species. It can take years of experience and time to build this and should never be compromised on poor bait. Confidence in bait is something you won’t have to work on or worry about if you use Richworth, take it from me. |
My first ever boilie carp taken on Richworth Tutti Frutti&c=)
Crab and Mussel Shelf Life Wintons 26lb pb Moggy&c=)
 Dumpy Denton Upper Double Delight first single bait carp on a popped up pineapple 10mm&c=)
 Strawberry Jam my first 20lb carp &c=)
