I’ve seen the SMARTBaiT range of products advertised for a while now but I’d never got round to seeing them close up, until SMARTBaiT sent us some to look at that is. I opened a box full of bits and pieces, amazed to see such a diverse range of products; QB’s, Grubs, method mixes and groundbaits – It was like Christmas all over again!
The main product (for me) is the QB; a fibrous hook bait which you can use directly on the hook, off the hair, or pretty much however you like. They are sponge like in texture and ooze flavour by the bucket load. I’ll be honest, when I first saw these products I was a little sceptical about all the claims made, but after using them in a number of different situations I’m sold on their versatility and ease of use.
It’s quite difficult to test a bait on some of the specimen waters I fish as you can sometimes have the best bait in the world and still blank, thus it becomes all too easy to say a product is no good. As such I took some up to Blackwood Pool with me on some short hour or two evening sessions. Normally, using my usual boilies or naturals I would favour my chances of having a fish or two, so it would be a good test to see how the SMARTBaiT Products faired.
Having had a play about with some of the products at home, I was instantly drawn to the Salmon Strike. I must admit that I’m not a big fan of baits with strong artificial flavouring, I much prefer a natural ‘fishy’ smell, and the Salmon strike certainly had that.
I set up on Peg 20 in the shallows and could see a few fish knocking about and so quickly put two rods out; my left hand rod to the back of the island in a about two feet of water and the other into the deeper water out to my right. The island rod had a lump of the Salmon Strike groundbait moulded around the lead, and my other rod had a healthy amount of the X-Cite method mix.
The first thing I noticed was the fizzing off the method mix, which certainly seemed to get the attention of the fish. Within ten minutes I began to see tell tale signs of carp activity over both baits, the odd swirl just under the surface and lots of bubbles coming up from the bottom.
I don’t like using alarms on short sessions preferring to just rest the rods with tips high and wait for the big knocks to register. It was not long before the line started twitching on the island rod and a short time later the tip bounced down as a carp picked up the bait and made for open water. A few minutes later and a nice little mirror was in the net. I placed the rod back out in the same fashion, and not more than ten minutes later the other rod went off, but unfortunately the hook pulled as I lifted into the fish.
Two takes in less than an hour was certainly productive for Blackwood so a few nights later I went back up to try again. Fishing exactly the same method I managed two nice doubles, a 10lb 14oz mirror and a 12lb 4oz common. A few nights later I did better still taking three fish, two doubles with the best a 15lb mirror. The following week I repeated the result with another three fish. The end tally after a few short sessions was nine carp on the bank, with two fish lost, in around nine hours of fishing. Five of the fish were double figures, the best over 15lb – Not bad for a bag of spongy baits and a lump of groundbait!
I also took some of the SmartBaiT products to Birch Grove recently for our annual week’s carp fishing holiday. Our party found the going tough and although we did not catch on the SMARTBaiT QB’s, we did not catch on much else either! That said, Miffer and I had a couple of all-day course fishing matches. We often do this when the going is tough on the carp as it’s a nice way to pass the time. We had a crude set up using line way too thick, and size 16 hooks (the smallest we could find!). We were picking up a few small rudd and roach, until Miffer started rummaging through all the bait stuff and came back with all the goodies from SMARTBaiT, minutes later the swim was topped up with groundbait, method mix and allsorts – Ten minutes later and all hell broke loose!
To say the fish went mental would be an understatement, we sat for nearly six hours that day catching fish after fish after fish, and there were some cracking rudd and roach in amongst them along with the odd eel. After a day or two we had used all the SMARTBaiT stuff and the fishing pretty much dried up, again testament to its effectiveness.
The upshot is that I would have no problem recommending products from the SMARTBaiT stable, irrespective of the type of fishing you do. Carp are my main target and it has certainly taken a few of those, and the baits / dry mixes for coarse fishing are equally effective; Miffer and I could hardly be called ‘experts’ when it comes to bagging up on roach, rudd and eels, and yet we managed it consistently with a little help from SMARTBaiT.
You can view details on the full range of products at: www.smartbait.com where you can also find your nearest stockiest, or even buy online.
Julian Grattidge
September, 2004
