Over the last nine years that I have spent with Mainline baits I have built up a level of confidence in my bait that I could never, previously, have expected. I have worked my way through most of the more widely recognised base mixes, from the original 'Grange' to the incredible new 'NRG' and have caught on them all.
Obviously carp fishing involves a lot more than just filling a lake in with boilies and reaping the rewards, you have to know what it is that the fish actually want and, most importantly, how they want it! If a lake has been hammered for years on large beds of bait then the carp will be understandably cautious of that approach and even the best bait in the world will have to be used in moderation. When I have been lucky enough to fish waters that respond to large baiting campaigns I have been entirely in my element. Obviously I am in a fortunate position as a Mainline field tester that I can use a large quantity of bait without breaking the bank but a concerted effort amongst a group of anglers can still have a devastating effect on a lake without having to re-mortgage.
Sonning Eye pit in reading is the largest gravel pit that I have ever fished and at 360 acres is a daunting place to angle, especially when you after one particular carp! I knew straight away that it would be a 'bait' water, I needed to put in enough to let the fish know that there was a regular food supply in one little corner of there vast home. I started out on the 'Assassinate' and over the course of a season I piled in more bait than I had used in total over the previous five years! I had always wanted to try the 'really serious' baiting campaign and the results were stunning. I would turn up at the lake and tip a ten kilo bag of 20mm baits into the wheelbarrow and deposit this over three 'one rod' spots before I started, quite often adding the same amount of response and hemp pellet for 'good measure'. The fish became so used to this free banquet that I would have to re-bait every 24 hours.
At first the bream would move in and grab as much food as they could before the midnight arrival of the carp, it was important to mark the lines with marker braid so I could recast accurately after dark. Half a dozen of the 'snotty' little fiends would be the 'norm' and countless line bites as well. Before bed I always topped up the swim with about another kilo on each spot, ready for when then the carp would arrive. To catch consistently from a lake of this magnitude gives you an incredible buzz, as you know that you, yourself, have changed the carp's behavioural patterns to such an extent that you can keep them visiting areas on a daily basis. Even when the wind was piling up the other end of the pit, waves breaking on a shoreline that was nearly a mile away, I still caught carp! Most weekends I would have between one and three fish, which, as an isolated statement may not mean that much. Take into account the fact that I caught somewhere in the region of twenty carp that first year, realise that the next highest amount caught was by Keith (also on the bait) and compare this to the third man who had four all year and it gains perspective. Most anglers never received a sniff for the whole season so those carp certainly knew what they liked. It was bloody hard work piling all that bait in and bloody expensive on catapult elastic as well! We used an incredible amount of boilies and pellet over the season and were very unlucky not to catch the one, big fish that we were after. We knew that the bait would draw him in to the areas and it did, unfortunately we had been beaten to our own swims both times! As you can imagine our carefully pre-baited spots had become the focus of everybody else's attention as well as the carps!
The next year we decided (crazy as it sounds) to change bait. Mainline had just released the NRG for testing and Kev was keen for us to give it a go. We also decided to bait areas that other anglers would not be able to poach quite so easily. At first I was hesitant, unsure if I had done the right thing changing bait at this stage of the game but I need not have worried. The bream got on it first 'of course' but the carp soon followed suit, I continued in the vain of the previous year and piled in as much as I could carry to the lake. It really was incredible how much the fish were willing to eat, every time I topped up the swim the line bites and bubbling would start up again as fish of all species rushed back in for a feed.
Over the first two months I caught a further dozen carp and then, one fateful night, the 'big fella' came calling. I'm sure he'd been to visit me many times before but had either got away with out pricking himself on the rig or (more likely) was beaten to it by a bream! This time though everything went according to plan at 3.30 am the second biggest carp in the land was hauled, unceremoniously, into the waiting net. A just reward for a year and a half of bloody hard work and, about a ton of bait, and it was all so, so worth it in the end. As it turned out, the fish weighed 55 pounds and was my third English fifty pounder, every one of them falling to a Mainline bait, so do I recommend you use them? Not near me I don't!
Obviously carp fishing involves a lot more than just filling a lake in with boilies and reaping the rewards, you have to know what it is that the fish actually want and, most importantly, how they want it! If a lake has been hammered for years on large beds of bait then the carp will be understandably cautious of that approach and even the best bait in the world will have to be used in moderation. When I have been lucky enough to fish waters that respond to large baiting campaigns I have been entirely in my element. Obviously I am in a fortunate position as a Mainline field tester that I can use a large quantity of bait without breaking the bank but a concerted effort amongst a group of anglers can still have a devastating effect on a lake without having to re-mortgage. 
At first the bream would move in and grab as much food as they could before the midnight arrival of the carp, it was important to mark the lines with marker braid so I could recast accurately after dark. Half a dozen of the 'snotty' little fiends would be the 'norm' and countless line bites as well. Before bed I always topped up the swim with about another kilo on each spot, ready for when then the carp would arrive. To catch consistently from a lake of this magnitude gives you an incredible buzz, as you know that you, yourself, have changed the carp's behavioural patterns to such an extent that you can keep them visiting areas on a daily basis. Even when the wind was piling up the other end of the pit, waves breaking on a shoreline that was nearly a mile away, I still caught carp! Most weekends I would have between one and three fish, which, as an isolated statement may not mean that much. Take into account the fact that I caught somewhere in the region of twenty carp that first year, realise that the next highest amount caught was by Keith (also on the bait) and compare this to the third man who had four all year and it gains perspective. Most anglers never received a sniff for the whole season so those carp certainly knew what they liked. It was bloody hard work piling all that bait in and bloody expensive on catapult elastic as well! We used an incredible amount of boilies and pellet over the season and were very unlucky not to catch the one, big fish that we were after. We knew that the bait would draw him in to the areas and it did, unfortunately we had been beaten to our own swims both times! As you can imagine our carefully pre-baited spots had become the focus of everybody else's attention as well as the carps!
The next year we decided (crazy as it sounds) to change bait. Mainline had just released the NRG for testing and Kev was keen for us to give it a go. We also decided to bait areas that other anglers would not be able to poach quite so easily. At first I was hesitant, unsure if I had done the right thing changing bait at this stage of the game but I need not have worried. The bream got on it first 'of course' but the carp soon 
followed suit, I continued in the vain of the previous year and piled in as much as I could carry to the lake. It really was incredible how much the fish were willing to eat, every time I topped up the swim the line bites and bubbling would start up again as fish of all species rushed back in for a feed.