| Shelf life versus frozen boilies |
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  How often do you read that frozen boilies always out fish shelf life boilies? Before Marukyu boiles it may have been true. But not any more…
In September Marukyu pro team members Rich Morgan and Kev Russell took a break from work and their regular match and specimen fishing in the UK and made a trip across the channel in search of big fish.
Success in the UK on big fish still waters and rivers gave the team a good grounding on what would work for these big foreign fish.
Only non-preserved boilie baits were allowed to be fed at the chosen water so it was decided to do something a little different. Marukyu EFG 142, a tanishi (water snail) enhanced groundbait, has proven itself to both anglers and was the choice of grounbait. This would be mixed along with Marukyu SFA 441 Pure ground Sanagi (silkworm chrysalis) in a ratio of 8:1. Also added to the groundbait mix was Marukyu SFA 410 liquid Krill concentrate.
Pellets were also used as an attractant with Marukyu SDP 2008 protein formula pellet being the choice. These were mixed with locally sourced maize and glugged with Marukyu SFA 420 concentrated crayfish and sanagi extract.
To feed these big fish it was necessary to feed large quantities of bait to keep them interested.
The hookbaits of choice were the pairs UK favourite boilies, Marukyu ABR Ichigo, Sanagi, Protein and Nori pop-ups.
The team enjoyed a brilliant weeks fishing on a water that wasn’t in top form, taking 52 carp between the pair of anglers fishing 3 rods each. Both anglers succeeded in catching new personal bests several times over. Kev's largest fish came on the second day, a mirror of 41lb 8oz. Richard topped the third day with  one of the largest fish in the lake - a mirror of 49lb 12oz.
Both anglers used similar rigs with short 10cm stiff hook lengths, size 8 Korda curve hooks and light leads on clips.
Note. Marukyu boilies incorporate science in their make up. Up to 14 main ingredients ensure that Marukyu boilies do not blow.
Controlled breakdown speed ensures a continuous flow of attractants even in the coldest of water.
Environmentally friendly means that they do break down safely after 24 hours.
Why can they outperform frozen boilies? Well that's a secret we won’t share with anyone for obvious reasons.
Many of the baits and boilies sold in the UK have been developed and refined from a limited number of templates. Many share similar characteristics and, sometimes, the same ingredients. This can prove to be a problem when they are used because - especially on pressurised venues - fish learn to associate their characteristics with danger. This can be a smell, a taste, a colour or a consistency, but the outcome is the same - fish will avoid or ignore these baits. |
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A cold Friday evening in October on a Staffordshire syndicate lake - Catton park, Derby based angler Stan Johnson was presented with the age old problem, which bait to use and how much to introduce.
With temperatures taking a dramatic decline for the worst, Stan decided to change from his usual tactics and go with the Japenese "wonderbait" Marukyu. A bold move in such cold conditions on a Mainline baits dominated water. Approximately 130 Sanagi 15mm boilies were introduced at 35 yards on the left hand rod and the same amount at 50yds on the right hand rod. Both rods were baited with a single 15mm offering of the above mentioned boilie. Next job was to erect the bivvy as darkness was now well upon him and to settle down for the night and keep warm if at all possible.
After an action-less night and low temperatures in the minus' Saturday had arrived, and at about six thirty in the morning some eleven hours later the left hand rod screamed in to action. After a fierce battle the prize was finally in the net, once weighed and photographed a stunning 30lb 4oz mirror was safely returned to water.
Stan proud of his capture re-baited with the same tactics, a 15lb ACE mono mainline to a Nash fluorocarbon leader with a size 8 Korda wide gape hook attached to a Korda coated braided hook-link armed with the Sanagi boilie again, the rig was reintroduced to the same area. An hour later and by now the mist rising from the ten acre lake the same rod roared back into life! Following a ten minute fight a 24lb 7oz beautiful, fully scaled mirror was on the bank. Unfortunately due to the only other angler on the lake returning home after a non eventful session, the fish was only photographed on the unhooking mat.
With the fog soon clearing and no more action forthcoming Stan had time to reflect on his new found bait and tactics.... Marukyu!
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| EFG 120 - A pleasure angler's view |
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 I wanted to test whether Marukyu groundbait could prove itself as an attractant for silver fish in a mixed fishery.
Following advice from Chris Talkes at Marukyu, I took a bag of EFG 120 and just half a pint of red maggots to Listers End Pool at Cob House, my place of work.
This pool is home to a large head of quality roach, recorded to just under 3lbs and is never fished in matches, but is popular with day ticket anglers. The water also holds many carp to 18lb plus, some sizeable, but elusive bream, big rudd and perch to over 3lbs. There are a smaller number of tench and crucians too.
My plan was to fish for three hours with roach as the target. A hard overnight frost saw air temperatures plummet and by 10am the reading from my car’s external thermometer was a mere 3 degrees. However, the previous day had been relatively mild, so I was confident that the water temperature wouldn’t have dipped too drastically. With clear skies and the sun quickly getting up, I was glad for the colour in the water.
I mixed 2 parts groundbait to 1 part water as per the very clear directions on the packet, then sealed the bag using the zip seal (a first I think for a groundbait bag, and very handy indeed!). I left the bait to settle while I set up my kit.
As people who know me will be aware, I am not a match angler and not a great fan of poles, although I use one occasionally. So it was out with a Shimano Speedmaster rod and my favourite Diawa 125m closed face reel – I use closed face reels for all my float fishing these days. I used a 4lb mainline, which is my standard and I tied a hooklength to which I attached a size 18 hook. The float was a small home made Norfolk reed insert waggler taking around three number 4 shot (don’t ask me about grammes or line diameters... I am old school!). I plumbed the depth and left my float in position ready for throwing in some groundbait.
I fluffed up the EFG 120 a little more, adding a few maggots as I did so. I noticed the groundbait smell, which I have to say resembled brown crumb to me, despite my knowledge of the ingredients used in the bait. I decided to throw in two fairly hard-squeezed balls to get the bait to the bottom of my 5 foot deep swim and a looser ball over the top. The bait seemed quite a dry, fluffy mix, but held together ok once squeezed. I had taken strict instructions from Chris to use the proportions shown on the bag, so I wasn’t going to add any more water, which I would have done if using a different brand. I shotted up my float to ‘dot it right down’, speared a maggot on and flicked my float into an overhanging bramble which had ideas above it’s station as it was dangling 8 ft high in a hawthorn tree to my left! I retrieved my end tackle and flicked it back out.
The float settled and sailed straight under and I soon slipped the net under a roach of about 4oz. Next cast yielded the same, and in the next 8 casts, I took roach to half a pound and similarly sized golden rudd! My workmate Scotty Jones finally arrived with a keepnet and I deposited the fish that I had been holding in my landing net.
And my three hours basically continued like that and included roach to 14oz and two nice crucians to around 2lb.
There were a couple of periods where bites slowed down and I had to wait for a little longer, but I had a bite just about every single cast throughout the session. I baited sparingly every 15 minutes or so with a little more EFG 120, but I was purposefully mean with loose feeding maggots as I wanted to see if the groundbait held the fish with few free offerings.
At one point I had to re-set up after a tangle, so I put another two small hard balls and one looser ball in while I did so. It was when I went to tie a new hooklength that I realised I had been using a near-5lb hooklength! (albeit a low diameter one as it turns out!) This time I attached a 2lb one! Back into the water and straight back into the fish. With half an hour left of my three-hour session, I balled the last of my groundbait (I had mixed just about a quarter of a bag) into the swim and continued to catch some quality roach... all good handfuls apart from just a few tiny roach and rudd! My total for the three hours was 16lb 14oz – probably the best catch of silvers I have ever had in the given time.
My conclusions then. Given that I was extremely mean with free offerings of my chosen hookbait, it seems that the EFG120 was an ideal choice. The bait certainly attracted the fish to the swim very quickly indeed, but more importantly, it appears that it held the fish there throughout the session, with not much of it needed. It also appeared that a larger ‘stamp’ (I do know some matchman terminology!) of roach were being drawn in. My decision to drop some of the bait quickly to the bottom by forming harder balls initially turned out to be the right one as the vast majority of my fish were caught with the bait just on bottom and only smaller specimens taken on the drop. And not a carp in site, despite the head of that species in this pool!
Despite my initial scepticism, following some of the ‘wonder bait’ hype when news of Marukyu started to filter through into angling circles, I look forward to using the baits again and experimenting more. I suspect I could have mixed a more sloppy consistency to the groundbait to produce a cloud effect and bring the fish up in the water, but would that have attracted more tiddlers? I can also see this particular groundbait being a winning formula on the canal where I spent most my fishing days before moving to Worcester.
I firmly believe that the EFG 120 vastly increased my catch on a day when I would normally be more likely to go pike fishing... or stay in bed and despite my not-so-sensitive set-up?!
Phil Walters
Cob House Fisheries
Have you got a story about our bait? We would love to hear your experiences! Email us at:
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Hi all,