The Balancing Act.
This year has seen many tackle manufacturers trying to join the plastic revolution, bringing out all manner of bits and pieces. This means that Enterprise Tackle really had to step it up a notch this year in order to stay the biggest and the best in the market, in my opinion they have raised the bar considerably with the new products that are set to take the market by storm.
. I’m here to talk about such a product and my favourite of them all, the ‘half baits’. Now I know what you must be thinking, half baits been done before, but not like this they haven’t. The Enterprise ‘half baits’ are a very interesting product indeed. The baits are a 15mm ball cut in half and made out of a slightly firmer rubber than the infamous corn and they are available in a multitude of colours. The special aspect about the ‘half baits’ is due to their slight buoyancy no matter what bait I seem to partner them with, they make the presentation sink nice and slow. No more messing with cork, foam or handmade wafters, just quick and easy balanced baits; all you need is a pair of scissors, a ‘half bait’ and a boilie. Now for any of you that aren’t convinced yet, let me explain why they have taken such a prominent role in my fishing. I am a boilie angler and I love my hinged stiff links to the point where I would happily never put an alternative rig in the water again, but in certain situations I still like bottom bait presentations. I have been trying to develop a bottom bait version of the rig for some time now, a rig that still has the stiff hinge’s mechanical qualities but can be fished with bottom baits that have been critically balanced. After a full winter of trials with this rig and after losing a lot of fish due to the hook over turning and just nipping the flesh, I have finally got it down to a tee and the ‘half baits’ really made the difference as to how effectively the rig performs in the water. The rig is basically a reverse combi rig combined with an old school style combi rig. The idea is that with the fluorocarbon boom section and the bristle filament hook section the only obvious thing on the substrate is the hook, bait and around 1cm of braid rather than bits of shrink tubing and a coated braid. The stiff fluorocarbon boom section kicks the rig right out from the lead due to the critically balanced nature of the ‘half baits’ partnered with my choice of bottom bait. By using the ‘half baits’ it eliminated the awkwardness of using cork sticks and a drill, a big problem with the baits I use due to the drill simply splitting them because of their texture. Eventually it all fell in to place, the ‘half baits’ allowed me to use the hook baits I wanted to while
maintaining the critical balancing of the rig required. They also made the whole process a lot faster which suits my quick session style of angling; I was no longer whittling down bits of foam or drilling out 20 baits in an attempt to find a boilie that doesn’t split in half. My final advantage of the ‘half baits’ is a bit more technical. The way carp know that your rig is a potential hazard is due to something called the palatal organ. It is located on the roof of the carp’s mouth and it is incredibly sensitive to anything that is not quite right (foreign objects). Topping baits with foam was my old way of finding the balancing act but even very firm closed polymer cell foam has a major tendency to take on chemicals, scents and flavours that you may not want it to, such as silt, never mind taking on water, making all that fiddling around very time consuming and ineffective. After all, foam is a sponge, so when you are tying a rig the chemicals and scents your body is giving off are instantly absorbed by the foam and to the carp these are rapidly sensed by the palatal organ as this is very unnatural. As a result the bait is swiftly removed from its mouth and in turn your rig goes with it, YOU HAVE JUST BEEN DONE!!! With a plastic this absorption does not happen as much. The chemicals simply sit on the outer skin of the ‘half baits’ where they are quickly washed off the bait upon impact with the water. This means your bait is not outwitted as quickly, thus the rig has more time to work it’s magic in the mouth of the carp and prick the fish. The result is more pickups turning in to takes and ultimately that’s what we want, fish on the bank. So there it is the Enterprise ‘half baits’, the first items I grab when I’m tying up my bottom bait rigs and getting it out to those wise old carp. Until next time, Tight lines.
Adam Johnson.