Starmer Baits '8 Years On'

Those that have kept up with my blogs throughout the years will know that I don't follow fashions or trends, as an angler and as a human I do my own thing and I like to form my own opinions through my own experiences. Many will also know that I don't push or plug the products that I use, I don't really see the point, I might mention the bait in the context of the blogs but that's about it, constant plugging and promoting is one of the mind numbing aspects of modern carp fishing and I don't want anything that I do to fall into that category. We all have the right to make our own decisions on what we choose to use, if you have confidence in what you're using then you can apply the whole of your mind to the most important aspect in angling, locating the fish. It goes without saying that this blog is not a sales pitch it's simply a review and write up of all the new products that Starmer Baits have developed in the past 8 years since I've been using them. They've expanded as a business, now producing both wild bird food and aquatic feed but this blog is going to be about the 'fishing' side of the company 

Going Strong Since 1976

Things have moved forward quite a lot since my last bait blog, if you haven't read that one you can check it out here Starmer Baits Part 1. We've seen a few baits disappear, not because they didn't catch fish, all the baits catch fish it's just the simple fact that some of the flavors sell more than others, so over time the poor sellers get phased out. The positive side to this is, with each bait that falls by the wayside another one is added to the range. One of the first new arrivals was a bait called 'TigerFish', the signs were very strong early on that this was going to be a great seller because it caught from the off, new customers were genuinely getting in touch with their catch reports. I can vouch for its effectiveness because I've caught, and continue to catch a lot of fish on it, as do a few other guys I know that have been on it for a few seasons now. I'd like to emphasize that this isn't a "wonder bait", there's no such thing, you still have to use watercraft and put the bait where the fish are. As we all know, you can't catch carp if they're not where you're putting your baits. I'm no bait scientist but the information I can give you is, it's rolled on a 60/40 birdseed and nut base mix and it has a hint of caramel to it, it's a great bait.

Tiger Fish

  

One of my favorite carp baits from the past was the Honey Nectar, this goes all the way back to the early 90's when Kevin Maddocks produced his own range of boilies. Honey Nectar was the bait I caught my first ever 20 on, all these years later I can still see that bite as clear as crystal in my mind. As time passed, many of the 'old skool' flavors seemed to fall out of favor. When I was looking around for bait companies that still produced some of the classics, Starmer was the one that stuck out. You had your 'Strawberry', 'Peach' and 'Pineapple' but to my extreme joy they were the only ones producing the Honey Nectar. Throughout the past 8 years I used a serious amount of this bait to great effect. A couple of years back due to the 'Nectar' part becoming hard to come by, it got phased out. A new boilie came along to take its place, thankfully still incorporating the vital 'Honey' element. We now have the rather 'sweetly' titled 'Honey Nut'.

An Old Original Caught On The Honey Nut

I jump to different baits like a madman, depending on the time of the year and what takes my specific fancy, but I decided to stick to the Honey Nut for a whole season. I had some awesome catches on it. It's very unique, again it's made on a 60/40 sweet birdseed base mix, to smell, it has the perfect balance between both the honey and the nut and it's a lovely 'unassuming' washed out color, I've found it to be very versatile, having had good results on singles, stringers and large beds, even though I still miss the good old Honey Nectar, the Honey Nut is a great addition to Starmers back catalogue.

Honey Nut

   

The next bait is literally 'hot off the press', it was released last month, there was a fairly long period of both testing and tweaking to get it just right. It comes under the name 'Monster Peanut' and produced really well during the testing stage with carp caught both here and abroad to over 40IB. I was trialing it this winter and it produced some lovely fish for me. As I said before, you've got to put your bait in the right place to get the take, no bait magically makes fish appear in front of you. It's got a similar look to the 'TigerFish', it's rolled on a 60/40 sweet birdseed base mix and, to me, smells like peanut butter, it's a bloody lovely smelling boilie which I'm going to use a lot this coming season and beyond. If you want to offer the carp something completely different to the 'norm', this might be the perfect bait to try.

Monster Peanut

Moving on to the final addition to the premium boilie range and another bait that I rate highly, Halibut & Tuna. It's made with a fishmeal & betaine base mix and it's black in color, it's very similar to the Coconut & Halibut that's now been moved over to the U.F.B range of boilies - 'I'll explain about the U.F.B shortly'. Despite popular belief, combination fishmeal baits can be really effective all year round, I've caught carp on the Halibut & Tuna in the dead of winter on lakes with dark bottoms when, in theory, a bait like this isn't believed to be effective. Once again it's different to a lot of other baits on the market and worth a go if you want to offer the carp something different.

Halibut & Tuna

     

That's pretty much covered the new additions to the premium range of baits, now we move on to one of the main developments that got me pretty dam excited when I first heard about it. A completely new range of boilies has been produced under the U.F.B banner, this stands for Ultimate Feed Boilie. These are a slightly cheaper range of bait but they're still high quality, when they first appeared I saw people slating them saying they must be full of cheap ingredients. I'd like to confirm that this is utter rubbish, no "cheap" ingredients are used in any of Starmers products, people are far too quick to judge. I have zero time for bait snobs and twats that slate companies they know very little about. The range may be missing the odd attractor that the premium boilies include, but they more than make up for it in other ways. You can literally customize these baits in any way you want. They've been specifically formulated to be used in conjunction with the glugs & new liquid feeds, they take on and soak up both these elements perfectly - that's what they've been designed to do.

Candy Sweet Cream U.F.B Soaked In Honey Nut Liquid Feed

The U.F.B has a classic range of flavors 'listed below', most notably the return 'by popular demand' of Garlic Mint. If you want a blank canvas to create your own unique boilie flavor you can buy the generic fishmeal & birdseed bait and use them to add your favored flavors to, between both the glugs, fish oils and the new liquid feeds, which I'll write about shortly, there are literally hundreds of combinations and options for you to experiment with. Two of the range that react very well to the odd 'tinkering' are both the Hempseed & the Bunspice. The possibilities are endless, don't be put off by the price, it's proper value for money and I've caught really well on the whole U.F.B range.

U.F.B Flavors

Value For Money 

 

Moving on, one slight grey area that suffered inconsistencies were the pop ups, this was a factor that everyone involved was aware of. If you're using cork balls/dust or other unnatural ingredients it's easy to get a really buoyant bait. However both Ian and Gareth at Starmer prioritize fish welfare above everything so the challenge was to produce a pop up that contained natural/safe ingredients. I'm happy to say that after a hell of a lot of trial and error, the old pop ups are a thing of the past. There is now a completely new 'buoyant' pop up that is not only safe for the fish, it breaks down after around 72 hours of being in the water, like all the bottom baits do. Last season I fished pop ups 'almost' exclusively due to the weedy waters I was on. They performed perfectly, on the days where the baits had been out all day and a bite didn't come, upon reeling in they still remained buoyant. I'm personally really happy with this development, there's a huge amount of flavors to choose from.

New Revised Pop Ups

Along side the development of the new pop ups a dedicated pop up base mix containing the exact ingredients has been put together that you can purchase and make your own at home. It comes in 4 different blends, Milk Protein, Fish-meal, Sweet Birdseed and Green Lipped Mussel. It has been designed so you can roll it on any rolling table, you can use any combination of flavor, color, additive etc. You simply roll the baits to your desired size, boil them for 2/3 minutes, leave them to dry or put them in the microwave and you're good to go. I'd like to stress the point that you don't need to add extra eggs to this mix.

Pop Up Base Mix

Moving on to another two great products, both 10mm and 6mm pop ups are now available, they come in a range of colors, both 'fluro' and standard. Individually both these sized baits are extremely buoyant, I was really surprised by this when I first used them. I find these great for solid bag fishing, you can create a 'mini snowman' presentation using both the 10mm & the 6mm combined. Not only that but they're perfect for topping off other baits, I personally think the 6mm range is a lovely touch. You have to use your common sense when using a bait this small, two tips I can give you to stop them splitting when threading, is to use the thinnest boilie needle you can get and always make sure the 'hair loop' is larger than usual. This will cure the problem of the bait 'splitting' on the knot of the hair loop ....... I hope that makes sense. Both come in an array of different flavors ranging from tangerine & peach to raspberry and krill.

10mm Mixed Pop Ups

6mm Mixed Pop Ups

That pretty much covers all of the 'boilie bait' developments, add that all to the existing lines and there's plenty to choose from and a lot of what is on offer is different to that of the mainstream companies. So I'd like to move on to one of the products that probably goes down as my current favorite, that's the liquid feeds. This was something that Starmer originally produced way back in the 90's a long time before most, but it never quite took off. Now with the popularity of spombing/spodding and zig fishing, liquids have had a huge upsurge in usage.

Liquid Feed & Sloppy Zigs

The liquids come in a large variety of flavors ranging from Whisky, Indian Spice, Peanut and Pineapple, I've used these extensively and come to notice that as it enters the water it seems to both sink to the bottom and rise to the surface, creating an awesome slick. This is especially good for fishing slop over zigs, 'as you'll see in the image above'. They're PVA friendly so you can inject them into solid bags, glug and soak your boilies, method mixes and pellets, a valid point to note is, they don't dissolve pellets they just make them a little softer. Along with all the above, as mentioned earlier they're perfect when combined with the U.F.B range, you can use a single flavor or add two or three together to create your own unique boilie flavor. All in all, they're a great product and I'm sure many out there will find them useful.

Liquid Feeds

Moving on to another giant step .... pellets, they've come on in leaps and bounds over the past couple of years, they're produced onsite and in-house by a 'mad scientist' machine that both Ian and Gareth designed and built. Once again the use of pellets within carp fishing has surged due to the popularity of spodding. I love to use them in solid bags and PVA sticks, they come in 2mm and 5mm sizes and both low oil and high oil are available. Within the 'attractor' pellet range you have flavors ranging from Coconut Cream, Hot Chilli Hemp and Tigernut & Maple. In the 'marine' pellet range flavors range from Krill, Green Lipped Mussel and Tuna. You also have a 'mixed option' this range contains a mix of flavors and sizes, one of my favorites from this is the black & white Coconut & Halibut pellet. Like all the other product lines there's lots to choose from, I've used all of the pellets off and on throughout my fishing and I find them effective and versatile. Another unique edition to the pellet range is the 'pre-drilled' halibut pellet, these come in 22mm, 17mm and a monster 28mm. Ideal when fishing for catfish, sturgeon and of course carp. These are a lovely product, super smelly and really oily, being pre-drilled there's no problem when sliding them onto the hair.

Coconut & Halibut

2mm Match Mix

  Pre-drilled Halibut Pellet

That pretty much covers the new and latest products, when you put them alongside all the existing ranges you have a very large, comprehensive selection to choose from that pretty much covers any fishing situation. There's a few things I haven't written about but you can always check the website out. Like I stated at the start of this blog, I'm not trying to sell anything here, or trying to tell you that the bait is "the best there is and you should get on it". Baits are a very personal thing and you've got to use something that you feel confident in. In regards to the mainstream companies out there, I've never really been particularly interested in anything they've ever had to offer, not just in fishing, pretty much everything from music to books etc, I've always found myself steering more towards the independent or unknown. I've never really been interested in what anyone else is using or what apparently 'works' and what doesn't. Like I stated at the start of this blog, I'd rather form my own opinion based on my own experiences. If you fancy trying something different and a little 'off the radar' then I can recommend Starmer as a good reliable 'port of call'.

Click For Starmer Web Shop

Starmer Baits

I've been interested in the idea of getting involved with a bait company for quite sometime now, not from a 'field-tester' or 'consultant' point of view, I find all of that a load of bollocks. I was thinking more along the lines of looking to get with a brand that I love, have used in the past and have total confidence in.
  
I have a high quality control about both the tackle and the bait that I use and I would never involve myself with a company that I don't believe in 100%. Having said that I am not massively into the constant plugging of products that we now see everywhere within this sport nowadays and I would never rate a product because I get something for free, I'd like to add that I pay for all my bait and end tackle. Consider this blog as a subtle introduction to a bait company that I have always respected.

Starmer Baits has been around for a very long time and if my memory serves me correctly Ian was among one of the first to develop 'the boilie' bait. Their bait range to me has always remained very different to the rest of the companies out there. The main point being that they have developed a shelf-life bait that breaks down after 72 hours of being in the water and there is no junk or nasty preservatives in anything they produce. Each of their boilie and pellet range, among their other products provide the carp with the valuable nutrients that they naturally require in their diet to remain strong and healthy.

Sweet Birdseed 

Unlike most shelf-life baits, if stored properly, Starmers boilies stay soft and fresh for a long time, once in the water they wash out very quickly. There are advantages to having washed out looking baits, the longer the bait is in the water the more the flavor is drawn into its centre. Not only does it keep its attraction but due to its washed out appearance it can fool the carp into thinking that the bait has been on the bottom of the pond for some considerable time, thus proving safer to pick up. If you decide to soak the boilies in the glugs on offer, you'll find it hard to tell it apart from any of the freezer baits that are currently on the market. 

Many moons ago in my carp fishing infancy I remember purchasing a bag from their Green Lipped Mussel range and I caught consistently through the season even when the weather was freezing, this left a lasting impression on me. The big advantage of using products from a bait company that has been around for a longtime is the fact you know what you're getting has proved the test of time. And when you think such baits as the Bio CP2 Amino has been banking carp from all over Europe for well over a decade "and still continues to", that's proof within itself that something is being done right. You only need to look at Starmers facebook page to see that all the flavors catch continually all around the world.

Green Lipped Mussel Range

There are four ranges of boilies to choose from, Green Lipped Mussel, Fishmeal & Betaine, 60/40 Sweet Bird Seed and 50/50 Milk Protein. All of the above cover pretty much anything that you'd be looking for from a bait. Each range contains the classic blends such as White Chocolate, Monster Squid and Honey Nectar but all also contain flavors that are a very different. With names such as Octospice, Bio Multi Vit and Raspberry Ripple, there's enough to try if you are looking for something unique. I personally like to use a bait that no one else is using, as we know The Cell continues to catch carp everywhere but I have never felt comfortable going into a tackle shop, grabbing a bag of 'the latest fashion' and then heading off to the water.

Milk Protein

As well as boilies Starmer have a vast range of pellets and with the introduction of their new pellet mill it's something that is being taken very seriously. They have two ranges consisting of both high and low oil with an array of different flavors stretching from Hot Chilli Hemp, Bloodworm, Sardine And Anchovy, Halibut and Coconut Fish, amongst others. Once again they all contain natural ingredients that blend very well with the carps natural diet. 

Attractor Pellets

All pellets have a fast breakdown time and pair up perfectly  with the boilies of the same flavor. To go with the pellets you can also get an enhancing liquid that boosts their attraction to provide just that little bit more pulling power. Just like all their products all the Glugs, Liquids and Fish Oils are top grade quality and smell very very potent.

Marine Pellets

Starmer is very much a one stop shop for all bait requirements, this can sometimes put people off because you can get a sense that the company are spreading themselves to thin. This is not the case though with Starmer. All the product ranges have been built up over the years and a great deal of research and thinking has gone into everything that's been produced. Both Ian and Gareth are constantly working on developing new and interesting products and nothing is released until it's air tight and ready to go. I know for a fact that there are a few new plans in the pipeline regarding product development.

Top Grade Fish Oils & Pellet Enhances 

Along with both the boilies, pellets and fish oils there is also a wide range of method mixes. Seeing the popularity of the 'method feeder' being used more and more in carp angling these days, the selection that is available provides you with enough choice to give yourself a nice little edge. Blends consist of Big Fishmeal, Beastie Ball, Red Carp and GLM, amongst others. Once again these can be combined with both the pellets and the boilies of the same flavor. Having used these mixes in the past with success, I can say that they prove to be successful both mixed dry or sloppy, the red carp is ideal for clouding the water when fishing zigs.  

Method Mixes

Along with all the products above you also have the option with the ingredients available to make your own bait. As we know, there's nothing like catching a carp on a bait that you have made yourself. All the four boilie ranges have their own dedicated base mix and there's a huge amount of both flavors and dyes to choose from. There are a lot of flavors that are not actually in the boilies available so you can make a secret blend that is individual to you and you only. These same flavors can be added to both the pellets and method mixes to create some seriously unique scents.

Flavor Selection

In conjunction with the flavors you also have a great range of glugs and dips. The first thing that struck me about these was how natural they smelt. With some boilie dips out there you can get a synthetic quality. All Starmers glugs smell exactly what they're suppose to smell of, white chocolate smells like white chocolate and so on. When added to the boilies all flavors and attractors are enhanced and you can have confidence in knowing you've given yourself the best chance of getting a bite.

Make Your Own

Once again I would like to state that I am in no way stating Starmer products are all wonder baits and that you should rush out and buy it. I understand that bait, just like rods and reels is a personal preference. I am just outlining the product range for you. As we know location and water-craft are the main aspects that put fish on the bank. If you are sitting behind a bait that you have 100% confidence in, it makes the experience of the hunt a little more relaxed. 

Banana Cream

Regarding pop ups, it's exciting times, a super buoyant, ready to roll pop up base mix has been developed that can be made straight from the bag, it can be used on rolling tables of any size or even rolled on the bank for instant results. Used in combination with any flavour, colour, fish oil or additive you have an infinite variety of pop ups. You can simply roll them into your desired size, then boil for 2-3 minutes and your done, the mix is also suitable for microwaving. 

I have used these pop ups on a variety of weedy waters and they perform very well, you can cast with confidence knowing that your bait is presented correctly. One of the main points that sticks out for me about the pop up range is that they look exactly the same as the bottoms baits and they are 100% fish friendly, there are no nasties within the mix such as cork dust etc.

Super Buoyant Pop Ups

There are a few more products that I haven't included but I think you can get a basic overview of what the company provides. My choice to go with Starmer was from the heart and it's going to play a vital part for me on my angling journey. Getting involved with any company works both ways, the last thing it is for me is a first grasp intent to become a careerist angler. If you are looking at some stage to get endorsed, going in to it with "free stuff", in mind is not the way to roll. As I have said before, fish for fishing's sake, not for the incentive of what you can gain from it. 

I see so many anglers hopping from bait company to bait company saying that each is the best they've used, this says a lot about their character, it gets to the point where you can't take anything they say seriously. That side of angling makes no sense to me at all, just like my drumming and music, you have to believe in what you do whole heartily, be it plastering a wall or catching fish. I chose Starmer because not only do I believe in their bait but I also believe in both Ian and Gareth, commitment and honesty are two of the main traits that make an angler, not how many sponsorships they have. 

Starmer Baits Web Page