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Apologyâ€¦
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nexus6

Posts: 101

#23 27 Jul 2025 at 9.36am

I totally get how social media/forums can grind your gears. For years (going right back to RMC days) I just lurked and never posted a thing. I'm a non publicity angler and it just seemed the one to keep a low profile. But a few years ago and I can't remember what it was, someone asked a question on here and I felt the need to reply so I did. I don't post often, usually if I've got some particular knowledge that I'm happy to share.
When Twitter first arrived I was a prolific user, tweeting at least once a day, albeit that was all focused around my ski holiday business, but even then there were trolls/morons/business rivals. The internet is an easy place to make an anonymous attack. Back in the day my business had it all - for me at the time fake Tripadvisor reviews were a particular problem.
Thankfully I sold my business and pretty much retired before advertising was based around FB, Instagram and TikTok.
I don't know TC (Mark) and have only really dealt with him as a customer, but we have had a few exchanges via WhatsApp. He seems to be a nice, normal chap selling to my mind the best hook baits out there. I know if I had the trolls chasing me 24/7 I'd defiantly have gone outside of this forum into the real world to track them down! So kudos to TC for being big and calm enough to apologise.
Now whilst I'm on the subject of annoying fourm users; receive a PM asking a Q, send an informative long written reply containing 30+yrs of info/experience and then don't even get a one word thanks message in return............................unfortunately this hobby of carp fishing, that we all love, does seem to attract more than it's fair share of ignorant morons!!

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#22 25 Jul 2025 at 9.09pm

Bit silly/unnecessary talking about large sums of money on a fishing forum.

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#20 25 Jul 2025 at 10.18am

In reply to Post #18

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#19 25 Jul 2025 at 10.08am

In reply to Post #17
Thank you Roger

scozza

Posts: 17885

#18 25 Jul 2025 at 9.53am

Are we sure nobody has hacked TC account, things don't seem normal anymore

55s

Posts: 565

#17 25 Jul 2025 at 9.30am

It’s a good post and point, but it’s not an apology and nor should it be - it’s an explanation of your passion and protectiveness of years of hard earned lessons.

The trouble with the internet is that it’s full of faceless opinions - unlike pub gardens in my day when discussions could be had and on occasions you either amend your own views or concede there is merit on both sides.

I have really strong views on many things, some I just can’t compromise on and expend too much energy trying to convince others I’m right and my fall back is always ‘I don’t really care - but”. I would hate to earn a living from fishing and would be the worst salesman ever, I’ve done some shows with some bespoke pieces and we got to the stage we banned anyone from the stall clutching an NGT bag - with a not so polite, this isn’t for you - we got bored of trying to justify value, innovation and overheads. Buy or don’t buy.

Age gives you wisdom, it doesn’t extinguish passion but you spend more time contesting proper values than engaging with people who actually exist to be contrary like a radio DJ.

I love bait as a subject and in 40 plus years have had various phases of making, planning, buying and tweaking but it’s all just a game. The answer to one puzzle is rarely the answer to a different set of circumstances. In your writings Mark - I think you have always been very good at landing that point. The hemp, tigers, curing etc. the success of these tactics is not in the purchase but in the understanding - the why and when they work. I have used and still use your baits, they always have a place in my bag, not always on the hook but for the opportunity they bring. Are they good - very - are they magic? Absolutely not - but that is my opinion- not fact.

Understanding differing POV is so important - humouring idiots is pointless and exhausting. The internet was built for porn - and has become a replacement for learning. Ask any Dr who’s patients self diagnose by Google - the same people that tell you that this or that is better or that you’ve got it all wrong, or that they can achieve the same for 50p.

Maybe knock a few edges off but the world will be a sad place when we can’t have constructive debates amongst sensible posters. Life lessons and lightbulb moments can happen at anytime - I listened to a pod cast earlier this year and it changed my fishing this winter - not by blindly following, but by thinking that 10% is spot on.

So my advice (not that I am in any position to give it) is 100% keep the passion, just don’t waste it on idiots that you have no need or want to change their aggressive argumentative sad little internet lives.

whitey79

Posts: 392

#16 24 Jul 2025 at 10.09pm

It takes a big man to apologise respect to u mark

Even though u haven’t t upset me i have the upmost respect for what u just wrote

Now all u have to learn when the haters come is

“ wax on wax off Wax on wax off Daniel son “

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#15 24 Jul 2025 at 10.04am

In reply to Post #13
Ah sorry, there is more than one Sam who has stuff sent to France. Thought you were Mr Clare.

I understand your quote now. I'm not paranoid, however it might seem. As mentioned below, you lot really do not even hear the half of it. Speaking about the negative things of the bait trade all of the time makes Mark a very dull man. If you bring something great to market, everyone else wants a piece of that action. That's carp fishing. Look around at all of the hook bait companies claiming to be 'curing' on their websites. There is only one person that they are all looking at. That's a fact.

Yes I get told all of the time that big commons love it Sam. Get told all of the time that big mirrors love it too. As long as that is always the case, we will be okay. Carp fishing is not the be all and end all. Sounds bliss, the Sea Bass. I'm currently abroad, I spend more time fishing abroad in the sea now than I do for UK carp. When I am in the UK, I work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for a month to 6 weeks straight. No exceptions. Been doing that for years.

People like you are our base customers. Anglers who sit festering on the bank stinking of piss day after day have no money to buy anything. They just ponce, to keep an easy life going.

chewbakka

Posts: 428

#14 24 Jul 2025 at 9.13am

In reply to Post #1
Its good to have you here mate. Thanks for your input

SamB

Posts: 83

#13 23 Jul 2025 at 3.41pm

In reply to Post #12
No, Mr Bale!
Not been out after carp at all this year, only had time for a couple of fly fishing trips and will hopefully get after some seabass this summer on the lures on holiday.

Need to get back into carping in the autumn, but I can basically only do work overnighters, takes some motivation...

Hookbaits work well though, in particular, big commons seem to love those white S2s - you heard that before?

PS : what I meant by the Catch 22 quote is that you can come accross as a bit paranoid, but then you tell some of the stories of what goes on and it becomes more understandable!

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#12 23 Jul 2025 at 2.53pm

Ah, Mr Clare I presume? I hope you're still doing well with them

SamB

Posts: 83

#11 23 Jul 2025 at 2.51pm

In reply to Post #10
Not really, but I catch a few thanks to your hookbaits

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#10 23 Jul 2025 at 1.55pm

In reply to Post #9
I hope for your sake, that your real life angling skill is substantially better than your efforts on here

SamB

Posts: 83

#9 23 Jul 2025 at 1.26pm

In reply to Post #1
"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't after you"!!

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#8 23 Jul 2025 at 10.29am

In reply to Post #7
It's madder than any of you lot could EVER imagine Andy. You don't hear the half of it.

I have just learned to accept it, that's all.

Andy__C

Posts: 1808

#7 21 Jul 2025 at 3.04pm

In reply to Post #1
From the outside commercial bait seems a mad old game. Looks like you are making peace with what sometimes goes along with it and its good vibes onwards

Smudge23

Posts: 474

#6 21 Jul 2025 at 12.09pm

In reply to Post #1
Fair play....

kells

Posts: 5589

#5 21 Jul 2025 at 12.02pm

Fair play Mark.. positivity all round I hope..

scaley&dark

Posts: 5443

#4 20 Jul 2025 at 5.49pm

In reply to Post #1

well said Mark

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#3 20 Jul 2025 at 4.36pm

In reply to Post #2

Baitman

Posts: 4645

#2 20 Jul 2025 at 4.17pm

In reply to Post #1
LINKY POO™ https://youtu.be/f4ySGGFXyNM?si=2SEmuMEBEv0xwdwS

TCarper

Posts: 4115

#1 20 Jul 2025 at 3.02pm

An apology.

I’ve needed to say this for a while now. Just never get the time to do it. I owe a few people who visit this website/bait section an apology. Over the past few years if I have bitten at you for what you would feel is no reason at all… I am sorry.

We all have our faults, I know mine better than anyone. It’s very hard to deal with personally when you see spiteful & underhand people playing very nasty games in the background. I can take criticism, when it’s real, from real customers. The problem for me has been, as carp fishing as a whole has slowly discovered about the hook baits, other men want a piece of that pie for themselves. Over & over again. The upshot of that is, in a format like this one, people can easily play very nasty games. It’s very hard to take, when you read underhand comments over a long period of time, about something very close/personal to you…. Then when you eventually find out that the people making those comments, are not just normal everyday anglers who have an opinion on the products that you produce… But they are in fact men who have desperately tried to replicate what you do for your work, but it absolutely failed for them. It’s quite savage when they then want to direct their venom about that, back at yourself. When that happens once, it hits a spot. When it starts to happen over & over again, it starts to make you a bit paranoid. It starts to make you bite in situations where you should not bite. It starts to make innocent banter, into something else. No one is ever going to admit, “I don’t like him”, “because in reality I want what he has”. “I had a go myself, but it never worked for me”. “So now I’m just a little bit obsessed with him online”.

That’s why I bite sometimes. If I have bitten at you, when that above had nothing to do with you, then I am truly sorry. For a long time I have had an invisible guard up on here. When people from within the bait industry start trying to interact with me, I shut down instantly. The reasons why are detailed above. That has not happened once. That has happened many numerous times over a very long period of time. Some of those people have been just driven by sheer jealousy… Some of them driven by real life severe mental illness. That makes them become VERY obsessive indeed. Learning to accept that all this comes with the territory has been the hardest thing for me to deal with after SHB started. I was obsessed myself, with carp fishing, for my whole life. Learning to accept that this will always happen if things are going great for you, is the biggest lesson I have learned personally as a man. People will only start to target you, when they want what you have. They only want what you have, when things are going well for you. It’s human nature unfortunately. The internet magnifies that massively. It gives men who would not say boo to a Goose in real life, the opportunity to be something else online, which they are not in the real world. I understand perfectly that during my frustrations at all of the above, I have bitten at so many people who had zero to do with any of that. That just makes enemies, for absolutely zero reason.

I just had to learn to deal with the fact that it all comes with the territory. All of the above… It’s actually a wonderful, very beautiful thing. Not something to get stressed about. There will be many people who I owe an apology too. If you read this and think “yeah you dick, you bit at me for no reason at all”, then I really am sorry.


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