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I would hazard a guess some of the cattle feeds are used on mass in a good few of the mainline baits and many others for that . Have a google at cattle biscuit feed and look at some of that gear its the same stuff sold to us under different names imho.
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I would say forget about the ingredients and focus on what works. Bait thinking has come a long way and most people are now questioning the brainwashed HNV theory, look at bird foods and nut baits!
End of the day we are feeding a fish and I will go back to my favourite thinking, look at pellets, cheap as chips and gives fish virtually everything they need to grow, promote health and survive
Mainline know more about bait then anybody who has been in their shed for 5 years, it’s that simple, they have access to the latest technology which I am sure will be incorporated in their baits. It’s the Activ element that makes them work for me, the one that people question on here every month once they figure it out
They are cheap ingredients, fact, but it’s how the bait works so unfortunately if you want to use mainline you have to pay for it, as a usual heavy baiter, sometimes less can be a lot more
I will say this though some have not stood the test of time like others
Activ 8, CELL have stood the test of time, I dread to think how many fish they have put in the bank
Assassin 8, Maple 8, Proactive pineapple, Fusion and NRG have been questionable in comparison for me listening to users and what I have seen on the bank but ask some people and they will rave about them, my mate loved maple 8 and it did him proud many times unlike the NRG which was the best bream bait I have ever seen
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In reply to Post #1 Mainline has stumbled across a formula whereby they can mass produce bait, from largely inexpensive ingredients that still catch a lot of fish.
I don’t agree with the term crap. They are clearly not crap because they catch fish and fish keep coming back for more. They are just not the expensive, high quality ingredients some like to include in their own bait
You are either a believer that high quality expensive ingredients produce better results over time or you fall into the camp whereby you think fish eat their own excrement and it makes no difference at all.
This along with some clever marketing aimed towards newcomers to the sport and the casual angler that picks up a kilo of bait intermittently from their local shop mainline are smashing it.
It wouldn’t be my choice but each to their own.
I’m sure cell would catch just about anything that swims.
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In reply to Post #13 The ingredients can’t be crap if they catch a lot of fish, which is surely what it’s all about? There was a time when the best milks were being outfished by Richworth readymades on a lot of “proper waters”.
And the prices are double as the local suppliers are cutting out one or two middle men. Mainline aren’t selling at £15 or whatever a kilo, the shop is.
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In reply to Post #9 It catches fish but mainline cell are very expensive. ( 15 ish Euro/kg baits) No doubt there profit is huge on every kg of bait they sell. Prices are double compared to ‘local’ bait manufacturers.
You can argue what you want but the main ingredients of mainline cell are crap ingredients…
Maybe the baits can be an active bait or filled with taste enhancers, but I won’t pay high prices for a bait that exists out of 90% crap ingredients.
That said, everyone has opinion right?
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I tried the new grange around 10/12 years ago coupled with Bailey’s cream in November on the river and done really well with it,it had a biscuity type smell I think could be wrong.
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I first used Mainline years ago when I was rolling my own baits and it was amongst the first ‘commercial’ offerings I used rather than sourcing individual components. That first foray was the Grange CSL and it was a game changer. My catch rate soared, my confidence soared as well. I bought the bags of dry mix, the part 1 and 2 active steep and used the sweetener and never felt the need to customise their recipe. There used to be small bits of strange light coloured/ opaque rubbery bits in it that I took to be some form of gristle, maybe animal based??
Over the years tried theOpal, Active8, Maple8, Fusion without any great enthusiasm but Cell was on another level. Then came what I regard as the best ever Mainline Bait - ProActive Pineapple. Devastating bait but never really gained traction with most people for some reason.
Fished it at Dreamlakes in around 2010/2011 when everyone was on the Cell and vast quantities were going in. Fished ProActive pineapple hookbaits and a very small half handful of pineapple over big beds of cell and did really well including the then lakerecord of 61lb. It was an excellent bait.
Although not scientific I once had a pot of relish given to me in a collection of breakfast type pastes and on opening it just smelt Cell. Looking at the contents the main ingredient was Anchovies and this sent the brain cells 8nto overdrive. I also reckoned that ProActive Pineapplewas 80% Cell with Pineapple flavouring.
On paper Mainline does seem reasonably crap ingredients but you can’t deny it has put some good fish on the bank.
For me they should go back to basics, have a range of Grange CSL, Cell and proactive Pineapple in pre rolled and dry format for the bait making fraternity.
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In reply to Post #9 Cell has also been hammered into masses of waters nationwide, effectively pre-baiting for the next user.
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In reply to Post #7 hmmm
not quite as simple as that though is it?
no arguing that the cell is one of the best carp catchers ever - the ingredients list on the bag shows that it's made from "crap" but quite clearly excludes the active ingredients that seem to make fish love it
have a huge amount of respect for the mainline guys - everyone guesses what they out in their baits to make them work but not many truly know. their connections to the food industry mean they have access to some of the best taste enhancers available.
if I was in a tackle shop & needed to buy a bag of bait off the shelf, I would still go for one of theirs every time.
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In reply to Post #5 Yeah, I did use the Assasin-8 for a bit when it first came out, just to see what it was like, but I preferred the Active-8, so went back to that. I’ve never used any of the more recent mainline baits since, like the NRG, fusion, hybrid, cell, essential cell, link, or isofish, so can’t comment on those. All I know is around the time the fusion was around, the A8 changed and I dropped it.
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In reply to Post #1 I would say:
Go to a shop, read the ingredient list on the bag and decide if you want to premium prices for a normal bait…
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In reply to Post #4 Activ /8 was a fantastic bait.
I use to buy a milky toffee from Bevan carp tackle that was also a cracking bait im not sure that was ever massed produced .
Long time ago so I could be wrong .
I’m fishing a water in Belgium this year that sees a lot of mainline but I’m loathed to pay shop prices and I’m out of the loop with all the lads that sell mainline at reasonable rates.
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In reply to Post #4 Fusion was before cell not used mainline for about 10 year now
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In reply to Post #1 I fell out of love with mainline as soon as the Active-8 changed. I think Fusion was the latest of their offerings at the time from memory?
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Cell seems to catch everywhere as there's loads going in but better bait out there
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