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Specialized Hook Baits - Catch Reports Feb 2025
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scaley&dark

Posts: 5428

#37 24 Feb 2025 at 6.49pm

In reply to Post #35
RIP Jack.

As a friend told me years ago, sometimes you just to take a deep breath for a moment.... take one step backwards... have a think, or a cup of tea/coffee, take your time, to take 2 steps forwards.
Little steps.

As you said quite rightly, everything has a solution, just maybe not obvious at the time.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#36 24 Feb 2025 at 6.41pm

This photo has been taken from Jack's friends memorial page for him. The big linear in the middle is the Cotton Farm Lin. An incredibly special carp for me personally that I was so DESPERATE to catch when it lived in Littlebrook. I fished the big lake next to the Dartford bridge for two years trying to catch it twenty five years ago. There was only three mirrors in there, all linears moved from the back lake to stop Essex robbing them. I caught the other two. I never caught the special one that Jack is holding there though.

Jack caught it when it was around 55 years old.

Rest in peace Jack. So tragic for his family & friends.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#35 24 Feb 2025 at 6.32pm

In reply to Post #34
Thank you Darren.

It really had a big impact on me. I was the other side of the world, and burst into tears moments after reading it on a friends feed. Jack had sent me a friend request just weeks before. He had a young son & daughter. I'd never met him. He was never a customer as far as I know. But i cried like a baby when reading it.

Sometimes I am the worst for explaining myself. So much rubbish goes on via the internet, the reality is very little of it matters, not really. I've had numerous problems on this forum. The actual reality is one group, the Enzyme lads were absolutely desperate for me to roll hook baits for their former bait company. That reality, is proof there was no flies on Pete or Dean. They were the very first to try to get me to make their bait into hook baits, put through my process. For damn good reason too. I was never in a position to ever do that at the time for them. That clearly caused much offence, because what came afterwards when they came forwards with the enzyme liquid was always a very bitter reaction to only that. The fact remains, they actually wanted me to do it for them. How that led to what happened on here, with all the fake profiles I would never be able to get my nut around. I gave up trying a long time ago.

Me and Wayne have had our problems. Reality? Wayne purchased one tub of GPB1 from us and caught loads of pukka fish on that single tub. He sent me the photos. I unwisely did not use them, as I did not like the way he was treating another forum member who's mate had died of Covid. I'm not the old bill, should have just posted Waynes photos. That was five years ago now. That led to mucho mucho trouble in various forms that was still going on until very recently with him and Braders. Do I give a single feck? Not at all.

I'm in the very fortunate position where our products results do the speaking for me. I do not need to court the media. I don't need a Teflon smile. I do not need any of you to even like me. I do not need to plow Faceache or Insta. Used to, to get the word out. But our customer base incapsulate the more long standing, better class of carp angler.... And they, via the grapevine are always capable of finding out all the information for themselves, without the internet. Word of mouth is king for long term customers in this game. The internet is not. If a man watches his best mate turn into TH over night, the first few times he uses our stuff. Him, and then all his mates become customers for years and years, or even life. People can chat all of the chit they want on the internet. Nothing can ever stop or even slow that down. You only realise that personally with time.

I'm intelligent enough to know all of my worst faults, I'm a hot headed ***** sometimes. But it's often for specific reasons that people reading do not understand. That's from me not explaining myself clearly. We are all products of our personal environments. Mine was quite a brutal one. That's all.

scaley&dark

Posts: 5428

#34 24 Feb 2025 at 4.32pm

In reply to Post #33
Nicely wrote Mark

If it changes the darkness for at least one person, writing it was very worth it.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#33 24 Feb 2025 at 3.19pm

This is for Karlos, something I've wanted to say for a while.

The day I mentioned the S2 Fizz would be available in a couple of weeks, we received 74 inquiries to the work mobile. We got many more than that, but that was in one single day. Not even a full day. My guess, is the almost the entire amount were non forum members looking in as guests.

If you are reading this and you work in the carp fishing industry (Hi guys

). Despite the fights about bait and constant moaning/biatching.... This forum is actually a truly incredible place for UK carp fishing, and also for your brand.

We command among the very largest numbers of anyone when it comes to 'reach' on one of the other larger forms of social media, more popular with the yoof. But this forum is an incredibly special place and needs supporting more than Faceache.

There's a very good chance now that the S2 Fizz will only be available as special orders for now, to people looking in at this forum when I get back. I will post on here. But they are certainly not going on the website as soon as I thought now.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#32 24 Feb 2025 at 2.33pm

Something different and far more important today before more fish talk. Tragically, another young carp angler with his whole life in front of him took his own life last week. RIP Jack. He was a young carp angler from London. This really hit me hard despite never meeting Jack. But it really struck a chord with me. For reasons you will read below. There is an epidemic of this now going on in this country. As a community, which is made up of mostly young men, this is something that needs speaking about. I understand most if not all of you on this forum are strong independent men who don’t need any advice from me. So just scroll on past and ignore this. If what I am about to write changes one young mans outlook in the bleakness so many face these days, it will be worth it.

Carp fishing offers us something that not many other things can in today’s climate. Not only a love of what we do, but also a chance to absolutely change your own future. As an evolving and fairly new ‘thing’ in the greater scheme of things, there are many opportunities for you reading this to change yours and your family’s future, forever. If I can do that, absolutely anyone can. It does not matter however dark things get, or how much it seems like there is no way out of the situation that you are in…. YOU ARE WRONG. There is always a way.

I had a very privileged start in life. After being born into poverty in Brixton in the 70’s, I watched my father turn himself from a man who could not even read or write, into a millionaire by the time I was ten years of age from scaffolding. Just through sheer determination and pure hard work. Me and my sisters went to a great school, we got an amazing education which I will always be grateful for. When I was thirteen years of age, everything changed in my world. Consequences of which would go on to haunt me until this day. My father lost it all. He owned properties. One of which, a very large mortgage was taken out, in my name to try to rescue the sinking ship. With the help of a dodgy mortgage broker, they set up an identity fraud in my name, before that was even a recognised word. Falsified documents, opened and funded bank accounts to say I was a lot older than I was and earning a great living. All to take out a massive bent loan in my name. He lost it all his business, was declared bankrupt. But for a few years he still had a line of credit in my name. More credit was taken out, including credit cards in my name. A long stream of credit that all got abused and left on me. My mother left my incredibly violent father not long after this. They had been off and on for years. I was now a young man with a pregnant fiancee, about to get married. Little did I realise the consequences of what, or how much he had done, and how badly it would affect the rest of my entire life. At the age of around twenty I woke up to the beast of a man that my father actually was. But I was in a situation where I could do nothing whatsoever about it… Not without my own mum going to jail as his accomplice, as they were still married at the time it all happened. It was nothing whatsoever to do with her. So for the sake of my mother and my younger sisters I decided to swallow what he had done to me. I have never had a credit card in my life. I have had no line of credit ever. I was a complete financial ghost. Even my original birth certificate had been stolen to try to stop me resolving anything. As if that could stop anything if I really wanted to. I now had a young son and was married. I was working cash in hand as a labourer for buttons, but things were good. Until my former wife found out what had happened to me. She was a clever girl, and knew instantly that there was likely not much future for us with the gravity of the situation, and my complete lack of resolve to sort it out, due to the threats of taking my mother down with him. Within a year of her finding out, we were getting divorced. My son was two years old. I lost it all, and knew it was not my fault in the slightest. My son never grew up living with me because of this. I went into a depression at first, where I thought about taking my own life.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#31 24 Feb 2025 at 2.32pm

I got a job in a London casino. This was my chance, and I excelled at it. This was my future, I had a kids type bank account with a card that you could only deposit wages into. Basically the lowest bank account with zero checks that you could acquire at the time. Nothing like that even exists now I'd imagine. Anything else I had tried, would have alerted financial institutions to what had gone on in my head. Which would lead to big trouble for my mum, and creating serious problems for my two younger sisters who were still at school. After a year I was promoted. After two more years I was promoted again. This involved a far more rigorous background check, including family. To be involved in sometimes counting tens of millions of pounds in cash in the count room. Then everything went wrong again. One day I went into work and was called in by security. All casino security tend to be ex police officers. I was being questioned as to who I really was, and what my real purpose was. They were convinced I was there to rob them eventually. None of my details added up to who I actually was. Add onto that my mothers family and it would of looked bad. The story was explained and I could prove it too. I had to beg them not to take this to the police and fraud squad. This was the end of my career instantly. I had it all taken away from me again, when it was not my fault whatsoever. I toyed very seriously with the very serious ideas of taking my own life again. I could see no way out of what my father had done. The sheer distress that this causes inside your own brain, to think that the person who helped bring you into the world and you idolised. That they could totally destroy their sons life before it even started, was a crushing one that it’s hard to even put into words. When something follows and haunts you for your entire life, it weighs heavy on the brain and leaves you with serious trust issues. My father may have been an absolute beast of men, but he pails into insignificance on that front when it came to members of my mother’s family. Karma taught my so called father a harsh lesson in life, when the truth eventually came about within. But that never helped me exercise any demons. I come from a place where grassing just is not an option. After the casino I went back to plastering. I became really good at it. I could earn real good money. I would never own a house in my head, or even have some fancy bank account. But I could earn money from hard work. That was one lesson I did learn from my useless excuse of a father. I've lived my life trying to be the total opposite of him, in every way. One day, while at work late in the evening I blacked out while standing on a pile of bricks. This would happen more and more often. It led me to having a tumour removed from my adrenal gland. If that tumour was cancerous, I would not be here now. It’s one of the rarest forms of cancer you can get, because of the tiny location. Normally always fatal without exception. But I am a spawny little mofo and someone up there still had very different plans for me. Terry Dempsey was one of the people who came and visited me in a SE London hospital. I then spent two months in a cancer ward, watching young men die in front of my eyes. I was so lucky that mine was benign. This was when I joined the RMC forum. Whilst in recovery. One of those young men I watched die in the bed opposite became my inspiration. I still think of him a lot.

I spent two years living on a mattress on my mother’s living room floor. I could barely afford to feed myself. I was to proud to ask anyone for help. I had one thing to my name. What would eventually become the S2. They came about from my sheer love of carp fishing. The exact thing that brings us all together. Through my absolute obsession with my carp fishing, I had discovered a way that I could ALWAYS catch more than everyone else around me. It did not matter who they were, or how great themselves, or everyone else considered them to be. This was the future for me. I set up SHB with a £150 loan for a bag of 5000 cork balls from a girlfriend. From that one bag of cork balls which equated to 142 tubs, some of the most special carp in the UK were banked. An incredible number of very special big UK carp. Anyone who used them properly, saw a monster improvement in their catches, including some of the best anglers around. I was being told by anyone and everyone and anyone, that no one would ever pay (at the time) £13 for a tub of pop ups that cost a lot of money to produce. Not when the most expensive tub available at the time was around £5. That though for something that cost absolute pennies to produce. I knew this was all absolute crap though. As an experienced carp angler, I knew that anglers would happily pay for something that would completely change their whole fishing. Anyone who had them, would literally beg to pay for more.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#30 24 Feb 2025 at 2.31pm

One friend took 16 S2 corkballs to Abbey. He rinsed it. Not just him, his two fishing companions ended up using them as well. They were drying them out in spare landing nets and reusing them after every fish. They banked a truly stupid amount of big carp on half a tub between three blokes. It's things like this that will make it work for you. Not chit chat. The moment that other people got their hands on them on Roach Pit, there was never any looking back.

There was at least three times during that account above when I could see no way out from the situation that I was in. I came very close, to calmly taking my own life. As bad as things can seem, when there seems there is no way out, there is always hope. Everything happens for a reason. Those two months that I spent in a cancer ward were in fact the best thing that ever happened to me. Without it, you reading this would never know who I am, and you would NEVER have got to use the Sugars2. There is always hope, no matter how dark things get. You are lucky to be a carp angler, we are a strange and obsessive bunch of weirdos. But the carp fishing industry has grown out of all imagination over the last twenty years. This gives you an opportunity to make your future different to what the darkness is telling you right now. You just have to be willing to work like a crazy dog, and listen to absolutely NO ONE. Every sausage will tell you that it can’t be done. Every sausage will try to copy you if what you do works out for you. Just remember….

“Imitation is the the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness”

However dark things get, you will get the chance to be great in your world. Carp fishing will give you that chance. The mediocre ones will always tell you and everyone else that you are wrong, whilst at the very same trying their best to imitate you. ‘Friends’ will suddenly become competitors. This just means you are doing things right. **** em. Block it all out, listen to no one. It does not matter if you already know the end result. Anyone worth listening to will never be watching someone else or trying to bring them down. Your inspiration has to come from yourself. No one else. Otherwise you can just join the back of the queue with the mediocre ones doing the imitating. Carp fishing is full of it, in every single way imaginable. If people see you doing alright, there will be ten companies set up tomorrow doing the exact same thing. There is no future in that though for them, no matter how hard they try. Whatever you come up with, it has to really make a big difference. It also has be original. When you find your thing, listen to absolutely no one who tells you that it will not work. There will be many bitter old men doing just that. That’s just life passed them by, or people applying their personal logic to things. You can make anything happen if you want it bad enough. Just be original, and be yourself. Trying to be someone else, will never work.

Five years ago I was very fortunate to see a catalogue in the largest and most respected fishing tackle shop in the UK. In the catalogue, there were handwritten figures next to every single product sold in the shop. These figures were the previous yearly sales of every product. I was never meant to actually see that information. But I did see it. The yearly sales of the best selling hook baits on the market were all there. A few weeks ago, we sold close to three times that entire yearly amount of that best seller. But in just a few days in the very same shop. Read that again and take it in. My younger sister now owns the largest independent real estate agents in London. Built from scratch. My other younger sister works alongside her. She lives in a £14 million house next to premiership footballers and the like. Does that mean I did the right thing? I think so. Does that make me proud now? You can bet it does. That could have all been so different if I had made those different decisions in my life. Or taken it. I have still never had a credit card in my life through no fault of my own, and zero forms of credit until recently. Don’t want, or need any of it whatsoever. Time moves on, and it eventually heals. it all made me the person that I am today. That’s what your scars do. My life is so incredible now for me, I am so lucky and I damn well know it better than anyone.

If you read this, it means you are a carp angler. If you are suffering with similar thoughts at any dark moment like poor Jack who took his life last week, please think again. Carp fishing will give you that same chance. You just need to take it.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#29 24 Feb 2025 at 2.29pm

In reply to Post #28
The express Asia diet is amazing if you can deal with virtually dying Andy

A stone in five days. I done my belt up to notches that have not been seen for five years today. Even my wrist has shrunk, my watch does not fit now.

Feel like a million dollars today. Ten fruit smoothies and a trip to TGI Fridays for a rack of ribs has done the trick. I was hank marving

Andy__C

Posts: 1798

#28 24 Feb 2025 at 12.01pm

In reply to Post #25
Ah no! Gutted for you

5 dayer as well... you soon get fed up of that hotel room.

The pendulum of life.... swings just as far each way.

Best of luck for whenever the journey home is. I've had one of those - still ill and got to do a long flight.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#27 23 Feb 2025 at 12.16pm

Richie fishing a new lake. Catching the special ones straight away. The first fish is a true Leney descendent. Both Banoffee S2.

Parky, 37+ ScopexPineapple S2 over Creamino freezer baits

Forum member Ben, Kingsmead. Pink S2 & ScopexPineapple S2

Forum member Ivans nephew. Just started carping recently, new PB 18lb & a great smile. Well done young man. Banoffee S2

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#26 23 Feb 2025 at 12.06pm

In reply to Post #23
Quote... Is there any news on the Poacher TNM specials you spoke about previously?

Yes mate. I will get Gavin to drop some liquids & base into the TackleBox for me for when I get back. So much to do and so little time to do it.

Glad they are working so well for you.

TCarper

Posts: 4024

#25 23 Feb 2025 at 12.02pm

In reply to Post #22
As a grade one Mayfair trained croupier, you get taught to cheat better than the best cheats ever could Andy. If I tried to walk into a UK casino facial recognition would pull me out instantly. Security would never let me make it past the front reception. While holding a licence it's actually illegal in the UK to even try. Even once no longer a licence holder, if your level of training was such, you will never be allowed in. They have the right to refuse entry to whoever they like.

No more casino for us, I've been literally dying of some horrific gut rot the past five days. Lost more than stone in weight.

ron83

Posts: 2013

#24 22 Feb 2025 at 6.18pm

In reply to Post #23
I never knew the GBP was a nut bait. Might Wang one out tomorrow

weather looks superb.

wagtopus_7

Posts: 6

#23 22 Feb 2025 at 7.33am

Hope you are keeping well Mark. Keep taking their money mate! Everyone loves seeing the house lose 👌 Hopefully the GPB2 keeps doing what It does again for me this year. Is there any news on the Poacher TNM specials you spoke about previously? They sound like something I would definetly like in my armoury 🎣🐟 Keep doing what you do mate, creating those little balls of magic. Lets hope 2025 is another blinder for all those that know👍 #StayOfTheCardboards


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