Nashbaits Top Rod boilies are made from our own base mixes so there is several very unique recipies that are matched to the best flavour recipies we have ever tested. All the base mix ingrediants we use are either human food grade or the best animal feed grade we can obtain. It's simply not in our interest to use anything else and it's very important to us to keep the high quality. We blend all of the Top Rod base mixes on site which ensures each ingredient is inspected as we open each bag. It's so much better and it allows us to see the seasonal differences in some of the ingrediants. For instance, fish meals do vary slightly on aroma and quiet a lot on coloration, this we fully understand as they are natural products with little processing but if for instance, they came in to moist or really powdered it would be rejected. If the Soya was too moist, or dark, or had a stronger aroma than it should have it would be rejected, and so on. We keep to the same suppliers that we trust which keeps the ingrediants consistent, ordering on product code numbers and we keep our specification sheets up to date (part of our analytical chemist’s job). We can't afford to have mistakes on our ingrediants as it can effect our production. 

Each individual ingredient has been tested regards its attractiveness to carp, not just in tank tests but on fished lakes. For instance, egg albumin attracts very little response from carp whereas whole egg powder they love. So we don't use any egg albumin in our recipies. Several fish meal types had poor responses from the carp so we only include the best response fish meals in our baits and so on. There isn't room in a boilie to have any ingredient they don't like included, even if it can be masked with flavours, there is just no point. 

Another very important ingrediants control is storage. We always stock-rotate all products in the factory, even including empty boxes. It's air conditioned where the main ingrediants storage area is, not for our own comfort but for the best keeping of the ingrediants. We buy little and often, rather than bulk buying so we actually turn our stock round very regularly. Many ingrediants are bought weekly, others twice monthly and hardly any once monthly so anything we make is with ingrediants as fresh as possible. We use our own baits for our personal fishing and want to use only the best; it isn't hard to work out so it's the best way. 

Attractors wise the Top Rod boilie recipies are mostly blends of Nashbait attractors manufactured on site in the lab. Some recipies are more intense than others containing as many as 8 different flavours, powder additives and of course the base mix ingrediants smell/taste. The ratio's of each additive is in some instances critical. For instance to much Red Liver oil in the Scopex Squid will mask the Scopex and the bait will not work as well. 

So, the Top Rod boilies are very good food, designed to feed mature fish (the big ones) and have a complicated nutritional make up from a wide range of different ingrediants so the food signals are difficult for the carp to identify so the recipies are very long lasting, just like a good flavour recipe. The Top Rod boilies combine science with exceptional practical field testing to ensure they are the best food avaliable. Because we fish for the carp, simple recipies are not as effective and just don't work for as long. Nash Top Rod recipies have been proven for decades and are the top fish catchers now that they were in their development years, quiet simply the carp’s food requirements have not changed so why alter the basic food sources. 

In the UK we now only supply 4 Top Rod boilies, mainly due to the limited types of waters we fish. There are very few anglers that fish rivers, canals and the much larger low stocked waters, mainly because all our big fish live in relatively small lakes, irrigation reservoirs and gravel pits. Although there is a lot of UK bait companies very few have even 4 regular baits so Nashbait still offers a wide range in comparison. What we have noticed is most other companies bring a out a new bait one year than another the next year and so on, dropping their old ones less than a year old sometimes. We very rarely do this because we take every effort to only produce baits that have a long life, "food baits". Good food baits will be complex and will not achieve their attraction from just one source, the latest "super ingredient" which as attractive as it may seem will soon be recognized as a dangerous smell/taste. Any good bait will be instant but really good baits will have a long life and will mostly be a Nashbaits. 

In Europe the anglers fish a much more varied water system, with a vastly different ecology to UK waters. The natural food types are often totally different to what is found in the UK. Larger mussels, cray fish and other food sources are abundant so it is much more likely that each water is going to be "special" so it’s better to have a choice of more bait types. Some anglers might disagree but Gary Bayes has proven several times that one bait can be better than another on a certain water, even in just one session. For instance, Gary fished in a French river from a friend’s garden and Monster pursuit out fished Scopex Squid in a hot summer session, but the Scopex Squid caught the 2 biggest fish. Bait can be so interesting and it pays to keep an open mind regardless of your favorite flavour. Without a choice in bait you could be fishing without results simply because you are offering the carp the wrong bait in the wrong water on the wrong day. Experiment with different baits a little and you’ll definitely have fewer blanks. 


Scopex Squid. 

Base Mix; Fishmeal Squid 

Flavours; Scopex No 1, Red liver oil and intense sweetener. 

Comments; this could take a full book, Scopex squid has cirtainly been one of the worlds most serious carp baits for decades. It sounds a simple recipe but in fact is one of the most successful blends that contains both oil and water soluble products as attractors. The 3 x Scopex, 5 x Red liver oil and 1 x intense sweetener that is the liquids in the Scopex Squid work in any base mix and was originally being used in the Amber Attractor, many years before the arrival of the Squid mixes. Scopex Squid, another UK record breaker, many times over. 


Scopex Squid Red 

Base mix; Fishmeal Squid with added Robin Red 

Flavours; Scopex No 1, Red liver oil and intense sweetener. 

Comments; this is the same as the Scopex Squid except the addition of low levels of Robin red. Yes, colour does make a difference, nearly always, you only have to ask a match angler or change from red to white pop-ups and there is a difference to catches. Some waters do respond far better to the darkish red colour instead of brighter colours and the washed out colours that most baits go in the water for a few hours. 

Amber Strawberry 

Base mix; Amber attractor/fishmeal squid blend. 

Flavours; Big Strawberry, oil palatant, Scopex No 1, Liquid liver extract and Protaste and Intense sweeteners, also avaliable as Amber Attractor Top Rod Formula. 

Comments; Amber Strawberry was originally designed as a winter bait but has been adjusted to be a great all season mix. The Scopex No 1 and the Fishmeal based Squid mix are summer/all season blends which together with the Amber attractor mix and the Strawberries make up a very good all season mix. The bright white colour puts some anglers of but during field testing white was the best colour in cold weather and proved just as effective in the summer, possibly because it is different to most other angler’s dull baits. Amber Strawberry is the best winter bait we have used in years.