You’ve been given lots of good advice from Paul and Shaun and I would agree with most of what has been said already. I have used the Crab baits for years and at various stages of its development while field testing. I have caught everywhere I’ve fished with it including a number of forties (UK, France and South Africa) and a fifty from France – in almost every case the bait had never been used on the lake before and in one case the lake had hardly ever seen any boilies before. It would be my first choice but I have to say I have played around with a small amount of the Liver B8 and I’m going to give that bait a good go this year. I will always have at least one rod on the Crab so it will be interesting to see how it fishes.

Personally I would always take a 20kg sack of dried hempseed to prepare as I go along if self cooked particles are permitted on the lake. Two sacks between the two of you should be enough for the trip. I have used rehydrated boilies for a number of years and fresh hemp water is an important component and the cooked seeds are a carp magnet just about wherever you use them.

I also agree with Paul’s advice about other species at the lake – do find out before you go. If there are a lot of ‘nuisance’ fish like bream or tench and ESPECIALLY the dreaded poisson chats then you will need to think carefully about what bait to use. If the poisson chats are present then I’d go with a particle approach as they don’t like these – they don’t feed in cold conditions but as you are going in August then if they are there then they will find your bait! I would put out beds of hemp or other mixed particles (seed mix, garlic feast) and fish tigers or maize on top as hookbaits. I would also have at least one rod on pineapple crush with just a small bed of free bait around it – say thirty to fifty baits.

The only really different piece of advice I would give is that if there are no poisson chats and not large numbers of other species then I would use 10mm boilies in conjunction with particles – in effect using small boilies as a particle. Everyone goes to France thinking big fish = big bait. I have had loads of success with smaller baits over the years especially if everyone else is using 20mm plus baits.

Have a great trip and let us know how you get on.

Elie G

I would take either the Special Crab and/or the new Liver B8 to be released March 3rd. The Crab has been instant everywhere it has gone and is a food item the carp simply recognise as a food source right from day one.

The Liver is a bait I have been working on for a long while and made the final tweaks last summer whilst spending a lot of time stalking fish and watching their reactions to alternate versions with juggled ingredient amounts. I feel I can’t improve this bait now and have so much confidence in it the Liver was the only bait I took with me apart from a half used bag of Crab when I went over to fish St Christophe and Island lake last August.

I do like to incorporate a little background feed in my baited areas too. Similarly it is down to a confidence thing again but for a couple of years now I find myself carrying nothing more than Garlic Feast particle mix when visiting waters I don’t know.

Hope this helps
Best fishes
Shaun Harrison