Hi everyone!
Before I get Wayne Dunn to speak on his story regarding bait making from the early 80's, I want to introduce you to a short story so you can all understand where this collab comes from.
I met Wayne probably about ten years ago now, when I was still importing old school Daiwa reels from Japan. He hit me up as I got 3 mint Daiwa SS9000 Millionmax with 8 spools for sale. It was at the time such a big hit for me, they quite literally left my bank account empty. We got to a deal and a week later Wayne's new reels arrived. Since then we kept in touch, although it was pretty much brief contact, we shared some bait making experiences and the struggle it sometimes goes with.
It must've been last year we really clicked and Wayne got around to ask me to do him some special hookbaits. Wayne and his better half moved to France last year where he continued making baits as he did in the UK.
Limited Edition Baits France was born and speaking with Dunny over the phone I knew he knocked on the right door for rolling his hookbaits. We agreed to his very specific recipe and as they say the rest is history!
Here goes Wayne:
My bait journey began for me in the early eighties making Cat biscuit type HNV specials and progressing onto formulating boilies from milk protein based type ingredients. In those early years Milk protein based HNV type ingredients were used based on the famous Fred Wilton theory of feeding the fish a nutritional food source that the fish would learn to recognise and associate with well being.
This is the recipe I was using back in 84 that accounted for my first Twenty pound plus carp and the following year my first 30lb plus carp which was an incredible achievement back when fish of that size were very rare even on a national level.
The next big shift in bait circles came in the late eighties when we began using Fishmeals within the baits, this proved very successful and made fishing low stock waters an achievable goal, and so I began my quest for bigger fish which led me to the home of British big carp at the time and still legendary place, Yateley, culminating in my capture of one of Britain’s most famous big carp, Bazil.
Hookbait formula also began to evolve particularly using buoyant hookbaits (Pop ups as we now know them) the use of ingredients such as Sodium Caseinate made the hookbait buoyant enough to presented off the debris on the lake bed giving a superior presentation.
Rigs also played an incredible part of the big carp catching jigsaw.
Rigs such as the Hinged stiff rig first revealed to me on the banks of Yateley by a very young and gifted angler by the name of Terry Hearn.
These new and ultra efficient rigs used in conjunction with cork ball inserted pop ups were a real game changer and certainly proved the downfall of some famous and wily old carp.
In my experience, quality of bait and presentation is probably one of the key advantages an angler can have in his armoury today. I have been making bait commercially now for over 12 years both back in the UK and also here in my new home in South West France.
It has been a pleasure sharing my knowledge enabling anglers to make their dreams come true all over the world from the tiny canals of the Midlands back home to grand world theatres such as Rainbow and the record breaking Euro Aqua.
To match my lifetime commitment this year I have decided to make a collaboration with my old friend Dieter Van Looveren, his company has established itself as being one of the finest in Europe producing some incredible classic old school bait formulations from hard hookbaits to ultra buoyant pop ups, Dieter is a perfectionist and his product showcases this.
For us at Limited Edition baits France the collaboration represents a new and exciting beginning for our company and we are incredibly proud of this.
Tight lines, Wayne & Dieter.
