I first tried Magic Bread on the day of my first meeting with the all-new FishingMagic team. We’d had a meeting in the morning then adjourned to the lake opposite Richard’s house for a few hours.
We picked a poor day. Usually the place was alive with carp feeding on the surface but today a sharp temperature drop meant only a couple of spots had feeding fish, and both those spots were right where the fish felt very secure, under overhanging vegetation.
Richard, as local expert, put Graham in the hotspot. This was a gap in the far bank bushes where, after raiding Jeff’s tackle box for a controller float, he proceeded to catch a succession of fish off the top on floating bread.
Jeff and I also found some elderly controllers but these soon fell to bits, limiting our casting distance. I went back to my car and after a rummage around found another piece of junk float that was probably 20 years old.
I was using a mismatched telescopic spinning rod and a reel I had in the boot of the car. It was loaded with very old Fireline that had seen better days. It was so old, the line’s coating had started to come off, which made it ‘hairy’ and gave it a tendency to bed-in on every retrieve. So my tackle was rubbish…Well that’s my excuse anyway, because I was casting like a numpty-novice. I just couldn’t do anything right. Every cast dropped short or was snatched so the bait repeatedly came off the hook. Very frustrating. And then I remembered the Magic Bread I had bought from eBay that was in the car.
It’s strange stuff. It seems like it’s freeze dried or something – in a block a fraction the size of a small loaf – and as hard as toast. Cutting it into a few slices was dead easy. I used the Fireline on my reel which sliced through it like a wire through a slab of cheese. Putting it on the hook was interesting at first (like hooking toast) but after reading the instructions and a few tests in the margin I managed it confidently and without any problem. Interesting stuff, as soon as it got wet it swelled up and hid the hook perfectly.
By this time Graham had left for home so the productive swim was available. With yet another totally rubbish cast I was just able to cast into the productive area but, this time without the bait flying off. I watched the white dot of my hookbait as it grew in the water to become a very attractive bait. I didn’t have to wait long before a carp grabbed it and saved me from a blank session.
I have since acquired Magic Bread in two other flavours, Strawberry and Vanilla. My first block was ‘Natural’. I have yet to try these new flavours but I suspect they will be just as good or better than the natural stuff. Having thought about it a bit more, I now plan on trying them out on the local wild-carp lake, using it with a fly rod and a floating line – there’s nothing better on a warm evening. I’m going to try a piece of it on a pellet band as suggested by a pal of mine. I asked several people online for their opinions and only had one negative report. Everyone else seems to back up my pal’s opinion. Here’s what he had to say about it:
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> Its bloody fantastic stuff Geoff. I bought some a while back & whilst
> I haven’t had chance to fish with it yet I did mess around with a few
> bits to see how it performs. As a trial, I prepared some & then lobbed
> it in the fridge. Came back 2 months later & the damn stuff was still
> perfectly usable!
> Absolutely amazing stuff – the flake can be mashed & scrunched hard &
it just pops back into shape when put in water.
> Would it work as a fly-rod bait for carp?
I think it’d be fine for that Geoff. Would suggest hair-rigging it using a
bait band to reduce the risk of the hook tearing out of it.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll let you know how I get on.
One week later:
Just back from a couple of hours on the local wildie lake with the flyrod. There was one other guy fishing with a controller and using real bread – he had about 10 carp by fishing at long range. I had two on magic bread in ‘fly-casting range’. Nothing extreme, trust me! I tried using a pellet band but it didn’t work so I just threaded (stitched) a one-inch strip of crust to the hook and cast it as per normal. It survived repeated casting and did the trick. The fish were only a couple of pound each but it was very satisfying catching them with a flyrod.
So to conclude. Yes. Buy it. A great addition to the tackle box and well worth the £4.00 I paid on eBay. Can’t wait to try it when trotting for winter roach.
Geoff Maynard
