After a highly successful first outing to review a couple of items from the Marukyu stable it is little wonder I was itching to dip back into the goodie box that had been sent through and put a couple more products through their paces.
As with my previous test I was looking to target barbel, rather than carp, with the range and I selected a bag of EFG 121 Nori Carp Formula Groundbait and a bag of ABR 1010 Protein Formula boilies in 10mm as most likely suspects to help me connect with a beard or two on a short morning session on Berkshire’s River Loddon.
Typical for all of my trips to the rivers so far this season it was a scorcher with bright sunshine, a high temperature and low water to contend with. Not ideal for putting any bait through its paces let alone a new one on what was also to be a first outing to a new venue. However, my previous trip with a pack of Nori Pellets and a different groundbait from the same range had scored first time out on the Kennet and an initial look at my bait for today left me in little doubt they would catch if I could put myself on a fish or two.
As far as the bait was concerned the groundbait was clearly going to be a winner if applied correctly. A fishmeal with an intense and savoury seaweed aroma – umami – I guess would be the best expression to describe the taste when I mixed it with a little water and gave it the usual Welchy taste test. The particle size was medium / large but with a little fine material incorporated which would certainly help to bind it if you were looking to fish it method style or ball it out.
Today my intention was to fish it in a cage feeder and I combined the whole bag with a can of chilli hemp, a can of tuna in brine and a double handful of the Protein Formula boilies I was going to be using on the hook crushed to a medium powder with one of those incredibly useful Krusha devices.
As far as the boilies were concerned they were uniformly sized, a little on the hard side and with a ‘neutral’ colour. Taste is difficult to describe but they was a backnote of very slight sweetness and milk protein combined with a mild fishmeal and seaweed which I found interesting given the trend for most readymade shelflife boilies these days to be ‘ in yer face’ over-flavoured. These were most certainly subtle, but none the worse for that.
As with the previous Marukyu products I looked at these were comprised of 100% natural ingredients and the groundbait bag gave useful mixing instructions. Both bags had zip seals to allow convenient storage between sessions.
It took me a while to finally settle on a swim I was certain would hold fish, which was a long crease downstream of a submerged bush. Typical of the way I tend to fish in summer I spent a couple of hours plopping the groundbait-filled feeder without a hooklength attached into the faster water before putting a bait out.
For my money a 10mm bait is far too big for summer daylight fishing for barbel so I broke one into four and hair-rigged one of the quarters on a size 10 hook on a long hooklength.
I just had the one bite during the hour I fished and it was a cracking barbel which came about ten minutes after I had started.
As I said with my first outing with Marukyu baits one short session says nothing but again they caught for me first time out and I was very impressed. With hindsight I would have coupled the Nori Groundbait I used today with the Nori Pellets I used first time out – I think that could be a terrific combination and doubtless one I shall get to grips with in the future.
Clearly both of the baits I used for this test have applications beyond barbel and I have no doubt carp and bream in particular would love them.
Both of the products I used are available from Marukyu stockists with a full list and details available at Marukyu.co.uk
A 900g bag of EFG121 Nori Carp Formula groundbait retails at £3.99 and a 900g pack of ABR 10mm Protein Formula Boilies £9.99
