Pallatrax recently launched an addition to their unique range of baits – The Squabs and shelf-life Cheese Feast Whisker Sticks.
The Manufacturer Says
The Squabs are unique 10mm anti-eject hookbaits that can be hair-rigged, banded or pierced for a variety of species. The Squabs are made in-house at Pallatrax, from a top quality shelf life base mix. They are packaged in quality resealable tubs and each pot contains 125g of Squabs plus 15 free pop-ups. Flavours available include Strawberry, Cheese Feast, Scopex, Shellfish, Bloodworm and Pineapple.
A Pot of Squabs retails at £3.49
The Matching Glug retails at £5.99 and available in 150g resealable tubs in the 10 Pallatrax carp/coarse flavours.
Designed predominantly as an added attractant to The Boilies, its properties allow any bait to be completely glugged, dispersing a high attractant flavour into the surrounding water.
Since it is so thick and sticky, the attractant remains around your hookbait for longer than thinner, water-based flavour enhancers. It is also PVA friendly and so can be used in conjunction with PVA tactics, ie, bags, stringers, etc.
Further to Squabs, Whisker Sticks are now available in two extremely successful flavours: Elixir 6 and now Cheese Feast.
Cheese Feast is an enticing blend of mature cheddar cheese and bacon, flavour enhancers and essential oils. Elixir 6 is a unique combination of Crayfish and Creams and a carefully blended recipe of 6 exceptional flavours and essential oils. As with all of our baits, the Whisker Sticks are made with top grade ingredients, fresh liquid egg and hand-made for excellence.
These sticks are approximately 5” long and 14mm in diameter, of which pieces can simply be broken off to the angler’s required size, and then hair-rigged. An extremely angler-friendly bait, which has a host of advantages. To name but a few, once broken off, their flavour can leak from both broken ends. Their unfamiliar shape can certainly be advantageous, especially when targeting wary fish.
The shape also makes it extremely anti-eject, resulting in very positive hookholds. The Whisker Sticks are easily crumbed and therefore can be used as loose feed, with PVA bags and in the Method. Proper air-drying of the frozen Elixir 6 Sticks will transform them into a longer shelf-life bait.
Don’t forget the Whisker: Drench, Glug, Pellets, Method, and Paste
Initially developed in their highly nutritional frozen form, by popular demand The Sticks are now available in shelf-life, too.
Cheese Feast 400g – RRP £4.95
Cheese Feast 1kg – RRP £9.95
Pallatrax (http://www.pallatrax.co.uk/Default.aspx)
Short Term Review
The truth is that I’ve had limited experience with Squabs and the new shelf-life Cheese Feast Sticks, mainly due to the harsh winter we’ve just witnessed when it’s been difficult to get on the river with any reasonable hope of catching anything.
Graham with a chub a little over 5lb caught on a piece of Cheese Feast Stick
So far I’ve fished only for chub with the new baits, and I’ve had a few nice fish to a little over 5lb, the biggest falling to a piece of a Cheese Feast Stick. They’re certainly easy to use and if you hair rig or band them so that they sit right on the back of the hook shank you don’t get the usual problem of the chub rejecting them, as they do with any conventionally hair-rigged bait on most rivers. I tried the pop-up Squabs too, fishing them popped up an inch or so from a nugget of Heavy Metal and something I’ll be trying a lot more when the next river season kicks off.
I’ve used the Whisker Sticks before in their frozen form and caught barbel and chub on them. As the manufacturer says, they’re convenient and can easily be used in different sizes just by cutting off (better when broken off and left with rough ends) whatever size you want to present. The glug is really thick too and stays on for much longer than most glugs.
Both Squabs and shelf-life Cheese Feast Whisker Sticks are a new and good idea and I’ve no doubt that they’ll catch a lot of fish. The Cheese Feast Sticks have already caught chub to 7lb 4oz and carp to over 32lb.
Graham Marsden
