Vortex Baits

Dal Lake In Winter

On my first day on the houseboat, I was introduced to a very old fisherman who was going to be our chef, he spoke little English, but we seemed to understand each other immediately and he told me that he had been catching carp out of the lake all his life. The following day he beckoned me to follow him to the bow of the boat, opened a lock to a tall cupboard and showed what was to become my fishing tackle (primitive to say the least), a bamboo cane rod rather like a broom handle combined with line like a tow rope, a float made of reed stem and a small nut and bolt for a weight along with a large hook. I remember thinking great I wish I had bought along my two-piece solid glass sea fishing rod and reel purchased from a fishing shop in Whitby, oh well never mind that was all the old man had for me to use and I was going to make the best of it.

After receiving my fishing tackle “What would we be using for bait to catch the Carp?” I eagerly asked. He explained to me that all the necessary ingredients that we required to catch the carp from the great lake were only available in town from the market. He said the very next day he would go and purchase them.

The next day we were all up very early on the boat, as my parents were hoping to capture some great shots of dawn breaking over the lake in all its glory. The old Indian fisherman was soon on his way to fetch the ingredients that he said we needed to make the bait. On his return some while later the two of us sat on the deck of the boat he opened an old sack and pulled out a wooden bowl. He then proceeded to take out the contents which could hopefully create the magic bait that we needed to catch the carp. I instantly recognised some of the ingredients as my mother is a great cook and often used unusual and exotic ingredients from around the globe to create fantastic meals for us. There was root ginger, garlic powder, chilli powder, along with other spicy extracts that I had not seen before and two types of flour. He then proceeded to empty out the spicy natural extracts into a wooden bowl along with water and oil, which he poured in generously out of a bottle. He then proceeded to mix the contents until a spicy paste was achieved/ produced. With a big grin he said that we now had the magic bait that we needed to catch the carp from the great lake, and magic it was the carp loved it.

During my stay on the houseboat, I went on to catch many carp out of the lake but only small ones. I did spot one or two very large carp well out in the lake basking amongst the huge beds of lily pads while out on the boat filming with my parents. Lake Dal has a special place in my heart magical moments and memories, I would like to return one day to the lake the jewel in the crown of Kashmir India and so, the obsession to create baits and catch carp was born.

N.R. Shooter

Nearly a decade ago we took on a new project that we thought may never come to fruition, different shape baits and sizes.

The inspiration of the project came from a friend of mine Mark, who developed the plates required to roll the boilie baits called grubs. We decided to go all out and came up with three shapes of our own based on mother natures designs, we decided to go with cocoons, hives and grubs, after a lot of thought and planning we came up with our own design specification and measurements. These were all submitted to a C.N.C programmer who would choose the materials required for the construction of the rolling plates along with the program necessary to manufacture our baits. We eagerly waited for the day to come when we would receive the plates to put them to the test.

That day came our plates were all here, all we had to do now was to put them to the test. We mixed a small amount of base mix, loaded the paste in to the extruder, cut a new nozzle to the required size, the pumped out the bait and placed it on our cocoon shaped roller, lowered the top board and rolled away. We all eagerly awaited the outcome with bated breath and low and behold our cocoon shape was formed and so our cocoon was born. The shapes were based on a silkworm cocoon, the sectional body part structure was enhanced with depth, the main body with height along with its flat stub ends to produce its unique shape. Our hives are based upon a honeybee comb and the bee’s natural production on their honey larder. The hives bait shape still has the sectional ridges but not so pronounced as our cocoons. The overall surface area is greater, and the ends top and bottom are much flatter. Our grubs have four body sections, along with rounder ends, these are a much longer bait. Our Cocoons are extruded and rolled at 16mm, these baits may vary in size slightly due to the mix, temperature and the pressure applied during our manufacturing process. Our Hives are a much larger bait, these are extruded and rolled at 20mm. Our grubs are extruded and rolled at 16mm, being a much longer bait, these measure 16mm x 30mm.

These three baits are all very time consuming to produce along with being difficult to roll especially our cocoons so please place your order early as not to be disappointed.

Conclusions and results

These three uniquely-shaped baits have proven to be extremely effective at tripping up a variety of specimen fish from lakes, rivers, gravel pits & ponds.

Over the seasons, they have put numerous infrequent visitors on the bank, some of these specimen fish have evaded capture for long periods of time, in some cases seasons or even years.