shelf life or frozen

Hiya guys..

I was wondering if some of you could enlighten me as to what the pro's n cons are of both frozen boilies and shelf life boilies.. ?

I would imagine it has something to do with freshness of the bait, but it is mere speculation..

Cheers for any help you can provide..

Matt

Matt, I would like to express an opinion to the question you have raised. The new Ashford Tackle 2006 range of boilies are supplied in vacuum sealed bags - ready to freeze. They must be freezed upon opening, but are okay for 3 months if the bag is not opened. In our opinion preservatives significantly reduce the effectiveness of good quality boilies. Therefore, Matt, the main advantage of frozen against shelf life is the fact that preservatives are not(or should not be) present.
Please check out our new 2006 ATS Fruits of the Sea Ready to Freeze boilies and Pop Ups at www.ashfordtackle.co.uk along with our range of fishing tackle at very competitive prices (with free delivery on certain products/orders).
Tight Lines.
Ray.

Im no detective, but i reckon you work for some kind of fishing bait company called Ashford Tackle.

Surely not?

I think that Ray has been a F/M member for about 3 years ,first time that I have seen him post ,runs 3 top tackle shops down here in the south east of kent .

and a french lake............I fink

frozen boilies far far out catch shelf life boilies so use frozen and if you come to a case where you need shelf life i.e. france for a week then air dry some frozens
also most shelf life boilies are to dear to pre bait etc

There are some strange anomalies out there on this subject.
By preserved most people refer to bait that has some sort of mould inhibitor within the bait.Preserved bait can mean frozen or air dried , just different ways of preserving.
The mould inhibitor type of preservative can be chemically manufactured or simply salt.I.e. salted fish or salted beef allied with drying out.
Shelf life boilies include a mould inhibitor and need semi air drying.Imagine you are a bait firm.You are not Mistral or Richworth so you do not have or want the expense of huge premises or expensive driers to semi air dry tons of bait. All you want is quick turover at the cheapest cost possible.Now we go back a few years to when the only commercial boilies available after the initial frozen bait era of Richworth were Shelfies such as Richworths Crafty Catcher Alan Parberry and Mick Richardsons baits.These guys all had (have) the space and ability to semi air dry shelf life baits.Along comes a new crowd starting up in small premises who need to turnover quick profits to keep going.Maybe a few lines in the angling (Carp) mags to the effect that frozen bait outfishes shelfies with the reason of Carp detecting the preservatives given.All vey handy.As we know once a myth is circulated no matter what is said it will be believed, abrasion resistance and braid is another.
Add to this the thousands of fish (not just carp)that are caught each year on baits straight off the shelf and I for one have no evidence and am not at all convinced that a frozen Source boilie (for example) will catch a fish before a shelf life one.I have yet to meet anyone who has sat with one of each in front of them on their rigs for long enough with emphatic evidence to be at all convinced one is better than the other.Only my theory really but also that of a few others I know who do catch a lot of fish on shelfies.

well Ive done my research and Ill stick with frozen

also when a local lake was drained they took two transit loads of ready mades away that had not broken down but were rotting,can this be good ?

now were on a boilie ban but can use tigers.................strange

I'm with cakey here, I've also done my research and I've come to the same conclusions!

Frozens far outfish shelf lifes!

........and for the reason stated above by cakey, many fisheries now ban shelf-lifes!

Matty, it depends on which shelf life baits you use.
I have used Mistral readymade baits for years and can honestly say that they will catch as many if not more fish than frozen baits.
The 2 I have had the most success on are the Rosehip and Remedy.
In France I would rarely if ever use anything else. Especially if the water contains poisson chats. I've caught hundreds of carp on them up to 47lbs in weight.

Cheers guys..

Would really like to get out once more carping before the close season arrives, but I dont know if Im going to be able to..

maybe monday or tuesday.. but due to the conditions, which are due to be pretty cold so I understand, I think Ill stick to maggots on a clip, with a few in a pva bag, so I might give frozens a bash in the new season..

cheers for the help n info guys..

"also when a local lake was drained they took two transit loads of ready mades away that had not broken down but were rotting,can this be good ?" not good Cakey almost unbelievable who witnessed this ? was it the committee that wanted boilies banned,could it be another urban myth? If it is true I assume one manufacturers bait was involved ? because Mistral Richworths and Dynamites turn to mush within a reasonable period, long enough to fish overnight anyway.
Cakey and Malc I would like to hear what your research was, others would too I dare say.
I currently use frozens from a little firm locally not because I think they would be better than a shelf life (I have no proof)but Tim at Chiltern doesn't do a shelf life and they are top notch bait at cheaper prices than the commercially available baits frozen or shelflife.
I did use Mistrals isotonics for part of the summer as I had a load left over from France.No change in catches were noticed in fact on the Thames they were often 1st to go.

Deecy ACA I totally agree with everything you've said. I've had that 2 vans, or was it 2 tons, of bait run out at me umpteen times and have yet to find anyone who has witnessed it. One version had the lake bottom almost 2 feet deep in places of undisolved boilies. The number 2 seems to be a common factor. Usually this story is passed to me by anti boilie people, usually non carp anglers.
I believe the reel truth of the matter is that a quality frozen or shelf life bait correctly used in the right place will catch fish.
A lot of the theory on frozen being best is created by bait firms and their sponsored anglers for the simple reason that they are trying to sell more bait. Hence the following type of comment / article in the carp magazines:
I had the lake to myself, on arrival I put in 5kgs of quality frozen bait - not shelf lifes cos only a fool uses them. I followed this up every couple of hours with another kilo. I caught umpteen carp, the more money, oops sorry I meant bait, I threw in the more I caught blah, blah, blah.
At the end of the session I still had 5 kilos left, because it had thawed out I threw that in to make sure they really had got the taste for it, besides you really shouldn't refreeze it. In some articles I've read the angler "uses" more bait in a 2 day session than I would use in a week in France - ?150+ not being uncommon.
How about a survey to prove out what is best? I believe in using statistics to answer questions like these.
To kick this off lets pick a lake a lot of guys on this site have fished, I suggest Etang De Vaumigny France. I've fished it twice, a week each time and used Mistral shelf life baits. In total I have caught 51 carp and 3 Sturgeon. How does this compare with other peoples results on any other type of bait on this lake?

David, my 'research' for want of a more appropriate term, is simply down to my own observations over several years.

If you ever get the opportunity, go out in a boat and take a look at the lake bed with a glass-bottomed bucket (if their still around?) or better still try snorkelling. It really can be an eye-opener at times.

I have also experimented in clear water reasonably close in, in the margins, where quite large amounts of bait could be observed from climbing up a tree. I have watched both frozen and shelf-life baits in this situation - these observations are from which I base my comments.

All of us could quote individual baits that we have caught well on - but these are simply our own individual opinions on what bait has worked for us. So it really means nothing!

If carp are feeding then they will feed - simple as. However, particularly on harder waters, the quality of the bait will be more of a determining factor. One can gain instant success on any old crap (not implying any of the above are) but where bait needs to be established as a food source, then quality will come into its own.

It is my opinion that a quality fresh-frozen boilie, will therefore, outfish others.

Try maggots, worms and casters : @ )

"To kick this off lets pick a lake a lot of guys on this site have fished, I suggest Etang De Vaumigny France. I've fished it twice, a week each time and used Mistral shelf life baits. In total I have caught 51 carp and 3 Sturgeon. How does this compare with other peoples results on any other type of bait on this lake?"



Wooly - you are trying to compare the incomparable!

Who is to say that you would'nt have caught exactly the same had you used a different bait - frozen for instance?

Or you may have caught even more had you used what some people may deem a superior bait?

Who knows? Its an impossible one to answer!

Catching fish Wooly, is not just about bait, its about rigs, its about presentaion, its about finding the fish - etc, etc, etc.

The only possible way of getting anywhere near resolving such an issue is to find the fish, present two different baits in an identical fashion, and do this test over a long period of time.

Only then could it really be discussed properly, until such time it is different peoples opinions based on their own observations.

I for one, do not follow the trend or state something because I've read it in a magazine - I never buy any of them!

Malc the key word in your response I believe is the word "quality".
I accept that a lot of shelflife baits are cheap nasty rubbish, with poor ingredients, with very limited applications and uses. (There are some occassions when even these will outfish quality baits.)
There are however within the shelf life bait ranges some that are of exceptional quality. The wholesale labelling of frozen good, shelflife bad is my main concern. There are no doubt many frozen baits out in the world which are only shelf life baits that have been frozen and not preserved. I would not label these as high quality, they are just frozen crap and not preserved crap.

Can't dissagree with any of that Wooly.

Ah well, Matty asked for pro's and con's of each - I think his questions has been answered.