I don't think it would make much difference. My family was in the tackle business in the 70's thru to the early 90's and we didn't sell all these manufactured baits, I don't think the "catch a tame carp on an over expensive pole in a stock pond fad" had taken off by then.
Back in the day, the majority of the anglers we catered for were river/canal fishermen and depending where they were fishing, bought bait accordingly. ie Middle Severn/ Avon, 4-6 pints of maggots ,plus casters. Lower Severn/Avon less maggots/casters and more loose groundbait. (We used to sell brown and white crumb by the pint). They would use all of it in a single match. They had watercraft in those days. Not like now where it seems one size fits all. The mark-up on maggots was next to nothing but we made money on groundbait and actual tackle. Maggots were always a loss leader to get people into the shop. You know what anglers are like in shops, they nearly always see some thing they think they might need and buy it.... We used to make sure of that...!
In those days we could get the latest gear in for people to look at and get a feel for. 9 times out of 10, they would buy it, plus all the bits to go with it, with a discount, of course!
What killed it for many small shops, including us, was mail order and the new "fishing superstores" which were basically mail order stores selling bulk tackle cheaply. Put Fleabay in the equation and you have the demise of many a local tackle shop. What really p****d us off were the chaps that came in enquired about, say a new rod on the market, which we got in for them to check it out and then go mail order for it, coz it saved 'em a fiver. They didn't seem to realise that we could have probably beat that price and they could have the rod there and then without postage costs....
IMHO if the shops/suppliers stopped selling all the artificial c**p most so called angers would probably give up. I fish with a guy who has no watercraft whatsoever, can't fish with anything but his £2000 pole, with matching seatbox, clothing and pellets in stock ponds. I took him river fishing once he says he can't be bothered with rivers coz they're too much like hard work..... He had to walk all of 100 yards to his peg and coldn't use his pole, poor chap!
I think the artificial bait trend is manufactuer led, as most things in the tackle industry are. After all, the fish as far as I am aware haven't changed the diets in years.....
