Myles Gibson reveals how his Mulbz came about and what makes them such a special tool in his armoury.
I can remember clear as day where I first came across a mulberry flavoured hookbait, now known as Mulbz. I was fishing on the famous Boundary Water Park at the time, having fished there from the tender age of 9 under supervision from my Nan and Grandad who worked onsite. It was in Jan ’98, I was around 13 or 14 at the time and I got dropped off with all my gear in a swim called The Point. There was another angler set up further down the bank and as you do as a mischievous little kid, I rained down on him with every question I could think of, eager to learn anything and everything I could.
As is often the case, I soon asked what bait the chap was using, and he showed me these yellow pop-ups. I remember smelling them and getting a huge hit of scents. Straight away I was hooked and knew I needed some! They we’re around 13/14mm in size, and rock hard, and he actually gave me a tub.
I raced back to my swim and wound my rods in and attached these original Mulberry Florentine hookbaits on my rigs and lobbed them out to the same spots as before. In all honesty I was out of my depth on there, with just 70 carp in 17 acres, in January, I really wasn’t expecting to catch much!
I walked back up to matey boy to fire more questions his way and no sooner had I parked my bum next to him for another round of interrogation, I could hear my Baitrunner zipping away in my peg! I can remember the scene like it was yesterday, the rod was hooped over and it ended up being a 22lb common. For that time, and as a kid so young, it was an absolute monster of a fish! No sooner had that one had its pictures done, the second was away with another common, this time 14lb. A real cool one, with a scar on one side. In winter, especially on that lake, you’d get the polaroid camera out for a bream and celebrate that, so you can imagine my excitement after what had just happened.
From there, everywhere I went I carried those special little pop-ups, but I kept saving them for special occasions
From there, everywhere I went I carried those special little pop-ups, but I kept saving them for special occasions
Everywhere I went I carried those special little pop-ups, but I kept saving them for special occasions. Eventually I got to know Dave who gave me them and I started to use his baits so could use them much more often. The pulling power of them was something else, I used to wind them in and even if you were fishing in silt, the bait would still be stinking of that distinct mulberry essence. It was never affected by the lakebed, regardless of how bad it seemed underneath.
From there I always kept the baits close to me, but as I started fishing places like Redesmere, where I started meeting other anglers, the knowledge about other hookbaits filtered to me and I ended up making three or four different mixes that I liked to use. There was a squid one, a squid and fruit combination, a blackcurrant flavoured one and of course the mulberry’s. Between that selection, I never diverted away from any of them to other things. These were my go-to hookbaits. They worked back then, so there was no reason to change as time moved on.
As my angling started venturing further afield, and different angling situations presented themselves, I could just tell the Mulberry hookbaits were that little bit more special. I’d fish them alongside other hookbaits and they would trump them almost every time. I even, at one stage, tried playing around incorporating the flavour into a bird food bait, but it just didn’t seem to produce as well as having a single, sweet hookbait amongst feed for the carp to home in on.
I vividly remember returning to Redesmere after catching my target fish from elsewhere. It is a fairly big lake and a good chuck to get to the middle, roughly around 135 yards. The barren area out there was prime for a bit of bait, so me and my mate Ash, decided to give it a go. We filled it in with hemp and boilie crumb and utilised the now nicknamed Mulbz to stand out over the mass of freebies. In short, we had it off, I had four thirties, which was truly proof in the pudding that the Mulbz were ideal for that approach.
With two different mixed coloured variations; Fluoro and Pastel, in 12mm,14mm and 16mm, there really is a size and colour for everyone
With two different mixed coloured variations; Fluoro and Pastel, in 12mm,14mm and 16mm, there really is a size and colour for everyone
Even on Dinton Pastures, I took the same approach on there with lots of small bits of bait like pellets, hemp and boilie crumb. So many small bits and pieces with just as much attraction as a bed of whole boilies, and it just drew the fish in to see what was there. The first thing they’d see and investigate was that little beacon of attraction sitting over the top. Without plugging the death out of it, the results were instant! Whether it was fishing the pastel colours over the bait or using the fluoros as singles during the colder months, they really were something special.
Bringing it all up to date, Sticky are now ready to release the Mulbz to the masses. It took a hell of a lot of work to get them right. By nature, I’m such a fussy and meticulous person when it comes to things like this. Thankfully, we have come up with a combination of liquid and powdered additives that just work so well together, to create what I think is the perfect modern-day twist on my old school recipe. With two different mixed coloured variations; Fluoro and Pastel, in 12mm,14mm and 16mm, there really is a size and colour for everyone in the range, not to mention a complementing bait spray. I can’t wait to see the results from people using them. If the initial testing is anything to go by then I think we will see many anglers have a pot of Mulbz in their bag, with a few extra carp in their album to boot!
