Mike Willmott - Essential Baits

Life and Carp Life Mike WillmottLee with his 42.04 onmy rods! He was incharge of them, so goodluck to him, I say.A 40 ON MY RODS!Our annual trip to Belgium was the highlightof my autumn, although it was Lee whoonce again took the honours and once againdeprived me of my first river 40! We were setup next to each other so I asked him to lookafter my two rods whilst I popped to the localshops with Kelly and Dean for some muchneeded provisions. Well, I’m sure you all knowwhat’s coming next! I was just picking up thelast bits and pieces for the barbecue whenmy phone rang. Rosie’s name appeared andI instantly knew something significant hadhappened.“Mike, Lee’s just caught a big fish but it’s onyour rods,” she excitedly shouted!!We quickly made our way back to the riverto find Lee standing over the water with a biggrin on his face and a big fat mirror sulking inthe bottom of my net. It was an immaculate,deep-bodied specimen that pulled the scalesaround to 42lb 4oz, but the more we lookedat the fish, the more familiar it became. It was,indeed, the very same fish that Lee had caughta few years earlier on a surface-presented pieceof cork. Greedy bugger – and I’m not talkingabout the fish!CONSULTANCY TIMELater in the year I got a call from StephenMcCaveny of Daiwa enquiring if I stillwanted to be part of the Daiwa team ofconsultants. I’ve been using Daiwa gear forover 18 years and although we’ve always hadA familiar sight throughoutthe winter of 2008.a strong association, I never really consideredmyself as a consultant. I agreed to attend oneof their trade shows at Weston-super-Mareto have a chat with Robin Morley and listento some of their future plans. I must say, theyare a fantastically professional company andproduce an excellent range of cutting-edgeequipment, particularly their rods and reels,which are far in advance of anything else Ihave ever seen.Over the years I’ve turned down numerousopportunities for consultancy deals, simplydue to the fact that I didn’t want to putmyself in a position of using equipment thatI have no faith in just for the sake of a fewquid or some free tackle. I need to have 100%confidence in everything I use if I’m goingto recommend its use to someone else. Yousee so many anglers playing ‘musical chairs’with tackle and bait companies, but at theend of the day the only thing they’re reallyinterested in is filling their pockets! It doesn’treflect well on the company or the anglerand I could count the number of honestand reliable consultants on one hand, with acouple of fingers missing!I’ve been sponsored by Dymag Tacklefor at least 10 years now, simply becauseI honestly believe their range of carbonproducts is by far the best on the market.They are one of the few companies thatproduce all their products in the UK andthe workmanship is second to none. Anyonewho has used their gear will testify tothat. Likewise, with some of the terminaltackle I’ve used from E-S-P over the years,and more recently Gardner Tackle. Thesecompanies are highly professional and goto extreme lengths to produce the very bestproducts available, both in terms of design,manufacture, and effectiveness.After meeting Robin Morley at the Daiwatrade show and hearing what he had tosay, I accepted the new Daiwa consultancyrole and haven’t looked back since. Just toput the record straight, however, none ofmy consultancy roles include a financialincentive and never would, I’m just notinterested in that side of things. I must saythough, it has been extremely refreshingworking with a company like Daiwa and I’mvery much looking forward to the future.The autumn months soon merged intowinter and as I’m sure most of you willremember, the winter of 2008 was one ofthe coldest on record for many years andmost lakes were iced up for several weeks ata time. The spring of 2009 had never felt sowelcome, but fishing was temporarily put onhold due to the fact that we were extremelybusy at Essential Baits headquarters. For thevery first time in our business life we decidedto make our baits available to selectedEuropean outlets, and before long we weresupplying countries such as Romania, Serbia,Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.The launch of our new B5 shelf lifes,together with the new Natural Squid freezerrange, also coincided with extending ourbusiness premises and we were workinginto the small hours seven days a week. Anyavailable time we did have was spent workingon our fishery at Springwood, but that hasalways been a labour of love.26Daiwa’s Caldia 4000 X reels, coupled with their 12ft2.75tc Linear rods are my first choice every time forclose- to medium-range work. Daiwa have definitely gotthe rod and reel market well sussed.My long-range kit consists of the ultra-light Basiair reels,coupled with the 12ft 3.75tc Infinity Magnums. Anawesome combination.My 9ft Dymag stalking rods, coupled with my ‘greenbeasts’, are brilliant for marginal stalking situations orvery tight swims.