About The Old School Essence and how it all started

Every angler has a story.

Mine started on a small two-acre local lake with my Dad at a very young age. We were having one of those quiet days where nothing seemed to be happening until we noticed an angler a few swims away steadily catching beautiful dark commons and mirrors. He was using something we’d never seen before. Seeing our curiosity, he wandered over and handed us a handful of the bait he was using.

It was Wasp Grub.

We went back to our swim, threaded a bait onto a simple hair rig and cast it out. It wasn’t long before we were into fish ourselves. My Dad handed me the lighter rod, and the excitement of that first run is something I’ll never forget.

Looking back now, that was the moment everything changed. I became completely captivated, not just by catching carp, but by understanding why certain baits worked and what made them so special.

That obsession even led to one of my less glamorous childhood memories. On a family holiday, I somehow managed to disturb a live wasp nest, getting stung countless times before ending up covered head to toe in calamine lotion and being sent straight to bed. It seemed only fitting years later to work on a hook bait, back in the 80’s and 90’s wasp grub actually got banned on a lot of matches similar to bloodworm and joker due to its effectiveness, whilst its very hard and dangerous to get actual wasp grub the flavour and powdered stimulant used in the hook baits comes very closer, an earthy grubby smell.

Once I’d recovered from my wasp nest antics, I was forever experimenting. Even from a very young age, I was flavouring luncheon meat, colouring and soaking sweetcorn, tinkering with different ideas and constantly searching for an edge. I was never interested in simply following everyone else; I wanted to learn, experiment and discover things for myself.

As I became more obsessed with bait, I found myself fascinated by the legendary flavours and companies that shaped British carp fishing. From Geoff Kemp’s creations and Catchum to Rod Hutchinson, Richworth and Solar, I spent years reading about them, collecting whatever information I could and experimenting with those classic flavour profiles. Long before I ever thought about starting a bait company, I was trying to understand why those old-school attractors had become so iconic and why, decades later, anglers still spoke about them with such affection.

As I grew older, fishing became much more than a hobby. From a young age I competed as a match angler in National Championships and weekly club matches, often winding up the older folk fishing canals rivers predominantly often winning weekly matches. After leaving school, I studied Fisheries Management before my attention turned completely towards carp fishing which became an obsession.

I spent countless hours on waters such as Local Park Lakes and local club venues around North Lincolnshire, back when catching a twenty-pound carp meant something and you had to work incredibly hard for every bite. Those years weren’t just about catching fish; they were about learning from experienced anglers, understanding watercraft and appreciating the history and traditions that shaped British carp fishing. Fishing traditional HNV fishmeal boilies and building long-term campaigns around them was all part of the process. Success wasn’t measured in quick bites but in putting together a plan and seeing it come to fruition.

Away from the bank, I immersed myself in everything I could find about the sport. I spent hours reading the old books written by Rod Hutchinson, Kevin Maddocks and many of the pioneers who shaped carp fishing. Later, the writing and fishing of Terry Hearn reinforced the importance of keeping things simple, fishing with confidence and letting quality speak for itself. Those books weren’t just entertainment—they became an education.