In June of 2006 I finally got a ticket on a very tricky 18-acre estate lake deep in the heart of Lincolnshire. The lake has a publicity ban and contains around 50 carp, 3 of which are 30+. The lake is described as difficult at the best of times and is set in a forest, has loads of over hanging trees and lily beds and a number of substantial weed beds.

Since obtaining my ticket in June I'd had a walk round to see what the crack was and had to consider my choice bait for my campaign.

I have been using CC Moore baits for a number of years with good results coming on Odyssey on every water I'd used it. After its release this year I decided to use the new XXX for the season, opting for 18mm baits as there is loads of big Tench and Bream in the water. When the bait arrived, I instantly realised it was a bit special. Just how special it would be, I didn't know at this point.

I baited spots around the lake with 1kg of XXX per spot to give the fish a chance to get on the bait before starting fishing in July. I usually go fishing straight from work at 5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays then back to work the following mornings, which is not ideal as I have to be packed up and away for 8 o'clock. I then also try to manage one weekend a month.

"In January 2006 I was planning the forthcoming year's angling, a year in which I would be able to fish most weekends and a few midweek sessions as well - more time than I ever have in the past.

Springtime would be spent on our own Mirror Pool syndicate water, with June 16th onwards seeing me move on to Bundy's Pit in Cambridgeshire where I would remain, putting in extra time as the summer finished and the autumn approached. For my chosen bait I really wanted a product that included quality fish meals and high levels of my two favourite ingredients, Robin Red and Liver.

Even after such fantastic results Ian returned to Bundy's again in October and caught another (!) 42lb common (picture above) on Meteor.

Great angling! Ian Moore

For details of Meteor Freezer Baits click here.

My winter fishing (2006) started on a club water which has a publicity ban, where armed with Odyssey I got to the wind battered swim I fancied and caught 5 doubles to 16lb over 24 hours.

A couple of weeks later in April I decided to fish the lake in the new club I joined. I found what I thought would be a likely area, set up and baited with a kilo of Odyssey. At 5.30pm I received a screaming take but unfortunately on contact with the fish had a hook pull. With my confidence a little battered, I re-baited and cast out again to the same spot. An hour later it ripped off again and this time, after a 20 min battle, my mate Gaz netted the fish. It was a great looking, near leather, fish weighing in at 26.08lb. I was well pleased to say the least.

After this session I didn't really fish much until after a French trip to Chateau Lake in May, where I took Odyssey again with me, ending up catching 8 doubles, 9 twenties & 1 thirty.

When I got back from France the weather was red hot. I had a couple of weeks break then decided to try out the new Odyssey XXX. It smelt great, oozing with the aroma of G.L.M. extract.

It was now June and getting hotter. I went back onto the lake, which I first fished after hearing it had done a few Catfish. I decided to give it a go having never caught one before. I arrived at the lake and a lad came up to me asking if I could take a picture for him of a 25lb catfish. I ended up fishing the same swim, which I fished in April. The XXX went out again, that night I had 2 double figure Carp to 17lb. The next run I had, which was an hour later, I hit into and all hell let loose as the fish went through lily beds and everything else in its tracks. After a ferocious five-minute battle I unbelievably had another hook pull. I muttered a few obscenities to myself knowing it was my first Catfish, and thinking I had lost my only chance. As daylight broke I had another incredible take and exactly the same process was repeated but this time I got the culprit away from lilies and after a twenty-minute battle she was in the net. I could not believe the length of this fish and quickly weighed her in at 31.01lb. I was elated, my first catfish and a 30lber. A couple of weeks later I returned to fish the same spot, doing the same and was literally up all night!

This sleepless session resulted in 7 singles, 6 doubles to 16lb and another personal best 33.08lb Catfish. I thought to myself this Odyssey XXX is awesome.

July came and went without any fishing due to work and family commitments. Then August arrived; I ended up fishing a lake I haven't fished for a few years, after hearing it was doing a few good fish. The first session back I did a quick overnighter on the back of a big wind, and still on the XXX had 3 fish, 2 high doubles and a 20.01lb mirror.

The next week I received a letter from a syndicate I had applied for a couple of years ago, telling me there was a vacancy available. This is a very difficult southern park lake of 55 acres, which takes 2 ½ - 3 hours to get to, but does hold some big fish, which makes the journey a bit more bearable. On my first visit I decided to fish a swim, which doesn't see much pressure where I knew a few fish had been caught from before. I thought it would be a good place to start and get a feel for the place. The first night was quiet, and then at 6.30am I landed my first Bream following a couple of bleeps and a drop back. At least my presentation was O.K! I re-baited with XXX double bottom baits and cast back onto the same spot. Within 30 minutes I had an absolute screamer and cautiously leant into fish. After a plodding ten-minute battle my first carp from this well-known water slipped into the net. On opening the net I thought I felt sure I'd just landed new personal best carp, it was a really big -framed fish and looked to be a good upper 30.

To: CC Moore & Co. Ltd.

As you are aware we have been using quite a lot of your baits for some time now. We have progressed from "Odyssey" to "Meteor" and both have produced extremely well with the agreed "tweaks" making them more suitable for our needs with the warmer water etc.

During the summer Ian and I had some fairly long discussions about the next step as I had begun to believe that the carp appeared to be recognizing the signals from the meteor and our catch rates were dropping off. I have to add here that this is something that I would expect to happen fairly regularly as several anglers will be using exactly the same bait every week of the season. I think that it is fair to say that we all accept that carp do have the ability to "learn by association" and being caught regularly on the same food item is good teaching.

Anyway, your suggestion that we try the high protein "Live System" as a base and then tweak it to suit our lake has paid off big style. I heard what you said when you suggested that it would either take the place apart or fail miserably but I believe that this bait should now work everywhere as long as you add the "signals" initially. The "winterized Moorlands Special Live System" is without doubt the best bait that I have ever used. During the last four months it has produced something like 40 x forty pound plus carp to our customers as well as (here comes the trumpet blowing) my own captures of 40.05 lb common, 43.04 lb mirror, 44.02 lb mirror and 56.07 lb mirror.

I hope that you print this on your web-site as I am sure that the "WMSLS" will take apart a few other lakes and turn up some surprises for more of your customers.

As requested I have enclosed a photo of my "fluoro" rig, which is basically a traditional running ledger rig. All I have done is to use heavy gauge fluorocarbon line (about 1 metre long) in place of tubing or lead core, in order to give the carp some protection and because it sinks so fast. I also use fluoro hooklinks, tied "D" rig style and light running leads. When lowered into clear water alongside the "standard" tubing/safety clip/braided hook link set up the difference if astonishing and I am sure the "invisibility" factor has caught me many more fish.

For details of Live System Freezer Baits click here.

Spring saw me take my first delivery of the new Odyssey XXX. I had been planning to switch to it after fishing the previous two seasons on particles, which had resulted in nine fish. These fish had been very welcome but had been a little disappointing in terms of size with only one over the 30lb mark-something I hoped the XXX might improve upon.

My first outing with XXX was on my trip to France taking me to a 30-acre gravel pit containing a good head of large fish. After a shattering journey I decided to cast out into open water and get my head down for a while. No such luck! The bait had an immediate impact and I caught 2 upper doubles and a 29lb 6oz on the first morning. To be honest I didn't feel as though I'd earned the fish as I'd simply chucked out to about 30 yards and left it. The response had me fairly excited with the prospect of using 15kg of this bait over the next few days. After finding three likely spots in open water I kept the bait trickling in and had a constant stream of action. The runs started to come thick and fast with two fish picking up baits at the same time on two separate occasions. The first brace was two 30lb mirrors and the second was two 40lb commons!! Other anglers caught that week but couldn't match my average weight or number of fish as I ended with mirrors of 17,19,25,27,29,35,38,39,43 and 49 as well as commons of 40,43,45,47 and 48!!! I was absolutely convinced that XXX had made the difference

For details of Odyssey XXX Freezer Baits click here.

"I started adding Meteor a kilo per swim into five different spots in the beginning of March 2005, and did this every week for three months to the end of May before fishing with it on the hook. I found a good trick was to air dry Meteor for about a week and to re-hydrate it with a mix of 50% Red Venom and 50% Hemp Oil, so that way I could carry 10 kilos of bait without worrying about it going off. If during the session it was not used, I could then take it home.

Whilst watching fish feed under a snag tree I realised that the bait was being taken very readily, the more I added the more they seemed to really get on it. The first fish I caught was a mirror of 37.2lb 'The Sergeant Major,' and a new personal best, a good start or what!

As the season went on, I was adding 25 kilos of meteor each month, using no pellets or particles but just continually feeding boilies into different areas. Each session I fished I tended to concentrate on one of the areas I had pre-baited focussing all my attention on one area at a time. By the middle of June I was now using Meteor stick mix on each rod with a snowman rig on about an 8" fluorocarbon hook link, catching an average of two fish per week at quite a tricky, pressured venue, where most other anglers were only catching one if they were lucky.

See Meteor Freezer Baits.

"Odyssey XXX arrived just in time to save my season this year, knowing I only realistically had 6 months in which to fish due to plans to set up a new business at the end of the year. I was therefore really concerned that I make the most of the little time I was to have available in 2006.

I started the year on Meteor, which I had used exclusively for 2004 and 2005 with great success. This was bait that accounted for 12 x 30's and 2 x 40's along with numerous 20's on my chosen water, understandably boosting my confidence even though I was moving on to pastures new.

With a 260 mile round trip to and from the lake regular pre-baiting wasn't really an option, and on a water that was receiving a lot of regular bait I knew it wasn't going to be easy but drew up my battle plan and stuck with it for the first 4 months. During that time I caught a few fish but the catches were not as regular as I would of liked. Whilst some things were against me, I felt this was mainly due to the amount of Crayfish present only allowing me to leave a bait in the water for around 3-4 hours before it was completely gone- a fact that with no pre-baiting meant the fish had very little time to get used to the bait. I started to panic, as the limited time I had was rapidly running out. I decided a phone call to Ian Moore at CC Moore & Co Ltd was needed to discuss the situation and see if he any suggestions.

After hearing all the details of the water and it's characteristics Ian quickly convinced me that the Odyssey XXX was the way to go so I took his advice and soon received my first shipment of XXX and looked forward to my next trip.

I knew that GLM was a additive that had previously been used on the lake with some success, but I was sure it had never been used at anything like 10% inclusion as in XXX, so I really didn't know what to expect.

If I'd had any doubts at all, these were soon put to rest as within hours of arriving on my first session on XXX I caught one of the known 30's down in weight at 27.10lb- very welcome! Was it luck? Had I just dropped a bait on the fish's nose or was the bait already making a difference? Within another couple of hours I had another two 20's on the bank from different rods. I decided on some heavier baiting from that point and with chest waders on ventured out into the lake, introducing 1 kilo of chopped and whole boillie and a kilo of pellet mixed with CC Moore's hot hemp around each rod.

Get on Odyssey XXX and have the season you've been waiting for!