Mistral Baits have been around the carp bait industry for over 20 years now. Owned by Allan Parbery, whom has rolled baits and worked with many of the top names over the years, the company has been producing baits that have been not as used as much as what they deserve. When Mistral Baits sent a selection of the new i40 bait to the UKMA office, we wanted to get out on the bank to use it, but due to the adverse weather conditions that the country has had over the past few months, we have only been able to put them through a bench test at time of writing. This will change though as soon as the weather allows us to get out on the bank again.

UKMA was sent 15mm & 20mm boilies, 20mm Pop-Ups, and a 400ml bottle of the PVA friendly spod & stick juice for review. Here is what we have discovered so far in our bench tests.

The i40 bait is a bait that as soon as you open the bag, you know it is going to catch fish! Made up of a blend of birdfoods, milk proteins and 3 different nuts, the mix is very smooth in texture with the odd small piece of nut or bird seed presenting itself. With the combination of the ingredients the baits are relatively soft still, even after being air dried (we were sent the shelflife version and they are one of the softest shelflife baits that we have seen ever!). The aroma of the bait is literally mouthwatering. The aroma can only be described as a "sweet vanilla base with a nutty twang", and the closest thing I can think of which comes close is the smell of Hob Nob biscuits! The boilies themselves are not overly flavoured as you would think from such a strong aroma coming from the bag, but after 24 hours immersed in water, there is a slight smell still present on the bait and the colouration has lightened very very slightly - which I personally think is a good thing as it gives the impression that the bait has been out in the water for a lot longer than it has (which saves on washing out baits for days on end to gain an edge).
Looking at the consistency and the ingredients that we know are in the bait, this can be classed as an all year round food bait that should be easily digestible by the fish in all water temperatures.

During our first impressions period, we tank tested the i40 with our captive carp in one of the UKMA offices. Crumbled i40 was introduced at the opposite end of the tank that the fish are used to being fed at, and within a few seconds, both of the mirrors were grubbing around in the gravel to get at the crumbs introduced. The fish had not seen this bait before and is different to the usual food that they are fed, but the instant attention that it caused, made up our mind that the i40 is a bait that cannot be ignored! We cannot wait to get out on the bank and put this bait through its paces with fish that have seen a lot of other baits!

The Spod & Stick Juice is a lot less viscous than most other glugs which means that it will disperse in the water column faster than a thicker dip. This is a massive edge in Winter when most PVA friendly glugs will go very goopy and take ages to disperse throughout the swim. The Spod & Stick Juice had been left in a very cold garage for the past couple of months since we recieved the baits, and it had not thickened up at all! As water in the colder months is generally clearer than when warmer due to the suspended particles in the water sinking to the bottom, the colour of the Spod & Stick Juice is a very dark brown in colouration, and as it disperses through the water, will give the water in the immediate vicinity of the hookbait a slightly darker tinge, that a mooching fish would think of looking at even though it may not be hungry.

The pop-ups are quite bouyant, and during bench tests held up a size 5 hook on a chod rig for just over 24 hours - which is long enough for most anglers. The texture of the pop-ups is much finer than the actual boilies themselves, and are almost identical colouration. The hookbaits are supplied in a standard sized tub which holds approximately 30 x 20mm baits.

The i40 is scheduled to hit the shelves of your local tackle shops in March 2010. We will update this article with our on the bank results once we get out and use them.