A little history of Top Baiter
The original Top-Baiter resulted from trying to solve a problem that didn’t exist.
Let me explain; wanting to go float fishing on the sea I hooked my bait sideways like a maggot. This resulted in the bait coming off as soon as it hit the water, so I set out to find a way of protecting the worm so that it remained on the hook. Sea anglers already had a solution to the problem –threading the worm up the hook. Having been sea fishing myself that is what I should have done, but for whatever reason I didn’t that day.
Initial attempts to solve this non-existent problem took several years, involving trips to local DIY shops, hundreds of hours at both the kitchen table and at work, resulting in ever more complex designs and models.
One prototype provoked the comment “That would be good for carp fishing” a type of fishing I knew little about. This encouraged me to look for a style of carp fishing that could utilise what I was trying to achieve – protecting bait and attractant being during the cast and then releasing them on or near the surface – & stumbled upon surface fishing.
However, as I could not devise a reliable release method, I put the project on the back burner.
With time on my hands in 2014 I resurrected the idea. Now I adopted a different approach, to use widely available components that could easily fit together. This led to the final prototype of the Top-Baiter being made from the base of a roll-on deodorant, a roller ball and a round plastic shaft.
Working on my own without any knowledge of existing products freed me to develop my own design without any pre-conceived ideas. My guiding principles were that I wanted my design to be simple to use with cold wet hands and be self-contained.
Later that year I began working with my business consultant Paul who envisaged how my crude model might look when made into a product to be sold.
Together we tested, developed, patented and produced the original Top- Baiter which was designed for surface fishing as intended. However, we soon realized that it could also be used for fishing at depth, as sinking attractant would emerge from the slots on the basket.
Next, in response to public demand, we developed the very popular Mini-Baiter, a smaller version of the Top-Baiter, more suited to smaller fish and match angling. Since then, we have both expanded our range of accessories and continue to develop new products for the angling market.