I mentioned in one of the previous blogs about bait size and especially in relation to crayfish which are prolific in Madine – which can be a good thing and a bad thing. Good because they are the carp’s stable diet bad news if you are not prepared with bait options which allow you to carry on fishing efficiently. Some of the boilies I saw being used in the event would have probably lasted minutes or perhaps hours during the night. This is one of the reasons I like to use big baits – two 24mm the current favourite, this will normally keep the crayfish at bay for atleast 24 hours, if I want to leave the baits out longer I may substitute one of the baits for a plastic bait to give me extra longetivity. The picture included shows a crayfish that had been munching on my 24mms all night there was actually another 2 crayfish hanging on as well which dropped off as I swung the rig into the boat. They had been munching but you can see it was hard work for them, smaller 15mm baits would not have stood a chance. It was good news that the crayfish were active on my baits as the carp were sure to follow which proved the case as a nice Madine carp followed the next night.