The Rule of 17

When our founder – Andy Fields was just 17 he couldn’t afford to go to fishing shops to buy his bait so he had a go at making his own.

On his first day at Tillington pond in Herefordshire, he was met by 17 other fishermen who he considered to be professionals. Some had two rods, others had beepers and enough bait to feed the entire pond for a month. Andy was intimidated but found his spot and began to fish.

After approximately 4 hours Andy had caught 17 reasonably large carp and the other fishermen had just caught one between them.

One of the ‘professionals’ approached Andy and asked, “Excuse me mate. What kind of bait are you using?”

Without thinking, Andy simply said, “MasterBait – I knocked it up myself”.

Upon realising what was said both anglers had a fit of laughter when they realised that the phrase had a different connotation to what was actually meant.

That was the moment MasterBait was born!