About Ian Chillcott

Testimonials

Many things in life have a bearing on your future, but rarely do they change things completely. In the early nineties I was introduced to Mainline Baits, and my whole carp fishing world turned on its head.

Having messed around with other baits, including making my own for some time, the remarkable reaction of the carp to the bait that I was introducing simply blew me away. It has been written that the Grange had almost as a dramatic effect on carp fishing as the hair rig did, and nothing I have seen has ever altered that view. And so, fourteen years on, I am still amazed at the quality of the bait which Mainline supply, and have never looked anywhere else. I don’t need to!!

There are favourites of course, and the Grange would be near the top of that list. But for me, the Pulse has provided me with some incredible moments, including a personal best common and mirror! Not having a single worry about the bait I use leaves me in the perfect position of concentrating on the best place to put it…and I can’t ask for any more than that!!

Publicity

I have now written for all major (and not so major) publications in this country, and a fair few abroad. At present I am writing for DHP in their titles. Total Carp for my technical pieces, and Advanced carp fishing carries my Diary piece. I have written two books, the first a technical carp fishing book, Tackling Carp. The second was the personal story of my own carp fishing. “Light my Fire” was published by Freebird Publishing, and is something that I am incredibly proud of. Plans are already in place for its sequel, “Fanning the Flames”.

For the past two years I have been doing a lot of filming with Onlinefishing.tv. First of all I made five carp fishing programmes that ran on the channel, and was eventually released on DVD, called Chilly on Carp. An incredible tale that covers many and varied locations, and a couple of English forties for one episode…did I forget to mention that. I have another programme that will shortly be released on DVD, Ebro Maniacs. This is a series about what Spain has to offer, and it’s not just all about catfish and carp either. They are just about to launch a dedicated carp fishing channel, and the first order of business is for me to get a whole host of anglers in natural surroundings, and interview them. Hopefully there will be plenty of well known anglers, but most interesting for me is that I will be talking to several guys who don’t necessarily court any publicity. One stand alone interview that was simply the best day I have ever had on the bank, was with Chris Yates. I really, really hope you get to see it! At present we are filming Chilly on Carp two, and it couldn’t have begun any better. In the first episode I caught another forty. It’s better to be lucky than good!

There is also all the promotional work I do with Mainline and Fox, just to keep my busy, and on my toes!! At Fox we recently released our first DVD, and I am really pleased with the way that turned out. 2Carp Fishing the Fox Way” was a very interesting undertaking, and I can’t wait for the next one.

Lastly, I have made plenty of visits to the Sky studios for the Tight Lines programme. Keith Arthur is a great guy and the programmes that I have done have gone off without a hitch. Probably more thanks to Keith than me, but don’t tell him that eh? There have also been several ‘on the bank’ segments that were very successful. And every fish that I have caught for the cameras had a Mainline bait hanging out of its mouth…now there’s a surprise!