Hi Joff, I have had the free bait already and still have it. Seriously I have used the Maruku stuff quite a bit and I am not sure it makes any difference. That said the fish very quickly change here, one minute its all corn, then bread, maggot etc.
Last weekend for exapmple I was bitted out on maggot, the week before it was all carp on the maggot when I couldnt get a bite on anything else. They also seem to switch onto paste when I would not normally dream of using it in such cold, margins like wise.
I think by pleasure fishing you can get away with much more than if you were in a match situation with most pegs fished.