Livingston angler Sean Ford turned his carp bait into a booming business

Fed-up angler Sean Ford was struggling to tempt carp to his hook and noted that beetle patterns were popular with fish on his local water so he started making zigs and has now turned his hobby into a global business.

Sean Ford shows off one of his self-designed lures.

News travels fast in fishing and word-of-mouth referrals and social media plugs now mean the Scottish-based self-employed businessman has an eight-week order backlog.

A recent batch has been dispatched to Canada and Windsor-born Sean has regular orders from the Far East, Australia and New Zealand plus the continent as well as in the United Kingdom.

Tickle Tackle Zigs, believed to be a world leader, also engages Sean's Crawley-born wife Emma as business administrator to help keep pace with the rapidly-expanding order book as more and more anglers hook into the idea of using his hand-made, individual, foam-based patterns.

Sean Ford was struggling to tempt carp to his hook so designed his own lures.

The 31-year-old has well over 2,000 followers on Facebook, all eager to see his latest creations which including flying ants with glow eyes, shrimps, wasps, jig head lures, the extremely popular blank saver, black ladybird.

Sean is currently working on new designs but they will not be released to the public before they have been tested by his team of anglers.

The father-of-eight from Livingston is working flat out to produce the product, sometimes starting at 4am and finishing at 8pm, to keep the order book moving along.

Sean said: "Basically, I make lures from foam and now have around 50 patterns on our product catalogue, but we're developing new ones all the time. I sit down at the vice and an idea just comes.

"The growth has been remarkable and it all started as I was struggling to catch carp at my local reservoir at Eliburn in Livingston.

"I noted that the lake had leeches, snails and bug-like insect so I came home and got out a vice. The life-like bugs started to catch fish and I have developed the products since then.

"It's been three years now and when I initially posted on social media they went viral. The business has taken off and we make custom-made patterns to order. Customers can customise their orders by selecting the colour, hook sizes etc. They can also make special requests for example one man who was using the ladybugs on a fishing holiday in France asked for the zigs to be four times larger as he was targeting catfish."

He added: "I also create my own and I've an eight-week waiting list currently. We send to New Zealand and Australia, the Far East and I've just posted an order to Canada.

"We don't even have a website but social media has worked for us and there doesn't appear to be anybody else doing this sort of thing yet anywhere else in the world."

Materials include foam, a marker pen, resin and paint, all of which is available in local West Lothian hobby stores. Sean does use some fly tying materials which are also available online or locally.

He added can produce 20 wasp patterns an hour or 50 bugs in the same time frame and he sells them in packs from five upwards.

And Sean added: "The zig is so popular with anglers as it sits above weeds and they tempt a number of fish including, of course, carp but also trout."

Meanwhile, Musselburgh and District Angling Association say that their grayling permits are expected to be at outlets soon for fishing to start on December 26. They will be £15.

Magiscroft Coarse Fishery remains closed until further notice because of Covid-19. Ronnie MacLeod, the owner, says to watch Facebook for updates.

Meanwhile, Craig Ogilvie won the latest round of the Bass Rock Shore Angling League's winter series in midweek with a bag of two fish for 2.5lb.

Barry McEwan was second with one fish of 2.3lb and Stuart Fairbairn third with a fish of 1lb 3oz.

The event was fished in a chilling west wind with a boundary between Dunbar and Cove and lugworm and crab was the preferred bait. The sea was flat calm.

The club's Christmas Hamper event is due on Wednesday, December 16, and anglers who have fished in two of the rounds are eligible. The venue will be posted on the club's Facebook site on the Sunday before.

Meanwhile, new faces have been spotted at local trout fisheries which remain open.

They include Bowden Springs near Linlithgow, where several trout of over 10lb and over 12lb have been landed recently.

Brown trout and rainbow trout into double-figures have been netted regularly at Allandale Tarn near West Calder, where owner Iona Allan reports that olive diawl bach plus mini pink Apps and Kate McLaren patterns have proved successful.

Clubbiedean boss Stevie Johnston says egg patterns fished around 8ft down on a bung have been tempting fish, particularly at the top end of the water towards Currie. What's It patterns have also proved tempting in the water above Colinton in Edinburgh.

In Midlothian, Rosslynlee boss Nicola Perfect has been busy. The water near Penicuik has been returning consistent catch returns with regulars Jamie McLeary and Rab Amos among those continuing to catch. Cat's whisker, buzzers, humongous, snake and bibio patterns have been working.

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