I am wondering if there is a benefit in creating my own fresh bait from John Bakers range, or sticking with the Herb from Handcraft Baits. Fishing the Hampshire Avon & Dorset Stour so both low stock venues.
Do the attractors in John's baits & flavours really outfish off the shelf baits?
If you're making baits using a bait company's ingredients, it's not really producing your 'own bait'. you can individualise it to a certain extent by adding various flavours, and mixing ingredients either produced by the same company or even others.
Making your own bait, designed, and produced from your own experimentation is another ball game altogether ! Experimentation is the key word ... finding a bait mix entirely individual to yourself, can take a long time to find that really effective bait, and it can take years, and it can for some become almost a hobby in itself, and is when the few out there that pursue bait making seriously, gain an understanding of the subject whereby they can make bait from different ingredients, utilising different ingredients and flavours, all of which can be very effective barbel catchers, but producing that bait, can only come from understanding how to apply it correctly, when you achieve that, you will naturally get the best from your bait, the other side of the coin, which will almost certainly see you giving it up as a bad job.... most likely pretty quickly when it all becomes a chore, where you just chuck ingredients together willy nilly in the hope of finding a good mix, where you'll probably have disasters especially if trying to produce boillies, when you get problems trying to get them to roll.
What I'm trying to say is there are two routes to go down, as you say making baits formulated using other bait companies ingredients, either using the powders straight from the packet, most likely following the instructions on the packet, producing a standard mix from that company, or doing your own research, producing a very individual bait, that you can be certain no other angler on the planet is using.
Nowadays it's much easier than in years gone by to 'hitch a ride' from others research, the internet is a wonderful thing
but still being able to produce your own individual bait, it'll still take quite a while getting your head round the minefield of advice, but it's out there if you want to find it, but still if you really get into it you'll find you'll never stop learning, and the key principle is enjoyment, if you enjoy the journey it won't become that chore, which will inevitably guarantee failure !
'Do the attractors in John's baits & flavours really outfish off the shelf baits?' .... Sometimes yes, sometimes no !
John without doubt has put an awful lot of research into producing his flavours, my only advice when using them is to follow his recommendations in their inclusion, and application, at least until you're confident in using them. I.e increasing or reducing them according to the river conditions you might find, and as far as i can see he's happy to give individual advice, drop him a line if you feel the need
