Quest Baits Blog

By Mark Parry:

One peice of none fishing tackle I wouldn’t be without is the amazing Mosquito Repeller. I have had a couple of these for a few years now and must say they reallyare excellent and only cost a few pounds off ebay. I used to suffer very badly by mosquitos but no more,
I’ve used these on very bad mosquito infested places in France such as La Horre and Salagou and they honestly work. Just 2 x AA batterys and they last weeks simply letting out a very high frequency tone which you can hardly hear. I find that one is enough for the places I have fished in England but I do use two in France and nothing comes in the bivvy. I also think they keep flys away. Very good product I wouldn’t be without.

I have had a lot of success in recent years using my own hook baits and in particular my own pop ups made with cork balls. I have no problem with ‘off the shelf pop ups’ for the majority of my fishing but making my own gives me several distinct advantages. Firstly, no matter how long I leave them out there I know they will remain as buoyant as when they first went in; this is particularly important when using rigs that require high levels of buoyancy such as with a chod rig or rigs specifically designed for pop ups. If I needed to I could happily leave my hook baits out for days knowing they will not sink or become heavy. Secondly, they allow me to tweak flavour levels, add different attractants or even change the colour of my hookbaits to make them stand out. I’ve never understood the obsession with making hook baits exactly match every loose fed boilie – I want mine to stand out so they get picked up quickly. Thirdly, in my opinion a cork ball pop up, by virtue of being so buoyant, behaves differently; by carefully adding the right amount of shot or putty to my rigs I can get them to behave exactly like the other baits out there and the rigs I’m using become very difficult for the carp to detect. continue reading…

Mark Parry asks…

Hello,  I would just like your thoughts on size of hooks for different sizes of baits, now I’ve always used a size 8 for 16mm baits, size 4 for 20mm baits , whats your thoughts ?

About the only drawback that fishing for different species brings is the amount of different tackle that you require to do it properly. I tend to have two rucksacks, and two quivers permanently set up at home so that I haven’t got to keep on chopping and changing my gear to go fishing. The only things I have to move are my flask and camera.

My ‘river’ rucksack had just about seen it’s final days so I decided to buy a new one for the start of the river season.

Looking through loads of different rucksacks the one I decided on was the Gardner Barbel / Specialist Rucksack.

This has proved to be a cracking piece of kit. It isn’t to big, and because of the way it sits on your back you hardly know you are wearing it even on fairly long walks.

The bag has a fairly large main compartment which will take my flask and a water bottle along with a sandwich box, camera and bulb release in a hard case, camera tripod, over trousers and 2 spare spools of line.

There is an insulated top compartment which is a nice touch for keeping freezer baits etc fresh.

There are two side pockets which comfortably take my Avon scales and a weigh sling. continue reading…

It’s so easy to slip into a routine and do the things that are easy, convenient, or familiar when you are fishing. I got a stark reminder of this recently when I finally bought my first spools of 100% fluorocarbon mainline. I’d found some 17lb line that wasn’t as thick as tow rope and looked like I had a hope of casting it.

I unwrapped my eBay prize and was impressed until I tied on a hook with my usual five turn grinner. My tests are definitely not scientific but I estimate the knot broke at around half it stated breaking strain. I was gutted, fluorocarbon is not cheap and I’d just bought four spools of it, so I went through my usual armoury of knots but only slightly improving the lines performance.

Then I noticed in very small print on the box that the manufacturer recommended the double clinch knot. I’d never heard of it, and hadn’t got a clue how to tie it. So it’s off to the internet and very soon I’m tying a knot that looks very similar to the first fishing knot I was taught, the blood knot. The only difference was the line is passed twice through the eye of the hook or swivel and the tag end of the line is passed through the two loops formed trapping it between the hook and the turns of line.

I found it difficult to believe that this knot could make a difference, but the change was astonishing. I found it difficult to snap the 17lb line and would have continued but was in danger of cutting my fingers off or pulling the door knob off. I told you it wasn’t scientific.

We are all constantly trying to get that edge, improve our performance. I’m a sucker and I’m constantly experimenting with new products, tackle manufacturers love people like me. What I will always remember in future that new materials require new techniques, don’t be complacent and just tie your same old knots, it could loose you a real lump. What’s the point in having a new hi tech line that is invisible and sinks like a stone if it won’t land a minnow? Every time you tie a knot you weaken your line, do your research and make sure it’s the right knot.

Ron Key

Last week I was working away in the office with the window wide open, juggling the paper weights around to stop various pieces of paper blowing around and suddenly it dawned on me – the sky was full of cloud and a big wind was whipping up.

This was the first cloud I had seen for a couple of weeks and I had almost forgotten what the wind felt like. The usual thought went through my head…“Wish I was fishing now and I bet it isn’t like this in a couple of days when I can go”.

I carried on tapping away at the keyboard trying to concentrate on what I was doing but with that irritating side thought stabbing away in my head. You must have all experienced it – semi daydreaming whilst trying to focus.

I stopped typing and thought to myself what’s stopping me doing the night? I used to do loads of overnighters between work, but guess I have simply got out of the habit of doing so. In fact I had only done one other one this year and that was at the start of this prolonged hot period we have gone through. I had walked in my front door from work and the heat had hit me.

“I’m not sleeping in there tonight”. I mumbled to myself and promptly chucked some gear in the motor and headed off to find a nice lake to sleep beside.

Anyway, back to yesterday. Lunchtime I had no thought at all about going fishing. Then the wind blew my paperwork, I noticed the cloud and suddenly I’m in fishing mode.

I left work at the usual time, chucked the tackle in the motor and before I knew it I was pulting Surf ‘N’ Turf boilies out to an area being hit by the wind.

Here I am back in the office (on time as well) with both a common and a mirror added to my years tally.

Bonus fish from simply taking note of the weather conditions. I can’t drop everything for a session when conditions look good but I can squeeze a quick overnighter. I can see myself getting back into routine doing a few more of these quick overnighters. What better way to start a working day than with a carp in the net? I’m sure I drove the 30 odd miles to work with a contented grin on my face.

Just a little bit of effort can result in a lot of self satisfaction and reward.

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison