Quest Baits Blog

Ian Hillier;

Let me give you some background. All of my winter captures have come on plastic sweetcorn (no slur on your bait Shaun ha ha) and I read a back article from your site about plastic baits and how they take on flavour.  Are these the type of boilie that enterprise tackle sell the ones you sell on your site? If so will they take on the flavours of glug you sell? Any tips you can give.I want to fish the top 18 inches of the water during the afternoons before I start surface fishing in the evenings.

Many thanks,  Ian

Hi Ian,

The plastic boilies we sell are the same ones as the Enterprise Tackle ones. I have used these on and off since they were very first released and have now caught many fish on them. When we started quest Baits I wanted to offer everything I use myself – not just small selected items – thus the artificial baits being included in the range.

continue reading…

by Elie Godsi;

In my opinion there is no better way of achieving both attraction and a feeding response than using carefully prepared groundbait – or ‘carpet feed’ as it seems to get called these days.

This is a completely different scenario to what I see the vast majority of anglers doing. I still loose feed boilies and fish with boilies as hookbaits as usual – but I believe baiting up with groundbait as well gives me a massive edge.

I guess many of us are lazy by inclination, if you offer us an easy option then we tend to take it and nowhere is this more obvious in the way many people approach baiting up.

Take a bag of boilies with you, shelf-life or frozen, out goes the marker float, out go the freebies with a catapult and out goes the rig. Buzzers on, you sit back, maybe open a can of liquid refreshment and wait.

Sounds familiar?

But this is a baiting scenario carp are presented with time and time again. Hey, don’t get me wrong I’ve done this too and I’ve caught but I’ll tell you one thing for definite, if you can be bothered to make the effort and work harder at baiting up and being different to everyone else you will catch much more and you will catch bigger fish too.

continue reading…

by Paul Cooper
One of the finest aspects of carp fishing is arriving at a venue to find that you are the only one the lake. Peace tranquillity and the choice of swims, you cannot beat it.

But what happens when you capture a specimen fish that you want to record on camera.

With most cameras there are facilities that will enable you to fix your camera to a tripod. Once the camera is on the tripod you need to accurately focus on the area that you intend to take your pictures and then you need a means of taking that photo shot. Another angler or passer by, maybe? You are on this lake and there is no-one around.. Do you sack the fish until someone does arrive or do you think of the welfare of the carp? Now my answer is self photography. continue reading…

Gareth Meyer wrote;

 I was just wondering if you could give me some advice?? I am planning a session in July at a complex I have never fished before called white springs lake in Swansea, do you know it?  This is what I know about the lake,

1. its a 10 acre lake averaging 6-9ft in depth with a few areas going to 14ft deep and one area 17ft in depth.
2. its has 9 islands with an average depth of 3ft surrounding water, with nearby shelves at each island
3. its has a large head of carp, some over 40lb, several over 30lb and numerous 20s
4. March 2008 has seen 5 carp over 30lb landed
5. Yellow baits with pop-ups working well
6. The margins are around 3ft deep and seem to be productive during warmer months
7. There are a few groups of large lily pads in the lake

What approach/approaches would you think about taking if you were going to fish this venue?
what methods would you consider best to use and what baits would you take with you?I was thinking…
Rod 1 = use a method feeder approach to a feature i.e. island and/or shelf, with a high attractant groundbait including pellets, hemp seed and maggots within the groundbait. The hookbait being hair rigged sweetcorn and/or maize, maggots and boilies. (try all to see which one produces)

continue reading…

By Paul Cooper;

Now how many times have you arrived at a good sized lake and tried to cast to the horizon in the belief that the carp only feed at a distance? I know that I have, and I am sure that most anglers have, especially on the larger waters.

Alan Dobson wrote:

I will be going to France fishing in 2 weeks time – the lake is Roseau large lake. The lake is known for special crab and fruity trifle which my mates will be taking. I would like to try something else would you be able to recommend anything else. I went last year and took special crab and fruity trifle so I know this works well. What do you recommend? I await to hear from you.

Roseau Large Lake

Pat Gillett replies;

I can highly recommend the Rahja Spice Shelf Lifes.

Alongside my good mate Paul Cooper I went to France three times last year (end of March, 1st week May & 1st week in October) and used the Rahja on all occasions.

Because of the varying times of year we ended up encountering a lot of different weather conditions. (Because of the time of year you are making your visit there is a good chance that you will also face a variety of weather conditions).

continue reading…