Quest Baits Blog

On one of the lakes I fish you need to place your baits out a good old distance and in a good size amount. But not having to worry too much about placing them exactly on the same spot every time but being able to create numerous feeding beds.

So my initial approach was to opt for a simple throwing stick, and dot boiles around a marker, but soon came to realise that it was an option that had serious disadvantages. On one hand there is the limit to the bait that can be used and on the other hand there is the annoyance of seagulls.

Many of you reading this most likely at some point have experienced seagulls picking up your boilies in mid air or as they hit the water. Gulls have come to recognise the sound of the boilie as it leaves the throwing stick and quickly gather in large flocks ready to pick up the bait in flight; those baits that escape are soon picked off as soon as they hit the surface of the water.

Therefore I decided to give myself more of a fighting chance and get the trusty spod out.  On some lakes I have fished the sound of a spod crashing into the water can draw the carp’s attention to the baited area around your marker float.

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Shaun goes through some tips on how you can best plan your trip to a new venue, whether it is in France or the UK. He reveals some of the home work you can do and ways of getting the best from your swim in a short time, how to use tools like Metcheck and Google Earth to find the fish etc.

By Jamie Simpson

I decided to write this piece about one of the hooklink presentations I have been using to good effect this season.  I would recommend the use of this rig on firm bottoms such as sand and gravel, light silt and sparse weed, but not fished in thick weed or heavy silt as I feel the hooklink may sit up off the bottom awkwardly.

Just recently I have started using a lot more combi-link rigs again, and for the life of me I can’t remember why I stopped using them in the first place, perhaps the introduction of the coated braids maybe played a part in this.

With a lot of anglers switching to combi-rigs made by simply stripping coating off the braid I think I may have been a little paranoid that the fish would suss it out and my results would suffer.

I used them almost all the time in the late nineties and I guess I must have either moved onto a venue that I found an alternative more productive, or as I said, become paranoid about their effectiveness with so many other anglers now using a similar type of presentation. Anyway I have been using them quite a lot again this year on a couple of venues and have tweaked them to suit my requirements really well. continue reading…

One of my favourite methods of carp fishing is using PVA bags. We all know it can be an absolutely deadly method of catching carp but even more so when used at long range where the carp have rarely come across this presentation.

The first time I tried to cast a PVA bag a long way, the bag didn’t stand up to the job and I wasn’t confident with the overall result.

So I decided to set about making a rig which would cast well and not tangle. The rig below is what I now use for all my long range bag work, it’s simple to construct, casts well, tangle free and prevents the bag coming away from the lead on impact with the water.

Below I’ll show you how I tie this rig…

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Readers question;

Went out yesterday to a day ticket water. Baited the spot on Saturday evening with about 4 kilo’s of maize.  Had 11 takes yesterday up to 22 pounds. Not big but great fun.

My problem is that I am trying homemade boilies too, basically air dried boilies as per your articles. Soaking them for 12 hours but yesterday when I went out time and time again the rig comes out with the boilie no where to be seen.  I was fishing with some of the first batches that I made and I know in the beginning I was scared to boil them for too long, basically just boiling them for a minute. The new batches I boil until they start rising 2 – 3 minutes.

 Could this be the problem?

Got hemp in them too, way too much I think as they tend to break up quit badly when I try to put them on the Hair – rig.

Another question I want to buy a carp sack as I get fish early in the morning with no one to take photo’s for me. How long is safe to sack a carp.

Greetings Gert Roestoff

South Africa.

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Just got back from a day session on a local water of mine and have managed to surprise myself by the amount of thought that was given to my baiting tactics.

I was only there for what could only be described as a few hours but I probably spent an equal amount of time deciding on and preparing the bait.

Just thought I’d mention two approaches I used, which I’m positive is nothing new to anyone but sometimes overlooked in favour of new and improved methods.

Paste is a brilliant but underused bait and when used the results can be devastating. There are loads of self pastes on the shop shelves you can buy these days but it still can be a minefield choosing the right one.

The one I go for is Quest Baits Fruity Trifle, a bait I can use all year round that doesn’t let me down even in these colder months of the year. I like to wrap 15mm boilies with paste on my hooklink alongside small paste balls mixed with the pellet in a PVA bag.

Another method I tend to find myself using whatever the season is hempseed, the old favourite for many people.

Out of personal preference I prepare my own at home before a session and like to hot things up a little by adding a few little goodies like salt and chilli. Fairly often after cooking and cooling the seeds I like to liquidise the mixture into a puree.

This produces a mixture quite irresistible for even the most cautious of carp and is quite easily spodded out to a marker, thrown out with a baiting spoon or placed accurately within the margins.

I’m sure everyone has their personal all time favourite methods both old and new.

All the Best

Samantha Collins-Ratcliffe