Quest Baits Blog

There’s no easy way to get your chosen boilie out, no matter what the size or shape, unless you use some of the following.

Throwing Stick

These come in variable sizes and diameter depending on the brand you use.  I find that the Throwing Stick gives me a better spread pattern of round bait for 10mm to 24mm baits over a large clear area of the lake. This gets the carp moving and roaming around the area and gives you a better chance of getting the carp confidently feeding in numbers. Brilliant to use at showing fish and very quiet in the proccess.

The Spomb

This I have just recently used and I recommend highly. They are capable of holding any shape, size or chopped boilie and get out to a feature of the lake at great distance. There is no spillage like the normal spod or rocket depending on the angler of course and is very accurate in its flight. Great for baiting up at distance and suprisingly effortless. continue reading…

Mat asks;

When casting out after spodding with your hookbait etc what method do you use to cast in same place each time?  If I leave line clip on I can’t use the drag.  I’m confused!  I know about elastic but is it accurate enough?

Personally I favour pole elastic markers on my line and break the cast as soon as the knot rattles up the rod on the cast. I find by breaking the cast as the knot leaves the tip guide and sinking the rig on a tight line you generally recover the extra line which has left the spool whilst tightening down. I definitely prefer this method than clipping up into the spool clip. So long as you aren’t in too deep a water whereby you simply let more line go on the cast before breaking I find this method incredibly simple to use and very accurate.

If you aren’t confident enough to do this or when fishing tight to a island for example You can tuck a tag end of the elastic into the line clip of your spool. This is not only kinder on the line but will also break in the event of an immediate savage take.

The beauty of pole elastic (I usually use around it in size 4 or 6) is that it doesn’t hamper the cast too much. Some anglers used to use power gum markers but I never did like this as the line would stick on it and sometimes jam during the cast.

Hope this helps

Best fishes, Shaun

Great little tip here I picked up from my mate Phil Calloway at the week-end. So obvious and so simple but I hadn’t previously seen anyone else do it.

He was commenting on me Spombing and how quickly I was able to get a bed of boilies out with it and was amazed at the speed and ease of retrieve. I was saying that the big attraction to me in the first place was the fact that there was zero spod spill. I have always been paranoid about the carp spooking on the line whilst eating free bait. This is the reason I usually try and fish the near side of a baited area or to the side of it rather than smack bang in the middle which I often see others do.

I know Phil likes the long rocket style spods for putting boilies out with and I mentioned that the problem with them in my opinion is that they always drop 3 or 4 boilies out the back end in flight depending upon how many you load. This was when Phil’s little gem of wisdom came into place.

“ I don’t drop any boilies out the back of mine”. He said.

“Well I always have unless I bung the end with a PVA nugget or ground bait etc which I find to be a lot of messing around and takes me out of the rhythm of quick and accurate spodding”. I replied.

“Oh, don’t you use gravel? I always drop a few bits of gravel in after the boilies. This way you just have the odd gravel bit drop out rather than bait”.

Brilliant yet oh so simple. Why hadn’t I thought of that one all those years ago whilst putting up with spod spill?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr…. I have recently purchased all the equipment needed to  make my own leads and had a go – but in one hour I managed to make 2 good leads – the others were all half leads.

I realise this could be down to the mould not being hot enough but I had it on the gas ring heating alongside the molten lead but when I came to pour it into the mould it would set more or less straight away, so I had to open the mould and take out the lead and throw it back into the pot and wait again for it to melt.

How long do you need to heat the moulds for to obtain the correct temperature for casting?

Also is there a UK based smelting machine supplier as the USA sites wont ship to UK.   Thanks

Jamie Simpson answers;

The problem is not the mould temperature at all. It could be that the molten lead is not hot enough. Often the aperture (pouring spout) can be too small and you get a bit of an air lock.

With regards to a proper machine. Mine is an American unit made by Lea Products. A word of warning is that it is 110volts and you would need a transformer to take it to single phase 240volts.  They can be obtained but be aware that you will incur import tax which can almost double the price.

Cheers, Jamie

I was sat on the bank last week watching the world go by as you do and taking note how the different anglers present were tackling the lake. I find I learn an awful lot by simply taking a mental note of what others are doing and at the times they are doing them. I find I learn more from those that don’t catch regularly than I do from those that do.

Spodding/Spombing is something which can make or break a swim. It does amuse me when anglers make the comment along the lines of ‘spodding doesn’t work here – it spooks the fish. The answer to this is something I don’t usually bother giving but usually start thinking about including a spod rod on my next trip.

Spodding/Spombing can indeed spook the fish on some lakes when carried out at the wrong time of the day. If you are fishing a water where the fish are under constant pressure then just as they are about to start cautious feeding isn’t the time to be crashing a spod/Spomb on top of them. Ideally you want to be introducing the spod/spomb several hours before the expected feeding spell or the expected arrival of fish in your swim if you know the water well. continue reading…

I’ve spent a lot of time chasing barbel and, although I like all species, they are just possibly my favourite. Most anglers think of meat or fish baits as the main attractors, but I’ve always felt that spices were the better bet. To that end I spent a great deal of time experimenting, and reading up on all the world wide curry mixes, and it makes fascinating reading. You may learn that a mere two of the items in a curry are ginger and clove, but how much of each? Equal amounts? 90% versus 10%? Or vice versa?

Yes, it is complicated, but get it right and it’s brilliant. Your favourite chips taste ok on their own, are much better with a pinch of salt, but become uneatable if covered in salt. That’s what I had to sort out, and I finally go it right in 1997. Since that time I haven’t changed a thing, as Mega Spicy worked right from the off and is still doing the same. Dusted on to meat, added to maggots, cooked into hemp, mixed into paste – it won’t let you down. On the odd days when the barbel just won’t play then if there are chub, bream, or carp around you’ll have to settle for them. It works all year round but it seems the colder the water the better your results may become.

Archie Braddocks