Quest Baits Blog

By Jamie Simpson
I have just returned home from my first ever BCAC qualifying event at Cuttle Mill Fishery, near Tamworth. What a roller coaster of emotions I have gone through over the past 48 hours.

We arrived at the venue on Thursday evening for a bit of a social and a look around the lake. We managed to spot plenty of fish during this walk around, with carp bubbling and crashing in several areas. A large proportion of the fish seemed to be in an area between swims known as the Pads and Nevilles. Normally this would not be a popular choice as you are in a corner and penned in somewhat by other swims around this part of the lake.

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By Jamie Simpson

A few years ago I managed to get my hands on a lead smelting machine from Janns Netcraft in America. Being an engineer by trade I have found this sort of thing intriguing and I love trying out new moulds that I make up from aluminium blocks.

My melting pot has a small spout underneath for the molten lead to pour out and into the mould.

One word of warning for anyone who wants to make their own leads is to wear goggles a face mask and gloves. I would also recommend doing it in a garage rather than in the house for safety reasons.

I have over the last few years made quite a variety of lead shapes of differing weights and shapes from moulds that I have made myself and some that I have purchased at a cost of around £17. I buy mine from Walkers of Trowell

I put a home made brass loop (these can also be obtained from Walkers) attached to a Berkley McMahon swivel and then insert this into half of the mould, I then carefully place the other half ot the mould to this and hold under th smelting pot. The lever on the side of the pot is then lifted and the lead pours into the mould. The lead sets in just a few seconds, so I then split the mould and knock the lead into a bucket of water.

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After this I cut the excess off with pliers and then file up the join mark, before holding the lead over a stove on a relatively low heat. Once the lead is hot I dip it in some powder paint, which can be purchased from most tackle shops, I then place it back over the flame to allow the paint to run before dipping in water to set the paint.

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You can get plenty of different colours of powder paint from the tackle shops and by mixing a few up together you can match it to the lake bed that you are fishing quite well. I am not that sure this gives a massive advantage but if it gives you confidence it is worth a go. You don’t even need to make your own lead’s to do this, you can just cut off the existing coating from a Korda lead and then apply your own unique colour. I often use GLT (gold label tackle) powder coating.

Leads are a relatively cheap item of tackle but when using safety clips etc you can get through quite a few over a season and at £1.20+ each it doesn’t take long for a smelting pot and a couple of moulds to pay for themselves.

I hope this was of some interest

Cheers, Jamie Simpson

By Jamie Simpson;

I managed to get out for an overnight session at the weekend as I had been invited to a water by a good friend. As we were sat discussing everything from fishing to politics, a subject came up that brought back a few memories and one that I now dont even need to consider.

The subject was the balance between rod and reel, now most people may not see this as important but trust me when you have spent as long and as much money as me being unhappy that my casting is not quite right for one reason or another, then you will see the importance.

For quite some time I had been more than happy with my 2 1/2 lb Armalites coupled with baitrunner 4500gt reels, but I knew they had seen better days and was planning on fishing a few waters where they would probably cost me fish so a new set up was required.

I went out and I purchased a set of Harrison Chimera 12ft 3 1/2lb rods and balanced these with Shimano big pit baitrunners.

Not a bad set up were my thoughts when I got them set up at home, yet on the bank they just weren’t right for me. I stand at 5ft 7in and I just couldn’t get the set up moving how I wanted. Now there wasn’t anything wrong with the gear at all, but it just didn’t suit my style and height. I also found playing the fish awkward and not really enjoyable. continue reading…

Question by Martin Almey;

Hi there,

I am off to Maurepaire this May for a week (booked thru angling lines) and was wondering if I could get some advise on de & rehydrating my baits as there are no freezer facilities at this lake.

I have always fished with frozen baits and usually take my baits out the freezer the night before and leave them to defrost/semi-dry.

I then just use them as they are without rehydrating at all but the baits only last 36-48hrs before they are off.

Can you give some advise on how to keep say 10kg of boilies at their best for trip to Maurepaire?
Thank you in advance, Kind regards, Martin.

Hi Martin,

I normally take my baits frozen, by that I mean straight out of the freezer as I am loading the car. I will then wrap them in a few bags to stop leakage of moisture onto any of the other gear.

Upon arrival at the lake I place them under the bed chair for the first night as I am generally too busy and tired to mess about. After this I place them in air drying bags (the key is to not place too many in each bag). They harden up over the course of the week but if you keep turning them in the bag and keep them away from moisture they should be just fine like this.
Another option is to air dry them at home a couple of weeks before you set off. A good way of looking after them is by then placing them in a cardboard box with either salt or pellet as these will both further draw the moisture from the bait.

If you then feel the need to re-hydrate them I would recommend Shaun’s approach of soaking them in hemp juice. You can see how to do this on the Quest website & Blog, as Shaun has written about it in his Carpworld articles.

Alternatively you could take Questbait shelflife boilies. I have always prefered freezer bait myself but believe me these shelflife baits are fantastic and hold their own against the freezer baits comfortably.

Just a bit more information for you;

I fished Maurepaire in August 2005 and had a pretty good result, if you take a look on the Angling Lines website you will see my article.

We fished peg 3 and I was casting right in front of peg 2 at about 120yards (roughly). I cannot say the situation will be the same when you go but I got through 30kilo of Rahja during the week and about 5 kilos of hemp if memory serves me correctly. Obviously this may not be the approach to use during the week when you go but it may be worth taking a few bags of shelf lifes just in case. You can always bring them home.

I hope some of this is helpful and it would be great if you could let me know how you get on.

Thanks, Jamie

By Jamie Simpson;

Over the years I have found on several waters the need to cast that little bit further than I can reach with my normal 12lb big game line. (Check out also the Angling Lines Blog article on “Distance Casting”). I have tried many different materials over the years and spent quite a bit of money on the tactic.

Firstly I would like to state that I won’t use leaders and light line if I believe it will be detrimental to the well-being of the carp in the event of a crack off or lost fish. Therefore I will not use them on extremely weedy waters where the lighter 8lb or so line will part. I see no point hooking fish I cannot land.

If it is safe though and I think it will make a difference then I will feel totally happy using leaders. I started off using amnesia leaders at first and although they did a fair job and the material was fairly cheap, they were a bit stiff and I wasn’t happy with the knot. I would say this was in the early nineties and before the tapered leaders were available. continue reading…

Paste – A Winter’s Edge

By Jamie Simpson;

Catching carp in the winter certainly isn’t easy, but you can put things in your favour with a little thought.

Over the last couple of years I have used more and more paste during the winter months. The reason for this is quite simple really. With colder water temperatures I don’t want the attractors of my bait to be locked in. Even in the coldest of conditions the paste will breakdown, thus giving off a trail of attraction. As you generally won’t be putting free bait into the swim, the draw is entirely from the scent trail given off by the paste.

I generally fish a Rahja Spice hard hookbait with Rahja paste wrapped around it. To add to this I will often use a small bag of either 10mm (3 or 4) baits or crushed 15mm baits (2off). This gives the fish a mouth full of bait and one that they often find hard to resist.

On several occasions I have managed to put fish on the bank whilst everyone else seems to be finding it difficult. continue reading…