Quest Baits Blog

By Jim Kelly

In March and April the weather can be very variable. Carp are cold blooded and at this time of the year will usually end up in the part of the lake that has the most comfortable conditions for them… and this usually means the warmest area.
On calm sunny days I look for shallow areas that are hit by the sun for the majority of the day. Water less than 3 foot deep can be very productive especially if there are snags close by.

My tactic is to cast into the shallow water with just hookbaits or with a small PVA bag with a mixture of Maximum Action Pellets and broken boilies. I don’t want to scare the fish and there is no need to attract them as they are there anyway… all I want is a feeding response.  This tactic has worked for me on numerous occasions. continue reading…

Dear Jim 

I have just read your article on Grosley with much interest as I am taking my son and nephew in April, and I was a bit surprised to see the weather was so cold. We have booked pegs 17a 17b and 18, have you got any other advice for me and should I take my own bait or save some space and buy on site. One more thing is the tackle shop ok or should I stock up on rigs weights before I go. Sorry to ask such boring questions but these bit of info are not on the web site 

Hi Chris, no problem with your questions. Last year was very unusual weather wise, but it is always good to be prepared. I have been to this area in April, it has been 25 degrees in the day and minus 5 at night it can be that variable. 

When we were there the tackle shop was not up and running. I would always take my own terminal tackle anyway as I am extremely choosy about hooks etc.

Bait wise I would check with the venue that they have the bait you want. If not Quest will send bait to the venue if you wish.

The obvious area to fish, if you are in pegs 17 a and b, is the island you may need a bait boat as it is at least 110 yd chuck. Peg 18, I would suggest fishing the margins of the peninsula. Cast to it (it is a fairly long chuck) and walk round and bait up.

When we were there we  used hemp very sparingly (10 spods full per baited area) and avoided pellets as they only attracted bream. There are no chats. 

If you want to know anything else just ask and good look.

Jim

With these dark nights and awful weather I thought it was time to have a smile. Any clean(ish) funny stories or happenings would be welcome. Below is my first contribution.

As some of you may be aware I am a mathematics teacher. Years ago I was fishing a water that had both a syndicate and day ticket anglers. As it happened one of the pupils I taught and I were syndicate members.

Now this lad was a really good kid, but not overly academic. Just to paint the picture he came round one morning really excited that he had caught a green carp. Wow I thought, is this a carp from Mars? Or a new species? Or had he been on something? On going round to photograph it.. you guessed it… it was a tench!

Now one night the lads thought they would play a joke on him and placed a blow up against the back of his bivvy. Next morning, when the day ticket anglers arrived the comments were wonderful: continue reading…

Richard asked;

How many 18mm or 20mm boilies do you get to the kg ?

It is very difficult to give the number of 20mm or 18mm baits per kg as different base mixes have different densities. For example you may get more fruity trifle per kg than you would special crab. However, if you have 100, 20mm boilies it is equivalent to 137 18mm boilies. continue reading…

Question from Roger Mills;

Hi, I propose to put some order into my carp fishing and use a marker system to identify underwater features.  I see there are various rods on the market. What test curve would give the best response when trying to find lake features?
Regards, Roger 

Hi Roger,

For all my marker float work I use a stiff (tippy action) 3lb test curve road.  

A through action rod is not much use as all the knocks and bumps from bottom features are absorbed by the through action of the rod. 

The action of the rod is much more important than the test curve.  Using braided line also helps to “feel” the contours of the bottom, but in my experience you will need a mono leader with it as the increased friction of the braid will stop the marker float popping up. 

Hope this helps and good luck.Jim Kelly