Quest Baits Blog

It is at this time of year when I start to dust off my barbel gear and think about getting out on the rivers.

After 6 months on the Stillwaters it is nice to be getting back onto some moving water, fishing for some truly wild fish.

Hopefully from now onwards (as the weather generally worsens) the banks will be less crowded and as always at this time of year the barbel and chub will be in their peak of condition.

From now until the end of the season you can expect to encounter some of the most challenging river conditions and the worse that the English weather can throw at you. With this in mind I have listed a few things, which although simple have helped me put more fish safely on the bank through many previous winters. continue reading…

By Pat Gillett

I have just come back from an interesting weeks fishing with Paul Cooper on the Angling Lines Venue, Island Lake.

Island Lake is a mature looking Gravel Pit of approximately 25 acres in the Champagne Region of France; roughly 3 ¾ hours drive from Calais. As the name suggests it has a large island and 4 or 5 bays along with a lot of weed and underwater features.

The lake is totally different to most commercial French fisheries as it is relatively lightly stocked for the size of the venue. Most commercial French Lakes are overstocked and so the fish become virtually dependant on anglers’ baits, which more or less guarantees you catching plenty of fish. The fish in Island Lake are of an excellent average size and it would appear that they have reached and are maintaining these weights by feeding on the abundance of natural food in the lake. This can lead to very challenging fishing, but to me this makes it all the more interesting and rewarding. continue reading…

by Pat Gillett;

Over the last few weeks I have been doing a few short afternoon / day sessions, with the longest one being no more than 10 hours. This really is my favourite type of carp fishing.

I have kept the tackle to a minimum and been very mobile in my fishing. By moving around a lot (sometimes up to four or five times) and closely watching the behaviour of the carp I have been able to catch one or two fish when the going has really been pretty slow.

The Midlands Estate Lake I have been fishing is about 4 acres, crystal clear and very shallow (no more than 3 ½ feet deep). It also has an increasing amount of weed as the weather warms up. 

Stocking levels are not particularly high with approximately 35 fish. Because of the water conditions it really is a better ‘night water’ with most angler’s catching very little in the day. But I have always believed in the old adage of ‘catching on my own terms’ and as such I have still not fished a night on this water. (I get more enjoyment catching in the daytime).

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By Pat Gillett;
Towards the end of April I had a week on one of the Angling Lines venues called Long Lake. I have written an article on the weeks fishing on the Angling Lines’ website. Now although I didn’t catch any massive fish I did catch a few. But the main thing that the week brought home to me was how little things can make all the difference in fishing.

On Long Lake you book a swim for the week. Each swim has its’ own ‘end of swim marker’s’ which show the angler the exact area of water he has in front of him and should stop anglers encroaching on each other’s water.

I had got swim number 4 which was pretty much in the centre of the lake but also by far the narrowest part of the lake.I set up the marker float and plumbed the depths etc. About 10 to 15 feet back from the ‘end of swim marker’ I had an area that sloped from (left to right ) 12 feet deep to 14 feet deep. Now with the weather predictions I would have thought this was perfect so I marked up 3 rods plus the spod rod to fish this area.

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by Pat Gillett;

In today’s modern day fishing (especially carp and barbel fishing) there seems to be an ever-growing acceptance that ‘biggest is best’.

By this I mean that everything seems to be measured purely by how heavy a fish weighs and the heavier a fish weighs the more meritorious the capture is deemed to be.

It is human nature that we all want to catch the biggest fish we can but I believe that you should try and put all your fishing into context and not necessarily believe that ‘the biggest is the best’. By doing this you will continue to get more from your fishing and not get blinded by ‘numbers on a scale’.

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Nick wrote;

Hi Pat,
Hope you don’t mind me mailing you, have picked up your mail address from the Quest baits website. I have posted a blog along the same lines as this but I was wondering if you could recommend one of Shaun’s baits for barbel along with a pellet. I am fishing the Ouse around Bedford this year for the big girls and wanted something they have not seen before and could start putting in to get them used to it. Any recommendations?
Many thanks,
Nick

Hi Nick

Living in Wolverhampton I am central to a number of rivers and the ones that I have fished for the last two winters (whilst using Quest) were the Lower Severn, the Upper Trent, the Warwickshire Avon and the River Dove. None of the stretches are particularly prolific but in general the average size of the fish is pretty good, although nowhere near as good as yours will be on the Ouse at Bedford. continue reading…