Quest Baits Blog

 Philip Parker wrote:

 I will be tackling a venue that contains a good head of large grass carp. The lake itself is quite shallow 3′-4′ and around nine acres in size.  Can anyone offer some advice on trying to catch them.  Of all the fish I’ve caught this one has eluded me. Surface baits are not an option at this venue. Any advice would be well received and appreciated.

Grass carp are lovely looking fish and a strange species as they are not easy to target. They will get caught on boilies, but this is more often than not in a water that has little or no weed. In my experience on heavily weeded waters they very rarely get caught at all.

Being basically plant eaters the best way to go about attracting them to your swim is with a plant based bait. I have found maize and sweet corn to be very good in this respect. If you put down a large bed of these particles you have a fair chance you’ll get the fish move on to it.

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by Paul Cooper; 

One of the most productive methods for multiple captures of any species of fish, is by accurate presentation of both loose feed, boilies and the hookbait to a small area in open water.

The first task is to locate a possible feeding area that is within casting distance, to present a carpet of feed and your hookbait. The requirements for this are:

1) A marker rod

2) A spod rod

3) 2, 3 or 4 Fishing rods.

 The first rod that you should use is the marker rod which can find the depth of water, the contours of the lake bed and the texture of the make up of the lake bed.

Once a fishing spot is located, allow the float to rise to the surface and pick a point on the skyline that the float is lined up with. Either record this or memorise the location.

Wind the line back until you feel the marker hit the lead on the line, so that the marker is now on the lake bottom. Mark up the main line of the marker rod, at the butt ring of the rod with electrical tape or pole elastic.

Once you are happy that it is properly marked, reel in the line.

Our next step is to mark up the spod rod and the fishing rods for that that baited area.

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Mike wrote:
Hi all, I’m planning to make my own boiles in the near future, after buying the base mix,then the additive,etc etc, I’m wondering could you give me a basic guidline on how much bait I would get from a 1kg basemix?

Hi Mike,
Most of the commercial base mixes come in 500 gram bags. Depending on the density of the base mix, will determine if a 4, 5 or even 6 egg mix is required. 5 medium sized eggs weigh around 350 to 400 grams, add some liquid additives to your mix and the total weight should be around 1 kilo, give or take 50 grams.

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By Paul Cooper

Trophy shot of a 44lb 2oz carp

Carp fishing has come on leaps and bounds over the past 20 years with carp care being at the forefront of the conscientious carp angler.

Even the sacking of carp is slowly decreasing with a more carp fisheries, banning the sack altogether. This has come about as a result of the occasional angler abusing the carp sack, by retaining a carp well beyond a safe period and causing unnecessary stress in doing so. The answer to this is in self photography which I have covered in a previous blog.

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By Paul Cooper 

There are many options for accurate baiting and bait presentation. Probably one of the most neglected is wading out your baits to give you that perfect presentation.

On 90% of waters this will not be possible, due to depth, silt or wading restrictions, but if it is possible then why not give it a try.

On a local lake that I fish the depths of the waters quantify the use of chest waders. With depths of around 3 to 3 ½ feet, getting in the water in chesties is not a problem.

Prior to this I would have already have done my plumbing work with a marker float to ensure that wading is possible.  Care still has to be taken as there a some large areas of deep silt and weed. I initially take out my landing net handle to use as a prod to ensure that I am not walking into a silt hole or walking off or onto a ledge. continue reading…

By Paul Cooper;

Have you ever caught a carp, weighed it accurately and then a few days later the same fish is caught weighing 2 to 3 lb heavier by another angler.

Watch some of the angling video’s on the internet web sites and you can witness for yourself, examples of fish being weighed in-correctly.

I have in fact caught a feeding fish at 9.30 am and returned the fish for it to be caught later at around 11.30pm that evening by another angler, weighing in at an extra 3lb.

Do you think that is possible?

No! It is not.

So why do anglers claim these exaggerated weights. Is it ignorance, self esteem, or simply knowingly cheating?

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