Quest Baits Blog

Good question that one and one which you’ll get a different answer from different people as everyone has varied views on how heavy to flavour a bait. Personally I don’t like my boilies smelling too strong but there are plenty of fish caught on real heavily flavoured baits.

Two opening sentences from my answer to the question asking how we use the Glugs.

Spencer answered straight away that he is happy using baits which have been left soaking in a Glug for 6 months. I was glad this came through as I had said everyone will have different preferences. Spencer also mentioned the Boilie Dips which are much stronger smelling and far more concentrated than the Bait Glugs. The Glug will be relatively smooth on your tongue – the dip will be too powerful. I liken it to fresh orange juice and undiluted orange squash. You could eat food with fresh orange juice poured over but not with undiluted orange squash. For hook baits only you can get away with really heavily flavoured baits as the carp never get to taste them properly.

I have caught a lot of fish in the past on hook baits soaked in neat 1000:1 flavours which goes against what I wrote about preferring subtle smelling/tasting baits but is something I still occasionally try – particularly on waters which have seen little angling pressure.

The reasons for my preference towards subtle flavoured baits are purely from conclusions drawn from the waters I currently fish. They will all produce to heavily flavoured baits and in one instance the water produces better to heavily flavoured hook baits. However and this is a big however, I have found that the average size of the fish caught on my heavily flavoured baits is much lower than that of those caught on my subtle flavoured baits (this is also a big reason why I still like to pre-soak my freebies). continue reading…

Hi there,

I’m quite new to carp fishing and was wondering when you glug your boilies do you leave them submerged in the glug for a long time or once they’ve had a coating do you put them in a pot for future use. I know the question is quite basic but like I said earlier im just starting out.

Kind regards, Simon Jones

Hi Simon,

Good question that one and one which you’ll get a different answer from different people as everyone has varied views on how heavy to flavour a bait. Personally I don’t like my boilies smelling too strong but there are plenty of fish caught on real heavily flavoured baits.

At the end of the day it very much comes down to confidence and how much the fish have been subjected to in the past. I tend to pick up a better average size of fish by keeping my baits subtle smelling rather than real strong. You need to experiment on the waters you are on though as I still fish one place which hasn’t seen a lot of pressure and those fish do seem to home in on strong flavoured baits.

The following is how I use Glugs in my own fishing.

Shelf Life Baits

• Hook Baits – I usually fill a empty pop-up tub with boilies, add a bit of Glug at a rate of 10ml (2 teaspoons) per 200ml tub (our pop-up containers) then simply leave them near the kettle or wherever I’ll be passing regular and give them a shake about each time I walk by until they have soaked the glug up and become less messy to handle. These I am quite happy to carry around in my rucksack for some time. You can add more glug at a later stage if you wish. I prefer to do this a bit at a time rather than leave them soaking in it.
• Normal Free Baits for baiting with – I don’t often glug them but if I do I simply give them a light coating then shake them around in a polythene bag until they are evenly covered. I would prefer to do this 24 hour before using them. quest-baits-glugs-how-to-use/#more-2922″ class=”more-link”>continue reading…

Hi Shaun,

Just ordered some of these excellent baits after a remarkable experience yesterday.

I was fishing my local stretch of the Bristol Avon near Chippenham in Wiltshire and happily banging out roach of a pleasing stamp on maggot, corn and bread, rotating the baits as bites slowed. Oddly, not a chub in sight and I would have normally expected to pick up a couple. Another angler stopped for a chat, mentioned the Chubby Chops (swiftly avoiding a slap by mentioning that it was bait) and suggested I try a couple. I packed a small feeder with the same light groundbait mix I was using to keep the roach coming, hair-rigged a Chop and cast into the same spot I had been trotting over.

An hour and 6 chub to 3 1/2lb later and my two Chops were decimated. Fantastic!

I have to say I missed quite a few bites and think that my size 12 Drennan Super Specialist about 5mm behind the bait was probably not the optimum set-up but it was getting dark and I didn’t have time to experiment.

What would you have done – longer hair and bigger/smaller hook or larger hook and tight to the barrel?

Best regards,  Graham Parry.

PS, I ordered some Barbel Chops as well. What would you combine those with – I fish the Wye and Gloucester Severn in the Summer and Autumn and was thinking of grinding up some chops and mixing in a little of the Archie Braddock’s powder but choice of pellets to bulk the mix?

Hi Graham,

Excellent – our biggest problem is getting people to try these things. We are more than happy knowing the baits will then do the rest for us without the sales patter.

The water temperatures are still running very cold which affects the metabolism and feeding style of the fish. It is easy to draw sometimes the wrong conclusion when it’s as it is at the moment. Sometimes simply mounting the bait in a different manner (lengthways or sideways) can often make the difference. One thing I would most certainly have tried with the limited time which often stops us changing rigs would have been to cut one end off of the bait. continue reading…

Well, the Chilli Chocolate boilies and pop-ups are now being packaged ready for the March 1st release date.

I must say this new bait seems to have come through at an alarming rate without the usual need of adding a bit, taking a bit away, juggling ingredients used etc.

There I was working on ‘Gurkha Spice’ when I stumbled across a couple of really interesting ingredients which weren’t particularly suitable for what I was working on at the time but it so happens I had another project on the go talking to a flavour company about producing something utilising a couple of ‘special ingredients’ I had requested. continue reading…

20lb stalked Mirror from one of the Free Spirit DVD's

Saturday was another real long day. Up at 5.30am to be able to get down to Johnson Ross for their Free Spirit Fishing open day. Having been involved with Free Spirit since its launch I am still proud to be associated with the brand, so with my Free Spirit head on for the day I ventured south. It was nice to meet many new faces as well as catch up with a few I haven’t seen for some time. Thank you everyone involved for making us feel so welcome.

I had a little further business to do in the evening whilst down that way. It seemed to make sense to kill two birds with one stone so to speak so I had arranged a meeting elsewhere Saturday evening. In hindsight – not such a good idea as I really did know about it for the final part of my journey as tiredness kicked in.

It was during this journey though that I received a text message telling me that the big common in one of Kevin Nash’s lakes had gone over the record weight. This I thought was brilliant news although there will be many ill informed who would no doubt knock it. It was great to see another fish come up against Two Tone at Conningbrook.

I telephoned Fran to ask her to mention it on the Quest Baits Facebook page to spread the news.

Seems now though that the information perhaps shouldn’t have slipped out or is perhaps even not true – time will tell on this one. My source is usually very reliable and I have chased back to where the information came from (4th hand when I received it).

Personally I hope it is true. I was fortunate to see Kevin’s lakes in the early days and watched them develop along with the fish he stocked. Already on the forums people are talking about ‘Garden Ponds’ etc, but the truth of the matter is that these fish have been properly fished for. There was a syndicate on there for quite some time. I have been fortunate to fish one of the lakes and believe me the fish aren’t easy – I had a couple of blank trips before I managed to bank a fish.

The fact that Kevin lives on a farm with acres of land brings things away from your average ‘garden pond’.  Okay so not everyone can fish for these fish but neither could they fish Redmire and no-one ever cared one bit that the record came from there and stood for almost 30 years.

The fact that the pool is on Kevin’s land should make no difference whatsoever. If the owner of the house on the banks of Conningbrook caught Two tone at a record weight – would that not count – it’s in his garden!

Anyway, I for one take my hat off to what Kevin has achieved with these pools. Very sensible management has created a terrific environment which has enabled fish grown here in the UK to reach continental proportions. Good on yer Kevin – living the dream at last!

If the fish has been caught or not I’m sure we won’t be long before we see another fish come through from there anyway. Everyone seems a little tight lipped at the moment to know if it has definitely been caught or not.

Footnote:

Looking doubtful that it has been caught – someone spread a rumour and that rumour really did spread.

At least it has given airing in a few places the truths behind Kevin’s lakes. Yes they are in his grounds but are no different to lakes in the grounds of anywhere else. The lake in question has been fished for many years and even had a syndicate on it at one time. The fish are English and far from easy to catch.

If and when a record comes from here then no doubt all the knockers will start again. I guess that’s life. Plenty of people speaking from the outside who really don’t know any facts. A very familiar story that one don’t you think?

Having read Spencer’s post from last week it occurred to me just how many anglers probably have hung their rods up over this particularly difficult and frustrating winter of frozen lakes and snow blocked tracks.

Well, a word of warning here, nature is starting to wake up again along with the carp becoming more active. 6am this morning the birds were singing their hearts out as I sat drinking my wakening cup of coffee. I strolled outside, lean’t against the bridge of my garden pool and couldn’t help but smile. Nature was telling me that everything is starting to return from the winter slumber.

It really is time for you to be thinking about dusting the gear down if you want to tempt yourself one of those gorgeous late winter carp still sporting the beautiful reddy orange tinge they develop during the winter months.

Winter carp usually look as though they are in their full peak of health as well as usually being up in weight, which is total evidence that they still carry on rooting around and feeding all through the winter.

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