Quest Baits Blog

I’ve been using an assortment of Quest shelf life and frozen baits since the company began. Despite the success I’ve had with the shelf life baits I still favour frozen baits over all.

However, as we all know one of the main problems with frozen baits is its deterioration during session fishing.  When travelling to France you may expect there to be sufficient freezer space made available… but more often than not the freezer space soon fills, leaving bait unfrozen and unpreserved.

Well, I have found the answer…. vacuum packing!

For this I use an Andrew James Vacuum Sealer & it couldn’t be simpler to use.

Put the boilies in a vacuum bag & follow the instructions of the vacuum sealer unit, and voila, you have fully preserved boilies.

These can either then be frozen for an indefinite period or left unfrozen for at least a month plus.  Because all the air has been extracted from the bag, the baits remain fully preserved.

I’ve also used the vacuum packing on tiger nuts, hemp, maize, and seed particle mix. The secret to vacuum packing particles is to rinse them thoroughly, drain as much water off as possible then vacuum pack. Any of these particles can be frozen for unlimited time and left unfrozen for at least a week.

Why not give it a try?

Regards, Paul Cooper

1. Easily digested – the quicker it’s digested the sooner the carp need to eat again.

2. Low flavour level (that will surprise some!) – if I am presenting baits where I know the carp to be then I don’t need high flavour content.  I have watched fish move from an area away from heavily flavoured baits when they don’t want to feed.  They will tolerate low level flavoured baits being in the swim though and eat them when ready.

3. Soluble ingredients – to assist the leach of the natural subtle attractors.

4. Minimal fat/oil content – they struggle to digest fat in the cold weather which can make them ill and certainly makes it a longer period of time before they need to eat again.

5. Subtle colour if the bird life is troublesome – speaks for itself but I prefer subtle baits when everyone else is using ‘in your face baits’.

6. Food content instead of simple flavour carrier ingredients – if the bait has been out for a couple of days before the carp are inclined to feed, or indeed come across the bait, I want a food parcel awaiting them – not a washed out bit of pasta!

7. Essential oil(s) – retain taste in the bait if not picked up early in the session.

8. Easily obtained – no good getting a bait going that you can’t get hold of easily.

9. Matching add–ons – I like to be able to get matching pop-ups, pellets and the like.

Whilst we are waiting for the accompanying pellet for the newly launched Chilli Chocolate boilies, it ocurred to me that I need something to give a little ‘boost’ to my hook bait and I generally like to have something mirroring  my free offerings as closely as possible. With the aid of a Korda Krusha, about 30 15mm Chilli Chocolate shelf life baits and approx 20ml of the Chilli Chocolate glug, you can easily make a lovely little mix thats ideal for a small PVA parcel.

Chilli Chocolate Meltie

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A short video clip giving you hints & tips on keeping your bait in the best possible condition.

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…