Quest Baits Blog

I chose to start off in the deep water swim 31.

With my Grenville season fast running out I was desperate to get back over there after the events of the past couple of weeks which had been kind to me despite very few fish coming out. I knew they were turned on and tuned into the Magnum White. I just needed to get myself there and into a swim that gave me a good chance of action.

Friday I started work particularly early to hopefully clear my desk and allow myself an early escape. The journey went without hitch and a hour and a half after leaving home I was driving along the track to the car park. My heart sank, I had arrived early but it looked as though everyone else had the same idea as me but arrived earlier. There were over 15 anglers already pitched up.

I looked where each person was set up and the two swims I fancied from what was left were either 25 as there was plenty of space either side still, or 31 simply because I’d had the suspicion the fish were holding up in the deeper water and with a drop in air pressure more would do too.

I cast the marker into 25 and two of the spots that had been kind to me in the past appeared to be weeded over so they weren’t being fed on much. With other anglers arriving by the minute I dropped into 31 which put me on the end of a line of fellow B.C.S.G. members Phil Calloway and Paul Miller. Phil had received action earlier in the day and although his swim was only 2 away from the one I chose the swims are well spread so as to not interfere with anyone else’s water. At least I knew there were or had been fish in the vague area. In fact both Paul and Phil had seen a decent show of fish at first light. continue reading…

Rod bending action on the first day of the year.

I am not one for making new year resolutions but I guess deep down for a while now I have promised myself a little more time angling on my local patch and to try and not keep pestering the carp week in and week out. It is so easy to find yourself in a routine simply because it suits. For years now I have pointed my Land Rover bonnet south or west and driven for a couple of hours for most all of my angling and in doing so I invariably pass so much incredible fishing along the way.

It wasn’t always like this. I started to travel simply because I had to travel if I was to be able to fish for the size of fish that used to seem so important to me. But as the years have moved on and I have grown, the fish have too and now I have fish on my doorstep which are much larger than the fish I used to have to travel for a couple of hours to reach. Having said that, I’m not size motivated at all these days. I haven’t been for years as in my mind the venue, the methods, the people and to a certain extent the security, come much higher on my list of priority than the size of the fish these days. Okay, obviously it is a massive bonus if I can combine everything and still have big fish to angle for.  continue reading…

The prolonged cold, dark and often crisp nights of winter, followed by slippery drive ways and frozen window screens hardly bring on the urge to go carp fishing do they?

Or do they?

They do to me. I must admit to feeling a relative smugness inside me during the winter months and can easily warm to many memories of winter success over the years. It is a fact that most of my personal best carp over the years have actually fallen during the winter period. The majority of times I have slowly upped my best has been during the winter and I truly believe this is the best time of the year to sort the bigger fish out. Undoubtedly the fish slow up and rest up for much longer periods when the water is cold but the larger fish tend to keep that little bit more active. If everything is active then all well and good as every winter carp I catch seems to feel just that little more important to me than the same fish in the summer. Winter carp certainly give me a buzz!

So let us look at one of the little tricks I employ which can make all the difference between success and failure. continue reading…

A cold water Magnum White capture from yesterday.

I thought I would add this little email correspondence which has gone on to-day and is so typical of so many other ones I have most weeks. It is regarding our ‘special way’ of producing shelf life boilies which definitely shouldn’t be confused with other companies shelf life methods.

From: *****************
Sent: 05 November 2012 13:18
To: info@questbaits.com
Subject: Magnum White

Good Afternoon

I’ve been looking at the Magnum White boilie for fishing from now into the winter on a local syndicate. Having a few issues with the crays but hoping to get past them.

Is the Magnum White only available in shelf life as I cannot select freezer on the web site

Thanks

Matthew

From: Quest Baits Ltd [mailto:info@questbaits.com]

Sent: 05 November 2012 14:16
To: *****************
Subject: Magnum White

Hi Matt,

Magnum White has only ever been produced in the shelf life version. There really is no need for freezer baits with some ingredients. Remember we don’t use preservatives in our shelf life baits.

All of the catches you see with Magnum White have been made on baits produced to our rather special shelf life method.

The annual Carpology ‘Big Tank Test’ where the carp show which bait they (the carp) prefer to eat was won this year with our Magnum White. Last year we beat all the other bait companies brave enough to submit their baits for a public test with our Ghurkka Spice. Again it was the shelf life version of Ghurkka Spice we submitted despite producing some of the Ghurkka Spice in a freezer bait form we knew it would work no better than the shelf life baits we produce. It is a big confidence thing I guess not helped by a lot of the preservative filled shelf life baits offered by a lot of other bait companies that the carp simply don’t like the taste of at the side of their freezer versions. continue reading…

Question:

Hi Shaun,
I have been using your bait for a couple of years now, I’m going to Margot on 20th April next year, was wondering if you could give me any idea what worked well out there for you, if it was just boilies or pellets introduced worked its magic too, there doesn’t seem to be many blogs which help!
Many thanks
Roy

Shaun Harrison Answers:

Hi Roy,

One of the beautiful Margot commons I had that week.

It is a few years now since I visited Margot but the winning method for me was a wide scattering of 10mm boilies of mixed flavours (I actually mixed every flavour and colour we do) and bulked that out with Garlic Feast too. I fished 3 rods on the same baited area with different set-ups to start with – pop up, bottom bait and snow man.

A big Margot Grass Carp going back.

Most of the takes that week fell to a snowman set up with different flavour combinations but the Special Crab did appear to shine through that week.
I was baiting with around 2kg of 10mm’s and 5kg of Garlic Feast each afternoon and sprinkling the odd catapult pouch of boilies over the top at intervals too. This was around August time from memory so the weather and water temperature will possibly be a little cooler when you are there but not significantly different.
Certainly the mixed bed of different colour and different food signals is something that has worked well for me on a lot of waters.
I would have thought that Angling Lines would have some up to date news if you check their website and blog. They usually keep them up-dated. Like I say it is a while since I went but the above methods produced around 70 fish for me that week.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes

Shaun

Message:

Hi all,

I started making my own boilies, but a bit confused at to which flavours to use at which time of year,1 person told me fish flavours in winter and frutti in summer, then someone else told me the opposite. Any suggestions welcome

thanks all

Mike

Shaun Harrison answered:

Hi Mike,

The actual flavour has little bearing on the time of season to use it as most flavours are man made synthetics which don’t really alter the bait.

The important thing and the deciding factor is the base ingredients – the actual food content.

Basically you want to be avoiding anything that is oily during the colder months as these will congeal and trap in any attractive leakage they may have had and also make digestion of the said very difficult.

I designed all of the Quest Baits range to be effective and safe to use for 12 months of the year with the exception of Special Crab which does have quite a high oil content – this one really comes into its own during the warmest periods of the year.

The baits which have been truly outstanding during the colder months have been Fruity Trifle, Rahja Spice and Magnum White.

Hope this helps – the base ingredients are what make the difference – not the flavours they are labelled with – most artificial flavours smell of something but don’t taste of it.

Regards
Shaun Harrison