Quest Baits Blog » Carp Bait Posts

Chilli Chocolate… more than just a great smelling boilie

david — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:49:23 +0000

When you open a bag of Chilli Chocolate the first thing that hits you is the powerful chocolate aroma… but the clever thing about it is the subtle chilli & pepper taste. It surprises many people to learn that carp adore a spicy flavor. It’s true that the fruity sweet flavours do well too… who can doubt the effectiveness of Fruity trifle… but baits like Rahja spice prove without doubt that they have a like for the spices too!

My first sessions proved conclusively the effectiveness of the Chilli Chocolate. I also received the combination hooker to me bait set. It comprises pots of 15 & 10mm glugged hook baits & pop-ups. Extremely practical!

See you soon at the waters edge!

Romu

Getting carp bait out there!

david — Thu, 13 May 2010 10:47:58 +0000

There’s no easy way to get your chosen boilie out, no matter what the size or shape, unless you use some of the following.

Throwing Stick

These come in variable sizes and diameter depending on the brand you use. I find that the Throwing Stick gives me a better spread pattern of round bait for 10mm to 24mm baits over a large clear area of the lake. This gets the carp moving and roaming around the area and gives you a better chance of getting the carp confidently feeding in numbers. Brilliant to use at showing fish and very quiet in the proccess.

The Spomb

This I have just recently used and I recommend highly. They are capable of holding any shape, size or chopped boilie and get out to a feature of the lake at great distance. There is no spillage like the normal spod or rocket depending on the angler of course and is very accurate in its flight. Great for baiting up at distance and suprisingly effortless.

The Catapult

The catapult can be used for single baits only at short distance or at range depending on the brand and the elastic. I have found using a pouch over a marker around 30-40 yards you get a very close baited area, say a hole in the weed or a small clay/gravel hump of the lake bed. Ideal to carry with you at all times when stalking and a major piece of my armoury.

The Spoon

The Spoon is fantastic at getting bait out there quick – no matter what size or shape. This is the perfect tool for pre-baiting close in quarters of the lake or a bay for example. Straight out of a 10k bag or bucket the spoon can scoop up the bait with ease and within minutes its all out there. It also give’s you that great spread pattern of boilie or chops which really helps the carp get there heads down for a free meal. A major tool for pre-baiting and getting them out there in numbers very quickly.

Just a reminder that all these Items you use give off a different sound when the bait hits the water! This can be the sound of a dinner bell ringning for them hungry carp. Wether your fishing at range, in close or to a small feature of the lakebed these tools will help you get the boilie to them with confidence… and as they say, I dont leave home without them.

Find em, feed em, catch em!

Marc Twaite

Bait additives – the thinking behind Mega Spicy

david — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:49:25 +0000

I’ve spent a lot of time chasing barbel and, although I like all species, they are just possibly my favourite. Most anglers think of meat or fish baits as the main attractors, but I’ve always felt that spices were the better bet. To that end I spent a great deal of time experimenting, and reading up on all the world wide curry mixes, and it makes fascinating reading. You may learn that a mere two of the items in a curry are ginger and clove, but how much of each? Equal amounts? 90% versus 10%? Or vice versa?

Yes, it is complicated, but get it right and it’s brilliant. Your favourite chips taste ok on their own, are much better with a pinch of salt, but become uneatable if covered in salt. That’s what I had to sort out, and I finally go it right in 1997. Since that time I haven’t changed a thing, as Mega Spicy worked right from the off and is still doing the same. Dusted on to meat, added to maggots, cooked into hemp, mixed into paste – it won’t let you down. On the odd days when the barbel just won’t play then if there are chub, bream, or carp around you’ll have to settle for them. It works all year round but it seems the colder the water the better your results may become.

Archie Braddocks

Bait additives – the thinking behind Mega Carp

david — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:56:50 +0000

This is everyone’s favourite fish, judging by the numbers of carp waters around the country, and every bait company produces a “must have or you can’t catch” mix. The trouble is, these ‘must haves’ vary so much… sweet, savoury, fruity, meaty, fishy… could all of them be right?

Well, yes, because carps tastes vary from season to season, and even from water to water, and are also affected greatly by temperature. So I decided to try and blend them all together, taking only the best attractors from each mix.

Mega Carp was one of my later releases, so I already had a great deal of experience in blending various items before I even started on this additive. It worked from the off, so if you are targeting match carp, or big fish, it should feature somewhere in your approach. Stirred into sweetcorn, mixed into paste, added to groundbait, maggots, or even as part of a boilie base mix, it does its job of attracting.

For the roach lovers among you this is worth a serious go. Gary Barclay, senior manager at Drennan International, was one of my early field testers, and as a pleasure angler and matchman he tried it on the Thames, canals around Oxford, and various still waters. Other than carp, he was impressed by the numbers of quality roach that were attracted, but kept it quiet for a long time as he was regularly picking up coin in the matches and wanted to keep this particular edge to himself.

Now Quest have re-released it & it’s available to you!

Archie Braddocks

Pre-baiting for that 40lb+ common

david — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:11:54 +0000

So, it’s the first full day of the enforced close season on my syndicate venue where my quest for a certain 40+ UK common continues. I’ve got a month until the start, when many new keenie members will all be hunting the very same carp. Of course I have the advantage of a seasons knowledge of the water, however as I said recently, the plan is to bait a couple of swims, one banker ‘hot’ swim and one ‘probably be empty and unpopular’ swim, in the hope of having a ‘fall back on’ option. Bait is to be my edge.

So the car is loaded, my initial baiting is to be approx 20 kilos of bait spread over the two swims, being a mixture of Quest shelf life baits in 15mm and 10mm, plus a mixture of Quest maximum action pellet, and an obligatory tub of hemp! I’m using an initial blend of baits as initially I want the ‘spot’ to be cleared and also recognised. Although 20 kilos is a fair investment, after this initial baiting I’ll reduce the amount and be putting the Chilli Chocolate shelf lifes in exclusively, with a view to building up the fishes confidence in it as a food and keeping the spots clean. I won’t be able to afford to put in stacks and stacks of bait, probably a couple of kilos a week, however over the course of the season the fishing will get better and better.

The big common came out twice last season, the dates and swims it was caught from are in my diary, along with my holiday form from work!

Time to get the baiting spoon out!

All the best, Spencer H

Braddock’s Baits readers question

david — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:15:51 +0000

Hi. I recently attended the Fish Fest at Chapmans in Hull and was talking to a member to Archie Braddock’s on the Quest stand. He was telling me about his powder additives that are been reintroduced. Unfortunately at the time i was unable to make any purchases but will be doing so soon.

What I would like to know is which and how he used to make the paste with hemp in, he did tell me but there was a lot to take in that day that Ii forgot! Also with the sweetcorn, which additive was used?

I remember him saying he prepares and freezes etc but I am very intersested in trying the 3 formulas he had made on display (sweetcorn with additive, meat coated in additive and the paste with hemp).

Once Ii know i will then be heading of to Chapmans to purchase the Quests ingredients you suggest. I have subscribed to your blog and look foward to endless help and info.

Thank you, DEAN

Hi Dean. The three items you requested info on;

Sweetcorn with Mega Carp. I tipped a tin of Jolly Green, juice and all, into a maggot box and stirred in two heaped teaspoonsful of Mega Carp. Best done the night before.

Luncheon Meat with Xotic Spice. Chop up a 300grm tin and drop it into a small freezer bag. Sprinkle over the meat 2 heaped teaspoons of Xotic Spice, then shake the bag until all the meat is coated. Freeze until needed.

Hemp and Mega Spicy. Liquidise the hemp in a blender until it is a sticky grey slop. Stiffen it up with groundbait dosed with Mega Spicy at the higher winter level, instructions for same on the Mega Spicy carton. I use it for groundbait end plugs in an open ended feeder, on its own in a cage feeder, or stiffened up further, as a method mix.

I hope this helps.

Archie.

Why you should always carry 20mm boilies

david — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:38:38 +0000

We sell far more 15mm boilies than we do 20mm boilies which does surprise me. I like small baits in my own fishing but tend to do so from 20mm baits. Let me explain.

To me there is nothing worse than not being able to quite reach the fish with free baits. This is why I tend to carry 20mm’s around with me and leave them intact until I know the fishing situation I will be in.

Look at the food in these chopped Chilli Chocolate baits

I often end up cutting them into halves, thirds and quarters. This releases a lot more of the attractors much quicker and also gives the advantage of them looking totally different. I find I catch more with these on pressured venues than I do on conventional round baits. Obviously no good for baiting at range though (apart from with a Spomb). I would definitely rather have a bed of broken 20mm boilies out in my swim than a bed of uniformly sized and shaped baits and when I really need to I can introduce them whole at much greater ranges than I can with smaller baits.

For fishing catapult range the chopped baits hit the surface from a catapult much more quietly – thus less scaring.

The sheer fact that we sell so many more 15mm boilies than 20mm boilies means that by using 20mm’s as they are is another thing that little bit different to most.

When I first joined the Mangrove syndicate I caught a lot of fish on 10mm baits as there were so few anglers using baits that small on there. A couple of years later and most were on small baits and my catches became average rather than much better than average as they had been before. Another couple of years on and I decided to try 22mm baits as I was seeing so few larger baits going in. Straight away my catches soared again simply by being different with bait sizes.

Have a think about where you are fishing. Could a simple change in size of bait used give you that all important edge?

Shaun Harrison.

Bait additives – the thinking behind Xotic Spice

david — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:36:42 +0000

In my book Fantastic Feeder Fishing I described how using spices and groundbait improved my catches, particularly with perch, and this led me to go deeper into the use of spices in food; how they worked, and why. I also wanted to find out what went into a curry, and that’s when I got a shock. There are over 600 different curry recipes being used by different countries around the world, with many using items that others leave out. I ended up more confused than I started!

So my next step was to purchase several books on oriental cooking with spices, to find out what each individual item was used for. With this info, plus my own observations, I was able to come up with a blend that definitely attracted perch – after much field testing.

As usual a good additive will always attract other species, with carp always the first on the scene. Other species strongly attracted were roach, bream, and barbel. Xotic is very good added to maggots along with maize flour, dusted on to luncheon meat, and excellent mixed into groundbait. It’s an essential ingredient in my feeder or bait dropper mix when chopped worm fishing.

Vacuum packed carp baits

david — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:59:35 +0000

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

9 things you need in a winter boilie

david — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:02:43 +0000

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.

Quest Baits Blog » Carp Bait Posts

Chilli Chocolate… more than just a great smelling boilie

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Getting carp bait out there!

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Bait additives – the thinking behind Mega Spicy

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Bait additives – the thinking behind Mega Carp

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Pre-baiting for that 40lb+ common

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Braddock’s Baits readers question

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Why you should always carry 20mm boilies

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Bait additives – the thinking behind Xotic Spice

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Vacuum packed carp baits

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9 things you need in a winter boilie

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