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. 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…

Andrew Allen runs Mansfield Angling Ltd which is one of our valued Quest Baits Stockists. He started using the Chubby Chops himself and has had great success with them culminating in a 5 hour match win at the prolific Makin’s venue near Coventry, just before Xmas.

A total of 90 anglers in teams of three took part and his team won with two of his team having the top weights, both fishing only on Chubby Chops. Andrew took 13 carp for over 129 lb in weight himself, he reckons it is  the colour that works best in winter.

Sorry – no fish picture but don’t be fooled by the name of the bait. Since its release Ron Key has had some great Barbel sport on it and the carp certainly have a liking for it as well as the Chub for which it was originally developed.

If you’re looking for something a little different to the norm’ a different shape, taste and smell then look no further.

Cheese flavoured baits go back a long way in my own fishing. It took me a lot of years to catch my first 20lb common (pictured) but when it eventually came during a session on Gosfield lake in Essex it fell for a bait using exactly the same attractors as we have put in the Chubby Chops.

This picture is from 25 years ago so you can see that although Chubby Chops is relatively new in our range it still has a very long history. I have always like cheese type flavours in carp baits and although the word cheese isn’t mentioned a great deal N-Butyric Acid is. Need I say more?

Best fishes – Shaun Harrison

If you carry a tub of paste around in your bag for a while you will find it starts to harden off and become dry and crumbly thus difficult to use. I do one of two things in these instances to bring the paste ‘back to life’.

First I carry a spoon around with me as I find it much easier to scoop the paste out this way than scraping it out with my fingers.

Once I have the bit I want to use I simply wet my hand in the water then re-mould the bait. If I need to do a larger quantity then I add oil to it at home. For most baits I use corn oil but sometimes use a fish oil on the fish flavoured baits. The addition of the oil keeps the bait workable for a much longer period of time. The supermarkets are full of different infused oils so there is plenty to experiment with. The nut oils can be well worth a look.

Best fishes, Shaun

Thinking about a bulk purchase of Quest Baits or possibly starting a baiting team?

We offer 25kg of any combination of two boilies in 15mm or 20mm for only £199.99

That works out at just £8.00 per kilo!

Enquire at your local Quest Baits stockist or contact us direct on 08448 000 345.