Archie Braddock with a recently caught Tench of 9lb 8oz and we are delighted to be able to re-release by popular demand Archie Braddock’s ‘Mega Tench’ spice blend. This gained a huge following a few years back and we are delighted to be able to offer you exactly the same blend again. Incredibly complex blend of spices and essential oils for adding to groundbaits, maggots, stick mixes, meat in fact the only limit is your imagination!
Here is a press release by the Anglers Mail. Available now!
The result of a little bit of hook bait tweaking.
Words and pictures by Stuart Forsdike.
After watching several nice fish above my baits but not actively feeding I knew there was definately something wrong. I wondered whether it was the flavor (currently using chili chocolate). On watching the fish for a while I came to the conclusion it might be the round shape I was using. With everyone using the perfect round boilie could it be that the fish were associating this with danger? Rather than re shape a single boilie I decided to simply cut the sides of the boilie off to make it more a barrel shape and I also attached one of the brilliant Pimple Pops. The orange being my favorite colour!
The new shape served a number of purposes – the longer narrow shape offer the fish something different that they are not caught on, the shape is more difficult to eject form the fish’s mouth, but cutting the “skin” of the bait more flavour can be released and finally the pimple although small has enough buoyancy to lift and thus creating a mini snowman rig. That a lot of plus points.
After a blank night in the sun the fish moved over my baits again – this 22LB common may not be one of the manors monsters but certainly didn’t hold any fear when it came to barrel shape Chili Chocolate bait tipped with an orange pimple !!! I can’t wait to try the bait again and this time hope for one of the larger residents
The winter is a season where some of us store away their gear until the arrival of the spring. Others are aware that you can experience some big moments during the winter. The winter is the time where generally the bigger fish will see the inside of our landing net. In my opinion a big reason to keep the rods out of the shed as long as possible and go out hunting for that winter whacker instead.
Depending on which venue I choose and how many carp that are in there, I choose if I will go prebaiting the spots. Another big issue that you have to keep in mind is the water temperature. The fish will move just a little bit or even lay still most of the time when the temperature stays under +7 degrees. In these conditions I won’t go prebaiting but will fish much more active. I then use small solid pva-bags filled with chopped boilies and action pellets or fish with a single hookbait. I keep the rigs in place for one hour and then recast them again to a new spot when nothing has occurred on the previous spots.
Spencer wrote : Hi, I’m fishing at lake Molyneux in France on the 19th to th 26th
March and was just wondering what the best bait would be & maybe best tactics?
I was looking into taking Chilli Chocolate – any help would be great.
many thanks
Spencer.
Hi Spencer,
I have fished Molyneux a couple of times. These were in March 2007 and June 2010. The lake is around 13 acres, and is very peaceful and picturesque with a lot of overhanging willows and depths ranging from 2ft to around 6ft.
One end of the lake is dominated by a large island, which is where most anglers tend to fish. Seventy five per cent of the island is within 100 yds of the bank so casting and baiting up isn’t really a problem. If you fish at the back of the island (pegs 12 and 13 if my memory is correct) then you are looking at 130 yds plus. Therefore to make things easier you may need a bait boat.
When we went in March 2007 we took the Quest Baits Rahja Spice and caught very well considering the conditions (very cold most of the week with frosts and some snow). continue reading…
Question from Mark Lee Holbrook:
What amount of bait on average would one need if going France for first time for a week?
Answer from Shaun Harrison:
Hi Mark, it depends so much on the weather conditions at the time and the amount the fish have seen in the past – how clued up/educated they are. I find I use far less bait these days when I go to France than I ever have in the past. That perhaps surprises you as I should be telling you to purchase loads and make me rich!
Seriously though I tend to fish in the same way as I do in the U.K. I always carry more bait than I need – just in case, with the view to bringing it home again if not used.
I tend to fish just one widespread baited area rather than 3 separate ones and keep the bait trickling in the one area rather than dumping a load in at once. I don’t think I have got through more than 15kg of boilies during the trip on my last couple of trips but have had plenty available should they suddenly start to get through it – this happened a couple of years ago at Margot where I ended up using most of what I took.
Generally speaking I like to start with a ‘taste’ for them – just a couple of kilo in differing sizes then watch how things progress.
Mark replied:
Hi shaun. Thank you for your views. That what I thought I would do trickle the bait .I heard so many different views of anglers taken 60/80kilo’s of bait been looking Angling Lines as well a few others. These marketing dvds/ web site don’t help matter showing all good fishing lol.
Shaun again:
This may help a little – pretty much sums up how I set about my fishing. http://www.questbaits.com/docs/videovault/approaching/index.html
Mark replied:
Cheers mate wished every one was like you. Helping other Anglers in stead of all secrets all time
Shaun again:
We are a dying breed LOL!
and so on. This one came to my personal facebook page but is obviously very relevant here.
I received a email yesterday asking if there was any way of slowing down the dissolve rate of our boilie matching paste baits.
Now this is always a little bit of a compromise how fast you allow them to dissolve as the quicker they dissolve the greater the spread of attraction leaching out of the baits in the area being fished so personally I like them to slowly break away.
However not every one does so yes it is possible to slow the break down time.
I have used different things for this in the past but I guess the most readily available ingredient in most kitchens is good old plain flour.
Get a little on your fingers, scoop out a little paste then mould the plain flour into it. This should be enough to slow the break down time a little. Alternately Arrow Root or Egg Albumin can be used but if you really want to slow it down try corn flour.
Hope this perhaps helps others wanting to slow the break down time of their paste baits.
Best fishes
Shaun
