Quest Baits Blog

21lb winter scaly

Winter is always the hardest part of the year for catching carp. This year I have been adjusting rigs and fishing different hook baits to try and get me that extra bite. I’ve been using pop up rigs lately and having some good results. The best fish being a stunning 21lb scaly mirror.

Last winter was a very hard time for me as I did about 30 sessions and blanked them all. I Lost fish so I was doing something right to get the bites but I just couldnt land them! Having so many blanks in a row really got my confidence to a very low point. That’s why this year I wanted to up my game and try and get a few fish.

So far I have had 7 fish in 7 sessions. Fishing on my local club water and a few day ticket waters, I have fished lakes about 2-3 days after they have thawed out and knew it was going to be tough I have also fished lakes that have been half frozen when I’m there  and I have still managed to get amongst a few. This just shows how much the carp love the Quest Baits I have been using! continue reading…

A big Cambridge mirror in a big frost.

29^th November 2011 and unbelievably it has taken until now for the winter to start  looking as though it is finally starting to cut in. The water I am currently fishing has finally seen the water temperatures start to drop this week to below 10C (40’s F) and combined with big winds there is a certain wind chill reminding me of what will surely come in the weeks ahead.

The water temperatures are still plenty warm enough and the carp still active but each winter when the waters drop below 10C (50F) they continue to drop quite rapid so to my mind winter although late is now starting to happen and my tried and trusted winter methods now come into play.

Anyone who has read much of my writings in the past will know my love of very small baits yet winter is the time when one rod will go in the opposite direction and is one of the few times of the year I would consider putting a 20mm hook bait on. continue reading…

Here is yet another message I have received confirming that Poisson Chat really do not like the ingredients we use in our anti Poission Chat bait Pineapple Crush.

Hello Shaun,

You may not remember but I promised to report back to you about how Ghurkka Spice fared against the Poisson Chat’s compared to Pineapple Crush on the reservoir I fish in France (Lac de Pincemaille/Rille).

Well sadly they loved it!

Any unmeshed Ghurkka Spice were noshed by the little buggers very quickly. I did try meshed Ghurkka Spice on the hair, but still managed to foul hook them anyway. Considering the number of Poisson Chats in the lake I reasoned that the carp probably weren’t getting the chance of any freebies anyway!

I even tried double 20mm boilies (one Ghurkka Spice and one Pineapple Crush) on the same hair as an experiment, within an hour or so and a few bleeps I reeled in to find the Ghurkka Spice completely gone but the Pineapple Crush untouched. This happened a couple of times without actually hooking the chats because I put the pineapple on the hook end of the hair (a potential good tip for the future when fishing Pineapple Crush alongside another bait the chats might like.

I think to summarise, a bit of a thumbs down for the Ghurkka Spice on heavily ”chatted” waters, but what a good test for Pineapple Crush against the chats! So no guesses as to what bait I’ll be taking to that water next year.

I hope this has been of interest to you.

Regards

Martin Park.

Words and pictures by Lee Wheeler:
A few weeks ago I entered a carp cup match sponsored by my local tackle shop “Tackle Up”. The draw took place at 8 o clock in the morning and I drew peg 18 which was a swim that had a large amount of water in front of  it. Fortunately the other pegs along my side were not drawn so I had a range of ideas where to fish.

I started off by fishing a spread of Ghurkka Spice boilies over an area where I had seen a few fish show and after about 15 mins of having the rod out the bobbin pulled up to the top and line started to tick off the reel. I hit the take and I had the fish on. Unfortunately after about 40 seconds of having the fish on it came off, this was not a good start as someone else had just landed a fish and was in the lead!

I put the rod back out but everything went quiet for everyone so I decided to get my bag of dog biscuits and see if I could get the fish feeding confidently on the surface. After about 30 mins of constant feeding I had the fish feeding like mad, I didn’t have a controller float with me so I resorted to using an idea which a friend and I came up with which was using an apple core as the float. On the hooklink was a size 12 mixer hook and a trimmed down Ghurkka Spice pop up. The fish just werent having it. After having about 4 fish mouthing my bait and then spook off I decided to change hookbaits, I put on an 8mm cork ball soaked in Rahja Spice Bait Glug I cast the apple core and cork ball beyond the feeding fish and slowly drew it over them, within about 10 mins I had a fish stick its mouth out and suck in my bait the apple bobbbed under and I struck the rod hard. The fish weighed 11lb 6oz and that put me in second place shortly after one of the others were into a fish once landed his fish came in as 18lb 4oz which put me back down to 3rd place. It was game on now and I was trying my hardest to bag up on a few fish I got the rod back out and I was soon into another one, once this fish was weighed and landed it all kicked off I then had 3 more fish in about an hour and a half. I was now in 1st place with a very convincing lead. It came to the end of the match and I was the winner with a total of 5 fish and a total wieght of 68lbs.

Once again Quest Baits came out on top.

Thanks Lee Wheeler.

Carp on the float.

Just returned from France where our quest for monsters was not going so well.  The main lake only produced a couple of the smaller fish between the four of us for the whole week. For reasons only they know, the carp were not cooperating, they didn’t show or feed making location and capture so difficult and frustrating.  To ease the pressure I spent a few hours on the adjoining lake where the residents were being a little more cooperative. continue reading…

Question from Gergely Pataki

Hello Shaun! The next question from me.

The last time I go fishing a small lake and have caught some large carp. However, the bait completely taken over after 4-5 hours by the strong smell of rotting sludge. What kind of bait and flavors suggest that the baits can retain the smell for a long time? I think that is much more able to catch more carp breed.

Thanks in advance for your answer!

Best Regards: Gergely Pataki

Boilies soaking up liquid before baiting in a silty lake.

Shaun Replied:

Try soaking the baits in liquid before you go. The water from cooked hempseed is excellent for this or simply use lake water. By leaving the baits to soak up the liquid before baiting up they won’t be able to take so much of the silt/sludge smell thus retaining more of their own original smell and taste.

I usually fish around a bit though and try and find the areas the silt doesn’t smell so strong, you will usually find the carp prefer to feed in the less smelly areas. Slightly shallower areas should be less silty as the deeper areas act like a sump and collect the old leaves etc.

Hope this helps

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison