Quest Baits Blog

Craig Asks:

When fishing for carp, do the carp shy off new baits because whenever I fish with boilies it will take a long time until Ii get a bite. Does this mean that I should pre soak the boilies?

Shaun Harrison Answers:

Hi Craig,

It isn’t usual for Carp to shy away from new bait, why would they? Carp are opportunist feeders and usually investigate and take advantage of a new food source. It is nearly always tackle and angler awareness that spooks them. However if the bait is too heavily flavoured then it could be that it takes a while for the taste to be palatable. A little bit like a cup of coffee with 4 spoons of coffee – it smells fine but will taste too strong for most.

Try cutting the outer skin off your hook bait once it is on the hair but leave the ends intact to keep it tougher where the hair enters so the bait will be less likely to be pulled off. This will let the flavour leak out quicker if they are over flavoured and vice versa if they are okay it will still speed up the attraction coming from your hook bait to allow the carp to detect it quicker.

Hope this helps

Shaun

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

After reading Shaun’s diary piece where he mentioned ‘The mystery of the Countryside retreat’ I thought I would share my experiences on my mystery water and how I went about catching the carp.

The old pit is about 170 acres and I would say contains no more than 100 carp (quite a daunting thought). Most of the carp have proved to be old looking mirrors of between about 18 to 23lbs, but as with all these sort of places there are always the stories of uncaught monsters that have been seen in the past. This sort of place keeps dragging me back, because you just never know.

When I first started fishing it, I knew next to nothing about the carp in the venue because no one else had really fished for them, so it was pretty much a case of working it all out for myself. The most obvious thing would be the importance of getting the location right, with so few fish, in such a large water. After a couple of exploratory sessions it soon became apparent that if you couldn’t find the fish then it wasn’t worth even fishing. Now I work full time so I am limited to a couple of days a week and so have to try and maximise my chances in a very short space of time. continue reading…

This one came over clean smelling silt. Most of the swim was pretty foul smelling.

Matt Asks: I just wanted to ask a question about feeling the lead down after a cast. Do you always feel for the bump even if fishing on soft silty type bottom where it will be hard to feel any bumps and should I always recast if I don’t feel anything. Thanks Matt

Shaun Answered: Hi Matt, Yes I always feel the lead down it serves a dual purpose of not only giving a good idea what you are fishing over but also helps prevent tangles as the lead is sinking. Some places are so silty you can never feel the bump. These waters I simply smell the lead after winding in. If it smells of clean soil then I am happy to fish the area. If it smells unpleasant then I try other areas.
If you can usually feel the bump down and on the odd cast don’t then I always re-cast.

Hope this helps

Best fishes

Shaun

Wednesday April 13^th 2011

Butterfly Rig to put off the Bream and Tench

Saturday and Sunday were spent catching up with work after a couple of days away from the office last week for my birthday fish-in and filming at the Sky Sports TV studio.

As usual after almost a week away from the bank I was starting to get real itchy feet to wet a line again. I had been out on the road shop visiting and was fortunate enough to be able to take the offer up of a guest session on a gravel pit in the Northampton area which again I promised not to mention the name of. With just a slight detour it was almost on my way home from my last shop visit of the day.

Who am I kidding? It was a long way out of my way but closer than driving home to a local water. By the time I had met up with the person taking me as a guest and after visiting the local chip shop for food (chips never seem to taste as good as they used to do) it was turning dark by the time we arrived at the venue.

After a quick scout around, a swim out of the wind in a sheltered bay seemed to be beckoning a pile of Ghurkka Spice. This also meant I needn’t lug the gear far from the motor thus saving a little more time.

The pit in question contains quite large tench and bream as well as the carp and because I would be working back at the office the following morning I didn’t particularly want to be up half the night winding Bream and/or tench in so I opted for my ‘Butterfly Rig’ which is basically a 20mm boilie cut in half and mounted on the hair back to back forming a butterfly shape rather than a conventional round bait. Although still 20mm diameter the other species seem to have a problem with this set up. continue reading…

Words and pictures by Ron Key

There are times when you want to use a line clip, whether it’s to increase the sensitivity of your indicator bobbin set up by creating a more acute line angle or for slack line fishing.  I have usually found that the carbon clips whipped to rods are in the wrong place, covered in varnished making them unusable, too slack not holding the line, or too tight causing line damage.  I’ve tried the type that clip on to the rod blank but this has caused damage to the finish of the rod.

I’ve been a fan of Keith Fielding’s work at Defiant MPS for a while and most of my indicators have been made and modified by him.  His ideas and designs are usually ahead of the game so I wasn’t surprised to see the Spiro Line Clips on his website. Taking the form of a plastic spiral they are wound carefully onto your rod blank, they can be slid up and down the taper of the blank opening and closing as they move lightly gripping the blank in any position. They are a soft plastic and cannot damage your rod or line and hold the line by trapping it under the tip of the spiral, easily pulling free when you get a take.

Click on the image to enlarge

For most of my fishing I use his Banshee Hangers either in the lightweight Mk11 Mag Head version which has two magnetic line clipsallowing the indicator to be locked in position on the line.   For long range work, or when there is a strong undertow or on windy days I use the heavier Multi Head bobbin which has a spring loaded adjustable line clip.  The line clip can be adjusted to suit the tension required allowing you to screw in

extra weight of user a springer type set up.

Click on the image to enlarge

The set up that I seem to use the most is the Mk11 Mag Head Indicator.  After casting and placing the rod on the rests I pay out line until the line will just support the light bobbin and clip up the line.  The line is unstretched in this situation not slack.  If the wind conditions or the undertow allow I try to fish with a drop in the line.  Any lead, or line movement if you are using semi fixed or a running lead gives immediate indication at the bobbin.  Line stretch has little or no effect in dulling down bite registration with this type of set up.

Cheers  Ron