Quest Baits Blog

Words and pictures by Pat Gillett:

I have just got back from a week’s social in France with my non-fishing kid brother David. He wanted to see what all the fuss was about fishing in France. I was his gillie for the week, finding clear spots, placing the baits etc. I must have done a decent job has by Tuesday he was already asking me ‘where are we going next year?’

We travelled down on the Friday and stopped in a lovely little campsite right by the side of the River Marne in Epernay. It was obvious from the brown colour and the height of the river that France had, had a very wet spring like the one we have just had. This became even more apparent when we got to the lake and found that the water level was actually coming over the front of the stagings.

The lake was very weedy at our end and was very much uniform in depth ranging from 7 1/2 feet to 9 feet in depth. It had steep margins that just fell straight off to about 8 feet. On arrival I spent a couple of hours leading about and marking the lines for the first night. Whenever I get to a new water I never put much bait in on the first night and this was to be no different has I put no more than 40 boilies over any of the rods. I put 2 rods each in open water and one rod each to the far margin at the bottom of the shelf. Baits were a mixture of the Quest Rahja Spice and Magnum White Boilies. The first night produced 2 upper doubles to my far margin rod but nothing to any of the other rods. continue reading…

I chose to start off in the deep water swim 31.

With my Grenville season fast running out I was desperate to get back over there after the events of the past couple of weeks which had been kind to me despite very few fish coming out. I knew they were turned on and tuned into the Magnum White. I just needed to get myself there and into a swim that gave me a good chance of action.

Friday I started work particularly early to hopefully clear my desk and allow myself an early escape. The journey went without hitch and a hour and a half after leaving home I was driving along the track to the car park. My heart sank, I had arrived early but it looked as though everyone else had the same idea as me but arrived earlier. There were over 15 anglers already pitched up.

I looked where each person was set up and the two swims I fancied from what was left were either 25 as there was plenty of space either side still, or 31 simply because I’d had the suspicion the fish were holding up in the deeper water and with a drop in air pressure more would do too.

I cast the marker into 25 and two of the spots that had been kind to me in the past appeared to be weeded over so they weren’t being fed on much. With other anglers arriving by the minute I dropped into 31 which put me on the end of a line of fellow B.C.S.G. members Phil Calloway and Paul Miller. Phil had received action earlier in the day and although his swim was only 2 away from the one I chose the swims are well spread so as to not interfere with anyone else’s water. At least I knew there were or had been fish in the vague area. In fact both Paul and Phil had seen a decent show of fish at first light. continue reading…

Words and Picture by Stuart Forsdike:

This weekend I approached a new water. I d didn’t have time to grab the actual fishing rods but with a few hours spare I thought I would take the marker down and do as much homework as possible to get a good head start. On arriving at the water there were only 3 anglers. All in the deeper water (or so they told me). obviously not wanting to disturb them I worked my way round the lake looking for areas of silt or gravel and holes in old weed as well as depths etc.

This blog was meant to be about doing your homework but it turned into something a bit different. With a strong wind blowing into the deeper area of the lake most anglers were bivvy bound or seeking shelter. Whilst I worked my way round the lake I scared numerous fish with the marker rod. The fish were shoaled up in the shallower water (only 2ft) indeed it would have been the last place I would have expected to find them. It goes to show how important fish location is. There is no point sitting behind rods fishing blind when the fish are not in those areas.

Finding the fish is the biggest tip I can ever give anyone. If the fish aren’t in front of you, you can’t catch them!

Stuart

Words and pictures by Pat Gillett:

The River Dove is in there somewhere!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe the end of the ‘river season’ has come around so quickly!

Looking back on the season it has been a bit of a strange one really and I can’t recall ever spending less time on the river bank. The season started with a month of flooding which saw some of my local rivers peaking at record high levels. Because of work commitments and the timing of the high levels only one trip was possible during the first 4 weeks of the season.

July proved to a very productive month for me on the River Dove, but only because I fished an ‘unfancied’ area that other anglers very rarely bother with. I believe that due to the fact that the early summer was so wet and at times cold, the barbel were very late in spawning and as such many of the usually productive early season spots were devoid of fish. The area I found was very shallow but absolutely full of streamer weed, ideal barbel spawning grounds. Five short afternoon / evenings (total 30 hours) produced 14 good sized barbel which included 10 doubles, during which time the guys fishing the usual spots had next to nothing (it always amazes me how anglers continuously go back to their ‘favourite swims’, even if the fish aren’t there). An invaluable

12lb 12oz from a very productive July

lesson learn’t about barbel location for future seasons if we have a cold / wet early summer. Interestingly as well, nearly all of the bigger fish fell to the ever faithful Special Crab boilies.

During August I tried ‘a new stretch’ on the Upper Trent, which again proved worthwhile and provided knowledge for the future, has I have now found a stretch where you can still fish reasonably comfortably when the river is carrying a bit of water and there is loads of the ‘dreaded Trent weed coming down’. Special Crab again produced some fish. Some nice fish were again caught from the Dove including a very rare full moon capture of 12lb 6oz. continue reading…

4 hours on a February afternoon.

I’m sure when Shaun was designing the new ‘Absolute’ range he didn’t have barbel in mind, but as soon as I saw and smelled Absolute Seafood I had to try it.

I had no intention of fishing today, but the weather was mild and I knew the river was fining down. A quick check of the river level on the EA website and I knew exactly where I wanted to be. Sorry but I can’t tell you where!

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/default.aspx

It took minutes to load the gear in the car, a couple more to pick up the sandwiches from the garage and within an hour I was there.  Then disaster, there were four rods, a bivvy and a team of car door slammers in my banker swim.  I walked downstream around the bend to get as far away as possible and found another slack area, no back eddy here but a steady flow that was manageable and a clearly define crease running along its edge. continue reading…

Rod bending action on the first day of the year.

I am not one for making new year resolutions but I guess deep down for a while now I have promised myself a little more time angling on my local patch and to try and not keep pestering the carp week in and week out. It is so easy to find yourself in a routine simply because it suits. For years now I have pointed my Land Rover bonnet south or west and driven for a couple of hours for most all of my angling and in doing so I invariably pass so much incredible fishing along the way.

It wasn’t always like this. I started to travel simply because I had to travel if I was to be able to fish for the size of fish that used to seem so important to me. But as the years have moved on and I have grown, the fish have too and now I have fish on my doorstep which are much larger than the fish I used to have to travel for a couple of hours to reach. Having said that, I’m not size motivated at all these days. I haven’t been for years as in my mind the venue, the methods, the people and to a certain extent the security, come much higher on my list of priority than the size of the fish these days. Okay, obviously it is a massive bonus if I can combine everything and still have big fish to angle for.  continue reading…