Quest Baits Blog

Words and pictures supplied by Gareth Watkins.

“The barbel affords an angler choice sport, being a lusty and a cunning fish ; so lusty and cunning as to endanger the breaking of the angler’s line.” Izaak Walton 1653

France has long been associated with carp fishing, and every year thousands of anglers from all over Europe, head for the large number of lakes and rivers spread across the country.
While it is true, the larger rivers in France hold good numbers of carp, I doubt many anglers give a second thought to alternate species also present, often considering them as nuisance fish.
But the French rivers, just as the British ones, hold a vast array of fish; one of the most interesting being the Barbel.
Barbel fishing is very popular in the UK and there are loads of rivers offering some cracking sport, the Trent, the Dove, the Wye, the Severn, the Ribble, the Ouse, the Wensum,  the Avon to name but a few.
But the Barbus Barbus is also a native species of France and present in most of its river systems.

Pioneering:

Over the last couple of months and seeking a change from carp fishing, I’ve turned my attentions to these fish in the rivers local to me; the Aisne & the Marne. The articles on this blog by Shaun and Pat Gillett have motivated me to give it a go, to see if I too, could catch a few.
Since I’ve been in France I have only caught the odd chub and barbel by accident, while carping on the Seine. This year I wanted to set myself a new fishing goal; to catch a double figure French barbel !

The main problem though, is that nobody in France fishes for barbel !!
So where to start?
I feel a bit like the original carp pioneers, testing waters, not even knowing if the fish they sought were present. Perhaps I’ll stumble across a barbel angler’s St. Cassien! continue reading…

Thurs 2^nd August – River Dove

As predicted at the end of my last blog piece the fishing has certainly slowed down. The river was the lowest it has been all season and apart from a few small knocks there was nothing at all to show for the 6 hours of this trip.

I did have a strange occurrence when at about 8pm the downstream rod started knocking and then the line dropped incredibly slack. I thought a small chub had hooked itself, I picked the rod up (no need to strike), only to find my main line fluttering in the breeze with no tackle on it whatsoever. I had been fishing a relatively slack line over a large bed of streamer weed, and the only thing that I can think of, is that a pike must of swam through the line and ‘bit me off’. I have had this happen whilst carp fishing on lakes, but never before on the river.

Apart from a spectacular lightning storm in the far distance, nothing else of any interest happened on what was a very ‘dead’ river, when there weren’t even any fish ‘topping’ at dusk.

Sun 19th August – River Dove

Went for the evening with a mate from work who is new to the river. We fished a stretch that was kind to me last year, although due to abstraction by ‘diggers’ at the bottom end of the stretch the flow had increased greatly. They had removed some large islands that used to ‘back the flow up’ and so now the river just kept on going over some newly made rapid shallows.

By about 9pm I told my mate we were not going to catch. He asked me how I knew, and explained that the river just ‘didn’t feel right’. I find that a lot, after years of experience you get that sort of ‘sixth sense’ if you like, whereby you very often know whether you are going to catch or not pretty early, and sometimes even get it when ‘I know when I am going to catch a good fish’.

Anyway my instincts were proven correct has I couldn’t buy a bite off anything, even on tiny baits like 8mm pellets and trimmed 10mm boilies.

Looking through various barbel forums, it appears that nearly everybody is struggling, something I said would happen after the fish had fed so hard in the early coloured water. continue reading…

Words and Pictures by Pat Gillett:

Rain, rain and more rain!

A bit of a frustrating time for me recently, after having the ‘old closed season’ break and not fishing for 3 months, I was really looking forward to getting out on the river for some early season fishing, especially as the Dove and Trent were carrying some extra water and colour (which would almost guarantee some good sport). However circumstances conspired against me for a variety of reasons and it was 28^th June before I could make my first trip.

28^th June – River Dove

Typical of the way things are going at the moment, I had booked the afternoon off on the very day that the Midlands saw the most freakish monsoon in living memory. I was at work in the morning when at about 10.30 it went so dark that the street lamps actually came on an incredible sight and something that I had never seen before. There then followed an incredible monsoon that lead to severe flash flooding in many areas (our factory shop floor had almost 8” of water on it in places because the roof and guttering could not cope) so a trip to the river seemed a bit dodgy. Still I had booked the time off and so decided to go anyway.

The Upper Trent had already burst its banks in many areas so it would be a trip to the Dove, which would probably be just about fish able (as it was carrying much less water to start with). We arrived at the river at about 4pm and could see that in certain areas it had already come over the top of its banks. A 20 minute walk downstream and we could see that there were one or two areas that would be fishable as long as there wasn’t too much rubbish coming downstream. My mate dropped in by a sluice and I fished a crease swim where the current ‘backed up’ on the inside, which should give me the best chance of a half decent presentation on a fast rising river. continue reading…

My first swim - possibly the muddiest on the Wye!

Words by Ron Key:
I’ve just returned from my annual trip to the River Wye in Herefordshire.  Every year for the last eight or nine years I’ve stayed at the Red Lion at Bredwardine and took advantage of the four miles of fabulous river they run.  A few days away certainly seemed like an ideal opportunity to continue my Quest for this seasons barbel bait. continue reading…

Words and Pictures supplied by Lee Wheeler:
I have been on the Quest Baits team nearly a year now and I cannot explain enough how impressed and happy I am with the bait.

With not being able to get to places with bigger fish in them I am generally fishing for twenty pound carp. I fish a few different waters containing a few big fish but nothing really massive, but I still have very good fun catching upper doubles and low to mid twenties.  I think that what it’s all about.

I became interested in the bait when I and my dad had a little read about the new Ghurkka Spice coming out. I went down the tackle shop and bought myself a kilo. Sure enough I started catching fish and this led onto me buying another kilo, eventually I had 17 fish in 2 kilos worth of bait and I knew I was onto a winner!

I then started to report my captures and Shaun started giving me feedback and positive comments about my writing. This made me even more happy as not only had I found a winning bait I had started talking to an angler who takes interest in the younger generation and doesn’t just ignore them unlike some other famous anglers. continue reading…

I have not done a lot of barbel fishing in the last couple of years, but if the river conditions allow I hope to redress that situation this season.  A rushed first session last week was not a success to put it mildly.  My bait for the session was a few bits I could find in the freezer.   I knew the levels were going to be high on the Trent, but I love flood water fishing, so no problem there.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the amount of weed flowing down. After three of four biteless hours of struggling with the conditions and losing 5 expensive heavy feeders I gave in and went home.

I was better prepared for this trip; I knew the river conditions were good, still extra water flowing through but manageable and no weed.  I picked a stretch of the river with a sharp bend. The main flow could clearly be seen as the streams of bubbles on the surface shot to the far bank on the surface of flat steadily flowing water.  Inside that was a strip of water with the surface boils indicating the turbulence below. Finally closest to me a large back eddy with the water running slowly and steadily against the flow.

The week before I had scanned the Quest Baits web pages for clues on which bait I would use. I also needed to decide on the bait for a forthcoming trip to the River Wye.  After some thought I decided on 10 and 15mm boilies in Special Crab, Squid Berry and Rahja Spice and also ordered matching pastes and bait glugs.  For the first session I choose the Special Crab and glugged some baits in advance of the trip.

I arrived early for me; between two and three in the afternoon and had a chat with a couple of anglers fishing further downstream in the stronger flow. One barbel and one bream was all they had to show for their days efforts, not promising but they had caught a barbel.  Upstream I set up and prepared my groundbait; a favourite concoction of marine halibut and crushed hemp with the mixing water now laced liberally with Special Crab Bait Glug. Smelly as I can make it is how I like it in floodwater. Heavy open ended feeders were cast in one in the slack back eddy and the other upstream way out in the main flow beyond the boils. The feeders were first plugged with the groundbait then three or four 10mm boilies then another groundbait plug. Hookbaits were hair rigged and apple cored Special Crab boilies wrapped in paste.  The upstream rod was fished with a large bow in the line to help hold bottom and the rods were pointed skyward in what is now normal Trent style.  All that was left now was to wait.

It was hot and humid very hot, quite a shock to the system after this summers weather. As I was spreading on some sun block for the first time this year the upstream rod tip sprang back and the line went loose.  Chub I thought, and grabbed the rod quickly winding in the slack line. Finally making contact the fish made its intentions known and the rod tip dipped and ten yards or so of line were stripped off the spool.  It was a hard fight in the deep fast water but eventually a chubby early season barbel lay in the net.  At 8lb 4 oz I was more than pleased with my first fish of the season and my first on Special Crab.

After recasting; the brollie went up very quickly and we were treated to what must have been the heaviest rain I ever experienced.  The wind changed direction during the storm and as I sat hanging onto the brollie of course the upstream rod sprang back again and then started nodding.  A bream of course around four pounds and I’m drenched.  I slipped it back and recast and then typically the rain stopped.  I’m now sitting here soaking with two 12 foot carbon poles at my feet and forked lightening overhead.  To think today started so well………………….

The rod in the back eddy had remained stationary all this time so I moved this rod out into the flow too.  Bang, and the rod tip sprang back and a seven pound barbel soon slipped over the rim of the net. This was followed by another barbel that when almost in the margins made a final lunge and managed to lodge my feeder in the rocks.  The barbel sat there calmly while I went through the usual pantomime of trying to release the feeder.  Eventually Mr Barbel got sick of waiting for me and lunged again and sliced off the hooklink on the rocks. Strange how when you find the snags; you keep finding them.  No more barbel for a while but I did manage to cast into the snags and loose two more feeders.

My last fish of the session came from my original upstream rod again.  It fought like a demon; with me desperately hanging on trying to make sure this one didn’t reach the rocks.  When it finally hit the net, I could see a long dark bronze shape which I was sure was my first double of the season.  When the scales spun around and stopped at 8lb 10oz I was surprised but not disappointed it was a beauty.

Well my first experiment with Special Crab I think can be counted as a success. Squid Berry next time I think, I’ll let you know how I get on.

Cheers Ron Key