Quest Baits Blog

Words and pictures from Mario Taal.

We all know the stories of fishermen who are blaming the weather conditions, moon size or what else they come up with. Is that finding an excuse or is there some kind of truth in the fact that other factors can make our session fail or succeed? I think there a lot of those factors, the difference in ph-level of the water comparing to the bait you’re using is one of them.

I always try to do everything I can to have a successful session, the spot, set-up, rig and the bait are proven factors of the past. What if they let you down? Turn they all out to be rubbish at once or is there another factor why the carp won’t bite? I’ve experienced this the past year on my targetwater. It really got me in the head. My trust in reliable tactics faded away many times, but the thing that kept me going was that other locals weren’t catching either. There had to be something else what was making it that hard. continue reading…

First reward for lots of effort

After my last visit to my ‘2011 targetwater, I’ve had a very busy time so it took me a month for finding time for fishing a proper overnight session over there and I only had time for some morning and evening sessions instead. Last week was different, I kept my eyes on the forecast and in particular on the direction of the wind for the days before the session. I decided to bait up the south-west corner of the lake with 2 kgs of 15 and 20mm

Liver-B8 boilies each day, starting 3 days before the session.

The presentation was simple, a critically balanced hookbait, made of a half pop-up and a half sinking 15mm Liver-B8 boilie. The rig was pulled through a pva-bag wich was filled with chopped boilies, maximum action and mini-mix pellets.

Critically balanced - half a boilie, half a pop-up and half a Pimple Pop

The spots were 40 and 45 yards out and situated on a clear area in the weedbed. The expectations were high, cloudy skies and the wind was blowing like it was autumn, carpy situations in my eyes.

I got my First take around 24.00, sadly it was a bream, a really big one though but not the specie we’re waiting for. But then one hour later I got a screaming take, followed by a intense fight, but after 20 minutes a good mirror rolled into my landingnet. I straightly knew that it was a good fish and the scale confirmed my thought, the needle stopped at 33,9lb! Well pleased with this first thirty of this water, I consider this fish as my first reward for all the effort I’ve put into this water and it gives me confidence that I’m getting closer to catching the two big commons. To be continued…

Mario Taal.

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.

continue reading…