Quest Baits Blog

Question from Marcus,

Hi there,

I’ve been fishing big rivers for a number of years now and there’s still one aspect that continually trips me up. In my case it’s the ability to hold carp in my area on the St Lawrence River in the US/Canada. Shoals of up to 200 fish averaging low 20′s pass through the swim on a regular basis – lets say hourly. The ability to hold this shoal for longer than it takes for them to clear out the bait is almost impossible. In the past I have dumped 120Kg of maize off the side of a boat in to 24ft of clear water – 4 hours later it had all been polished off.

It’s clear that quantity of bait makes no significant difference to holding these transitory fish in one location. My thoughts turned to creating ‘distractions’ in the area through widescale use of bicarb of soda, this creates a relatively short-term fizzing and bubbling and may hold the carp due to their inquisitive nature. How I could delay the breakdown of the bicarb to give longer term attraction still troubles me today.

The final thought I have is around the ability to leave a long term attractor in the water. With the development of Gel Baits I’d hoped that the ability to leave a semi-permanent scent trail in my area would hold the fish, I fear that the quantity required would financially outweigh the benefits.

So, in a long-winded way, I’d be interested to hear of other ideas outside of piling in the bait that might be adopted to hold these large shoals long enough to pick off a fair few fish before they move on.

Thanks

Marcus

Answer from Shaun

Lots of bait or keep moving?

Hi Marcus,

From what you have said I doubt very much you would hold the fish for very long. You won’t stop the carp from doing what they have always done on the river systems and that is to graze over large areas. Even if you could introduce enough feed to hold them in an area I doubt very much you would be able to introduce enough of what they require fore a balanced diet and then they will soon be roaming again to search out the food items needed.

I certainly wouldn’t encourage you to introduce the bicarb to the river system. Yes carp are curious but will still move on if the food isn’t there for them.

All you can really do if you want to sit in the same swim is to bait with very small items of bait which take the carp much longer to clear than Maize etc. Small pellets and seeds are the most convenient to use.

Surely you are better off adopting a more mobile approach and move with the fish keeping one step ahead though. This is what I would look to be doing and catch them with minimal bait as they pass through then leapfrog again.

Hope this helps. I would be interested how the other Bloggers would tackle this situation.

Best fishes

Shaun

Question from Marcus:

Hi there,

I’ve been fishing big rivers for a number of years now and there’s still one aspect that continually trips me up. In my case it’s the ability to hold carp in my area on the St Lawrence River in the US/Canada. Shoals of up to 200 fish averaging low 20′s pass through the swim on a regular basis – lets say hourly. The ability to hold this shoal for longer than it takes for them to clear out the bait is almost impossible. In the past I have dumped 120Kg of maize off the side of a boat in to 24ft of clear water – 4 hours later it had all been polished off.

It’s clear that quantity of bait makes no significant difference to holding these transitory fish in one location. My thoughts turned to creating ‘distractions’ in the area through widescale use of bicarb of soda, this creates a relatively short-term fizzing and bubbling and may hold the carp due to their inquisitive nature. How I could delay the breakdown of the bicarb to give longer term attraction still troubles me today.

The final thought I have is around the ability to leave a long term attractor in the water. With the development of Gel Baits I’d hoped that the ability to leave a semi-permanent scent trail in my area would hold the fish, I fear that the quantity required would financially outweigh the benefits.

So, in a long-winded way, I’d be interested to hear of other ideas outside of piling in the bait that might be adopted to hold these large shoals long enough to pick off a fair few fish before they move on.

Thanks

Marcus

Question from Peter Hall:-

Hi guys,

I have been specimen fishing for a number of years, but I still struggle with settling on a bait I am 100% confident with !

My reason for this is I am restricted (like many others) to very short sessions on a variety of waters, sometimes only a couple of overnighters a month! While I understand the importance of giving the fish good nutrition in the long term, I feel that maybe attraction is what I need in the short term, am I right in presuming this ?

I feel I need to settle on a bait I can trust!

Any advice would be happily received !

Cheers
Pete,

Reply:-

Hi Pete,

a 30lb Mirror this April - the very first night these fish had been fed Ghurkka Spice

When I put baits together for the Quest Baits range instant attraction is as important as the long term nutritional benefit. Like you many other anglers simply do not have the time or possibly justify the cost of having to establish baits and wean the fish onto them. To my mind baits should work from the off anyway giving plenty of attraction and stimulation but the the added bonus after they have been eaten for the fish to have benefitted from the experience.

If I was to recommend a bait from our range now for you it would be the Ghurkka Spice and for further back up to prove it is not just sales hype by me Carpology magazine have independent Tank Tests carried out each month by James Anderson BSc (Hons). The July 2011 issue saw 14 boilies tested from 14 different bait companies and the Ghurkka Spice wiped the board with the highest marks in both tests the ‘How do the fish react to the smell of the bait’ and the ‘Do the fish actually eat the bait’.

James actually wrote…

“I’m going to mention the Ghurkka Spice from Quest. Quest boilies have been constantly high performers in the Tank Test series and always seem to really get the carp going. I’m not sure why but the level of enthusiasm the fish demonstrated for these baits was clearly up there with the best boilies tested this month. Prolonged aggressive feed stimulation for the majority of the fish in the tank”.

What more can I say?

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison

Question from Peter Hall:-

Hi guys,

I have been specimen fishing for a number of years, but I still struggle with settling on a bait I am 100% confident with !

My reason for this is I am restricted (like many others) to very short sessions on a variety of waters, sometimes only a couple of overnighters a month! While I understand the importance of giving the fish good nutrition in the long term, I feel that maybe attraction is what I need in the short term, am I right in presuming this ?

I feel I need to settle on a bait I can trust!

Any advice would be happily received !

Cheers
Pete,

Reply:-

Hi Pete,

A 30lb plus mirror the very first night the water had been fed Ghurkka Spice

When I put baits together for the Quest Baits range instant attraction is as important as the long term nutritional benefit. Like you many other anglers simply do not have the time or possibly justify the cost of having to establish baits and wean the fish onto them. To my mind baits should work from the off anyway giving plenty of attraction and stimulation but the the added bonus after they have been eaten for the fish to have benefitted from the experience.

If I was to recommend a bait from our range now for you it would be the Ghurkka Spice and for further back up to prove it is not just sales hype by me Carpology magazine have independent Tank Tests carried out each month by James Anderson BSc (Hons). The July 2011 issue saw 14 boilies tested from 14 different bait companies and the Ghurkka Spice wiped the board with the highest marks in both tests the ‘How do the fish react to the smell of the bait’ and the ‘Do the fish actually eat the bait’.

James actually wrote…

“I’m going to mention the Ghurkka Spice from Quest. Quest boilies have been constantly high performers in the Tank Test series and always seem to really get the carp going. I’m not sure why but the level of enthusiasm the fish demonstrated for these baits was clearly up there with the best boilies tested this month. Prolonged aggressive feed stimulation for the majority of the fish in the tank”.

What more can I say?

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison

Question:

Hi Shaun,

I fish a small river in Berkshire which holds some very big Chub and Barbel.

Earlier this year I brought several kgs of rahja spice 10mm to feed and some 14mm as hookbaits, I also purchased a few pots of you paste and dip.

The question is Shaun, what is the best way to approach barbel with this type of bait?

I have per-baited a couple of kilos in three swims, should i be using pellet as well?

One thing I have noticed is the paste is a bit dry, how can i make it a bit more tacky, I think the chub love and just pulling it off how ever i mount it.

Cheers

Steve

Answer:

I prefer to mix the sizes of feed

Hi Steve,

Good timing this one really as it is something I have been doing and got terribly wrong at the start of the season which shows we should never take fish or our methods for granted. I had found some Chub and Barbel I could watch during a dog walk in the close season and they became a little bit of a fascination for me. I started feeding them Rahja Spice and Ghurkka Spice boilies in mixed sizes 10′s, 15′s and 20mm. They got stuck into the 20mm’s as much as they did the other sizes and it made it easier for me to see how much they were eating. The 10mm’s were more difficult to spot on the bottom in the wavering current. continue reading…