Quest Baits Blog

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…

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…

June 2011 and with the Grenville season closed from the end of May until the end of June I took a break from carp fishing for a while. I had several jobs I wanted to do at home and  if I didn’t get them done over the 2 month close season I know full well that I would be another 12 months before I got them done.

Living on my own I find it too easy to go through life enjoying myself and in recent years have tended to put more and more decorating type jobs off, thinking ‘I’ll do it next week’ but never do!

I'm quite lucky where I live with a nice choice of walks

I like to have an hour walk in the morning before work with Brook my Staffordshire Bull Terrier bitch.  Being quite fortunate where I live I can alternate this between a wooded hill walk or a river walk without having to get into the car and drive anywhere.

It was during one of these morning river walks that I spotted a few chub in my local river which were larger than I had seen before. Now these weren’t monsters by any stretch of the imagination but were larger than I had realised were living there.

The following morning I was feeding them 10mm boilies and soon our varied dog walks saw us not varying it at all and all of the walks were down the river as I started to get these fish waiting for their breakfast each morning. Brook didn’t seem to mind the ‘same old’ routine as she was included in a few boilies treats herself which she didn’t get on the hill walk.

It was whilst feeding these chub that I stumbled across some barbel – again not monsters but lovely to see on the river where I had first cut my angling teeth. I had caught tiny gudgeon sized barbel there 10 years previously whilst teaching Ruth to trot a float and to be fair had forgotten about them. Now it seemed they had grown on a little and would be good fun to try and catch on such a tiny river. On a stretch of around a mile I had found 5 barbel. 2 pools had 2 in each (along with lots of chub) and one pool had just one and again with lots of chub. I ended up watching and feeding these same 5 barbel every day not actually seeing any others. continue reading…

Friday 13^th May 2011

I had a photo shoot with Steve Broad and Mick Rouse in the morning for Angling Times ‘U.K. Carp’ magazine where I was demonstrating my line marking method on my marker rod where I can tell exactly how far the marker is by the dots on the white braid that I use.

Fortunately we had arranged to do the photo shoot at a convenient venue for all of us to meet up at. Convenient for Steve and Mick as it was close to their headquarters and convenient for me as it was within 20 miles of Grenville! continue reading…

Friday Afternoon 6^th May 2011

Grenville ‘6’

I had a nightmare this morning with the computer and ended up un-plugging everything and dropping it off at my local computer repair place. The weather has been incredibly hot and after the messing around with the computer I really didn’t feel up to much productive work so did exactly what any other sane carp angler would do – I came carp fishing and once again escaped that other world I have to live in to be able to afford to do everything I do.

I was pleasantly surprised to see few others here when I arrived but soon it filled behind me.

Saturday 7^th May 2011 11pm

Well, hardly anything to report. I have seen very little but I am still confident of fish finding me. Certainly no other piece of water looks any better than the bit in front of me and I know if I moved then someone would be very quick to drop in here behind me. continue reading…

Saturday 30^th April – Another Bank Holiday week-end.

At one time Bank Holidays meant only one thing for me – get out on the bank! This bank holiday had an extra day tagged onto it for the Royal wedding giving us from the Thursday to the following Tuesday with most factories closed here in the U.K.

This morning I rose at ‘silly o’clock’ and drove my way back over to Grenville. I really do have the bug for it at the moment despite knowing it was going to be busy but with a few due to leave this morning I would at least get the option of somewhere to angle.

I pulled up in the car park, walked into the cabin and found Ron and Paul having a chat and both said along the lines of don’t bother looking around 8 is free and the fish were there last night.

I didn’t need telling twice and soon my gear was un-loaded.

I can’t really believe it, I have turned up in the middle of a busy bank holiday and slotted straight into what looks a great swim for this week end. According to the log book there hasn’t particularly been anything out of note all week although Nick Dodd’s had caught from here in the very last few moments of his session before leaving last night. Well, it certainly seems the place to start. continue reading…