Quest Baits Blog

Archie with a superb Bream

There are many good groundbait mixes on the market, but to buy a bag each time you go fishing really bumps up your costs. This easily variable mix is one I’ve used for 20 years, its very inexpensive, and easy to prepare.

There are four basic ingredients;

• white crumb
• brown crumb
• maize flour
• bran

I buy a sack of each and store it in plastic bins; it lasts forever if kept dry. If two or three of you share the cost you will each get a couple of years worth or more at a very low price. These ingredients all have a job to do, as follows.

WHITE CRUMB…
This is a binder, the more you put in the stiffer the mix will become. continue reading…

The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted we’ve created a new section – Specialist – to cover species other than our beloved carp.  Thought this video from the Angling Lines site deserved an airing here too!

I decided to put this piece together after reading the blog piece where Graham was catching chub on the new ‘chubby chops’ but was also missing plenty of bites. Graham was fishing the baits on a short hair.

One of many winter doubles that has fell to the boilie / bait band combination

The situation above closely mirrors that of one that I found myself in many winters ago whilst fishing on the Lower Severn below Worcester. I was fishing trimmed down boilies on a short hair and was getting lots of sharp pulls on the rod tip but only caught one barbel in the 8 hour session.

Now obviously there were plenty of barbel in the swim but the rig I was using wasn’t effective enough to catch them. The water was cold (around 6ºc) and because of this I was sure the barbel were not feeding properly but were merely picking the bait up in their lips without getting pricked by the hook (because of the hair being used).

Now I had caught a lot of good barbel through the Autumn on banded pellets.  This got me thinking of using the bands for the boilies as well, so that the bait was right next to the hook. This would mean that hopefully the barbel would not be able to mouth the bait without getting pricked by the hook. continue reading…

1. Easily digested – the quicker it’s digested the sooner the carp need to eat again.

2. Low flavour level (that will surprise some!) – if I am presenting baits where I know the carp to be then I don’t need high flavour content.  I have watched fish move from an area away from heavily flavoured baits when they don’t want to feed.  They will tolerate low level flavoured baits being in the swim though and eat them when ready.

3. Soluble ingredients – to assist the leach of the natural subtle attractors.

4. Minimal fat/oil content – they struggle to digest fat in the cold weather which can make them ill and certainly makes it a longer period of time before they need to eat again.

5. Subtle colour if the bird life is troublesome – speaks for itself but I prefer subtle baits when everyone else is using ‘in your face baits’.

6. Food content instead of simple flavour carrier ingredients – if the bait has been out for a couple of days before the carp are inclined to feed, or indeed come across the bait, I want a food parcel awaiting them – not a washed out bit of pasta!

7. Essential oil(s) – retain taste in the bait if not picked up early in the session.

8. Easily obtained – no good getting a bait going that you can’t get hold of easily.

9. Matching add–ons – I like to be able to get matching pop-ups, pellets and the like.

Whilst we are waiting for the accompanying pellet for the newly launched Chilli Chocolate boilies, it ocurred to me that I need something to give a little ‘boost’ to my hook bait and I generally like to have something mirroring  my free offerings as closely as possible. With the aid of a Korda Krusha, about 30 15mm Chilli Chocolate shelf life baits and approx 20ml of the Chilli Chocolate glug, you can easily make a lovely little mix thats ideal for a small PVA parcel.

Chilli Chocolate Meltie

continue reading…

With all the rubbish weather we’ve had this winter carp fishing has had to take a back seat for me. It’s been a good opportunity to use that non-fishing time to maintain and look after your tackle and do all those jobs that might not otherwise get done. One of these is changing your mainline.

I have been using fluorocarbon for a few years now and this tends to be relatively expensive and also prone to line twist. To save a lot of money instead of simply throwing away the line that’s been sitting on the reels I just reverse them.

The simplest way I find to do this requires two bank sticks and an open space, like a playing field. Tie the end of the line to one stick, walk away paying out line and then at about ‘half way’ put another stick in the ground. Loop the line round the second stick and walk back to the original one. When you get to the end of the line, cut it off, retie the original line from the other end and reel in. This has the added advantage of removing some of the line twist on the way back in.

A couple more points that help; continue reading…