Quest Baits Blog

I thought the above may be useful for some. I still work in Fahrenheit when taking water temperatures as do many other anglers whilst others work in Centigrade.
I have just included a chart into my angling diary to save having to keep doing the sums when someone talks about Centigrade.

Hope you find it useful.

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison

A big Cambridge mirror in a big frost.

29^th November 2011 and unbelievably it has taken until now for the winter to start  looking as though it is finally starting to cut in. The water I am currently fishing has finally seen the water temperatures start to drop this week to below 10C (40’s F) and combined with big winds there is a certain wind chill reminding me of what will surely come in the weeks ahead.

The water temperatures are still plenty warm enough and the carp still active but each winter when the waters drop below 10C (50F) they continue to drop quite rapid so to my mind winter although late is now starting to happen and my tried and trusted winter methods now come into play.

Anyone who has read much of my writings in the past will know my love of very small baits yet winter is the time when one rod will go in the opposite direction and is one of the few times of the year I would consider putting a 20mm hook bait on. continue reading…

Here is yet another message I have received confirming that Poisson Chat really do not like the ingredients we use in our anti Poission Chat bait Pineapple Crush.

Hello Shaun,

You may not remember but I promised to report back to you about how Ghurkka Spice fared against the Poisson Chat’s compared to Pineapple Crush on the reservoir I fish in France (Lac de Pincemaille/Rille).

Well sadly they loved it!

Any unmeshed Ghurkka Spice were noshed by the little buggers very quickly. I did try meshed Ghurkka Spice on the hair, but still managed to foul hook them anyway. Considering the number of Poisson Chats in the lake I reasoned that the carp probably weren’t getting the chance of any freebies anyway!

I even tried double 20mm boilies (one Ghurkka Spice and one Pineapple Crush) on the same hair as an experiment, within an hour or so and a few bleeps I reeled in to find the Ghurkka Spice completely gone but the Pineapple Crush untouched. This happened a couple of times without actually hooking the chats because I put the pineapple on the hook end of the hair (a potential good tip for the future when fishing Pineapple Crush alongside another bait the chats might like.

I think to summarise, a bit of a thumbs down for the Ghurkka Spice on heavily ”chatted” waters, but what a good test for Pineapple Crush against the chats! So no guesses as to what bait I’ll be taking to that water next year.

I hope this has been of interest to you.

Regards

Martin Park.

Early 80's snow captures

There was a comment on facebook the other day that I responded to and thought I should add it here too.

Someone asked how important we think bait is.

My quick answer was…
‘I would say it is the most important thing. The best rig in the world isn’t going to be able to do its job if the fish isn’t stimulated enough to pick the bait up. There are periods when carp will eat almost anything but at scratching times when the fish aren’t really bothered about feeding then the tiny little extras added to the bait by some will make a massive difference. I always find the Carpology independent tank tests with different company’s baits very interesting and extremely revealing. I’d better not say much more or it will look like an advert but even with a great bait you still have to present it in the right area on a set up which will leg the fish up’.

It struck home to me after I had posted that just how important this issue is at this time of the year. A poor choice of bait will most certainly result in very few fish being triggered to have a feed  but more importantly it can in turn ruin other anglers chance of sport if those baits are picked up and then the carp find that they can’t digest them easily. – thus taking much longer to need to feed again which will affect the other anglers sport. Not only that but it can be very dangerous

a 1990's snow capture

feeding fish or any other animal food that it is going to struggle to get rid of. Carp are cold blooded so their metabolism is wholly governed by the water temperature. In cold water not only does the carp slow right down with its actions but many baits congeal and trap in many of the attractors/stimulants that are supposed to be encouraging the fish to have a feed.

You don’t need a lot of bait in winter so now is the time you can definitely afford to compete with anglers of all levels by using the best winter baits available with proven effectiveness for many years.

I am extremely proud of my own personal winter fishing achievements over the years having caught from holes in the ice on three separate venues as well as snow captures from lots of venues as well as several half frozen lakes. My first winter carp fell to my rods in 1977 and there haven’t been many years gone by when I haven’t  winter carp fished. I learned a long while ago what the carp like in the cold weather as well

A snow capture from last year

as what they can easily digest. I fed my own carp in my own lake for many years as well as my fish in my garden.

If I was to stick my neck on the line to give my top two recommendations it would have to be Fruity Trifle and Rahja Spice. Both baits have caught thousands of true winter carp for many years now and I know they will continue to do so. If ever you bump into me on the bank during the winter  – ask to see my bait. I can use anything I want but you will most definitely find one or the other or both in my bait bag. They are still the main 2 baits I use to compare new winter baits against.

If you are lacking in winter confidence there really is no need to worry about bait. If I’m not catching on either of those I have my location or rigs wrong.

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison

Question for Pat please….

Pat I moved to Grantham Lincs last season. I would like to fish for
some Trent barbel (upper Trent) with the chance of a fish or two. I’m
around 40mins from Shardlow and I see the Derby Railway club has some
water there.

Richard

Pat Replied:

Hi Richard,

A young looking Upper Trent double

There are plenty of barbel in the area you mention. I haven’t personally fished the Derby Railway stretches but I do know there are good fish on there. Because I haven’t fished it I can’t really comment on the issue of car parking on their stretches. I also think you have to pay extra for fishing at night.

I would however have no hesitation in recommending the Burton Mutual Angling Association who have in the region of 8 to 10 miles of the Upper Trent in the area you are looking at. I have fished a few of their stretches and the parking is fine and always has been. Burton Mutual also have around 6 to 8 miles of the River Dove, again with mainly secure parking.

Because of the vast amount of water available you can be sure of some quiet unspoilt sport if you are prepared to do a bit of pioneering and not just follow the crowds.

A typical River Dove double

It is always worth a try in the winter as long as you get the conditions right. In fact I would say that the Upper Trent is probably easier to fish in the winter than earlier in the year, has you don’t have the problem of weed debris coming downstream all the while. Also be prepared to fish 5 or 6 hours into dark as the Upper Trent barbel can be very nocturnal (Burton have no extra cost for fishing the rivers at night).

The Upper Trent barbel fight exceptionally hard and because of this I would recommend using a rod of at least 1 3/4lb test curve coupled with a minimum of 10lb line.

All the usual methods will catch these fish, at the moment I am doing well with the Rahja Spice Shelf Life’s and the mini mixed pellet mix. I like to use 2 rods and to ‘ring the changes’ on one of them to see if I can find something that outscores everything else.

I would suggest checking the websites for the 2 clubs mentioned (Burton also have a Forum you can look at), to see which you think suits you best.

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Cheers,

Pat Gillett

Words and pictures by Lee Wheeler:
A few weeks ago I entered a carp cup match sponsored by my local tackle shop “Tackle Up”. The draw took place at 8 o clock in the morning and I drew peg 18 which was a swim that had a large amount of water in front of  it. Fortunately the other pegs along my side were not drawn so I had a range of ideas where to fish.

I started off by fishing a spread of Ghurkka Spice boilies over an area where I had seen a few fish show and after about 15 mins of having the rod out the bobbin pulled up to the top and line started to tick off the reel. I hit the take and I had the fish on. Unfortunately after about 40 seconds of having the fish on it came off, this was not a good start as someone else had just landed a fish and was in the lead!

I put the rod back out but everything went quiet for everyone so I decided to get my bag of dog biscuits and see if I could get the fish feeding confidently on the surface. After about 30 mins of constant feeding I had the fish feeding like mad, I didn’t have a controller float with me so I resorted to using an idea which a friend and I came up with which was using an apple core as the float. On the hooklink was a size 12 mixer hook and a trimmed down Ghurkka Spice pop up. The fish just werent having it. After having about 4 fish mouthing my bait and then spook off I decided to change hookbaits, I put on an 8mm cork ball soaked in Rahja Spice Bait Glug I cast the apple core and cork ball beyond the feeding fish and slowly drew it over them, within about 10 mins I had a fish stick its mouth out and suck in my bait the apple bobbbed under and I struck the rod hard. The fish weighed 11lb 6oz and that put me in second place shortly after one of the others were into a fish once landed his fish came in as 18lb 4oz which put me back down to 3rd place. It was game on now and I was trying my hardest to bag up on a few fish I got the rod back out and I was soon into another one, once this fish was weighed and landed it all kicked off I then had 3 more fish in about an hour and a half. I was now in 1st place with a very convincing lead. It came to the end of the match and I was the winner with a total of 5 fish and a total wieght of 68lbs.

Once again Quest Baits came out on top.

Thanks Lee Wheeler.