Quest Baits Blog

Hi Martin

Well I can tell you that I have used air dried and rehydrated baits for several years now and hardy ever use fresh baits. I really believe it gives me an edge everywhere I fish with it.

DRYING: Preparing the baits couldn’t be simpler. You want the baits totally ‘marble’ dry. In the summer leave them on a towel in the sun during the day and then overnight in an air dry bag – you can get these bags from most tackle shops. Keep them drying for days if that’s how long it takes and jiggle them about to turn them – as long as they are dry and can breathe they won’t go off. In the winter put the towel with the baits in any centrally heated room – but be aware the whole house might smell of bait if you do it this way! I am so keen on the method I invested in an electric food drying rack system made by a company called L’Equip but you don’t have to do this. Another tip is everytime you have freezer bait left over from a session in the summer then air dry them and keep them for the future. You can take some fresh bait with you to Maurepaire in May – if it’s hot you can dry it out as you go along. I always have plenty of air dried bait kept in a large paper bag so I can use them as I need to.

REHYDRATING: I always rehydrate them the night before I want to use them. My favourite liquid is hemp water (from boiling hemp) mixed with a combination of Quest Bait Glug (to match the boilies) and bloodworm liquid or anchovy extract and honey. I have also used CSL and tiger nut liquid – most good food liquids will do. You can use lake water too but make sure you add food liquids to it as well. I add the boilies to the liquid in a bucket until there is still two to three inches of liquid above them. They will really swell up. They will be ready the next day. Keep them in the shade and they will last for a couple of days. When I’m on a longer session of a week then I get into a routine and prepare hemp each day and rehydrate the boilies in the liquid in the early evening for use the next day.

HOOKBAITS: Rehydrated boilies are too soft to use as hookbait. I use them as loose feed and then use a harder hook bait on top. The Quest hard hookbaits are perfect for this.

Hope that helps. Any further queries just ask.

Good luck in Maurepaire, let us know how you get on.

Best fishes

Elie G.

Just to add to David’s comments about using air dried baits as they are – rock hard. When I fished at Donaldson in South Africa the freshwater crabs were a nightmare. They chew through braided line (mainline and hooklinks) and would get through conventional bait in minutes. To make the free bait last longer I put in rock hard air dried boilies coated with- funnily enough – salmon oil! It worked a treat and I prepared them just as David did, glugging them a few hours before I out them in. I then fished hard hookbaits with a Enterprise plastic boilie as a snowman on top. The crabs could make a bit of a mess of the night glow arificial boilies over time but the conventional (yellow and red) ones are more durable.

I must admit I also need to think about using shelf life boilies again. They have improved beyond recognition from the early ‘preservative’ days and a number of Quest users have told me they have had great results on them.

Elie G

Hi Richard,
You can hydrate/rehydrate any boilie that has a water content. So the answer is yes you can hydrate/rehydrate shelf life baits.

Jim Kelly