Quest Baits Blog

By Shaun Harrison

So, how do we arrive at the final recipe the finished bait and what sort of testing do we actually do?

This is such a frequently asked question that I thought I should perhaps answer everyone.

Many of the baits in the Quest Baits range have a very long history to them – certainly a lot longer than Quest has been around.

Baits like ‘Fruity Trifle’ have been part of my personal armoury since the late 80’s with just the odd tweak here and there as new ingredients have come to light which I feel are better than some of the ones I used in the original base mix form.

But there are also the boilies such as Liver B8 which I have worked on since the formation of Quest Baits.

The Liver B8 was a bait I always wanted to do – total meat based with no fish. It was a case of finding the right ingredients. The actual bait had been in my head for years but it took a long while to track down the ingredients I wanted.

Everyone knows the effectiveness of liver products in baits. Carp love the taste of liver but how many of you are aware of the type of liver you are using? Does your bait have pigs liver in it, cows liver perhaps, chicken liver, lambs liver – the list goes on.

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Jan Bašista wrote;

My query is can you send fresh boilies to the Czech Republica if delivery is three days… or would I be better to order shelf-life?
Thanks Jack.

Hi Jack,

Our Quest Baits shelf life boilies are made from identical ingredients to the fresh frozen, the only difference being the type of egg used and the drying process.

These days I rarely use fresh frozen baits myself. Knowing what goes into our Quest Baits range I have no problems at all with the shelf life baits as we don’t use any of those bitter/sweet nasty preservatives that many other companies use and what has ended up giving shelf life baits a bad name.

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Richard wrote:
When air drying boilies to re-hydrate in hemp juice is it best to use fresh or shelf life baits.

Hi Richard,

I have air dried both shelf life baits and fresh frozen for re-hydration purposes. Originally I only ever used to use fresh frozen baits so all of my early experiments were with these. I did prefer to freeze them down first though before starting to air dry them as this speeds the process of air drying.

These days I use shelf life boilies for most of my fishing. I know what goes into the Quest Shelf Life boilies and have total confidence in using them. Left out in the same way as fresh frozen baits they will shrink and dry in the same way.

Hope this helps. Basically I always used to use fresh but now I’m happy with either.

Best fishes, Shaun Harrison

by Shaun Harrison

What is a boilie?

Let’s start by firstly establishing what a boilie is; most of you know, but many readers who are new to the sport may not. Boilie is the universally known word for describing a paste bait that has been boiled to create a tough outer skin. By boiling the paste it makes it much harder for smaller species to eat them, thus increasing the chances of carp eating them. In this piece I have come up with ten tips and tricks that can be used with boilies of all descriptions in order to help give you that much needed edge. continue reading…

Hi All,
An excellent interview with the man himself in this month’s Carpology e-newsletter

The CARPology e-Newsletter Five-Minute Interview

This week we chat to Quest Baits main man, Shaun Harrison

“Shaun, can you tell our readers what your company has been up to over the past 12 months?”

Last September we had to move Quest Baits into larger premises. This was our third move in just two years. Everything has moved on at a steady rate since first putting the foundations of Quest Baits together in 2005.

We drew up a very precise five year business plan based around my long experience in the tackle trade and I am happy to say everything has gone to plan. This year (2008) was always the year we were going to make the baits much more widely available through a carefully selected range of shops. Leading up to 2008 we had supplied bait direct from our website www.questbaits.com and purposely kept the baits in just two shops. The Tackle Box in Dartford Kent and Walkers of Trowell in Nottingham, the shop I had worked in for 25 years prior to leaving to set this business up.

We have been absolutely delighted with the response from the shops after doing a mini nationwide presentation tour. Our baits have been accepted with open arms and the sales so far have been truly staggering considering the time of the year.

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Alan Dobson wrote:

I will be going to France fishing in 2 weeks time – the lake is Roseau large lake. The lake is known for special crab and fruity trifle which my mates will be taking. I would like to try something else would you be able to recommend anything else. I went last year and took special crab and fruity trifle so I know this works well. What do you recommend? I await to hear from you.

Roseau Large Lake

Pat Gillett replies;

I can highly recommend the Rahja Spice Shelf Lifes.

Alongside my good mate Paul Cooper I went to France three times last year (end of March, 1st week May & 1st week in October) and used the Rahja on all occasions.

Because of the varying times of year we ended up encountering a lot of different weather conditions. (Because of the time of year you are making your visit there is a good chance that you will also face a variety of weather conditions).

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