Quest Baits Blog

Readers question;

Went out yesterday to a day ticket water. Baited the spot on Saturday evening with about 4 kilo’s of maize.  Had 11 takes yesterday up to 22 pounds. Not big but great fun.

My problem is that I am trying homemade boilies too, basically air dried boilies as per your articles. Soaking them for 12 hours but yesterday when I went out time and time again the rig comes out with the boilie no where to be seen.  I was fishing with some of the first batches that I made and I know in the beginning I was scared to boil them for too long, basically just boiling them for a minute. The new batches I boil until they start rising 2 – 3 minutes.

 Could this be the problem?

Got hemp in them too, way too much I think as they tend to break up quit badly when I try to put them on the Hair – rig.

Another question I want to buy a carp sack as I get fish early in the morning with no one to take photo’s for me. How long is safe to sack a carp.

Greetings Gert Roestoff

South Africa.

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By Paul Cooper

Trophy shot of a 44lb 2oz carp

Carp fishing has come on leaps and bounds over the past 20 years with carp care being at the forefront of the conscientious carp angler.

Even the sacking of carp is slowly decreasing with a more carp fisheries, banning the sack altogether. This has come about as a result of the occasional angler abusing the carp sack, by retaining a carp well beyond a safe period and causing unnecessary stress in doing so. The answer to this is in self photography which I have covered in a previous blog.

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By Paul Cooper;

Have you ever caught a carp, weighed it accurately and then a few days later the same fish is caught weighing 2 to 3 lb heavier by another angler.

Watch some of the angling video’s on the internet web sites and you can witness for yourself, examples of fish being weighed in-correctly.

I have in fact caught a feeding fish at 9.30 am and returned the fish for it to be caught later at around 11.30pm that evening by another angler, weighing in at an extra 3lb.

Do you think that is possible?

No! It is not.

So why do anglers claim these exaggerated weights. Is it ignorance, self esteem, or simply knowingly cheating?

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By Samantha Collins-Ratcliffe;

How many anglers do you see on the bank with an unhooking mat the size of a postage stamp?

Carp care is the most important thing you should practise when carp fishing, after all, if the fish suffer, then so do our carpers.

It is very important that we care for our captures regardless of how big it is, because a 4lb carp will one day be a 40lb carp if they are looked after on the bank and returned safely to the water then will say in prestige condition for all to enjoy.

A high care unhooking mat is ideal whatever the situation as it is large and well padded, you can get an upper 40lb carp in it with minimum worry or problems. continue reading…

by Shaun Harrison

Snag Fishing

Now then, back to the previous edition of Carpworld. I enjoy interview type pieces and like to see what makes certain anglers tick. Some come over a little bit cold, in my opinion, and some at the opposite end of the scale seem to absolutely ooze eagerness. I like to think that by the time I have finished reading an interview I have a rough idea what the angler is like, personality-wise. The ‘Big Interview’ with Jim Carpenter showed just how much he has sacrificed in the pursuit of carp over the years, but the one thing which really makes me take my hat off to him was quite early on in his piece where he said:
“I learnt then that I would never be a snag angler, and to this day I very rarely do it. I think that many fish get damaged in those hook-and-hold scenarios and I prefer to keep the fish looking good.”

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