Quest Baits Blog

Words and pictures supplied by Gareth Watkins.

“The barbel affords an angler choice sport, being a lusty and a cunning fish ; so lusty and cunning as to endanger the breaking of the angler’s line.” Izaak Walton 1653

France has long been associated with carp fishing, and every year thousands of anglers from all over Europe, head for the large number of lakes and rivers spread across the country.
While it is true, the larger rivers in France hold good numbers of carp, I doubt many anglers give a second thought to alternate species also present, often considering them as nuisance fish.
But the French rivers, just as the British ones, hold a vast array of fish; one of the most interesting being the Barbel.
Barbel fishing is very popular in the UK and there are loads of rivers offering some cracking sport, the Trent, the Dove, the Wye, the Severn, the Ribble, the Ouse, the Wensum,  the Avon to name but a few.
But the Barbus Barbus is also a native species of France and present in most of its river systems.

Pioneering:

Over the last couple of months and seeking a change from carp fishing, I’ve turned my attentions to these fish in the rivers local to me; the Aisne & the Marne. The articles on this blog by Shaun and Pat Gillett have motivated me to give it a go, to see if I too, could catch a few.
Since I’ve been in France I have only caught the odd chub and barbel by accident, while carping on the Seine. This year I wanted to set myself a new fishing goal; to catch a double figure French barbel !

The main problem though, is that nobody in France fishes for barbel !!
So where to start?
I feel a bit like the original carp pioneers, testing waters, not even knowing if the fish they sought were present. Perhaps I’ll stumble across a barbel angler’s St. Cassien! continue reading…

Last week I posted a catch report to our website and mentioned that I had caught the fish on an ultra light aerodynamic home made long range pop-up.

This has caused a fair bit of interest with anglers asking me how they can make their own. So here goes…

Everything I used apart from the eggs are available in the Quest Baits range.

First off I separated the white (albumin) from the yolk (yellow bit) of a normal hens egg. By doing this and only using the white of the egg for pop-up production you ensure the finished pop-up is much more buoyant than one made with both the yolk and the albumin. This is important to me as I like to use small baits particularly when distance casting but don’t like to drop my hook sizes to suit. So, by separating the white from the yellow I can ensure they will be as buoyant as possible.

So, with the white of an egg in a glass bowl (I usually only ever do one egg hook bait mixes) I added some of the Magnum White liquid flavour blend. I find it is difficult to go over the top flavour wise with pop-ups as the carp never get to actually taste them so I tend to add the flavour at a higher level than you would for a bottom bait – in most cases when utilising synthetic flavours as part of the attractor system this will also help to stabilise the finished baits (last longer before they go off). continue reading…

As the weather is still up and down with temperature going below zero on a regular basis here’s a tip I thought you might find useful.

To stop my line freezing in the rod rings I’ve been rubbing glycerine on them.

A bit about Glycerine;

Glycerine can be brought from any chemist or Tesco’s in the baking department.  In the real world it’s used in many ways… baking, cooking, making soap and of course, bait making.

It’s a neutral, sweet-tasting, colourless, thick liquid which has a high boiling point.  It can be dissolved into water or alcohol, but not oils.  On the other hand, many things will dissolve into glycerine easier than they do into water or alcohol.

Anyhow… that’s the real world… it’s best use is stopping your line freezing up!  Give it a go!

Regards, Scott

By Jamie Simpson

1) Observation is vital, take advantage of trees and high banks to get a good view point.

 2) If you are heading to a new lake for the first time and don’t know what to expect, do as much groundwork as possible. For example Carp Talk, Carpworld, Crafty Carper, forums and carp meetings are a great source of information. Position yourself on a peg that gives you a view of as much of the lake as possible. Watch what others are doing and you can build up a picture of how to approach the venue. Don’t be afraid to ask the regulars, but don’t be pushy either. On 99% of lakes you will find people more than willing to help once you get to know them.

3) Whilst the carp are now becoming far more active, they will not be in full gorging mode just yet so go steady with the bait and gradually increase the amounts depending on results.

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4) Don’t be afraid to be different and try zig rigs, or a particle approach etc. You will often find that on most venues people will say that such and such doesn’t work on here. The truth is often that no one has even tried it or they have done at the wrong time or in the wrong place. The best way is often to try it for yourself. I know this seems to slightly contradict tip No. 2 but you will only do as well as others if you do what they do all the time.

5) PASTE! I cannot emphasise enough how many fish I have caught that I believe was largely down to its use. Here are a few advantages; instant attraction, different shape to that of a round ball which spells danger, hook point protection. It will break down over a period of hours anyway… so there’s really nothing to lose anyway.

6) Carry a bag of floaters just in case. I have had a couple of occasions late March and April where they have been ready for the odd floater and if you can be one of the first to use them during the year the chances are you will catch them out before they become wary of them again.

By Scott Ratcliffe

I started playing around with different ways of camouflaging my end tackle to suit the lake bed I’m fishing.  I’ve started fishing a large 70 acre gravel pit in the south west which holds a small amount of large carp that have proved themselves to be hard to catch, so I’ve been taking my end tackle to the next stage to see if I can blend it all in to match the lake bed.

After playing around with making my own leads and camouflaging them I started to play with a lead clip, then the rubber and the rig tubing. All you need is a blow torch and some powdered coating which will match your lake bed.

continue reading…