Quest Baits Blog

Hi Shaun,

Just ordered some of these excellent baits after a remarkable experience yesterday.

I was fishing my local stretch of the Bristol Avon near Chippenham in Wiltshire and happily banging out roach of a pleasing stamp on maggot, corn and bread, rotating the baits as bites slowed. Oddly, not a chub in sight and I would have normally expected to pick up a couple. Another angler stopped for a chat, mentioned the Chubby Chops (swiftly avoiding a slap by mentioning that it was bait) and suggested I try a couple. I packed a small feeder with the same light groundbait mix I was using to keep the roach coming, hair-rigged a Chop and cast into the same spot I had been trotting over.

An hour and 6 chub to 3 1/2lb later and my two Chops were decimated. Fantastic!

I have to say I missed quite a few bites and think that my size 12 Drennan Super Specialist about 5mm behind the bait was probably not the optimum set-up but it was getting dark and I didn’t have time to experiment.

What would you have done – longer hair and bigger/smaller hook or larger hook and tight to the barrel?

Best regards,  Graham Parry.

PS, I ordered some Barbel Chops as well. What would you combine those with – I fish the Wye and Gloucester Severn in the Summer and Autumn and was thinking of grinding up some chops and mixing in a little of the Archie Braddock’s powder but choice of pellets to bulk the mix?

Hi Graham,

Excellent – our biggest problem is getting people to try these things. We are more than happy knowing the baits will then do the rest for us without the sales patter.

The water temperatures are still running very cold which affects the metabolism and feeding style of the fish. It is easy to draw sometimes the wrong conclusion when it’s as it is at the moment. Sometimes simply mounting the bait in a different manner (lengthways or sideways) can often make the difference. One thing I would most certainly have tried with the limited time which often stops us changing rigs would have been to cut one end off of the bait. continue reading…

Finally managed to get out for a few hours this afternoon. I’ve been getting a little stir crazy not being able to wet a line but with the week-end totally put aside for the Brentwood Carp Show which was cancelled I found myself with some spare time to get out.

With snow falling from the sky my neighbours must have thought I was a little silly loading my gear up in the Land Rover but you know what it’s like a man has to do what a man has to do….

continue reading…

Andrew Allen runs Mansfield Angling Ltd which is one of our valued Quest Baits Stockists. He started using the Chubby Chops himself and has had great success with them culminating in a 5 hour match win at the prolific Makin’s venue near Coventry, just before Xmas.

A total of 90 anglers in teams of three took part and his team won with two of his team having the top weights, both fishing only on Chubby Chops. Andrew took 13 carp for over 129 lb in weight himself, he reckons it is  the colour that works best in winter.

Sorry – no fish picture but don’t be fooled by the name of the bait. Since its release Ron Key has had some great Barbel sport on it and the carp certainly have a liking for it as well as the Chub for which it was originally developed.

If you’re looking for something a little different to the norm’ a different shape, taste and smell then look no further.

Cheese flavoured baits go back a long way in my own fishing. It took me a lot of years to catch my first 20lb common (pictured) but when it eventually came during a session on Gosfield lake in Essex it fell for a bait using exactly the same attractors as we have put in the Chubby Chops.

This picture is from 25 years ago so you can see that although Chubby Chops is relatively new in our range it still has a very long history. I have always like cheese type flavours in carp baits and although the word cheese isn’t mentioned a great deal N-Butyric Acid is. Need I say more?

Best fishes – Shaun Harrison