Quest Baits Blog

France - carp mecca!

Richard Turner wrote;

Hi there, A group of us are going to France in august for the first time its only a 4 acre lake with an average depth of 5 foot with a gravel bottom with patches of silt.

In your opinion out of your baits which one would you take as your main hook bait and what size?

The owner has boilies for sale at the lake but I’m not sure about using a strange bait, what advice can you give us? Thanks.

Hi Richard,

I have been involved in the French carp scene for around 17 years, and one of the most difficult decisions is around bait.

First of all get in touch with the owners and try and ascertain the size of the carp that are stocked in the lake, and what other fish are in the lake. In my experience, most of the French lakes are stuffed with other species of fish, Bream, Tench, Rudd the dreaded Poisson Chat.

The species like Bream, Tench and Rudd are easy to get around. Increase the size of your baits. I always use a minimum of 18mils, usually 20 mils. This eliminates most of the problems that you will encounter from these nuisance fish, but even so you will still pick up the odd one or 2. continue reading…

Following on from the discussion on nuisance species, poisson-chats and crayfish, I’ve added a link to a video tutorial where I explain how to mesh up, and use shrink tube to protect your hook baits from these fish and to get you more takes.

Poisson-chats;

There have been a few posts on the web forums of late about the small fresh water predators called ‘Poisson-Chats- Ameiurus melas (Catfish in French). Many anglers who have been to France will have been confronted with them.

Now these fish are not Wels catfish (Siluris Glanis), they rarely grow to over a pound and are generally only a few ounces in weight. But they are indeed extremely troublesome creatures. They are omnivorous, hunting in shoals and feeding on much the same food as carp… and that includes your bait. There is nothing more frustrating than fishing all night with no bait on your hook.
But don’t despair just because a water holds these fish, there are numerous ways to avoid them and have some great sport with the carp!! continue reading…