Quest Baits Blog

I chose to start off in the deep water swim 31.

With my Grenville season fast running out I was desperate to get back over there after the events of the past couple of weeks which had been kind to me despite very few fish coming out. I knew they were turned on and tuned into the Magnum White. I just needed to get myself there and into a swim that gave me a good chance of action.

Friday I started work particularly early to hopefully clear my desk and allow myself an early escape. The journey went without hitch and a hour and a half after leaving home I was driving along the track to the car park. My heart sank, I had arrived early but it looked as though everyone else had the same idea as me but arrived earlier. There were over 15 anglers already pitched up.

I looked where each person was set up and the two swims I fancied from what was left were either 25 as there was plenty of space either side still, or 31 simply because I’d had the suspicion the fish were holding up in the deeper water and with a drop in air pressure more would do too.

I cast the marker into 25 and two of the spots that had been kind to me in the past appeared to be weeded over so they weren’t being fed on much. With other anglers arriving by the minute I dropped into 31 which put me on the end of a line of fellow B.C.S.G. members Phil Calloway and Paul Miller. Phil had received action earlier in the day and although his swim was only 2 away from the one I chose the swims are well spread so as to not interfere with anyone else’s water. At least I knew there were or had been fish in the vague area. In fact both Paul and Phil had seen a decent show of fish at first light. continue reading…

Rod bending action on the first day of the year.

I am not one for making new year resolutions but I guess deep down for a while now I have promised myself a little more time angling on my local patch and to try and not keep pestering the carp week in and week out. It is so easy to find yourself in a routine simply because it suits. For years now I have pointed my Land Rover bonnet south or west and driven for a couple of hours for most all of my angling and in doing so I invariably pass so much incredible fishing along the way.

It wasn’t always like this. I started to travel simply because I had to travel if I was to be able to fish for the size of fish that used to seem so important to me. But as the years have moved on and I have grown, the fish have too and now I have fish on my doorstep which are much larger than the fish I used to have to travel for a couple of hours to reach. Having said that, I’m not size motivated at all these days. I haven’t been for years as in my mind the venue, the methods, the people and to a certain extent the security, come much higher on my list of priority than the size of the fish these days. Okay, obviously it is a massive bonus if I can combine everything and still have big fish to angle for.  continue reading…

What incredible weather we have been having. As always I keep a close watch on water temperatures through the winter months and despite catching a few carp on New Years day I couldn’t ignore how warm the rivers were getting and the barbel were calling me.

I managed to get out for a couple of hours on a small river and was rewarded with a couple of nice chub. Really nice fishing wandering around with one rod and lowering apple cored Rahja Spice boilies with a Rahja Spice paste wrap into various likely looking holes. Really rewarding and ‘proper angling’ with me feeling really content after getting out there and finding the fish rather than sitting and waiting for them to find me.

Later in the day after getting a few jobs out of the way the rivers were still calling so I decided to spend a couple of hours trying for the barbel on the River Trent. The Trent is still quite high so I was going to have to anchor my baits in place and build a swim with big cage feeders. continue reading…

Message:

Hi all,

I started making my own boilies, but a bit confused at to which flavours to use at which time of year,1 person told me fish flavours in winter and frutti in summer, then someone else told me the opposite. Any suggestions welcome

thanks all

Mike

Shaun Harrison answered:

Hi Mike,

The actual flavour has little bearing on the time of season to use it as most flavours are man made synthetics which don’t really alter the bait.

The important thing and the deciding factor is the base ingredients – the actual food content.

Basically you want to be avoiding anything that is oily during the colder months as these will congeal and trap in any attractive leakage they may have had and also make digestion of the said very difficult.

I designed all of the Quest Baits range to be effective and safe to use for 12 months of the year with the exception of Special Crab which does have quite a high oil content – this one really comes into its own during the warmest periods of the year.

The baits which have been truly outstanding during the colder months have been Fruity Trifle, Rahja Spice and Magnum White.

Hope this helps – the base ingredients are what make the difference – not the flavours they are labelled with – most artificial flavours smell of something but don’t taste of it.

Regards
Shaun Harrison

Hi Quest Baits,

Sorry if this information is already available but does the Chilli Chocolate contain fishmeals and if so at what sort of quantities?  I like to try and use a bait through summer and winter and with this bait containing no bulk oils i’m very tempted to give it a try but i have always had more success with baits that contain some degree of fishmeal for when water temperatures are a little higher.  As a side question i have a friend who has used the Quest range before but like all the baits he tries he likes to wash out or re-hydrate his baits to some degree to soften and change their apperance somewhat.  Is this something that works with this bait and your range and if so how would you personally go about it?

Many thanks
David

Hi David,

The Chilli Chocolate contains around 20% fish meal but with no extra added oil other than essential oils in minute amounts which ensures it works in even the coldest of months – a true 12 month of the year bait.

I have written for quite a few different magazines on re-hydration. Here are just a few quick ones I found doing a Google search..

http://www.questbaits.com/pdf/tacticalangler.pdf

http://www.questbaits.ro/articole-pescuit/carpworld/Bait-Management.pdf

http://www.questbaits.com/blog/give-your-boilies-a-drink-air-drying-and-rehydration-tips/

and here is a TV thing I did on the subject but you have to subscribe to see it.

http://www.onlinefishing.tv/premium/all/preview/carp-tv-24
Hope this helps

Best wishes
Shaun Harrison

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…