Quest Baits Blog

As more and more UK carp anglers venture abroad to France they are confronted with a huge choice of waters and fishing conditions. The giant fish we read about in the magazines, the success stories of leviathan carp all sound very attractive. These fish do exist and the potential of some large waters is outstanding. France is fast becoming a number one destination for the travelling angler.

Smaller pits and lakes don’t usually pose too much of a problem for anyone who has the usual armoury of techniques and tactics at his disposal, and the usual UK approach will cope without any problem. Those who fancy having a go at one of the big French waters should only do so if they have done their home work and are well prepared for such a venue. Lakes like the Der Chantecoq, the Foret de l’Orient, Salagou and Madine all hold massive fish, but all are, by English standards very big waters.  Approaching such a venue cannot be taken lightly, adequate tackle and equipment is a must if your fishing to be as enjoyable as it should and your chances of catching optimised.

First of all you need to do you ground work. Large scale maps of the various waters can be obtained from specialist shops and show the access roads to the bankside. These are edited by IGN and can be obtained in the UK or once you arrive in France.

A visit to a French tackle shop near your chosen water is a necessity for the various “Permits de Pêche” and information on the night sectors. On most of the waters, even the very large ones, the oppressive French angling laws make night fishing very difficult. Huge waters like the Orient have only a few areas one can fish, and these are often occupied for the major part of the season. One is often faced with the paradoxical situation of being on one of the largest waters in Europe and nowhere to fish. Don’t be put off by this, as most of these areas regularly produce. continue reading…

Hi Shaun,

What sort of back lead do you use and recommend?

I use four different types of back lead in my own fishing so let’s look at the ones I use and the reasons I use them.

Captive back leads

Captive back leads – Apart from some homemade affairs the only captive back leads I have used for any period of time is the Fox version with the hinged gate system. I find these to be excellent to allow a free passage of line to maximise bite indication. This free passage is essential if you are going to be able to register drop back takes.

I find that captive back leads need to be quite heavy to allow quick bite registration. The first ones I purchased were 1oz (28 gram) from memory but these would lift up in the water on the take which would therefore lessen the indication on the alarm and bobbin.

Rather than purchase another set of back leads I simply cut off the weight, slid on a flat in line Korda lead then re-tied the original back lead on. The Korda lead gripped the swivel of the Fox Captive lead just as it would on a standard semi-fixed in-line rig. My captive leads were then just over 2oz and they certainly perform better and release easier than they ever did at 1oz. I also feel they actually sit better being less inclined to topple over with the added weight at the back. continue reading…

STARTING FROM SCRATCH….

I’m fortunate enough to visit a lot of Angling Lines waters, many of them very lightly or never fished before I get there.  Because of this the information usually available to the customer has yet to be compiled and I really am starting from scratch.  This blog piece is about how I tackle an untried/untested venue in France.

I try to research the venue at home and the first place I visit is Google to search for maps and photos of the lake.  I search for alternative names for the venue particularly on French angling and tourist websites. Most lakes have been fished at some time in their history and it’s amazing what you can find out with Google and a Babelfish translator.  My visits are a week at most but can be as little as three days so I like to be well informed

Next it’s Metcheck or my new favourite Accuweather for a long range weather forecast for the time my visit.  I pay particular attention to new winds, wind strength and atmospheric pressure.  Fish don’t always follow the wind, buts it’s always worth searching the windward side of the lake on a new wind. continue reading…

It’s so easy to turn up at a lake and go for the easy option of fishing the swim right next to the car park, especially when the weather is not in your favour.

Or if you’re feeling at little more adventurous you’ll head straight for the swim that people are talking about as being a so called hot spot.

As we all know there is more to landing a big carp than this but we sometimes choose to ignore the obvious.

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Having read Spencer’s post from last week it occurred to me just how many anglers probably have hung their rods up over this particularly difficult and frustrating winter of frozen lakes and snow blocked tracks.

Well, a word of warning here, nature is starting to wake up again along with the carp becoming more active. 6am this morning the birds were singing their hearts out as I sat drinking my wakening cup of coffee. I strolled outside, lean’t against the bridge of my garden pool and couldn’t help but smile. Nature was telling me that everything is starting to return from the winter slumber.

It really is time for you to be thinking about dusting the gear down if you want to tempt yourself one of those gorgeous late winter carp still sporting the beautiful reddy orange tinge they develop during the winter months.

Winter carp usually look as though they are in their full peak of health as well as usually being up in weight, which is total evidence that they still carry on rooting around and feeding all through the winter.

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Even in the depths of winter our mind turns to the first sunny days of Spring, when the temperature is going upwards and the lake shows more and more fish activity. The warmth of the sun is responsible for more carp movement and often you can catch them fairly easy on these mild days.

A few tips that can be effective considering the early time of the season;

1.    Fish often don’t respond to heavy baiting under these circumstances, try fishing PVA bags and single hook baits… remember bait that’s gone in, can’t be taken out! So be careful with free offerings.

2.    Always try to get your baits near the bank where the fist sunlight falls on. This side of the lake will warm up faster and on allot of occasions the majority of the fish will be hanging around in that part of the lake.

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