Quest Baits Blog

By Samantha Collins-Ratcliffe;

Started off from sunny Cornwall the A30 was clear, foot to the floor as I hit Bristol the heaven’s opened and down came the rain. As the traffic slowed down to 40 miles an hour a there was a slow drive ahead of me towards the M4. The pace picked up, I turned off juntion15 edging towards Lansdale and after a while I turned up at the Carp Society’s Horse Shoe Lake.

I was greeted by David one of the Managers at the lake, we started to chat about what had been coming out that week and he advised me to look at winters bay as some fish were holding up in there.  As I slowly drove around the lake winter bay was looking the best option for me as there was nobody in there, I finally opted for peg 20 this was a double swim with a fair amount of water to go at. I started to set up and once again down came the rain, it must have followed me from the M5? Up went the bivvy and out went two kilo of Smokey fish Boilies all over my swim with the throwing sick. Closely followed by two rods loaded up with PVA bags into the edge of the weeds. Within two hours of waiting off went my first rod, a good 10 minute fight and my first Horse Shoe carp on the bank. continue reading…

On the 30th June Phil Parker put the following question to the bloggers:

OK here goes. Now I’m sure this subject has been touched before.

Why do we not have venues in the UK similar to those advertised in Angling Lines?

 In fact perhaps I should ask them this and other companies this. There seems to be a couple venues that do this but not many.

I am not knocking France or any of the lakes over there as I have fished many of them over the years and love the places I have been to. Its just that there seems to be missing opportunities which I’m sure could be grabbed.

I know there are places like White Acres and Anglers Paradise, again top notch venues but the chance to share a lake with friends on an exclusivity basis or a 20 acre lake shared between a maximum of 10 anglers has surely got to appeal. T

here must be plenty of anglers who would relish this as syndicate waters are sometimes far and few between and not within budget for many. So come on everbody lets have your thoughts, suggestions and opinions on this.

Elie Godsi offers an initial response:

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By Jamie Simpson
I have just returned home from my first ever BCAC qualifying event at Cuttle Mill Fishery, near Tamworth. What a roller coaster of emotions I have gone through over the past 48 hours.

We arrived at the venue on Thursday evening for a bit of a social and a look around the lake. We managed to spot plenty of fish during this walk around, with carp bubbling and crashing in several areas. A large proportion of the fish seemed to be in an area between swims known as the Pads and Nevilles. Normally this would not be a popular choice as you are in a corner and penned in somewhat by other swims around this part of the lake.

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Gareth Meyer wrote;

 I was just wondering if you could give me some advice?? I am planning a session in July at a complex I have never fished before called white springs lake in Swansea, do you know it?  This is what I know about the lake,

1. its a 10 acre lake averaging 6-9ft in depth with a few areas going to 14ft deep and one area 17ft in depth.
2. its has 9 islands with an average depth of 3ft surrounding water, with nearby shelves at each island
3. its has a large head of carp, some over 40lb, several over 30lb and numerous 20s
4. March 2008 has seen 5 carp over 30lb landed
5. Yellow baits with pop-ups working well
6. The margins are around 3ft deep and seem to be productive during warmer months
7. There are a few groups of large lily pads in the lake

What approach/approaches would you think about taking if you were going to fish this venue?
what methods would you consider best to use and what baits would you take with you?I was thinking…
Rod 1 = use a method feeder approach to a feature i.e. island and/or shelf, with a high attractant groundbait including pellets, hemp seed and maggots within the groundbait. The hookbait being hair rigged sweetcorn and/or maize, maggots and boilies. (try all to see which one produces)

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