Quest Baits Blog

The winter is a season where some of us store away their gear until the arrival of the spring. Others are aware that you can experience some big moments during the winter. The winter is the time where generally the bigger fish will see the inside of our landing net. In my opinion a big reason to keep the rods out of the shed as long as possible and go out hunting for that winter whacker instead.

Depending on which venue I choose and how many carp that are in there, I choose if I will go prebaiting the spots. Another big issue that you have to keep in mind is the water temperature. The fish will move just a little bit or even lay still most of the time when the temperature stays under +7 degrees. In these conditions I won’t go prebaiting but will fish much more active. I then use small solid pva-bags filled with chopped boilies and action pellets or fish with a single hookbait. I keep the rigs in place for one hour and then recast them again to a new spot when nothing has occurred on the previous spots.

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Can you please tell me what you think are the best rigs for winter and the cold weather.  Thanks.

Cold water rigs for me, differ very little from my normal rigs, however I do like to scale things down somewhat. You have to only go back to your tiddler bashing days to know that fining your rigs down results in more bites and winter feeding, which is often short, highlights this.

There are many rigs in use today however most carp anglers have a failsafe rig which always seems to work for them. The rig that I’ve had my most success with by far, in all conditions, is a simple blow back rig, fined down with a size ten or twelve Mugga hook.  This rig has caught me winter carp from day ticket waters, to club lakes to hard UK syndicates with fish up to 36lb in the depths of winter.

The materials I use are a 15lb coated braid hooklink, I like PB products Jelly Wire, Gardner size 8 or 10 Mugga hooks and Fox Teflon rig rings in 3mm.

I’ve pictured the rig here as it is actually on my rods now, a simple split shot at the break in the braided hooklink coating (about 1 1/2 cm from the hook) is all that you need if you want to use it for pop-ups, a rig that I’ve caught UK carp up to nearly 56lb.

I fish this rig at approx 9 inches to start with, lengthening or shortening as required.  Remember if the fish can’t get it in their mouths they can’t get hooked! Two 10mm Quest boilies make the ideal hookbait.

Couple this rig with a running lead, or as I do with a shake free semi fixed lead, and you have everything you could need, come rain or shine, sun or snow!

Good luck, Spencer Humble

1. Easily digested – the quicker it’s digested the sooner the carp need to eat again.

2. Low flavour level (that will surprise some!) – if I am presenting baits where I know the carp to be then I don’t need high flavour content.  I have watched fish move from an area away from heavily flavoured baits when they don’t want to feed.  They will tolerate low level flavoured baits being in the swim though and eat them when ready.

3. Soluble ingredients – to assist the leach of the natural subtle attractors.

4. Minimal fat/oil content – they struggle to digest fat in the cold weather which can make them ill and certainly makes it a longer period of time before they need to eat again.

5. Subtle colour if the bird life is troublesome – speaks for itself but I prefer subtle baits when everyone else is using ‘in your face baits’.

6. Food content instead of simple flavour carrier ingredients – if the bait has been out for a couple of days before the carp are inclined to feed, or indeed come across the bait, I want a food parcel awaiting them – not a washed out bit of pasta!

7. Essential oil(s) – retain taste in the bait if not picked up early in the session.

8. Easily obtained – no good getting a bait going that you can’t get hold of easily.

9. Matching add–ons – I like to be able to get matching pop-ups, pellets and the like.

Finally most lakes around here have eventually crept back up in water temperature to make the catching of carp a much more realistic prospect than it was a couple of weeks back.

For 30 odd years I have taken water temperatures during the winter months. I don’t mean just dangling a thermometer in a few inches of water in the edge as this will give you a false reading compared to the temperature in the depths you are fishing. I have simply cast my thermometer into the sort of depth I am fishing then simply cranked it back in quickly and taken the reading.

So, to save you many years of work before being able to come to any semi accurate conclusion I will share what I have learned after 30 years of doing this on so many different waters I would struggle to list them. 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….

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I stopped using petrol stoves years ago and reverted back to gas. Gas is so much cleaner to use and negates the need to keep having to top the petrol stove up every trip and during . I never did like the petrol smell near my tackle and bait.

I often hear it said that the trouble with gas stoves is the fact that the gas freezes during the winter. The early stoves I used were a nightmare for this but with the 50/50 propane/butane mixes now in common use I find it not to be a particular problem.

There are odd dodges you can do to help the stove to help you. Last thing at night before getting into the sleeping bag I unscrew the gas bottle and put it inside the bag with me – this ensures the gas is nice and warm for the all important first brew the following morning. continue reading…