Quest Baits Blog

Thanks Shaun. Its probably worth adding that although I have caught on single plastic baits, hopefully placed in the right spot by me and not just luck, the most success I’ve had is when the plastic is used in conjunction with a strategically placed bed of bait.

Cheers Ron

Hi Pat, During my time on Patshull Church Pool the most successful angler on there was John Freeman. Now it was rare for him to sit behind the rods preferring to spend all day stalking them. But when he did sit behind the rods he would bait with hemp and fish bare hooks albeit critically balanced with cork. Never had the confidence myself to do it but know it works once you have location spot on.

You are right Pat there was a lot of pioneering stuff happening at Patshull. I was the first ever to write about flying Back leads and Patshull was where I first used those in different sizes to drop at different distances to nail the line down. I remember Steve Allcott using the big round leads on there. It was the first place I saw surface bolt rigs being used. I developed What was to become Kevin Nash’s ‘Sting Oil’ on there – the eels wouldn’t touch it combined with my Amber Attact base mix. I was the first angler to be able to use boilies in the summer months without having to keep getting up for eels – never caught one on the Amber/Sting bait.
It was also the first place I saw combi rigs used and the first place I saw multi-strand rigs used (made from several strands of light nylon).
Great times indeed – some very forward thinking anglers so thirsty to move things forward. I think I saw more development there than anywhere else over the years.
Say hello to John for me – not seen him for years but what an incredible angler! He certainly left a very lasting impression and still to this day 20 odd years on I have never seen anyone stalk as successfully as he did.

Hi Dom
I think that with single hookbaits the same principals apply. It’s rare for an angler to just chuck it and see. We have generally done some research, watched fish, or identified the profile of the bottom finding patrol routes with a marker float, doing our best to identify a potential feeding area. If we are successful and place a single plastic bait in such an area where a carp or group of carp are feeding perhaps on a natural food source, the plastic bait could be picked up. When carp are feeding, particularly when they are preoccupied or in competition with other carp they are not particularly selective moving over the area like a hoover, the selection process goes on inside their mouths then they blow out what they don’t want. Even when feeding at night a carp could pick up a single hookbait during this feeding process when baits are not selected by sight.

A new plastic bait will probably have a distinctive taste or smell, but my baits as I said earlier are probably five years old and been used hundreds of times and still catch fish. Strange thing is that in discussion with other carp anglers there does not seem to be a consensus on whether the plastic smell attracts or repels carp.

I can’t claim that this is the answer to everything, but I still believe that the biggest proportion of fish caught with plastic are more as a result of the anglers efforts than the attractiveness of the plastic bait. Plus there always an element of luck with angling, sometimes we just drop a bait on a fish’s nose, although not often enough:)

Cheers Ron