Blogs

Winter bait rambling 2022/23

A question I am asked every year is what bait will I be using this winter?

Although still rather mild out there, I thought I would tap these words out to hopefully get you thinking as well as potentially saving a few more from asking.

Spring Equinox and a change of tactic

With the weekend of the spring equinox approaching, the water temperatures are well and truly rising. Yes, we had a frost overnight here at my Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border home, but with daylight minutes almost matching the minutes of darkness the underwater world is gradually warming again and so are the carp which means they automatically become much more active. Being cold blooded they are totally driven by water temperature and now it is warming, their metabolism is increasing. More ground covered and more energy used, thus the need to start to hunt out more food than they have needed to these past few months. This is the time of the year my usual winter methods start to make room for my spring approach.

Which Bait for June?

Boilie is a rather inadequate word and a bit of history.

The word boilie is a rather inadequate word and doesn't really tell you anything. It is a commonly used word that I actually hate. It's really like using the word dinner to describe all meals. Here I run through a few different categories of 'boilie', with hopefully a few things which will make a lot of sense that perhaps weren't quite so obvious to you before.

Quest Baits Boilies for different species

We regularly receive enquiries as to whether we produce baits for species other than for carp. Several of our baits have proven to be totally outstanding for other species, so to help you narrow your choices down Shaun has listed some of the baits here that have really stood out.

Something for the week end Sir? (more rehydrating)

I have written at length in the past regarding re-hydrating boilies, giving them a drink, softening boilies and so on. In fact it is very rare for me to feed dry boilies on any water that has seen any amount of pressure as I know I can improve their effectiveness with just a little bit of extra effort.

Top Winter Carp Tactic

The prolonged cold, dark and often crisp nights of winter, followed by slippery drive ways and frozen window screens, hardly bring on the urge to go carp fishing do they?

Or do they?

They do to me. I must admit to feeling a relative smugness inside me during the winter months and can easily warm to many memories of winter success over the years. It is a fact that most of my personal best carp over the years have actually fallen during the winter period. The majority of times I have slowly upped my best has been during the winter and I truly believe this is the best time of the year to sort the bigger fish out. Undoubtedly the fish slow up and rest up for much longer periods when the water is cold but the larger fish tend to keep that little bit more active. If everything is active then all well and good, as every winter carp I catch seems to feel just that little more important to me than the same fish in the summer. Winter carp certainly give me a buzz!

Why shelf life boilies?

I thought I would add this little email correspondence which has gone on to-day and is so typical of so many other ones I have most weeks. It is regarding our ‘special way’ of producing shelf life boilies which definitely shouldn’t be confused with other companies shelf life methods.