Quest Baits Blog

Bad Luck, Good Luck !

pat.gillett — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:34:38 +0000

(24/10/09)

A recent session really brought home to me how much luck can play in the capture of a good fish. We all like to think that all the fish we catch are down to things like angling ability and top notch baits etc, but some times pure luck can play a large part in success.

My latest bit of good luck came on my first visit of the season to the Lower Severn. I was fishing has a guest on a Midlands region Barbel Catchers Club ‘fish in’, on a stretch of the river which I had never even seen before, let alone fished, so it would be a case of hoping for the best and waiting to see what, if anything came along.

We met up at about 12.30pm and were greeted with leaden skies and persistent rain. The river itself was really low with very little colour (as are all of the rivers at the moment), so it would probably be a ‘scratching’ type day. The only plus was that at least the river was flowing, as at times of very low water the Lower Severn can sometimes appear as still as a lake.

I dropped in to a swim that I fancied and by looking at the trail of leaves on the surface could see that the strongest flow was at between a third and half way across the river, so that is where I would fish. First cast in slightly downstream and I’m snagged up solid and lose the lot. A bit of bad luck, but something that will happen when you are fishing blind. A further few casts in front of me and well up stream revealed water that seemed to be snag free so I concentrated on these areas, above what should hopefully be a fish holding spot.

Because of the conditions I was only fishing small baits, a single frozen Quest barbel chop (wrapped in a bit of paste) and mini pellets.

A few knocks were had on the rod fished in front but nothing at all on the one fishing 20 yards upstream. These were ‘bream’ type knocks, but at least it showed there were some fish in the swim.

Just before it got dark the rod straight out in front pulled round nice and slowly and the strike was met with what was obviously a fairly heavy fish which made its way slowly upstream and whilst bringing it back towards me after about 3 minutes it snagged me up solid. Now I had been casting to this area all afternoon and not found a sign of a snag (more bad luck). I tried exerting pressure from different angles, slackening the line, leaving the rod in the rest for 10 minutes until it became obvious the barbel was no longer attached. It had left my hook in the snag and because of the relatively strong tackle I was using the hook was all that I lost.

Soon after a bream of about 5lbs fell to the same rod and thereafter I was still getting knocks in that area but still nothing on the upstream rod.

We had decided to pack up at about 9.30pm and so at about 9.15pm I started to pack everything away as I normally do, so that I can leave the rods to the very last minute. I was just about to reel the upstream rod in (that hadn’t had so much as a knock all afternoon), when the other rod went round signalling a bite. This resulted in a bream of about 6lbs. just as I was slipping the bream back I heard the baitrunner start to sing on the upstream rod. This was obviously another good barbel and after about 5 minutes of playing the fish fairly hard with the rod up to try and keep it away from any unseen snags, a nice chunky barbel was in the net. The fish weighed 12lb 2oz, a really good result for the first session on a new stretch for me. So for once a bream had brought me a lot of good luck because I was going to reel the upstream rod in first but the bream arriving on the rod fished straight out in front, stopped me from doing this. There were only 4 other small fish ( up to 6lb) caught between 7 other anglers so I had got very lucky.

So there we are, it just goes to show how no matter how good a fisherman you may think you are, you can have all the best gear and bait but luck can still play a major part in success. The only thing you can say for certain is that the more times you go the luckier you will get.

I am sure you can all think of sessions where luck has played a part in the capture of a good fish?

Cheers,

Pat Gillett

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Bad Luck, Good Luck !

Moon Phases

shaun — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:08:09 +0000

Just a bit of imformation here. We have added a dailey moon phase to our website www.questbaits.com You can access this by going to the bottom of the Home Page and clicking links. You will see the current phase and by clicking the link there will be able to look at the full month as well as previous and future months.

I have used this chart for some time. Take a look at your own captures and those of others then look back at the moon phase. You may be surprised how much it effects the carp.

If you have favourite moon phases - what are they?

My favourite ones for catching large fish aren’t my favourite ones for catching lots of fish.

I’m interested to hear what others think.

Best fishes

Shaun

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Moon Phases

High Attracter hook Baits

samantha — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:13:08 +0000

By Scott Ratcliffe

High-attract self made hook baits are so easy to make, as the colder months slowly approaches, a good bait that smells and has good food souse will differently put some good fish on the bank, here is one of my ways of using your favourite boilies to make them into a high attracter and even change the shape of them

Step1

Add about 250 grams of chosen boilies into a food processor

Step2

Turn on a blender until it turns to fine crumb

Step3

Crack one egg into a mixing bowl and add flavouring of choice

Step4

Whisk the egg and flavouring with a folk

Step5

Sprinkle the boilie crumb into a bowl a bit at a time

Step 6

When the mix has absorbed all the egg, mould it into a ball and rest for five minutes

Step7

Push the mix into a small plastic container and place in microwave for one minute on high setting

Step8

Turn out onto a chopping board and cut into any shapes you want

Step9

Place your shapes in to a re-sealable bag and add more of your flavouring and shake until it covers them all

Step10

This is the bait on the rig , ready to cast out

Give it a try

Scott Ratcliffe

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High Attracter hook Baits

Marker Work

shaun — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:51:36 +0000

Every once in a while you stumble across something and think ‘Why didn’t i think of that’!

Well, I have done just that. Reading through the excellent Sixth British Carp Study Group book I stumbled across a article by Lancashire member Les Watts where he descibed his marker float set up.

Now this is simplicity itself and I have now adopted the same technique and really can’t see how I ever managed before.

You must have been in the situation when feature finding and suddenly you find a real interesting area only to find the float won’t pop-up. Nine times out of ten you have pulled it just that fraction too far and it’s jammed in weed. Try as you might you can’t find that spot again as a few yards either way can look very similar over water without a mark in place.

Similarly you pull up the side of a plateaux, drag it along for a bit before finding it trundling back down the near side. You are never really sure how wide the plateaux was without lots more casting.

Well Les’s simple trick sorts out these and many other situations. He had the bright idea of loading his marker reels with white Dynon 3000 braid then simply marked his line at regular intervals with his own code so he could see exactly how far out these features are and how wide they are even if his float wouldn’t rise.

I finally got around to emulating this method last week and I really can’t believe how useful it has become already I feel I wouldn’t go back to using a marker line with no marks.

I simply placed two posts in the ground 5m apart then wraped my line around these adding marks as I went.

I used a waterproof black permanent marker pen which shows up real well against the white line.

At 5m I put a 1 1/2cm line with the pen. At 10m a 3cm line. 15m 1 x 3cm and 1 x 1 1/2cm. 20m 2 x 3cm marks, 25m and 2 x 3cm and 1 x 1 1/2cm mark and so on. You can develop your own system but this one worked fine for me.

Another thing this has come in handy for is straight lead work without the float in place. There are times I don’t really want to drag a float through the swim so I am able to cast a dumpy lead out on its own and pull back carefully feeling for features. Once something is logged it is a simple job to count the black lines to indicate the distance then walk the line out on the bank until you hit the correct mark then walk your baited rig to the same distance. Job done effortlessly.

Best fishes

Shaun

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Marker Work

Fillet of Salmon Horse Shoe style

samantha — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:21:38 +0000

How many of us take tins and rehydrated food out with us while fishing, even if it’s a short session or a week’s session? Here I’m going to show how easy it is to cook fresh on the bank while you’re waiting forthat special take.

You will need
• Fillet of Salmon
• Asparagus
• New Potatoes
• Cherry vine Plum Tomatoes
• Cornish Cockles
• Crème Fraiche
• Lemon
• Courgette
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive oil & Butter
• Butter Beans

	1- Pour the olive oil into a hot pan
	2- Add the butter to the pan
	3- Place Salmon into a hot pan
	4- Top with salt and pepper
	5- Place the new potatoes into pan and then turn over the Salmon
	6- Chop the courgette and add to the pan
	7- Add the asparagus to the pan
	8- Chop the vine tomatoes in half and add to the pan
	9- Add the butter beans to the pan
	10- Squeeze the lemon juice on the salmon
	11- Add a spoon of Crème Fraiche and shake pan until all coated
	12- Arrange the ingredients on the plate, Salmon fillet on the bank (Done)

Happy Cooking

Scott Ratcliffe (Master Chef of Great Britian)

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Fillet of Salmon Horse Shoe style

A Tip for March & April

Jim — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:08:05 +0000

By Jim Kelly

In March and April the weather can be very variable. Carp are cold blooded and at this time of the year will usually end up in the part of the lake that has the most comfortable conditions for them… and this usually means the warmest area.
On calm sunny days I look for shallow areas that are hit by the sun for the majority of the day. Water less than 3 foot deep can be very productive especially if there are snags close by.

My tactic is to cast into the shallow water with just hookbaits or with a small PVA bag with a mixture of Maximum Action Pellets and broken boilies. I don’t want to scare the fish and there is no need to attract them as they are there anyway… all I want is a feeding response. This tactic has worked for me on numerous occasions.
Come evening as the water cools the fish normally move into deeper water and I move with them. Often I have already baited the deeper water during the day ready for the night.

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A Tip for March & April

Putting More Fish on the Bank… A Range of Tips.

jamie — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:32:57 +0000

By Jamie Simpson

1) Observation is vital, take advantage of trees and high banks to get a good view point.

2) If you are heading to a new lake for the first time and don’t know what to expect, do as much groundwork as possible. For example Carp Talk, Carpworld, Crafty Carper, forums and carp meetings are a great source of information. Position yourself on a peg that gives you a view of as much of the lake as possible. Watch what others are doing and you can build up a picture of how to approach the venue. Don’t be afraid to ask the regulars, but don’t be pushy either. On 99% of lakes you will find people more than willing to help once you get to know them.

3) Whilst the carp are now becoming far more active, they will not be in full gorging mode just yet so go steady with the bait and gradually increase the amounts depending on results.

4) Don’t be afraid to be different and try zig rigs, or a particle approach etc. You will often find that on most venues people will say that such and such doesn’t work on here. The truth is often that no one has even tried it or they have done at the wrong time or in the wrong place. The best way is often to try it for yourself. I know this seems to slightly contradict tip No. 2 but you will only do as well as others if you do what they do all the time.

5) PASTE! I cannot emphasise enough how many fish I have caught that I believe was largely down to its use. Here are a few advantages; instant attraction, different shape to that of a round ball which spells danger, hook point protection. It will break down over a period of hours anyway… so there’s really nothing to lose anyway.

6) Carry a bag of floaters just in case. I have had a couple of occasions late March and April where they have been ready for the odd floater and if you can be one of the first to use them during the year the chances are you will catch them out before they become wary of them again.

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Putting More Fish on the Bank… A Range of Tips.

Horse Shoe Dream’s

samantha — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:44:50 +0000

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,

I have heard that these carp are one of the best looking strain of fish in the country and I wasn’t disappointed when faced with a lovely scaled mirror on the bank. later that day I was feeding fish from under my rod tips with crumbed up Smokey fish boilies these fish weren’t shy, they would have stayed there all afternoon eating all the bait I put in front of them.

This was good time to test out my new camo rig, as can be seen it’s camouflaged with a gravel affect but all the straight lines still stand out, as Shaun once said to me there are no straight lines in nature. So the next stage on my quest for the ultimate camouflaged rig is to disguise the lines even further. But as far as Horse Shoe lake goes you’re not allowed to use any leaders of any kind you can only use tubing so this is the best camo I’m probably going to get at the moment.

As the sun went down and the moon came out I sat down and watched the water in the moon light over a glass of red wine, Horse Shoe is a very peaceful and tranquil place to fish, next month I plan to return for some more action!

Happy Fishing

Samantha

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Horse Shoe Dream’s

Winter Attraction

Ron — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:58:23 +0000

By Ron Key
When winter arrives and the carp start to feed less frequently, and perhaps only feed for very short periods, I want to create a situation where my bait will deliver maximum attraction without fear of overfeeding the carp.

At times like these I like to crumb or chop my boilies because once the boilie skin has been broken it allows the the flavours and attractors to be quickly released. My preferred method of delivery is 5 or 6 crumbed fruity or spicy boilies in small PVA mesh tubing ball attached to the hook. When distance is a major requirement small solid PVA bags are used, packing the crumbed boilie around the lead, folding in and sticking the corners of the bag to create a more aerodynamic shape.

Accurate location is key at this time of the year, I usually start with known hot spots, old weed beds and lily pads but once the rods are out there is time for observation. Any indication of fish, rolling, jumping, bubbling, creating creases and flat spots and I’m free to recast.

I know I won’t be leaving large beds of bait around the lake and I can also avoid the advances of those pesky coots and tufties - leaving the bait for my target fish.

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Winter Attraction

Be Different

pat.gillett — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:24:50 +0000

By Pat Gillet
1. Different size baits

A method I use quite a lot during the months of say August and September when the carp are having a good feed (especially for wary fish) is to feed with different sizes of bait. For example I will feed Quest boilies of 10, 15 and 20mm. I will then tie up a circular 6 bait pva stringer of different size baits and fish a hair with say a 15mm & 10mm bait on it which when the pva has dissolved, will sit right in the middle. The theory behind this method is that when the carp is feeding it will find it much harder to detect the weight of the hook than it would if it were just feeding on the same size baits. This method has brought me a lot of success and is the method I used to take fish to 55lb 4oz from Island Lake in France last year.

2. Apple cored baits

This is a method I first saw used in the late 1980’s when fishing the Church Pool on the Patshull Estate in the West Midlands. It basically involves whittling the sides of the boilie away (forming an apple core shape) to release more attractants from the bait at a quicker rate. This works because you have broken through the ‘sealed’ boiled skin of the bait. This method is particularly effective in the winter months when you want to give off a strong flavour signal without putting much bait in (which may overfeed the carp). The apple core works well with bottom baits, but I have had considerable success in the past using it with pop-ups. By whittling the bait away you can create an excellent critically balanced pop-up without having to use too much putty and thus adding to the subtlety of the rig (i.e. Instead of putting more weight on, just trim some more bait off).

3. Plastic corn topped baits

This method works really well in the months of May and June when the carp can sometimes be thinking of spawning. I have always done well using sweet corn when the fish have been thinking about spawning. But when on a water with a lot of small fish, I couldn’t get away with just corn so the boilie tipped with corn seemed to me to be the natural progression. It works really well, very often producing when nothing else will. I don’t know if it’s just curiosity value or if it resembles spawn in any way to the fish, but it is certainly effective at this time of year. Also works well as a change bait at any time.

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Be Different

Quest Baits Blog

Bad Luck, Good Luck !

(24/10/09)

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A Tip for March & April

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Putting More Fish on the Bank… A Range of Tips.

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