Feeder, bait dropper, catapult or pva

[Goldfish]

Hello again and hope your season is going well. What's your preferred method of feeding for barbel? As far as i see it they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Bait droppers can't cast them very far, catapult lack of range and maybe feed nowhere near the hookbait in stronger flows, feeders expensive if you lose them in a snag, pva not great if it's raining. I see korum have brought out a spopper (think it's called that). Costs about 15 quid. I'd be a bit upset if that got caught in a snag first cast. So I know it all depends on size of river and conditions and one method works better in some conditions than others but what's your preferred method of feeding for barbel or not as the case may be.
Mickb

 

[Keith M]

I’m usually fishing for Barbel in smallish streams and because there are usually already a few Barbel in my swim; or very close; my first choice is to feed by hand or by catapult; and I feed this way for around 90% of the time,
I’ve found that occasionally the noise of falling pellets and/or hemp can actually bring the Barbel out of cover; as long as I’m keeping low and out of sight; and I’m not feeding to much.

If there are seemingly no Barbel currently in my swim and I’m not needing to cast too far; then I sometimes use a bait dropper to lay a bed of hemp and/or feed pellets and then sit and wait for them to arrive.

If I’m fishing in a difficult swim that is quite difficult to feed accurately, or the water has a lot of colour in it; or I’m fishing further out in a larger river then I might use a feeder.

During the colder months when I don’t want to feed as much; and I need to concentrate my feed a bit tighter; and close to my hook; then I’ll often use PVA stocking with a few feed pellets inside it; and either tie it to my lead with PVA string; or if I’m using a hair rig then I will attach it to my hook.

Keith

 

[@Clive]

As you said Mick; use whatever is most suitable. In very slow flows or shallow water a catty or spod. Where you need to get the bait accurately on the bottom or beat the small fish a bait dropper is better. The issue I have with droppers is that they deposit the bait in a very small area. I have developed a half way house approach where my bait dropper can be set to open at mid depth to bait a wider area, but still beat most of the small fry.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I tend to feed by hand if the water is shallow and not too boily, occasionally with droppers of various sizes, the smaller metal ones can definitely be cast 40-50m and don't disturb swims as much as bigger ones, but usually I only use them for initially putting a bed down, when using pellet and boilies I use pva mesh bags, 37mm I believe which I use a solar keyhole shaped metal thingy that traps the knot, these come in packs and I cut them off of the other gubbins and fit to my lead link, Avid carp make a similar thing without the gubbins but are a bit bulkier, the only time I use feeders is either for maggot(blockends), or an open ender, not a cage for dampened micros trapping 4mmers....this is only because small pellets move out of swims with even moderate flow quite quickly so need feeding more regular, this method is something I tend to use only as a last resort, preferring mainly 6mm pellet(with a handful of a few different sizes) which hangs around longer.

 

[nottskev]

I use a bit of everything the OP mentioned. If I'm starting with a big bait - a plug of meat or mussel - particularly in feature swims, I have a cast or two with no feed. Feed attracts fish and prompts them to feed, of course. But it also tells them something is going on .........

Feeders are usually a winter thing for me. I haven't had one on this season. When the water was high, as it has been a few times this summer, I've sometimes mixed up a heavy feeder-type groundbait but fed it in small balls with pellets included. It's a smelly feed for coloured water. I don't see anybody doing this these days.

Barbel love hemp and never seem to tire of it, so for preference, give me the type of swim where medium depth and flow let you gauge where to feed it. If in doubt, I feed it in several places, above, in front and a bit below. Some of it is probably down where my hookbait trots/sits, and I like the idea of a line of feed rather than a patch, as we know barbel feed by swimming up and down the area they're grazing. Any hookbait seems to work fine over hemp.

 

[Philip]

I would basically use whatever seemed to best suit the swim I was fishing. For example if it was a very close in near bank slack and I was confident the bait would not be swept away I like baiting by hand as its quick and easy. If the swim is deep with a current & not too far out it would probably be a dropper. If it was deep fast and a long way out then I would probably use a feeder/method etc etc ...I just try and visualize what would get my bait out to the spot were I would be fishing best.

In terms of the type of feed , the world is your Oyster. I am a big fan of hemp for Barbel and usually mix that with a few other things..a few different sizes of pellets, maybe a bit of corn, some hookbaits & so on.

 

[Alan Whitty]

It's interesting about hemp, years ago I wouldn't barbel fish without it, nowadays I find it is venue specific, some venues the barbel don't respond to it unless you put large amounts in so as to swamp the smaller species in summer(a pint of 2mm pellet would keep them busy in winter).... groats work just as well as hemp and are far cheaper and easier to prepare(a few hours soaking in cold water) and a pint and a half of either is more than enough in the cooler months along with the ubiquitous red maggot...

The only thing that worries me about feeders is the general disturbance of casting them in, when you have say 3ozs plus, more with bait and the sheer size of feeder is very noisy, on big rivers you can rarely see the mayhem this can cause, especially if your getting wiped out regularly with debris making a recast every five minutes a possible swim killer....

 

[Goldfish]

I've always had good results when using hemp. I fish a large river that is sometimes difficult to see the fish especially when fishing a far bank gulley. They say if you feed too much hemp then barbel get preoccupied with it and don't feed on anything else. I can't really comment on this because of the river/pegs I fish. Can anyone who maybe fishes clearer, more intimate rivers confirm that barbel get obsessed with hemp and a hard to tempt with any other bait?

 

[Alan Whitty]

It has been known, but feeding properly is all about working out requirements on any given day, I personally have never condoned feeding just hemp and using another bait on the hook, I tend to feed less hemp/groats than maggot, pushing them towards the preferred option... The other day I fished hemp and tare for more than four hours, seeing odd chub and one barbel in that time, I decided to change and went onto 4mm pellet the barbels response was instant with several fish feeding, also decent roach over a pound appeared, which shocked me a little...

 

[Goldfish]

Sounds like the barbel didn't want the hemp Alan. I must admit I've always had good results with hemp but with not being able to see the fish I can't see their reaction. Maybe I'd have better results switching to 4mm pellets like you did. Everyday is different though.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Yes, as is every venue, the worst thing about it is then venue in question normally throws barbel on anything, that said if I had been fishing from 6pm on I would have probably had to fight them off, lol... as I said earlier groats are just as effective as a bed feed, the first time I fed them on the Somerley Estate on the H.Avon they were on them like a shot...

 

[Philip]

I think the issue with hemp & preoccupation is that they become so engrossed in digging down into the bottom to get the little seeds that they basically miss something bigger sitting on top of the gravel. Its why I try and mix a few different sized things in there. That said on the Kennet I used to chuck in a load of hemp and little else and fish lumps of meat threaded up the line and that worked well enough.

...probably wouldnt get a touch nowadays by the sounds, they need critically balanced super duper bolies on ultra sophisticated rigs to even get a sniff. ...or perhaps its gone full circle and a big lump of meat is the new killer method again...it wouldnt be the first time

 

[Alan Whitty]

Still catch on lumps of meat Philip, because nothing is written in stone, it's more about a big bed of hemp representing danger in respect to individual larger morsels...

 

[@Clive]

I think that hemp is so successfull because barbel are best suited to feeding on tiny particles hidden amongst sand, gravel and rocks. They have the edge over other species.

Like Philip I often mix hemp with other particles including wheat, milled maize and tinned lentils, plus micro pellets. Maize is a fantastic bait for barbel. I rarely fish without maize in some form in my hook or ground baits. Lentils are cheap compared to hemp and easy to buy and store. Pellets are more smelly and contain ingredients the grains don't have, but need replenishing more often as they get washed out.

As for hook baits; I have had more barbel on maize / sweetcorn than all the other baits put together including two of the three biggest barbel I have caught out here. But for whatever reason I feel more confident using two 6mm pellets or a Frolicks dog biscuit so usually swap and change between the two approaches. I prefer to use maize or sweetcorn hook baits with a feeder to give the fish something to home onto, and a pva bag of mixed pellets with the bigger baits.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Do you use maize in this country Clive as I've tried it fed with hemp, groats and maple peas and had no response at all...

 

[@Clive]

A friend uses it in large quantities on the Tidal Trent with good results. He piles it in at slack water then fishes huge smelly pellets on the ebb tide.

I have seen carp beaching themselves to get at spilled maize grains from a duck feeder.

 

[Philip]

About Barbel spooking off hemp...I have seen Barbel spook off things like corn, bolies but not off hemp. I am not saying they dont but I have just never seen it myself.

Alan - do you flavour your groats ? (on Somerly for example) or just use them as is straight from the cold soak ? …I know they take a flavour well just interested how your using them.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I have flavoured them, evaporated milk works well on them, creating a milky haze around them, ive also put oils in them which i thought would be a killer, but from what I've seen they like them straight from the soak as much, they're terrible for loose feeding, so a spod or spomb might be best, but in a dropper they keep barbel and chub troughing about for ages... one of the beautiful things about groats is you can take them dry and put them into soak if you need more, weather like we are having seems to prepare them even quicker...

 

[Philip]

Nice one.

Yes evaporated milk is a good trick...Ken Townley also wrote about exactly that yonks ago but for Carp. I always think they look/taste a bit bland straight from water alone ..its been a while ...I really should give them another spin. Like you say the really big advantage is no boiling.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I honestly believe we as anglers have made a name for hemp as a magic bait, but we must remember that seeds are falling into our waters for most of the summer and autumn so fish are attracted to basically all of them, red and green dari seeds have a similar crunch to hemp and I would imagine are highly attractive to barbel, but they need boiling I believe...