The future of barbel baits.

[108831]

Does anyone think barbel baits will move on from,pellets,boilies,etc,because other than maggot and caster their success seems long lived.

 

[john step]

Does anyone think barbel baits will move on from,pellets,boilies,etc,because other than maggot and caster their success seems long lived.

Dunnknow! I suppose it depends on where and how pressured they are. I am not sure where baits could go. Backwards perhaps Meat, paste?

 

[jasonbean1]

well carp fishing seems to have bottomed out at boilies.

barbel seem to be less fussy than other fish so bait sometimes is not the most important factor.

find them when they're feeding and an half decent rig or float set up will usually catch.

 

[thecrow]

well carp fishing seems to have bottomed out at boilies.

Or is that because a generation of carpers have grown up knowing nothing else?

As far as barbel go lots of the old baits will still catch and meat just goes on and on catching, I really cannot think of anything that hasn't been used before only this morning I was looking at sausage rusk with a view to making sausage paste, as John says maybe going backwards would be the way forwards

 

[swizzle]

Prawns, cockles and mussels?

 

[greenie62]

Or is that because a generation of carpers have grown up knowing nothing else?....

Is it more to do with generations of anglers - or length of target fish generations?
What's the age of reared 10-50lb Carp?
Similarly ...... wild 5-15lb Barbel?

Do fish pass food knowledge on from one generation to another?

D'ya reckon that some baits are subject to 'Ya fooled me once with that - never going to fall for it again, pal!'

Maybe that's why some of the old baits are worth re-visiting - they've forgotten the message from the great-grandfathers day?

 

[barbelboi]

Firstly, caster and hemp are two of my favourite barbel baits and I have no reason, as yet, to change that opinion. Maybe pellets and boilies, which I also use, and definitely can be very effective have become more popular than, say, meat, frankies, meatballs etc., (which I also use) due to their ease of use...............

 

[flightliner]

Sometimes it,s not a bait that blows it's the way it's fished. Static baits are the norm on many venues which in time can make the BB wary.
The same bait trotted beneath a float is seen as "safe" and is often readily taken.

 

[binka]

Sometimes it,s not a bait that blows it's the way it's fished. Static baits are the norm on many venues which in time can make the BB wary.
The same bait trotted beneath a float is seen as "safe" and is often readily taken.

Amen to that

 

[dorsetandchub]

Just curious, but has the opposite ever been noted where the barbel back off from float fished baits and, if so, were they happy to carry on accepting legered / feedered baits?

 

[binka]

Just curious, but has the opposite ever been noted where the barbel back off from float fished baits and, if so, were they happy to carry on accepting legered / feedered baits?

I'm not saying it's never happened to anyone in general but it's definitely never happened to me and the general trend for skyward pointing rods would suggest it never will unless there's a sea change in the way the vast majority of anglers fish for barbel.

Which prompts another question really, what proportion of barbel anglers (or anglers targeting barbel) will actively run a float through as opposed to watching a tip?

I would hazard a guess that it's lower than 20% in my neck of the woods and I hope it continues that way

 

[tigger]

Just curious, but has the opposite ever been noted where the barbel back off from float fished baits and, if so, were they happy to carry on accepting legered / feedered baits?

Very often I have no luck float fishing and as soon as I cast a static bait into the swim I get a fish. Imo for the majority of my fishing trips legering for barbel is without doubt the better method to actually produce fish... but again and jmo watching a float is more enjoyable and I get far more satisfaction catching just one fish on the float than I do catching ten on the leger.

 

[Keith M]

Does anyone think barbel baits will move on from,pellets,boilies,etc,because other than maggot and caster their success seems long lived.

Over the years I've used minnows (both live and dead) and caught Barbel from the Kennet at the start of the season with them. Ive also used peeled prawns, cheese, different pastes (cheese, bread and fish meal pastes), sweetcorn, boilies, pellets, worms, maggots, caster, hempseed and even floating bread one warm night when the barbel were turning upside down taking food from the undersides of streamer weed; plus luncheonmeat and sausages and swan mussels and there are probably one or two others that I can't remember.

Some baits have been more successful than others at certain times of the season and some baits worked well on one river but were virtually ignored on other rivers.

I don't think that there are many baits that haven't already been tried for Barbel by someone out there; I certainly don't see anyone coming up with a new magic bait that works on all rivers and streams throughout the year.

Keith

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

I think barbel anglers trotting for barbel is probably nearer 1%.

Many variables on the day, not just bait but size. Sometimes 5mm bait taken all day and 10-12mm biteless. Silly eh?

I have found the bait key is often dependant on river and temperature conditions.

Clear low...particle and small baits. High and coloured.......big lumps of flavoured bait.

On some days they will take anything others you need to experiment.

I cant see anything new on the horizon or anything to have the impact of pellets in all their flavours and sizes. Even the carp boys use them in conjunction with other hookbaits.

 

[flightliner]

Not an easy one that DAC! My guess is it would be hard on a big deep river to judge and on narrow shallow swims the angler is likely to be either crouching low to stay out of sight making things hard to observe or the distance 'tween angler and fish a little to far away.
That said someone on here may have another take on things.
A bait held back under a float would, I guess be considered as a "static".
oops, thought I,d hit the quote button, this is a reply to Dac on page one

 

[john step]

I have had a another thought on this one. Keith has been the only one mentioning corn( I think)
I cannot recall many using sweetcorn as barbel bait lately.
I have not used it in UK or recall anyone else on Trent doing so. Might be wrong though.

However on the Rhone I caught barbel on sweetcorn and could not get a bite on any other bait (meat pellet etc).

Sweetcorn back on and hey presto, a barbel. It may be what they are conditioned to although I never saw another angler fishing there.

 

[thecrow]

Just curious, but has the opposite ever been noted where the barbel back off from float fished baits and, if so, were they happy to carry on accepting legered / feedered baits?

Imo its not possible to know the answer to that one I have fished sessions where the angler I was with took more barbel than me while float fishing. While I have also fished with a stick float angler above me that caught very little (despite allowing the float to enter my swim ) while I continued catching barbel on the feeder.

It could have been the clear water conditions that was the reason for the first example after all lead/feeder fishing hasn't the finesse of a properly fished float bait, it could have been because constantly feeding a swim on the same close line triggered some competition feeding with the barbel pushing any other fish out of the swim.

The second example I believe was because I was able to introduce lots of bait in a very time into the swim by casting the feeder in without a hook length maybe 30 times before putting my hook length on putting a large carpet of bait down that needed topping up throughout the session.

I have fished rivers where trotting a bait would be almost impossible due to the amount of streamer weed in them, possibly the only way to float fish a bait on them would be laying on with the weight down close to the hook length which is really just fishing a static bait.

 

[binka]

I have had a another thought on this one. Keith has been the only one mentioning corn( I think)
I cannot recall many using sweetcorn as barbel bait lately.
I have not used it in UK or recall anyone else on Trent doing so. Might be wrong though.

However on the Rhone I caught barbel on sweetcorn and could not get a bite on any other bait (meat pellet etc).

Sweetcorn back on and hey presto, a barbel. It may be what they are conditioned to although I never saw another angler fishing there.

I've used it to quite good effect John, despite it generally being one of my bogey baits.

I remember one session where I banked three barbel in the depths of winter from a flooded slack, I only took it as I thought the bright colour might give it an edge in the muddy looking flood water.

I actually got quite friendly with sweetcorn on the Trent last summer, especially trotting it through during short evening sessions where it often accounted for a few barbel yet for some reason I will still usually exhaust all other options before turning to it

 

[flightliner]

I used s/c often back in the nineties on the Trent for barbel, a "popped up tower" of some five or six grains, works a treat.
Had plenty on it trotted 'neath a float on the tidal sections over the years too, especially in the warmer weather when the river is very low.

 

[Philip]

However on the Rhone I caught barbel on sweetcorn and could not get a bite on any other bait (meat pellet etc). Sweetcorn back on and hey presto, a barbel. It may be what they are conditioned to although I never saw another angler fishing there.

I have had Barbel on corn from 4 different countries...Uk, France, Italy and Spain. Its my go to bait when I travel simply because I know I can always find a can of corn in a corner shop. In some of those cases I can be as certain as I can be that the fish would never have seen corn before but recognize it as food and they took it without hesitation

---------- Post added at 20:58 ---------- Previous post was at 20:51 ----------

I don't think that there are many baits that haven't already been tried for Barbel by someone out there; I certainly don't see anyone coming up with a new magic bait that works on all rivers and streams throughout the year.