Tiny bites: do you hit them?

[on the waggler again]

Fish the tidal Trent mostly and find that ignoring the tiny taps is favourite.
In low water conditions during daylight as we find ourselves at the moment, having faith in your bait and waiting for a positive take has produced well for my son and I.
Top bait still seems to be two 12mm elipse glued on a longish hair below Korum Expert Power size 14 to produce most takes over the course of a season.
I don't fish at night nor use bite alarms but fish pretty intensively watching for any sign on the tips that might suggest that fish may be in the vicinity.
I liken the little taps which are generally of a soft nature to be similar to liners when bream fishing.
I guess the match angler in me makes me fish intensively during daylight hours, but my results would tend to suggest that I'm not getting it too wrong.
Sunday for example produced four bites during the afternoon, bottom of the runoff, for four fish to 11lb, a better result than expected given the prevailing conditions at the weekend.
I prefer something positive on the tip before tightening as it could well lead to spooked fish if the taps are indeed just signs of fish as opposed to a take.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Interesting. I would suggest that Trent barbel, like Wye ones are anything but tentative when feeding.

Although the trent roach are making a serious comeback and often lead to tap tap bites and odd hooked fish the indications you are getting could in fact be barbel picking up the bait and dropping it because of the long hair and small hook not connecting.

Just try a size 8 with the bait just under the bend.

Last Trent trip 26 barbel incl 7 doubles to 11.10. Very few taps most wraps.

Graham

 

[S-Kippy]

Last Trent trip 26 barbel incl 7 doubles to 11.10. Very few taps most wraps.

Graham

Cheers Graham....that's cheered me up no end !mg:

 

[Keith M]

I'm usually waiting for the classic pull round, but I find that most of the more positive knocks which don't result in hookups are often the result of Chub picking up the bait and moving off with the bait still in their lips and with the hook still hanging outside of their mouths; so to confirm that this is happening I will often remove the hair and mount the bait directly on the hook and touch leger .

Sometimes when there are a lot of Chub in the swim I will purposely use a long hair to try to avoid hooking Chub when I am using pellets (or a very firm meat).

However I do realise that not all Barbel bites are going to be 3ft twitches, and although fairly rare; I do very occasionally experience a Barbel bite that feels like someone is rubbing a rough file over the line, (Richard Walker once described this) and I will strike immediately if I do get one of these types of indication; which often results in a Barbel being hooked.

Keith

 

[flightliner]

I strike whenever the float dissapears!

 

[on the waggler again]

Interesting. I would suggest that Trent barbel, like Wye ones are anything but tentative when feeding.

Although the trent roach are making a serious comeback and often lead to tap tap bites and odd hooked fish the indications you are getting could in fact be barbel picking up the bait and dropping it because of the long hair and small hook not connecting.

Just try a size 8 with the bait just under the bend.

Last Trent trip 26 barbel incl 7 doubles to 11.10. Very few taps most wraps.

Graham

The taps I refer to are not staccatto dinks suggesting roach or other wise mouthing the bait, more slow 6mm nods of the tip.
Have a ticket for Fiskerton and still fish small hooks but with shorter hairs and have took numbers of fish of all sizes including roach to 1.5lbs and bream and chub on pellet hookbaits regardless of the time of day. Seems a prolific stretch and putting numbers of barbel together hasn't been too difficult.
The Tidal however seems a different kettle of fish (no pun intended), feeding spells seem short and linked to various parts of the tide in my experience, so the use of long hairs to avoid hook ups on species that I can catch a couple of miles from home.
Various people come for a chat as you fish and on Sunday a chap that travels 100 miles each way and fishes day and night on his visits has only took one barbel in 8 visits so my average return of 4-5 fish per visit seems somehow not too bad. Have taken catches into double figures on the Tidal but 4-5 fish seems to be the norm for myself and my son.
I hear many tales of woe from visitors to the Tidal and find this part of the river to be generally more testing and a fair degree of stickability is required.
As the bream don't seem to be feeding in the present conditions, tomorrow (Sunday) I will commit one rod to the setup you describe and alternate as the upsteam rod and then downstream rod as the session progresses.
Have used this setup before on the Tidal and found a greater number of bream taken than with the small hook-long hair rig.
Never say never as they say.
Pete.

 

[wanderer]

I would simply switch to a bigger bait, I bet you are fishing the middle Severn.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Be interested in the outcomes Pete.

Not ideal barbus weather though.
Good luck.

Graham

 

[on the waggler again]

Be interested in the outcomes Pete.

Not ideal barbus weather though.
Good luck.

Graham

It certainly isn't the most favourable of conditions, cold north easter and a gin clear river.
Fished from dawn till a couple of hours into dark on some pegs we've never tried before.
No taps, no wraps to either my son or myself.
Not a bad day though, a lad from Cambridge area listened and took on board a little advice from us and had one take for a fish of 10lb3oz.
Made our day as this particular chap has made nine trips and this was his second ever fish. Accomplished carp and match angler feeling his way into barbelling and was over the moon with this capture.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Looking at the forecast I don't really see any improvement for next weekend.
Never mind, my worst days fishing have always been ten times better than my best day at work.
Roll on Saturday.
Pete.

 

[ian_grant]

Tiny bites: do you hit them?..... yeah i do ! but i try really really hard not to ! mg: