Hair length.

[cg74]

As a starting point, I'd go for a 5-15mm hair for barbel and tight to the bend of the hook too 5mm for barbel and chub.

 

[alan whittington]

Interesting one this! I was fishing on the Severn early in the season and missed 3 or 4 bites which I think were barbel due to the 3 ft twitch on the tip.

Couldn't work out why I was missing such 'unmissable' bites. Anyway, I tied a new rig with a SHORTER hair (pellet about 1/4" below the hook) and caught a barbel almost immediately, followed by a further 5 fish up to 8 lb, all barbel.

I've no idea whether the hair adjustment made the difference, I wasn't too fussy about making the hook length exactly the same, there could have been any number of unintentional slight differences from my original set up. Although I do know it was the same hook size/make and same feeder and hook bait. But it does prove the point, if it's not working, keep ringing the changes until something does work.

Imo your change made all the difference for this reason,on a river like the Severn,which is fished regularly the fish become resistance shy,so when they pick up baits they turn in normal barbel fashion but they tend to hold the bait in their lips,as your rod goes round the resistance builds and bingo,they open their mouths and you make no contact,with a short hair you hook them in the lip which is where most are hooked anyway,another way round it would be to hold the rod and as your bite developed you follow it with the rod tip,then strike,they start to swallow the bait without resistance,but you still hook most in the lip.

 

[binka]

another way round it would be to hold the rod and as your bite developed you follow it with the rod tip,then strike,they start to swallow the bait without resistance,but you still hook most in the lip.

Alan... I liked that for the theory and image that it conjured up in my mind, you have to come up here and have a Trent barbel session with many a bite that would spin your rod around on a slack set baitrunner.

Follow that

 

[alan whittington]

Alan... I liked that for the theory and image that it conjured up in my mind, you have to come up here and have a Trent barbel session with many a bite that would spin your rod around on a slack set baitrunner.

Follow that

Most barbel bites I get would pull me in as well as the rod,but each session and each venue is different,they don't always hook themselves,just 99% of the time.

 

[Albert Watkinson]

I always have a 5mm hair on for barbel and chub .fishing the river Dane I have had chub over 5lbs and barbel at nearly 9lbs on this rig and above one I might add.the more you fiddle the worse it get I stick with this rig even when I am on my 7th blank and bingo the wheel turns.after 74 years with a fishing rod in my hand I am convince that the timing of the strike is very important.i never strike at pulls and also sit on ones hands when big chub are about.also I ask for no money imparting this info.
Albert watkinson

 

[belsh]

Hi, and thanks to all of you who have offered up advice on this subject. I have been trying out hair lengths of between 3 and 5 mm below the hook with quite a bit of success. I have landed a PB barbel of 9lb 1oz and chub to over 4lb using this method.
I feel pretty confident that I will catch whatever large fish is in the swim using hairs of this length.
Once again, many thanks.
Belsh.

 

[alan whittington]

Hi, and thanks to all of you who have offered up advice on this subject. I have been trying out hair lengths of between 3 and 5 mm below the hook with quite a bit of success. I have landed a PB barbel of 9lb 1oz and chub to over 4lb using this method.
I feel pretty confident that I will catch whatever large fish is in the swim using hairs of this length.
Once again, many thanks.
Belsh.

Great to hear,i'd just say that when it doesn't go so well,it will probably be nothing to do with the hair length,but we as anglers like to think there is a definite reason for not hooking up,keep catching mate.

 

[ru123]

In my opinion the length of hair isn't so much the issue to less hook-ups the turn of the hook when hooking the fish is a lot more important which is why I use the korum hook aligners to enhance the turn on the hook.Since these came on the scene I have had a lot more success with hook-ups.

 

[alan whittington]

In my opinion the length of hair isn't so much the issue to less hook-ups the turn of the hook when hooking the fish is a lot more important which is why I use the korum hook aligners to enhance the turn on the hook.Since these came on the scene I have had a lot more success with hook-ups.

So you had trouble with hook-ups...with barbel...really,chub I can understand,its great to hear people's experiences,as I believe it can differ from day to day and venue to venue.

 

[geoffmaynard]

I usually fish a very short hair - a loop actually with 4 or 5 micro-bands threaded into it and 8mm pellets set into these, so the hook is inside a cluster of pellets. It catches both species but loses a lot of chub - all you see is a single chub-knock bite as the chub grabs one pellet between its lips and tries to swim off. Barbel tend to hoover the lot in one go.
If I want to catch chub as well, I'll mould TP paste around the lot, not worrying how big the bait is. This also tends to up the barbel capture rate too, but I'm usually too lazy to make up paste and not too bothered about catching chub one way or the other

 

[ru123]

If you read my thread properly A Whittington you will see I don't have any problems with hooking barbell I was saying the hook aligners give you more of a better hookup!!!

 

[alan whittington]

If you read my thread properly A Whittington you will see I don't have any problems with hooking barbell I was saying the hook aligners give you more of a better hookup!!!

I read your post a couple more times and no you don't say that you have problems hooking barbel,but the inference that the hook aligner gives 'better' hook-up leads to the assumption that there was a problem,i was interested to know,because that's the beauty of this forum,ideas can lead to changes to our rigs and mind set,i understand the mechanics of the hair perfectly(though don't probably have it right most of the time)as unfortunately I can remember the inception of the rig in my younger days on Stanborough lake,watching now famous names take the lake apart and asking these guys what they were doing,as I still do today...because i'm interested.

 

[geoffmaynard]

I can remember the inception of the rig in my younger days on Stanborough lake,watching now famous names take the lake apart and asking these guys what they were doing,as I still do today...because i'm interested

Are you talking about Lennie Middleton and Kevin Maddocks? Because a guy called Arthur Clark (not the 2001 author) publicised it in the Angling Times years before they came up with it. Interesting...

Ah. Found his article. Unfortunately the photo of the clipping is missing, but I was the one who scaned it and uploaded it so I know it was for real. http://www.fishing.co.uk/article.php3?id=503

 

[barbelboi]

Who invented the boilie - who invented the hair rig - Nothing new under the sun again???

You might have to wait a couple of seconds while it auto translates............

 

[alan whittington]

Are you talking about Lennie Middleton and Kevin Maddocks? Because a guy called Arthur Clark (not the 2001 author) publicised it in the Angling Times years before they came up with it. Interesting...

Ah. Found his article. Unfortunately the photo of the clipping is missing, but I was the one who scaned it and uploaded it so I know it was for real. www.fishing.co.uk

Geoff,it was the guys mentioned above and perhaps I should rephrase my comment,perhaps pushed it hard into carp anglings methodology,i and many others were wondering what these hard balls were,which weren't mounted on the hook,when we found a bait in the bankside vegetation,we hadn't a clue what the hell it was,a good friend of mine at the time,a certain Rob Maylin...crept round the 'carp cellar crew' as we knew them and was given basic boilie recipe's and a list of flavours,none of us would have thought that the method of boilies and hair rigging would still be so effective in 2014,obviously the science of the method,ie hook patterns,hooklink materials and how to get the hook to turn as required in the fishes mouth are all a natural progression in a competitive carp scene,i didn't take to carping like Rob,more drawn to match fishing and barbel,but ive still caught too many.

 

[wes79]

Posted this in the wrong thread earlier, not sure if its at all helpful but its on topic and the video is a good light hearted watch if you have the time.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLXQgzkK-JM]Barbel Fishing - YouTube[/ame]

if you just want the demo on the hair rig skip to 27minutes