Tiny bites: do you hit them?

[geoffmaynard]

The other evening I had a short session on the river with barbel gear. Bait was 4x8mm halibut pellets on size 12, banded on a hair, straight lead with a small bag of other 8mm pellets as free samples.
I had a bite a chuck, each of which I put down to a 'chub-knock'. As usual I tried to ignore these awaiting a 3 foot twitch, but I couldn't resist. Three of these tiny rod-taps produced three fish. A chub, a barbel and a dace.
Do you barbel specialists hit these little twitches as a matter of course? Or under special circumstances? Have I been missing something?

 

[thecrow]

I have hit them before most of the time it resulted in nothing, that might have been due to the length of hair I was using, other times I have connected with Barbel but rarely, mostly I leave them to see if they develop into something more positive as I put it down to the Barbel moving about feeding in the swim, sometimes minutes after the knocks have stopped a pull round occurs, whether that's from the fish that caused the knocks I don't know.

 

[sam vimes]

Initially, I'd tend to leave them. However, if the session progresses with no proper bites forthcoming, I'll try to hit them. If I still can't connect with anything, I'll go back to leaving them well alone.

 

[wes79]

I leave them to develop

 

[The Sogster]

Good post Geoff,

As a relative pellet virgin I had the same dilemma yesterday. A change to banded pellet saw me catch a few skimmers when hitting these bites despite telling myself to leave them and wait for a pull round natural instinct kicked in.

I was using a very short hair by the way.

 

[barbelboi]

I prefer to 'sit on my hands' but will at times act on instinct if the instinct is strong enough..............

 

[Tee-Cee]

In the past when this sort of thing occurred I've turned to the paternoster style rig with rod facing downstream absolutely parallel to the bank ( as far as possible ) and with a bow in the line and watched where the line meets the water. Hook length; I experiment, sometimes using 2' or more, but bites, and the intensity of bite always varies. IMHO I think this a more sensitive set-up producing longer bites, with less resistance and instant movement as the fish drops back................most of the time !!

You caught three fish so they are taking the bait after a fashion but then, seemingly staying put otherwise more of an indication would be apparent as they move off.Possibly a small feeder of light crumb, rather then a concentrated bag of goodies, would have them moving around a little more searching for bigger morsels such as your hooked sample ! ( you might only catch dace though ! )

Never easy to come up with a all encompassing set-up though, and as you well know the ' answer ' varies from session to session !



Alternatively, perhaps fishing upstream with a well bowed soft tip would produce more of an indication with drop back bites ??


ps Not sure if your fishing deep / slow water or fast shallow, weedy / clear or some where in between..........


pps Odd that all three species are giving the same tap, tap bites, as one might expect the chub at least, to whack the rod tip around..Mmmm

 

[Derek Gibson]

Geoff,

Bill Warren who **** Walker and many more regarded as ''The Barbel Supremo'' urged all his guests to ignore all taps and twitches, and wait for the deliberate thump. All I can say is that during my Barbel fishing years on the Yorkshire rivers in the early sixties, I followed his advice and it worked for me. No pellets or fancy rigs then just simple running ledger, and simple baits, cheese, luncheon meat and lumps of sausage. Yes I know I'm a dinosaur, but striking into fresh air would drive me nuts.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Geoff.

Change to 2 pellets on a size 8 ( yes it will look silly)

Tight to the hook. Ideally feed your loose feed and ideally 4mm and 8mm through a maggot feeder. Flat type if possible.

Taps will decrease wrap rounds will increase.

Graham

 

[S-Kippy]

I remember being driven mad by "dace" on the Kennet one day. This was pre-pellet days so I was fishing meat over hemp. I finally got so fed up with these "dace" I decided to scale down to a tiny cube of meat on a 14 hook just to sort them out.

I ended up with over a dozen barbel and not one of them gave me anything more than a gentle "tap-tap" on the quiver. Just on the day I guess....never worked for me again.

 

[The bad one]

Firmly in the camp of sitting on your hands and waiting for the rod to go round. Never fish or rarely fish anything but a single 8 or 10 mm pellet on the short hair. Reason for it is, I’m catapulting the same size pellet in and the fish are picking up individual pellets as they move up the swim. The fish becoming confident in finding singles and see no danger in the single pellet hook bait. More on the hair and there’s possibly something not quite right about it and they leave it alone.

This fact was brought home to me and a mate many years ago, pre pellet days, on the Severn at Ironbridge. Sweetcorn was the killer bait at that time, but myself and my mate couldn’t buy a bite on multiples on the hook. Frustrated, we watched the barbel we knew were there from the Bailey Bridge, take ever single grain of corn catapulted at them. The bulb got switched on big time and we started to play about casting to the fish whilst the other watched from the bridge. Multiples were completely ignored, but every single grain was taken around it. Bingo! Fish a single on the hook I sad to my mate and see what happens? It took all of about 30 second for him to hook a fish!
We cleaned up taking about 100 fish between us, much to the disgust of others fishing the downside of the bridge using multiples.
And nope we didn’t let on to them how we were catching them! Why should we? That nugget of info had been hard won by using what was between our ears and spending a hour or so experimenting to find out what would catch them.

 

[caelan]

WELL it may just the bream fisherman coming out in me but I would leave
tap tap well alone it will pull right round I hope tight lines

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Basically Geoff you're using a girlie hook for a big bait.

Smiley.

 

[geoffmaynard]

Basically Geoff you're using a girlie hook for a big bait.

Quite correct. I usually use an 8 but couldn't find any of my hooks so had to use what was in my clam-box, the biggest being a 12.
TBO's point about a single bait outscoring a multiple would be fair comment if this was a heavily pressured water but these fish are lightly angled for. They aren't hook, bait or line shy and we haven't found any increased activity when fishing singles. Doubles are what most people fish here, 2 x elipse superglued together etc.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

If i was deliberately trying to catch barbel, i'd probably leave them - in the assumption that these were either moving fish twanging the line (a pre-cursor to a proper bite) or chub getting fidgety in front of the bait (a pre cursor to a proper bite!)

I'd agree with Sam though.... if no "real" bite were forthcoming i might then try to hit them.

Also, not sure how you were set up Geoff (but i think i can guess where you were!).... but i've tended to find that building in some slack line following the cast can work wonders. Tee-Cee mentioned upstreaming - however I've also found that sometimes paying out a bow of line between feeder and rod downstreaming is a valid tactic. It seems counter-intuitive to be trying to de-sensitize bite indication, but equally i sometimes think that a taught-lined bait is just too easy for the fish to reject.

 

[kkev]

My pb a fish from the river goyt - 11lb came to a bite when the rod t ip barely moved - I struck on instinct

 

[john step]

Very very rarely, I have wound in to check my bait and found a barbel on the end.
The vast majority have been the unmissable rod arching over type bites.
This is on the Trent and Tidal Trent which is a very different animal from the Kennet etc.

I ignore the taps as I consider it would be impossible to hit a bite at the range and speed of flow which is normal there.

I have never had a signal crayfish on the end when reeling in but I have been told they are in the river along with mitten crabs and I think that these may often be the tapping culprits. Also the large head of roach etc.

I wonder if these crayfish scurrying about after loose feed attract the bigger barbel which I understand eat them and grow bigger.
The barbel I have been catching of late seem to be getting bigger at any rate.
This year I have only had one at 5lb. The rest 7.8.9s and doubles.

The perceived wisdom seems to be to fish for them at dusk and into darkness.
However most of mine come in the afternoon by using a very long hooklink small super glued pellets or casters or dead maggots to strong small barbless (10s/12s) Korum barbel/or Rapters.

I don't get hook pulls on these small hooks as the mouths are tough and rubbery.

 

[laguna]

I'll try and hit each and ever one as bites can be far and few between, then if I don't connect I can always shorten the hair up.... but then I'm also likely to get chub which is no bad thing. (or Crayfish?)

On the wye I think you can afford to wait for the bite to develop proper. The urge is far to much to ignore and wait for any 3ft twitch on my rivers.... best tactic? pour a coffee! mg:

 

[Nathan Walter]

I would say that most of the time I wait for a wrap around however there are always exceptions.

I tend to fish the Wye quite a bit and as most of you will know it's pretty productive and generally they are not shy fish. That aside there have been occasions where I have been fishing extremely prolific swims and yet I've had lots and lots of twitchy bites. Now luckily I know the swims and stretches well, so I knew there were plenty of barbel present. Still this went on for some time and never developed into the usual 3 foot twitch. Initially I had fairly big baits on so scaled down to a single 6mm pellet and much smaller hook. At last I manged to get some slightly more aggressive bites but still no rod wrenchers.

Eventually I decided to touch leger and try and hit those snatchy bites. It paid off; around 6 barbel were eventually landed and I missed many more. I don't believe I would have caught anything (at least during daylight hours) without trying to hit those tiny bites.

I have since used this on a few other occasions when the circumstances have been similar and it has produced. Often if things are dead and I don't think they should be, I fish tiny single pellets with a block end feeder with pellets in. The pellets can't get out but seem to pull the fish in and maybe they don't spook as there's not loads of loose feed present. Who knows?

However I digress. I do think there are times when trying to hit small bites can and does pay off.

 

[Rich P]

I tend to leave them, assuming they're probably chub or something smaller such as kamikaze minnows attempting to impale themselves on my hook (as they sometimes manage to do). The period just after the taps stop is sometimes akin to the calm before the storm, i.e. barbel have moved into the swim. Then, wham!

I also feed by hand, but glue two 8mm pellets (flattening each with a knife) to a hair and size 10.