Pre-Baiting

You've just spent the last two weeks pre-baiting a swim on a river.

You initially searched out likely swims for your chosen species and did some careful plumbing around.

You then spent time and money on your chosen ground bait.

You then visited your chosen swim at the same time everyday and threw in 12-15 balls at the same spot.

So the day arrives for your campaign.

You arrive at your swim and......there's already somebody fishing in it and they're catching a fish a chuck!

What can you do?

How can this be avoided?

What's the general etiquette?

Does your club have rules re bre-baitibg etiquette?

First come, first serve.

Select pe-bait areas very carefully.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Mark

I take it that you mean selct swim(s) 'off the beaten track' and bait up more than one swim just in case?

yep he does Matt, its the same on still waters as well. Its a bummer isnt it prebaiting for a while only for someone else to choose the same peg/swim. I suppose some clubs might have rules and some anglers do the gentlemanly thing and steer clear till the prebaiter has had first dibs.

Does anyone stick a sign on a peg 'staking claim to the peg on a certain date?

Can't see that going down to well Matt,one club I am in says that if you leave an item of tackle there overnight and want to fish that peg in the morning it is ok,but who would leave an item of tackle unnatended overnight ,plus would who ever turned up in the morning be understanding .

First come, first serve is right.

You cant leave a sign, thats litter and all the places i fish you cant book a swim.

If it's a river Matt, why groundbait, Rake the swim for a few days along with a couple of others. That way your not spending money on groundbait, but if you do groundbait just put in a few balls in each swim after raking.

This way your one night baiting one swim, will bait 4 or 5 swims and give you a choice if someone is there before you.

Thanks for the feedback chaps.

Ray, I recon rakes and the Ribble won't get on. It'll cost be a few bob in rakes!

Matt,

I think you might be right, but you didnt say what river you were fishing, good luck.

Dont Aildi sell cheap rakes/forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gifthey sell everything else cheap

Dont tell the fly---stard Mr Corker, next time you turn up he will be in your swim grinning like a snake that he is.

Bloody Daydreamer.

To be honest chaps, I wasn't planning on pre baiting a swim at the moment. I just haven't got the time. Plus it's 45-60 mins to the river for me.

I just wondered how peole manage to pre bait a swim consistently for two weeks and actually fish the swim and catch. I guess its just unlucky if you turn up on the day and someones in your swim.

Agree with Mark...Use ninja tactics and pre bait swims as far as possible from nosy free loading anglers.Quite often the most ignored swim/swims can become good if pre baited regularily,fish will soon move onto an aree of safe and free grub.

Me and a mate prebaited 3 times a week over a autumn/winter for Barbel untill the end of the season,we used approx 30 kilos of boile,10 kilo of paste and 75 kilos of various pellets.Some of this pre bait was introduced a couple of weeks prior to starting fishing then once fishing had started we would introduce a fair amount of bait when we left the river after fishing. This was introduced away from the usuall hammered areas in a spot rarely fished that looked very average.we caught consisatntly after a slowish start and from november onwards whatever the weather 3 out of 4 trips would produce Barbel some in frrezing weather that we are lead to believe will produce nothing.Also the chub fishing became good when the water was clear in the first hour after dark,many 5lb plus fish were showing up.

Surprise surprise,despite our efforts to keep things quiet,we were spotted by the occasional angler and our quiet spot became hammerd the next season and guess what,the fishing is crap in that swim now.I was even fishing a swim a little way from the top swim one day for a change when some bloke wanderd down on the opposite bank and bombarded the swim with bait and then what I couldnt believe next was that he bombarded the swim I was fishing with the rest of his bait and then wanderd off after giving me a dirty look.

My advice is if you get a good spot going then fish it at night or make sure that no one see you and dont tell anyone you dont trust completely.If someone finds out then no everyone but some anglers will have no qualm about fishing off the back of you sucess and hard work.Shame

Sorry to hear your efforts were wasted and it is a bummer when it happens.

How about this for another example. Earlier this season I turned up at a river and below a weir I wanted to fish there were two guys Carping. I stress that they were the only two in literally miles of river and they were a good 200 yards below the weir with one or two swims upstream above them closer to the weir sill. However although I wanted to fish the weir they were all camped up and I thought with miles of river available I would go somewhere else and give them some peace and quiet. So I had a quick chat wished them well and drove a half a mile or so upstream above the weir to give them a wide berth.

Anyway I had a few fish above the weir and decided to return the next day as well. On arriving I did a quick check below the weir and the two anglers were still there and camped up. So I returned to the swim above the weir again.

About 11am I heard a car rumbling down the track towards me, it turned out it was the two Carpers with all their kit. They saw me in the swim and then got very sh*tty saying how they had been baiting it for a week and I had basically nicked it !

Well to say I was p*ssed off was an understatement and I told them in no uncertain terms that I had come here to give them space. Anyway after much debate I said to them that as I was only doing day sessions they were quite welcome to camp up and take the swim when I left that evening. It seemed a fair compromise and in the end we actually hit it off pretty well and had a good day in each others company.

Sounds all too familiar.

Thats the quandry of pre baiting,if you have a spot baited the river is free and the risk of the swim being fished either by a dirty swine or an unknowing chap who fishes it by coincidence is always there.

However those Carpers were out of order,cos even if they have pre baited they have no claim or exclusive right to the swim,its the chance we take,like it or not.

I agree with whats already been said, as its first come regardless of all your efforts, then keep it as quite as possible and fish it at night, but in the end someone will find out, then its time to move. I've not pre baited on the Ribble yet, still getting to know the river, butI did quite a bit on the river Lune for the big bream.

I think the correct etiquette (unless you own your own water, which not many of us do) is to prebait discreetly. If you then arrive to find somebody in the swim, don't make a fuss, just go elsewhere.

Put it another way - if you are fishing a club or public water, why should you expect to claim a swim and prevent people fishing it even when you aren't there ?

Look at it another way. You treck miles to a favoured swim, get set up, bait up yourself and the next morning some rogue turns up after having chucked a few handfulls of stale bread in and tells you he has been prebaiting and would you mind moving.

Would you hell.

I had just started fishing in one swim the season before last, only a day sesh and maybe overnight if all went well, when a couple of barrows and two pairs of legs appeared. Apparently they had been pre baiting for a few weeks and were starting their first session.

I actually moved one swim along as I know first hand how annoying it is to be beaten to a swim. Once I explained that I was after Tench and not Carp they invited me to stay.

As it turned out they were the nicest pair of guys you could meet, supplying coffee, bacon sadwiches, advice and even taking my profile picture.

They also didn't mind that I caught and they blanked that first night.

Nice to here Tommo!

once joined a syndicate on a water that had produced a then record fish.

There were stagings and to fish from and a forest of markers left by other syndicate members........myself and another FM regular (at least he was then)settled down to our first nights fishing.

We blanked, but had complaints made against us by some sad angler twat with bino's reported us for removing his marker.............i swear we never touched it, but if i had know he would report a lie i would have ripped them out and thrown them miles...

Prebait at your own risk........if you really want to do it choose section of water than no one else is fishing or face the possibility that someone else, paying the same as you and therfore having the same rights to fish a swim, beats you to it!!!

If the sad anger/twat........lier wants to comment...........feel free.