Minimal versus Mass feeding for Barbel

Hi All

In Tref Wests book (Barbel...A lifetimes Addiction) he outlines his method for catching Barbel as feeding around 6 - 10 pellets around your hookbait, this dramaticallyincreases the odds of a fish picking up your hookbait.You cant argue with this as the man has caught thousands of Barbel.

Other writers say the best way to catch them is to lay down a bed of feed (ie with a baitdropper), let the fish settle for as long as possible then introduce a hookbait. Again this method has accounted for thousands of Barbel up and down the country.

Just wondered what others thought of this and how they go about it themselves.

Matt

I agree with Trefor,I just use a pva bag of pellets.I see some anglers piling in kilos of pellets,I'm sure it spooks a lot of fish,and inevitably sits and rots in the water.

Horses for course. Sometimes they need a bit to get them going, other times a single bait is all you need. The trick is finding the right method for the day. Knowledge of the fish numbers and their feeding habits is a big bonus in your decision making.

There are no hard and fast rules in feeding but the oldage that you can't take out what you've thrown in is always applicable.

If you fish the middle severn there are some big shoals of fish, mainly in the5-7lb bracket. If you don't put a decent amount of grub in, I think at times you can limit your chances of a decent catch, in that you may well fail to attract and/or hold the fish in any numbers. This of course may well be totally different to other rivers with a lower stock density, as Dave says!

A Trent shoal offeeding fish maybe in eccess of several HUNDRED individual fish these will include several year classes and several species...

six pellets would last about as long as it has taken you to read this post...

They would then potentially move on in the time it has taken to read this sentence

I'm sure it differs from river to river, I fish small shallow rivers and narrow streams and a small pva stocking full of pellets tied to the leadfollowed withthe occasionalscattering of loose fed pelletsevery few minutesis allwe normallyneed on these smallstreams and rivers.We don't have several hundred fish in a swim like youdo on the Trent, but catching 5 to 10 Barbel between 4lb to 8lb plusis not out of the question on a goodeveningwith 2 to5 Barbel being the norm on a productive 3 or 4 hours summers evening session.

I don't use bulk feed at all.

I use a single large bait, or an open ended feeder with soaked, or scalded pellets. It's serves me alright.

I've never been a numbers man. I go for quality!!!/forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gif

Matthew,

The issuethat all barbel anglers need to get their heads around is not <u>how</u> much feed you introduce but <u>what</u> that feed does.

Many believe that spodding two kilos of bait into a swimresults in a big pile of bait that sits in the swim and rots. Utter tosh! Perhaps it does if your target is stillwater barbel but it certainly doesn't when fishing rivers that have any degree of flow.

If your riverbed is made up if sand orfine gravel particles it doesn't matter whether you use a feeder, a PVA bag or a dropper, it isn't going to hang around long and we've filmed this countless times over - ask anyone who watched my recent barbel shows. The gasp from the audience was audible from the stage when I showed the pellets and hemp rolling along the River Swale bed like a swarm of ants.

And that was in a 6 feet deep swim that had very little flow.

Considering first what kind of river bed you're fishing over and then design a baiting strategy that suits it is the key to consistent success, not minimal feed or lots of feed.

Bob Roberts

I have been thinking for a while now that I should be using a feeder (rather than a lead) to keep a steady trickle of feed going in. Maybe using the dropper initially.

I am fishing over gravel/sand, around 4-6 feet deep with a moderate to steady flow.

Can anyone reccomend a feeder for use on the rivers?

I have not had a good look around yet but what I have found all seem to be light, less than an ounce. Do I need open or blockend to feed pellets and or hemp.

Have a look at Fisky's Fantastic Feeders - Google it, or wait and someone's bound to stick a link up. They're up to the job.

Good post Bob. You also need to consider what everyone else is doing. On the harder fished stretches in the North such as Asenby using small quantities of a smelly bait (glugged pellets) does seem to work better than mass baiting, especially for the bigger fish. To be honest, I suspect that there are no hard and fast rules on baiting, other than you can put more in, but you can't take it out.

Bob's point about bait moving downstream is well made and it's made me think a bit about my baiting strategies. I'm beginning to think that it's all about not spooking a fish, either by using a method that they are nervous of or by using a method that means that it's likely to be some time before they find your hook bait. The longer they spend on your feed without being caught, the more chance they will be spooked. You don't really have any control over this as people often walk along the top of the bank, or stop for a chat.

I use either Drennan cage feeders with dampened pellets in them (you can add a dead cow if necessary) or I squeeze bait (damp pellets with method mix to bind them) around my hook bait.

I would much prefer using a bait dropper rather than a feeder as I don't like to have anything chunky attached to my line if I can help itin snaggy and weedy swims; I don't often fish large rivers anyway so it's not very often I need to use a feeder. I can loose feed or use droppers in most of the shallow 2 to 5ft swims on the smaller rivers/streams that I fish.

Hi Matthew

I am lucky as most of the rivers i fish for barbel allow for watching the reaction of groups of barbel & chub to the bait. The underwater camera like Bob says has also transformed our understanding of how bait behaves on differen't river beds.

For me the most effective method is to get the barbel feeding confidently over a bed of bait (small pellets/ hemp) before introducing a hookbait, using a baitdropper is the most effective way of getting this feed down quickly. 1 pint is usually enough on the rivers i fish to get them going, although as Lee says on the Trent you will need alot more.

The barbel & chub will be on the bait quickly but they will intially circle back over the bait taking a few mouthfuls and then feeding upstream,this process constantly repeats,after say 10-15 mins this circling slows down with the barbel spending alot more time over the baited area feeding very hard. Another 10 mins and the activity starts dropping off, the odd barbel will come back but the aggresive competitive feeding has gone. This is when alot of people cast there hookbait in thinking there is a shoal of barbel over the baited area.

As Bob mentions before the underwater reality is that 50% of the bait has rolled out of the swim, 10% has been waffted out by the fish activity over the top, and 40% has been eaten by the fish.

This is now the time to re-dropper over the previous baited area, sometimes the fish will try to come back on the baited area as you are re-droppering, now is the time to place you hookbait over the baited area.

The fish will come back in straight away feeding very aggresivily,and a take usually occurs within 5-10mins. I usually take a one or two fish out of a swim (Re-dropper may be required)then move on to another swim. Using the method whilst roving can be deadly expecially if you have 2 or 3 swims on the go at once, no point taking a chair though as you will be rarley sat on it ! Its a great method for finding new swims too.

To sum up for me the skill is knowing how much feed is required in a certain swim,when to re-bait and when its time for the hookbait. Watching them in clear water has helped me so much when fishing venues where you cannot see the fish.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Stu

Thanks Stu, great post. A lot to think about there.

I noticed in your DVD's that you use a blockend feeder (Drennan)rig, what do you put in the feeder? Is it just small pellets?

Matt