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BAITS By Steve Withers
Go to Next Article; Putting the Effort by Steve Chell There have been several comments of late regarding the quality of articles being submitted to Barbus, particularly the lack of any 'technical' thought provoking issues to stimulate some debate. It's got to be appreciated that these types of articles aren't everyone's cup of tea and that the magazine needs a broad base to cover all tastes, however, when you think about it, most of the subjects like rigs, tackle, float fishing, swim selection etc. have had a pretty good airing over the years; the one notable exception is the use of carp baits for barbel which considering the number of people now using these baits has been almost totally ignored. There have been a couple of articles in Barbus that have touched on the subject but really there has been very little real detail. From discussions with other members there are clearly a lot of people in the club experimenting with baits and achieving a lot of success, plus I'm sure some degree of failure. If we really do want to live up to our aims of learning by the sharing of information and experiences then why are we seeing so little in the pages of Barbus? I can understand that It's natural to be protective of any 'edge' we feel have gained and especially with bait its not surprising that people want to protect any hard earned information, for make no mistake, there is a lot of hard work and not inconsiderable cost involved in the trial and error of trying to find something that works on your waters. We have discussed this situation within the Wessex Region a number of times over the past few months and finally agreed that one of us should write an article of this kind in the hope of getting some feedback and promoting some debate and exchange of information in the pages of Barbus. What I must make clear at the outset is that although I have ended up putting pen to paper to write this article, the information and experiences contained in it are the result of a collective team effort from all the members of the region who have all made a contribution. Why Bother? The obvious question is why make life difficult and more costly by using these baits if you are being successful using the old favourites such as meat and corn. Well if you are lucky enough for this to be the case then it's possibly not worth wasting your time and money going down this route, although before dismissing the idea it's worth considering some of the potential advantages. Having had first hand experience here on our local rivers I am totally convinced that once a water has been subjected to such baits then your results will suffer if you stick to the traditional baits. I sure many of us know waters where boilies have completely taken over and produced tremendous catches to those using them while catching on anything else has become extremely difficult. Logically then it makes sense that if your waters have not seen such baits maybe it's worth considering getting in first and reaping the rewards rather than trying to follow on from someone else when the inevitable happens. Fred Wilton was the first to put forward the theory, which is now generally accepted by many anglers, that fish have a form of nutritional recognition which helps them identify food which is good for them and in the long term a fish will take such baits in preference to something from which they derive no benefit. Being one of life's sceptics I still have doubts about the theory, if it's true why do fish get so preoccupied with 'crap' baits like hemp which basically has little nutritional value. What can't be denied is that a lot of fish get caught on these baits and they clearly benefit from a diet of good quality bait (presupposing that none of the well-documented excesses prevail). If nothing else, at least you can be have comfort in the knowledge that you are putting something back into fishing. A rather unexpected advantage we have found is that there appears to be a degree of selectivity with certain baits, both in respect of the predominant species caught and strange as it may seem the average size of fish caught. On some rivers one of the biggest problems encountered is eels, which at times can make fishing at dusk near impossible. My main reason for not using baits such as fishmeal's in the past had been the fear that I would be plagued by eels yet over the last couple of years since using these baits I've only caught a handful of eels and although this can be partly put down to using hair rigs, there have been very few occasions when I have been bothered with eels bites. Surprisingly chub also have not been too much of a problem either, especially on fishmeal's, and although no bait is chub proof, I have again caught far fewer than I would normally have expected. The advantages of not disturbing a swim by constantly hauling out eels and chub can be quite significant. . Pastes versus Boilies The vast majority of my fish are caught on paste baits and I believe there are several advantages to fishing a paste against a boilie. Firstly paste has a much better leak off as the flavour hasn't been boiled out of the bait and sealed in by skinning the bait. It is also very easy to change the nature of a paste bait, either the size, shape and/or the texture can be altered on the bank to suit the prevailing conditions. Another advantage also happens to be one of the drawbacks with paste in that they breakdown quite quickly in water and within an hour or two the bait has dissolved. Whilst this breakdown adds to the attraction as it creates a nice trail for the fish to home in on to a hook bait it also means that prebaiting with paste has its limitations when you want a bait to stay there for several hours until the fish find it. The answer is to use a combination of boilies for prebaiting when establishing a bait and keep to paste hookbaits; once the fish are accepting a bait I generally dispense with boilies and just rely on loose feeding pieces of paste at regular intervals during a session. The final and probably most important advantage of paste is that boilies are a total pain in the backside to make up compared to paste, so if I don't see a good reason to use them I won't. It should be remembered that the main reason that boilies are used in carp fishing is to present a hard hookbait which minimises the attention of nuisance fish, which really isn't an issue for the barbel angler, therefore, as I'm not looking to produce a rock hard bait, the boiling time is kept to a minimum (30-60 seconds depending on the size of bait and mix) to just lightly skin the bait to prevent it from breaking down. Rather than taking a lot of time to roll out round boilies it's a lot easier to roll a lump of paste into 'sausages' and then simply cut it into the desired length with a sharp knife before boiling. Another alternative is to roll out the paste with a rolling pin and cut it into cubes of whatever size takes your fancy before boiling it. The only difference between the basic mixes for paste and boilies is the flavour levels; for pastes I use about 50% of the maximum recommended rates but when boiling this can be increased to about 60-70%. You also need to keep the mix on the soft side if you intend to roll it (remembering that it will stiffen up significantly over about half an hour as the liquid is absorbed) otherwise some mixes will just crumble when you try to roll them. As far as presentation goes I nearly always hair rig the bait regardless of whether using boilies or paste. Paste can be used straight on the hook if mixed suitably soft but many of the mixes have all sorts of 'bits' in them which could mask the hook point so I prefer to stick to the hair. Hairs are braid as per the hooklength, tied using the knotless knot (anyone who hasn't seen the knotless knot should look it out because it's superb for tying hairs). I usually mount paste on the hair by either wrapping it around a ledger stop fixed to the hair (the only use I have ever found for a ledger stop!!) or preferably around a cork ball of about 10mm diameter fixed to the hair. The length of hair is adjusted so that the bait just touches the bend of the hook. Base Mixes If you feel really adventurous then you can start from scratch and buy the basic ingredients to develop your own unique mix, but considering the range of good quality mixes on the market it's much easier to choose one as a base and customising it if necessary. Although there are some mixes around which are much cheaper than those sold by the mainstream bait companies I think it's false economy trying to save money as you very much get what you pay for. Broadly speaking base mixes have historically fallen into three categories; Milk protein (HNV), Fishmeal's and Birdfoods. Whilst these categories still hold true to a degree many mixes these days are combinations of ingredients for instance fishmeal's combined with milk proteins and birdfoods etc. If you study the offerings from the main bait suppliers you will soon see that most of the mixes are actually quite similar (Seed, Fish & HNV) and are based around these categories with often quite subtle variations . The general consensus in the carp world is that fishmeal's loose some of their effectiveness in winter and high protein baits and birdfood mixes come into their own at this time due to their improved digestibility. This therefore may be a consideration when selecting which mix to use. I would suggest obtaining a copy of the excellent catalogues produced by one of the big bait suppliers such as Nutrabaits, Mainline etc. and selecting a base mix which suits your needs and sticking with it to give it a fair trial. It's all too easy to change to the next 'wonder' bait and achieve nothing. Additives and Flavours Many of the base mixes, particularly the smelly mixes such as fishmeal's will work without the addition of any additives, but the addition of a flavour and/or additive provides a unique label to a bait and can give an added edge or confidence boost. When it comes to flavours and additives the choice is absolutely mind blowing and you could easily spend a lifetime working through the combinations available Also most of the flavours can be blended together if desired so it can be appreciated that the combinations literally run into the thousands. It is very easy to get carried away when reading through the bait catalogues and ending up constantly chopping and changing (and ending up with a cupboard of half-full bottles) without forming any real conclusions. It really does take some time to form a judgement particularly as some combinations which may work in cold conditions could be a waste of time in the warmer water temperatures in summer, so don't be too quick to dismiss a particular combination without giving it a fair trial over a range of conditions and different waters. Traditionally I would guess most barbel anglers would look first at the spicy and meaty flavours and there is no doubt that they are very effective, but I think many of us tend to ignore the fruity/sweet flavours and I'm sure there is plenty of mileage in these, as an example Scopex is one of the most successful flavours for barbel and has been catching for years. To add further confusion there are also different carriers used for flavours which give different characteristics. Flavours on an ethyl alcohol EA base are claimed to provide better leak off in cold water than those on a glycerol base and are therefore worth looking at for winter. In addition to flavours you will find a wide range of other additives such as palatants, enhancers (in both liquid and powder form) liquid aminos, essential oils and fish oils. There have been some concerns raised in the past regarding the use of fish oils in the carp scene but this has been when used in large quantities and with baits soaked in oils, so although have found them to be effective additions to a bait for barbel, a little care is required not to go over the top with the amounts being used. If you are using oils it's best to look for oils which are advertised as winterised as they don't thicken and congeal to the same extent as others in cold water conditions. As mentioned earlier it is best to be conservative with the levels used. Some of the additives really only need very small amounts, sometimes down to 0.5 ml, and overdosing can totally ruin an otherwise a good bait so it's very important that you accurately measure using the right equipment like a pipette; it's no good trying to estimate half a ml with a medicine spoon and expecting it to be accurate! Application It's always hard to be sure how much bait it's necessary to introduce to get barbel onto it and it all really depends on whether the fish have been exposed to such baits before, as well as the more obvious considerations like fish population, water conditions, competition from other species/anglers etc. Personally I am strongly against mass baiting although if the fish have never seen boilies before it may be necessary to put a fair amount of bait in to get them to accept it as a food source. I find it much better to put a couple of pounds of bait in over a longer period rather than just piling large quantities in. More importantly I believe that this approach also shows consideration to anyone else who happens to be fishing the same water (and there are not many places where no one else is fishing) because there is nothing more annoying than to be on a water when someone decides they are going to adopt the mass baiting approach and ruin your fishing in the process. If you were in their shoes, and someone started putting tens of pounds of bait at a time in an area you were fishing you would be rightly put out, so show the same consideration and courtesy that you would expect from others and apply bait in a sensible manner. Once the fish accept a bait, which can be surprisingly quickly when it has been trickled in for a couple of weeks, I find that a steady stream of about half a pound of bait each time you fish is sufficient. Even if you decide to change the bait, once the groundwork has been done in getting the fish to accept boilies for instance, then they will quickly accept a change bait without having to go through the process again . Well there you have it. In a way it's been a difficult article to write because I'm not sure what level or starting point everyone is at so it's inevitable that it may be a little basic for some. I hope others will find it interesting and are inspired to give it a go because it's certainly a fascinating subject and adds a new dimension to your fishing. To those who are already into the subject, lets see a few more articles in Barbus to share your experiences. Go to Top of Page
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