• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

Missed hook ups

M

Michael Radford

Senior Member
Had a day on trent Friday 2 rods about 9ft deep swim, fished it many times before, fished meat as usual with a feeder, started about 9am for 1st 2 hrs just a couple of nods on downstream rod then a screaming take resulted in a 9lb fish an hr later another screamer same rod, picked up the rod felt a fish for about 5 seconds then gone assumed probable liner the rest of the day I had 4 more screamers and no hook ups and and a few more single nods tried alternative baits to no response. Only got about 3 yrs barbel fishing experience about ten visits a year so tend to do the same thing all the time I lve 2hrs away. What worries me is it was a possible 6 fish day is it ,likely to have that many liners, the meat looked un touched, to have 5 fish that close to my bait too, any thoughts please.
 
Yes punched meat 18mm dia. X 20mm long on 24mm hair size 10 hook with hook aligner or curved hook on 3ft hook length 4oz feeder with a bolt stop about 20cm from away 10lb hook length about 20mtrs out, I tend to catapult small balls of ground bait out regularly.
 
I would have had that size meat just below a much larger hook. Size 10 far too small and reduced the hook link to 1 foot .

If you had any pellets in your groundbait they were on it.

Certainly either liners or more likely, bait size prevented too small hook on too long a hair.
 
Graham Elliott said:
I would have had that size meat just below a much larger hook. Size 10 far too small and reduced the hook link to 1 foot .

If you had any pellets in your groundbait they were on it.

Certainly either liners or more likely, bait size prevented too small hook on too long a hair.
Click to expand...
Interesting there was hemp and some 4mm pellet in ground bait what size hook? I had 2x8mm halibut for a couple of hours on up stream rod without a bite but that's quite normal for the upstream rod should I have used pellet on downstream rod I don't have a lot of confidence in boilies or pellet 99% of my fish usually 2 to 6 fish come to meat living so far away I tend to not take chances some times I have definitely felt there were more fish in the swing.
 
Michael Radford said:
Yes punched meat 18mm dia. X 20mm long on 24mm hair size 10 hook with hook aligner or curved hook on 3ft hook length 4oz feeder with a bolt stop about 20cm from away 10lb hook length about 20mtrs out, I tend to catapult small balls of ground bait out regularly.
Click to expand...
So your free running until the 20cm bolt stop i take it. I personally never fish free running on the Trent, I like them to hit the weight on the bite. I'd just give them 20mm max til they hit the stop. Meats a great winter bait too. If I'm fishing a smallish hook I try to make the hook as aggressive as possible. Ie, instead of whipping all the way down, try whipping down 3 times, then lift the hair and whip down 3 times, then back through the eye. Look up KD style. You will.know what I mean. Keep the hair shortish, the aggressive hook shape should and will help. Just a few thoughts.

Ps your not doing much wrong as your getting bites, thats the hard part.
 
Jon Frisby said:
So your free running until the 20cm bolt stop i take it. I personally never fish free running on the Trent, I like them to hit the weight on the bite. I'd just give them 20mm max til they hit the stop. Meats a great winter bait too. If I'm fishing a smallish hook I try to make the hook as aggressive as possible. Ie, instead of whipping all the way down, try whipping down 3 times, then lift the hair and whip down 3 times, then back through the eye. Look up KD style. You will.know what I mean. Keep the hair shortish, the aggressive hook shape should and will help. Just a few thoughts.

Ps your not doing much wrong as your getting bites, thats the hard part.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help gives me something to think about. The main reason I thought of liners was the amount of line pulled off the bait runner
 
Wow , I feel the need for some aggressive hooks , I think mine may not be bad tempered enough , where do I buy them Jon ? Who is KD , what is his style ? I feel as if I am living in a parallel fishing universe . To answer the question re the missed bites , liners would be my guess
 
To me, that sounds like a big piece of meat for a size 10 hook. try using a smaller piece, or a larger hook. If the bites are still coming, up size your hook, if they are starting to die down, make your bait smaller.
 
Last edited:
So much wrong with your set up really its hard to pin point the main reason. Small hook, running lead, hair, liners etc, but after a couple of missed screamers you might want to reconsider your end rig. Barbel are not generally difficult to achieve hook ups given their under slung mouth, as said you had them on your bait and feeding which is the main thing. If it was as easy as just turning up and catching, I doubt we would do it, even the Trent barbel need the right approach.😉
 
I agree with the hook and bait size being wrong and need to match more closer. A 10mm piece of meat would be more to my liking on a size 10 hook and a 6 or 4 on an 18mm piece but in the present conditions I would be on the size 10 hook with 10mm meat i day light and may upscale it for dark . I would also commit to either free running or bolt rig and not the inbetween way you describe
 
Neil Smart said:
So much wrong with your set up really its hard to pin point the main reason. Small hook, running lead, hair, liners etc, but after a couple of missed screamers you might want to reconsider your end rig. Barbel are not generally difficult to achieve hook ups given their under slung mouth, as said you had them on your bait and feeding which is the main thing. If it was as easy as just turning up and catching, I doubt we would do it, even the Trent barbel need the right approach.😉
Click to expand...
My thought was the fish swam up past my bait to the feeder and caught up on the main line a few inches away from feeder which would have been slightly off the river bed
 
Its quite possible you have Barbel taking your feeder rather than the hook bait. Are you using a heavy mix ground bait in your feeder that clogs up ? Are you using a block end where your ground bait stays inside rather than an open mesh type. Maybe try winding in carefully and see if the feeder is still full. Lots of Barbel and Chub become feeder shakers because they do not get hooked, they learn a foot or two below a feeder is a hook. They will also pick up an empty feeder just to give it a shake, they do not know its empty. I would fish different rigs on both your rods maybe a feeder on the upstream rod and a lead on the downstream. Maybe try a method feeder with a very short hooklength and a smaller piece of meat matched to your hooksize. The main thing is to recognise something is wrong and change things quickly even if it does not work at least you have tried something
 
Mark Swaby said:
Its quite possible you have Barbel taking your feeder rather than the hook bait. Are you using a heavy mix ground bait in your feeder that clogs up ? Are you using a block end where your ground bait stays inside rather than an open mesh type. Maybe try winding in carefully and see if the feeder is still full. Lots of Barbel and Chub become feeder shakers because they do not get hooked, they learn a foot or two below a feeder is a hook. They will also pick up an empty feeder just to give it a shake, they do not know its empty. I would fish different rigs on both your rods maybe a feeder on the upstream rod and a lead on the downstream. Maybe try a method feeder with a very short hooklength and a smaller piece of meat matched to your hooksize. The main thing is to recognise something is wrong and change things quickly even if it does not work at least you have tried something
Click to expand...
Always worth casting out a loaded feeder without a hooklength attached. You'll soon find out if they are attacking the feeder. And a good way of getting their confidence up even further.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Its quite possible you have Barbel taking your feeder rather than the hook bait. Are you using a heavy mix ground bait in your feeder that clogs up ? Are you using a block end where your ground bait stays inside rather than an open mesh type. Maybe try winding in carefully and see if the feeder is still full. Lots of Barbel and Chub become feeder shakers because they do not get hooked, they learn a foot or two below a feeder is a hook. They will also pick up an empty feeder just to give it a shake, they do not know its empty. I would fish different rigs on both your rods maybe a feeder on the upstream rod and a lead on the downstream. Maybe try a method feeder with a very short hooklength and a smaller piece of meat matched to your hooksize. The main thing is to recognise something is wrong and change things quickly even if it does not work at least you have tried something
Click to expand...
Pretty heavy mix slow release standard feeder your comments are interesting. I think not living in a Barbel area and getting a trip in every few weeks you tend to stick to what's worked in the past specially when maybe only fishing for 6 bites. Regards different rigs on each rod for some reason I changed to feeder on each probably due to a slow day but I used to swear by lead on downstream rod infact almost all of my fish came on the lead rod, at one time I wouldn't put a hook on upstream feeder just casting every 10mins for a couple of hours then put a hook on with a lead, glad you mentioned it. My fishing buddy died this year and we used to bounce all this off each other.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Its quite possible you have Barbel taking your feeder rather than the hook bait. Are you using a heavy mix ground bait in your feeder that clogs up ? Are you using a block end where your ground bait stays inside rather than an open mesh type. Maybe try winding in carefully and see if the feeder is still full. Lots of Barbel and Chub become feeder shakers because they do not get hooked, they learn a foot or two below a feeder is a hook. They will also pick up an empty feeder just to give it a shake, they do not know its empty. I would fish different rigs on both your rods maybe a feeder on the upstream rod and a lead on the downstream. Maybe try a method feeder with a very short hooklength and a smaller piece of meat matched to your hooksize. The main thing is to recognise something is wrong and change things quickly even if it does not work at least you have tried something
Click to expand...
Weather wise I cant see that, only summer I have seen that. Continually dislodging the feeder and me putting more lead on. Shortened my hooklink to 10inch and bang i was in.
 
Mike Hodgkiss said:
Wow , I feel the need for some aggressive hooks , I think mine may not be bad tempered enough , where do I buy them Jon ? Who is KD , what is his style ? I feel as if I am living in a parallel fishing universe . To answer the question re the missed bites , liners would be my guess
Click to expand...
Just Google KD rig Mike... 😆 😕 its the future......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top