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Artificial baits ?

Mike Thompson

Mike Thompson

Senior Member & Supporter
Hi all,
First I have to point out that I usually fish smaller Yorkshire rivers like the Derwent and Nidd. These venues do not hold shoals of barbel, but one's and two's dotted along the river. So you have to be careful not to over feed.
I started the season on meat and was very successful, bagging one or two every visit. Slowly the bites dwindled and a switch to 8mm pellets with a small pva bag attached restored my catch rate.
These rivers are now very low, so this might be a factor, but bites have almost dried up.
I tried maggots and casters but minnows have them in seconds.
So my thoughts are now to try imitation baits, fake casters for example.
Has anyone had any experience using these, or has different ideas whilst I wait for some rain to freshen up the rivers.
Mike
 
Hi Mike, ive used fake casters and hemp in the past, both straight on the hook, and also glued to a hair, never managed a barbel, but got plenty of smaller species, i.e. dace, roach. I,m sure they would work for barbel, if they are there, and feeding. You could always try a mixture of fake and real, if the real get eaten, theres still something left. Some of the fake baits are now also absorbant, meaning you can soak them in a jar with an added flavouring. :)
 
Mike, guys.

Been looking at that myself, mainly when trotting as using a mix of sinking and floating would balance a rig very well. With a moving bait the fish have less time to look critically at it, hence why they could work so well. Plus all the hook is available?
 
I used artificial caster and maggots for some years Mike with good results.
I totally get why some would not have confidence using a rubber bait but they work if you get the feeding right.
I got feed up with minnows shelling my baits and wasting hours of fishing time.
Enterprise and Drennan now produce far better arti's than the pathetic fare of yesteryear. Enterprise for casters and Drennan for maggots imo.
I've had a good number of doubles off the Wey, Avon and Stour using them in conjunction with a bait dropper.
I put some pics up of rigs in this old thread...
https://barbel.co.uk/site/vbulletin/forum/barbel-talk/10016-hemp-caster.html
ATB Dave
 
I have had lots of decent barbel on fake corn, fished either on its own or with a single kernel of real corn alongside it, when the fish start to take with confidence fake on its own is all that is needed.

I have never used fake maggot or caster, as the swins I fish dont seem to hold many smaller species at all, except for Chub, which will " fiddle " with any bait, real or fake.

Dave
 
Should have mentioned that you need to log in to veiw pics.

Wanted to edit a couple of typos this morning, but forum won't let me.
 
I have caught Barbel from the Derbyshire derwent on small fake pellets but never on fake maggots or casters when I have tried them maybe its a confidence thing with me.

One thing that I haven't tried is gluing real casters to a hair with fake ones, the reason being that I don't see the point as minnows and other small fish smash them within seconds of them hitting the deck leaving just the fake so why not just cast the fake out? maybe that's the reason I haven't caught using them I would be grateful if anyone that does glue real ones could explain why please.
 
Mike, i have used enterprise artificial pellets on a hair wrapped in a dollop of real halibut paste for a few years and it works fine with the benefit of once the paste washes off in the current ect orthru crays nipping at it the pellet still remains on the hair and enables you to fish on without a rebait, also they are semi bouyant and so gives you lots of advantages:)
 
Thanks for all the replies, as usual, lots of useful information to give me confidence.
I promise to give artificials a try and will report back, though if I blank, it in no way infers that arti's don't work!!!!!!
Mike
 
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