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Bait and wait ?

Something I experimented with on the Bristol Avon last season. In my experience I found that giving each swim 20 minutes or so without any pre-baiting and then moving onto the next one had more fish on the bank than the bait and wait approach. Also, with just a piece of meat on the hook and no other loose offerings, it was an infinitely cheaper way of doing things and I didn't have to carry loads of bait around with me - I found that 1 to 2 tins of luncheon meat would last me a whole day in the summer. £3?

Works for me on the BA, others' mileage and rivers may, and probably do, vary.

Just do whatever works for you.
 
Neil Smart said:
I know the peg Joe, and as you will recall before it changed somewhat, there was a period was there was no need to wait at all, a first put in with a had to be sonubaits hemp and hallibut soft pellet and it was fish on, sometimes chub but mostly a barbel.

That approach doesn't work now, and the fish are far more cautious, but I have seen an Otter in the area of late which maybe the reason, and yet last summer the Chub were visible on the top, oblivious to any dangers.

But it was a good bit of angling on your part, you stuck to your gun's and it paid off with a good fish, those sort of moments are priceless, you gotta be happy.
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Yes Neil I was happy and yes you know the peg and as you say things have changed over the years . From past experience one fish caught regardless of weather it is a Barbel or a Chub will kill the swim . I have a theory when I caught my Barbel at 11:00 pm it had only just moved in to the swim ? I had to wait nearly two hours before it picked up my bait and hooked it self .
 
Joe Fletcher said:
Yes Neil I was happy and yes you know the peg and as you say things have changed over the years . From past experience one fish caught regardless of weather it is a Barbel or a Chub will kill the swim . I have a theory when I caught my Barbel at 11:00 pm it had only just moved in to the swim ? I had to wait nearly two hours before it picked up my bait and hooked it self .
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What time did it get dark? Maybe they had your rig sussed in daylight.. just a thought.
 
''Bait and Wait'' is a an approach that Des Taylor advocates, and does make sense, gets the bigger fish more confident But also I think the critical thing here was that it was dark. That might have made all the difference, but I have had some good barbel here in broad daylight, pre Otter though. There certainly is a resident/ bold Otter there, he popped up in my peg last Autumn at dusk.
 
Neil Smart said:
''Bait and Wait'' is a an approach that Des Taylor advocates, and does make sense, gets the bigger fish more confident But also I think the critical thing here was that it was dark. That might have made all the difference, but I have had some good barbel here in broad daylight, pre Otter though. There certainly is a resident/ bold Otter there, he popped up in my peg last Autumn at dusk.
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Neil it would be interesting to see what would happens if the stretch was fished in the day time . Bait the swim up in the morning and then leave it until the afternoon before fishing it . Or bait it up the night before and come back early morning . You know the swim , I bet they swim back and forth on that stretch .
Years ago you could catch barbel in the day and now that has all changed unless there is a couple of feet of water on .
 
Neil Smart said:
''Bait and Wait'' is a an approach that Des Taylor advocates, and does make sense, gets the bigger fish more confident But also I think the critical thing here was that it was dark. That might have made all the difference, but I have had some good barbel here in broad daylight, pre Otter though. There certainly is a resident/ bold Otter there, he popped up in my peg last Autumn at dusk.
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Neil, if we are talking of the place I think :), then i've never caught one there in broad daylight, all mine have come at dusk. You've been fishing the place a lot longer than i have though.
 
John Care said:
Neil, if we are talking of the place I think :), then i've never caught one there in broad daylight, all mine have come at dusk. You've been fishing the place a lot longer than i have though.
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Not where you are thinking of John, (I suspect) :) Its quite fascinating that some pegs so near to each other can fish so differently, where you are talking of (I suspect) I agree that dusk offers the best chance there, as most venues.
 
Neil Smart said:
I agree that dusk offers the best chance there, as most venues.
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Usually the case I agree Neil,... but I've been witnessing different feeding activity from barbel on 3 different D. Stour venues that are upto 4 miles apart this year.
Instead of the usual pattern of dusk or dawn feeding spells I've noticed that they are regularly inclined to feed midday into the afternoon and get their heads down out of sight as dark approaches.
I wondered if this may have something to do wth the regular evening into dark otter activity I see at those locations and the fish are adapting their behaviour?
Just a theory,... but I watch them very regularly,... but have to admit that the otters have been around for a long time on the river so why didn't I notice it last year?
Probably a case of me reading to much into this fishing lark!
 
Fish learn how and when to feed according to how they are fished for,the mistakes they make and possibly now its been mentioned how Otters predate on them.They try to always play it safe.If everyone is bait and waiting they will get caught once or twice like that,the next time its done they will bolt down all freebies that are introduced and swim away not to be seen again before the angler has cast in. If everyone is night fishing then the fish will always feel safer(but not stupid) during the day,early morning when everyone has departed can be a good time for free feed.There are now full time/long stay anglers on the bank and that changes everything.The Quality of your presentation will be another issue,you cannot expect fish to be too stupid,heavy tight lines, big hooks,noise and careless casting etc will still be a danger flag, finesse is always the way,confident feeding barbel will leave your swim if you are not careful.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Fish learn how and when to feed according to how they are fished for,the mistakes they make and possibly now its been mentioned how Otters predate on them.They try to always play it safe.If everyone is bait and waiting they will get caught once or twice like that,the next time its done they will bolt down all freebies that are introduced and swim away not to be seen again before the angler has cast in. If everyone is night fishing then the fish will always feel safer(but not stupid) during the day,early morning when everyone has departed can be a good time for free feed.There are now full time/long stay anglers on the bank and that changes everything.The Quality of your presentation will be another issue,you cannot expect fish to be too stupid,heavy tight lines, big hooks,noise and careless casting etc will still be a danger flag, finesse is always the way,confident feeding barbel will leave your swim if you are not careful.
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Good post that is Mark, food for thought.
 
Some more very good points, and Dave that's an interesting observation re dusk and Otters, I do believe that Barbel especially are very quick to adapt to counter danger, and since I have been fishing for them they do seem to be more 'aware', and I would guess that would be repeated across the board on here.

This part of the Avon was never prolific as such, although I did manage 6 barbel and six chub in a short session a few years back, I don't know why that August session was so prolific, it was daytime, and the bait was halibut pellet loose fed and a straight lead, never come close to beating that since.

But if it was that easy, don't suppose we would do it. :)
 
John Bailey had similar views in a talk I was at last November. He was of the opinion that the otters and chub were feeding better at first light and not only that, but the deeper pools which you would normally expect to hold barbel, didn't. He reckoned that the bigger fish were actually in shallower water as the pools had become prime feeding spots for otters. Interesting stuff.
 
Neil Smart said:
Some more very good points, and Dave that's an interesting observation re dusk and Otters, I do believe that Barbel especially are very quick to adapt to counter danger, and since I have been fishing for them they do seem to be more 'aware', and I would guess that would be repeated across the board on here.

This part of the Avon was never prolific as such, although I did manage 6 barbel and six chub in a short session a few years back, I don't know why that August session was so prolific, it was daytime, and the bait was halibut pellet loose fed and a straight lead, never come close to beating that since.

But if it was that easy, don't suppose we would do it. :)
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Neil this part of the Avon was very prolific many years ago . If you knew where to look . A mate of mine who introduced me to the joys of Barbel fishing many years ago who showed me how to catch Barbel not to far away from the swim we both know ;) It was not uncommon to catch up to 10 Barbel averaging around the 7/8/9 lb in weight in the day on hemp & castor Sadly those days have long gone now .

I have just found this on the net which makes interesting reading ? https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...ge&q=Do animals learn to avoid danger&f=false
 
Joe Fletcher said:
Neil this part of the Avon was very prolific many years ago . If you knew where to look . A mate of mine who introduced me to the joys of Barbel fishing many years ago who showed me how to catch Barbel not to far away from the swim we both know ;) It was not uncommon to catch up to 10 Barbel averaging around the 7/8/9 lb in weight in the day on hemp & castor Sadly those days have long gone now .

I have just found this on the net which makes interesting reading ? https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...ge&q=Do animals learn to avoid danger&f=false
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Ahh yes I remember you saying, just before my time...thanks for the link, but why is the print so small? In the 'good old days' I could read anything and catch Barbel for fun :rolleyes:
 
Neil said he believed Barbel were quick to adapt to counter danger, years ago i used to fish the upper Bristol Avon.It was prolific and numbers could be caught during daylight if you kept working at it.The drive was 100 miles from home so we only fished one day a week.Every time we fished we had to ring the changes to keep catching .Those fish were learning by being caught and because they were visible we also learnt weekly.What we caught on one week would be blown by the next but a slight tweek in what we were doing and bang we got fish again.If you fish the same method all the time then you may be educating the fish into avoiding you in the fiuture
 
Which all goes to prove that barbel are smarter than people, as McDonald's is still full slobbering-wobberlies. They never learn :D
 
Oh Terry !!!!
But true, and have you noticed h o w they leave more signs that they have been feeding, and on what. Perhaps we should start fishing for this species, it would be much easier than barbel.
 
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