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Bait and wait ?

J

Joe Fletcher

No Longer a Member
I was just wondering if any one has had any success with Bait and wait ? I tried it the other night and not sure if it made any difference . There is a swim I have fished many times before and in the past I have caught some decent barbel from this particular swim ? Chub can be a nuisance and if I hook and land a chub it usually ends up killing the swim dead .

I turned up in the swim early evening and baited it up with a load of hemp and broken boilies . I then sat there for over a hour before I started fishing about
21:15 pm .
I knew from past experience chub can be a problem . Almost from the start I got plucks and pulls and had to resist striking . I had to wait nearly 2 hours before the rod tip flew round and I eventually got my barbel in the net .

So I ask my self these questions.... Did the bait and wait make a difference ?
Having rested the swim for over 1 hour before I started fishing . Was there any barbel in my swim when I started fishing ?
Did the barbel I had to wait 2 hours for to show it self move from lower down the river and in to my swim within a short period of time before deciding to pick up my bait and being caught ?
 
Joe I found putting a lot of bait in and fishing over the top is kiss of death on Severn.. if I bait up I do it first thing and fish in the evening.. or after a fished a swim I chuck in some bait when I finish and return the next day
 
Hi Joe

Both a friend and I have done well on the bait and wait approach. My approach is roughly as follows:

Length of time waiting
Its dependant on the time of time year; at the start of the season, I think an hour would be sufficient, however, as the weeks pass, and the Barbel have been caught a few times, i would increase the wait to between 2 and 3 hours, ideally 3 hours. This based on my observations.


Bait
I generally keep the use of hemp down to minimum, its a fantastic attracton, but its a bit to good and all you find is that they become obsessed with it, making them extremely difficult to hook on a larger hookbaits. Try chopped boillies or better still either use maggots or casters in quantity. My preference now, is maggots in low flows and castors if the flow is increases (castors are heavier).

Bait dropper
I will always use the plastic thamesly baitdropper. I wouldnt leave the house without a few in my bag.

Hope that helps.

Adam
 
Bait and wait can sometimes work against you,often if the fish have been fished for before that way and are a bit wise,they realise that until a lead goes in, all that feed is free,they steam into the feed and eat it all and either swim away or spook when you cast a lead over the top of them. This time it did not work so next time you fish, try overcasting your swim and draw it back into the fishing area, then feed as you would normally over the top,it might give you some of your answers.A mate used to do well on the middle Seven years ago, bait and waiting feeding a gallon of hemp and hookbaits on arrival.He would then fish another swim for that first hour, on returning overcast,drawback and catch.He then did not then waste an hours fishing with limited time.It was a prolific section with lots of hungry fish.
 
I always bait and wait Joe, and i don't think i do too bad ! but then i probably do things a bit different than most, for instance i never put bait in before i cast out, it's a No No ! I cast... or lower if i can - then i bait and wait, also the amount of bait i fish over would i guess be regarded as very light baiting .... not by all though, but still very little compared to what most would put in.
 
Hi Joe, I foresee you getting many conflicting replies on this topic because there are so many different scenarios with barbel feeding habits.
Your point about not latching into a chub is valid but also applies to small barbel.
If you are clearwater barbelling and can see what's occurring in your swim than often all is revealed if you are prepared to spend an hour or two watching the fish.
If I fish hemp and casters on the Havon I will bait up and leave it ,... just observing and watching.
What often happens, is the inevitable chub come onto the carpet of bait followed by any small barbel, and if I'm fishing in the right place, perhaps a good double will ghost into the swim cautiously,.. but will hang back for a good while.
After a while, .... if not disturbed, the bigger fish will gain confidence and start to dominate the others, to such an extent that when I carefully drop some more bait into the swim it will bully its way to the fresh offerings.
That's the time to make your first cast!
If I'd been impatient and cast in as soon as I'd seen the smaller fish I probably would have caught one but would have spooked the big fish for the remainder of the session.
The more confident the fish are allowed to become, the less they seem to spook when another compatriot is caught.
Always tempting to read too much into this fishing lark, but I can only pass on my hours of watching how barbel react to the traps we set for them, and also to the red warning light of another being caught.
I guess the bottom line is getting your target fish to become confident and ignoring the rest.

To completely contradict my last ramblings,... if I have prebaited a swim with ,...say boilies the day before,.. sometimes just casting out a single bait on arrival will get a result.
To be quite honest,.. nowadays I'm just pleased to find some fish!!
 
Just to illustrate how our quest for barbel can be full of contradictions I've just remembered when a good fishing buddy of mine ( you know who I mean AW!) baited and waited with hemp and caster at Ibsley a while back.
Shortly after baiting up, to coin a phrase,... the swim was black with barbel and chub.
You can imagine him rubbing his hands and thinking, Taylor,... eat sh*te!
After sitting on his hands and waiting however,... despite not disturbing the swim,... they disappeared and never returned that day and he was left thinking,.. if only I had cast in earlier!:rolleyes:
 
Interesting to see the various opinions on this as I've been playing about with it again this season. It certainly worked on the D.Stour for Chub. What I've found so far though on my new venue the H.Avon is quite the opposite. Maybe I'm applying it wrong but it's like fish repellent. A handful or PVA full will trigger a response though, even if it is by the wrong species.
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
Interesting to see the various opinions on this as I've been playing about with it again this season. It certainly worked on the D.Stour for Chub. What I've found so far though on my new venue the H.Avon is quite the opposite. Maybe I'm applying it wrong but it's like fish repellent. A handful or PVA full will trigger a response though, even if it is by the wrong species.
Click to expand...

Some of the bigger D. Stour chub that I seem to have tunnel vision with have wised up to my Pva tactics and avoid a tight group of only 3 or 4 freebies like the plague but will take a single bait.

I certainly agree with previous posters comments , ... so many scenarios depending on the venue and how pressured the barbel are. Some seem constantly neurotic.
Another tactic I like to use if the swim allows when using hemp and caster, is being able to leave my pinned down rig in situ and very carefully lower a Thamesly dropper full of casters just upstream on a regular basis if the fish are up for it.
 
My normal tactics for the Wye, but for an entirely different reason - the sodding canoeists!
Normally arrive at 3-30/4pm and get set up and bait the swim, but don't actually start fishing until somewhere between 5/6pm when the canoes tail off.
Had a good ( albeit short due to injury ) season last year.

I'll only bait with bigger baits like maples, boilies or larger pellets until I actually start fishing though.
An hour of thousands of minnows, chublets and dace would ensure any crumb or micro pellet would be long gone on the Wye..
 
If I was hunting Stour Chub I'd opt for a cage feeder stuffed with 4 and 6mm scalded pellet with a 3lb mono hooklength and a single drilled pellet to an 18. Just enough weight to hold bottom. Normally does the dandy in summer.
 
Gwyn Jeffs said:
My normal tactics for the Wye, but for an entirely different reason - the sodding canoeists!
Normally arrive at 3-30/4pm and get set up and bait the swim, but don't actually start fishing until somewhere between 5/6pm when the canoes tail off.
Had a good ( albeit short due to injury ) season last year.

I'll only bait with bigger baits like maples, boilies or larger pellets until I actually start fishing though.
An hour of thousands of minnows, chublets and dace would ensure any crumb or micro pellet would be long gone on the Wye..
Click to expand...


Gwyn,... as a total aside to this topic,... your post reminded me of a bright sunny day 10 years ago when I was struggling for a fish above Hereford.
I had my feet in the gravel shallows and was feeding the swarms of fry and minnows with 'fresh' micro pellets to amuse myself. I was surprised just how many floated....... I'll get my coat....:eek:
 
Haha I've noticed the same Dave. I'll only use them in a wet mix these days for precisely that reason.
Bad enough losing leads and feeders, never mind having bait float away!
 
I've always found the longer you can leave the swim the better, normally I would wait 3 hours minimum. Maggots, hemp, casters in daylight virtually guarantee a take if the fish are there and therein lies the problem. If you can't see the fish you are baiting blind and with such a reduced population of barbel in our rivers it gets expensive using maggots and casters if no barbel are present. I haven't used the same tactic with pellets or boilies as I think it may fill the fish up before a line is cast, but with maggots, hemp and/or casters it is a deadly method.
 
Alex Gowney said:
I've always found the longer you can leave the swim the better, normally I would wait 3 hours minimum. Maggots, hemp, casters in daylight virtually guarantee a take if the fish are there and therein lies the problem. If you can't see the fish you are baiting blind and with such a reduced population of barbel in our rivers it gets expensive using maggots and casters if no barbel are present. I haven't used the same tactic with pellets or boilies as I think it may fill the fish up before a line is cast, but with maggots, hemp and/or casters it is a deadly method.
Click to expand...

Spot-on there Alex, I totally agree with all of that.

Often I bait, wait (2 hours or so , bait again and then wait another hour or so. Get it right and you can have some spectacular c atches. I lean towards hemp and caster in summer to autumn, and hemp and maggots in winter/early March. All my best fish have fallen to these tactics.

As you point out - you need to know the fish are around before spending your hard-earned on half a gallon or more of casters! I usually use around 70 percent casters/maggots to 30 percent hemp.
 
My best ever catch came applying bait and wait but not a mass baiting of particles. I threw a pound or so of boilies into a swim on Wednesday night. Came back on the Friday and could see a couple of fish in the swim. I spent the next three hours throwing in just 6 or so boilies every half an hour and waiting. Just enough to keep the fish rooting around. Had a 7lb'er first cast and then 4 more including three doubles and a missed bite.

My chub PB came to a similar approach loose feeding pellets for a couple hours and then the chub within a few minutes.

I think the maggot and caster approach is unbeatable but as mentioned above needs to be in the right place at the right time and is an expensive learning curve.
 
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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