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Bait wafting in current.

H

Hugh Bailey

Senior Member
I have question about bait presentation.

Last year whilst fishing the River Dordogne in a reasonably shallow (4 / 5 foot) swim with a powerful flow – maybe walking pace * 1.5. I had some problems using meat. In the powerful flow, using a feeder or lead, the meat hook bait was being wafted up and down in the current. It looked very unnatural & I didn’t catch in a swim where previously I had caught well, when maybe there was a little less flow. I tried pinning the line down but still the bait just flapped about. In this situation, should I just roll the bait, or maybe run it thru on a float?

I’m going again soon, so it would be good to get some ideas on how to tackle this sort of swim.
 
Hugh, you could try a weighted hook. Wrap some soft lead around the shank of the hook and then embed it in the meat and also ensure that the hooklink is pinned down with tungsten putty along the length.

Sam
 
Sam Pottage said:
Hugh, you could try a weighted hook. Wrap some soft lead around the shank of the hook and then embed it in the meat and also ensure that the hooklink is pinned down with tungsten putty along the length.

Sam
Click to expand...

But - would that look like a 'freebie... - if everything else is moving, maybe the hookbait should be moving too?
 
Hence the reason I started 'rolling'.

I was stood waste deep in the middle Severn one afternoon, and could see fish 'flashing' out towards mid river.
I tried a standard ledgered meat approach and couldn't get them to pick a bait up.
As I was re-baiting I dropped a piece of meat accidentally and as it sank to the bottom I could see it 'roll' away.
I re-baited and lowered my rig into the water in front of me.
The led hit bottom and the bait sank.
Once the rig had settled, the hookbait just fluttered up and down an inch or two..... looking very unnatural.

I took the lead off and flicked the bait well upstream, as it approached the fish it got snagged, so I wound up and lifted the bait out of the snag... A Barbel came up and almost took it from under the surface.
Next cast I ran the bait through without snagging and a nice Barbel took it....:cool:


I think the biggest problem is that meat is quite buoyant, in fact some meat almost floats.... so a lot depends on the type you buy.
You can either trot under a float or 'roll' the meat.

Other than that, use a specialist bait, like boilie /pellet / paste, that will be much denser and sink.


Steve
 
good points steve,
yes a lot of meat is semi bouyant, what can be done is to use some lead wire,
either around the hook shank or just touching the hookeye stopped with a float stop or the wire wrapped around one side of the hair, try testing your
bait attached in a full bucket of water to se if it rises up when the water is swirled a bit, tungsten rubber tubing is also good on the hair instead of lead wire if you can still locate the stuff or use yer loaf and experiment a bit with other means:)
 
Stephen Pritchard said:
Think ill try that. I use small squared meat for trotting and find when I loose feed its not sinking fast enough.
Click to expand...

It's either that Stephen, or fry it (no fat added to the pan :D) If you fry it, try chucking some curry powder in with it and keep it rolling around in the pan until it coats the cubes and a lot of the fat has run out.

Makes a great change bait when the fish are getting wary of the standard stuff....they love it :)

Cheers, Dave.
 
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