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Baits for new season

Nigel Whittingham

Nigel Whittingham

Senior Member & Supporter
Went all out on my local River Severn using spicy sausage flavoured boilies, pellets & groundbait last year and caught loads of decent Chub- not a single Barbel!
Most of my sessions seemed to take place in a heavily coloured & flooded river due to the amount of rain we had last year and it wasnt until i changed to Hinders pellets & a 1” square lump of luncheon meat (actually Spam) that i started to catch. A big lump of meat seemed appropriate in a swollen, violent river and definitely outfished anything else. Undecided what to use early season when the river is (hopefully) more serene, lower & clearer. Banded Pellets and smaller hookbaits?or am i overthinking it and should just keep chucking out lumps of meat?
I know every day is different on every river but do Barbel warrant treating like Tench i.e finesse and picky at times or more like carp i.e once you’ve located them, they’ll eat anything?!
Your thoughts would be appreciated
 
I've been using the source pellet and boilies for years, along with various liquids, dumbells, hookbaits etc.

I've retired them for at least this season and have, on the recommendation of a mate, bought a load of hinders pellets and some extra hard boosted hook baits.

A change is as good as a rest I suppose!
 
Fishing the Trent last year with a friend, Sonubaits Pellet O’s out fished all other baits, including other branded pellets, meat and boilies.
 
Neil Smart said:
Those thoughts have been occupying my mind too. You would think a pellet boilie bait would be better in low clear conditions but I just know come dusk no matter what the river conditions, for me, meat gets the attention.
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Personally if they weren't as expensive as they are now.... Loads of maggots would be my choice of bait in clear/normal river conditions.
 
I fished opening day this season with caster / hemp feed and casters on the hair. It was low and clear and I though a natural bait would be right bearing in mind they hadn’t seen a pellet / boilie in three months.

I didn’t have a single bite.

I then put on my faithful Hinders Elips ( 2 superglued together on a straight hair and had a 4lb+ Chub on the bank within ten minutes.
 
I started using Sticky baits Krill pellets and boilies during the close season for Carp and had some good success, so will be continuing their use into my Barbel fishing this year.

Prior to the change I was using Dynamite Source boilies, however my locals shops dont really stock them anymore and the Krill is readily available everywhere
 
Nigel Whittingham said:
Went all out on my local River Severn using spicy sausage flavoured boilies, pellets & groundbait last year and caught loads of decent Chub- not a single Barbel!
Most of my sessions seemed to take place in a heavily coloured & flooded river due to the amount of rain we had last year and it wasnt until i changed to Hinders pellets & a 1” square lump of luncheon meat (actually Spam) that i started to catch. A big lump of meat seemed appropriate in a swollen, violent river and definitely outfished anything else. Undecided what to use early season when the river is (hopefully) more serene, lower & clearer. Banded Pellets and smaller hookbaits?or am i overthinking it and should just keep chucking out lumps of meat?
I know every day is different on every river but do Barbel warrant treating like Tench i.e finesse and picky at times or more like carp i.e once you’ve located them, they’ll eat anything?!
Your thoughts would be appreciated
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My experience leads me to believe barbel are not fussy at all.

In 3 seasons I caught a few hundred barbel on the middle trent - about 5 came on spicy boilies and all the others came on Hinders elips or Spam.

Maybe I could have caught more on other baits but on a good day I was catching 20+ fish and sometimes finishing early because I was knackered.

I no longer have access to that stretch of the trent but I caught 2 barbel and a 4llb chub on the Wharfe yesterday on meat (ASDA luncheon meat) when many others blanked.

These baits worked in high and low water, summer and winter, the only thing was that in low summer conditions I was less likely to catch during the middle of the day and in any conditions early evening into first 2 hours of darkness was always the most productive time.
 
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I have a nasty habit of chopping and changing baits far too much. This year I'm using one fishmeal boilie (freezer bait rolled exclusively for my local tackle shop, Carp Crazy, Guisborough). When using 2 rods it'll be boilie on one and worm/maggot or meat on the other. If nothing else I'll be carrying less.
 
Richard Bennett said:
Fishing the Trent last year with a friend, Sonubaits Pellet O’s out fished all other baits, including other branded pellets, meat and boilies.
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Sonubaits Pellet O’s were part of my spicy sausage campaign but not sure if i remember getting a bite on one! The leaking dumbells caught me a few chub though
 
A friend of mine said you cant beat a bit of Minge
 

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On the Tidal when it’s low and clear I get a lot more bites in the daytime on small (8mm) single or double pellets than boilies or anything big. Dusk-dawn and coloured water I’ve found bigger baits more effective.

Strangely, the one place I’ve fished on the Trent where that wasn’t true was Gunthorpe Weir, where I’d catch on boilies just as well in the daytime as anything else.
 
I tried the Hinders pellet for a lot of sessions two seasons ago, not a single bite, but caught a few with maggots, worms and boilies.
 
Fished the Wye (Pump House) on the penultimate day of the season in March with a couple of mates. They used a combo of meat and Pellet O's and caught just chub. I opted to fish with Vortex 14mm pellets and caught 4 x barbel, biggest 11lb 8oz. So, for me anyway, it will be Vortex this year (although I always have a tin of spam handy!)
 
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