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Barbel boiled baits back when?

Mike Wilson said:
Simon

My gosh yes.
Around 83/4 ish used to get my 'tickets', wait until it was dark and drive down the gentle slope [!!]. Park on the flat at the bottom where the flower people had a caravan and walk to the big overhanging tree that had the slack to the left.
The place was alive with badgers and owls as you know. All seemed very tame. Got caught about '87 ish for driving down and told to walk in future. No problem going down but the walk back up was like climbing Everest. Used to love the place as it was rare to see another guy although one night a fellow was guesting on the far bank and fishing just where I used to upstream it. Had 3 doubles that night to 13+ he shouted over proudly as he left for his mighty walk towards Salisbury.
I'd love my time again

Take care

Mike
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Me too mate !
I used to take the now mrs Lush down there on holiday in one of the static caravans, nice and central for all the touristy stuff it was ;) most nights saw me fishing in those woods, i never caught very much, mainly because i was green as grass and also because i was using Spam when everybody else was filling it in with 'Bait' :( :D It was without doubt the spookiest place i've ever fished at night, mainly i think because there was no easy/quick way out, in fact on the Chanting night as i staggered back up the hill wanting very much the whisky bottle in the caravan i was actually going TOWARDS the bloody noise :eek:
Happy days !
Anyway, to go back a bit, this baiting pyramid thing, any relevance to Barbel fishing ? :)

Si
 
Colin Gordon said:
I don't think it will ever be lost in the realms of time, despite Kevin Maddocks being the bigger more widely recognised name, Lenny Middleton is basically given full credit for thinking up the hair-rig, just google 'who invented the hair-rig' and you'll see, though apparently Kevin's wife Karen donated the original hair.:)
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For someone who played such an important role Colin you could have got her bleedin name right :D
 
Simon

Not really as it was originally 'designed' to sort out the bigger carp. Barbel were all agressive on baits and whilst I had some enormous catches [for me] 28 being the most in 8 hours it wasn't selective as the fish ranged from about 4 to 10lbs. Loved catching them though. My friend Keith Speers [Zanderman] and I had also some good bags of Thames fish some six or seven years ago but all on heavy baiting of maggots. Sizes from say about 6 to again 10lbs.
Love to try it with a few thousand lobs but that will have to wait until my lottery numbers come up. If they do your welcome to join me...............

Mike
 
Simon Lush said:
Didn't think you would resist this thread for long Mike :) Yes, you are right about the Tench/carp baits thing coming first,it was staggering what came out of the Johnsons lakes and the 'Colne valley water' at the time as a direct result of their use, although in retrospect i do think the modern day maggot tactics would have done very well also, definately for numbers of fish, though thats just my opinion, never know now i suppose!

Re Sandy Balls, were you ever down there when the Tree worshipers started up their chanting? Rabbits nose stuff that was :D
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Yeah, re tench, nowadays I do think using boilies took us well off course. As Mike says, oh to have your time again! The stupid thing was that when I first fished Johnson's I used stepped-up match tactics and had some fabulous fishing with an '8' on my very first day on the Pub Lake but the way forward was being proposed by Jim Gibbinson and Fred, etc. and I was still young and impressionable enough to be swayed by it. Then things went fill circle with Steve Edwards tearing apart the Railway lake using maggots!!!
 
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Mike Wilson said:
Colin

I think you will find Kevin's wife then was Brenda.

Mike
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I was talking on the phone to a "Karen" I can only assume that's the reason for the name inclusion, cos I had no idea what Kevin's wife was called.
Simon this important link in angling history is noted, for the record was the 'hair' a gravel grey, silty brown or sandy blonde??:D
 
Can vouch for the scare factor down there especially when the big cat was seen down there, had a deer crash out of the trees and leap straight into the river in the dark four feet away from where i was fishing ( the boardwalk) , i absolutly ******* myself to the point i felt sick ! Thought i was gonna be mauled by a panther, the walk through the trees back up hamburger hill was one of the most terrifying walks in my life! Magical and scary at the same time down there with some big barbel to boot
 
Colin

One has to be very careful when saying the hair rig was invented by Lenny. The application for carp fishing its true but the theory/technique was published in C Alma Baker's book 'Rough Guide to Big Game fishing In New Zealand' [or something like that . My copy was never returned.] Prior to that, and I don't have the date to hand but was perhaps some 100 years ago plus, it was used to catch sturgeon. The 'bait' was a cork or wooden ball soaked in [fish?] oil and attached by a couple of inches of line to the hook.
As they say there's little thats new in angling.

Be careful, you might call your good lady by the wrong name and have a lot of explaining to do.

Take care fellas

Mike
 
Mike Wilson said:
Colin

One has to be very careful when saying the hair rig was invented by Lenny. The application for carp fishing its true but the theory/technique was published in C Alma Baker's book 'Rough Guide to Big Game fishing In New Zealand' [or something like that . My copy was never returned.] Prior to that, and I don't have the date to hand but was perhaps some 100 years ago plus, it was used to catch sturgeon. The 'bait' was a cork or wooden ball soaked in [fish?] oil and attached by a couple of inches of line to the hook.
As they say there's little thats new in angling.

Be careful, you might call your good lady by the wrong name and have a lot of explaining to do.

Take care fellas

Mike
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:D Any wrong name would miraculously be the name of my pursued fish quarry, even if I was chasing an unknown uncaught fish.;):D

Mike, like you said, "there's little that's new in angling.":)
 
Chris Thomson said:
still loads more life left in the "milks" yet, too much money and too much hassle for most, had my best ever seasons on them, should get back on them really! Wether it was down to nutritional recognition or they just liked the taste/smell i'll never know but at the time it didn't matter!
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Got to back track here ! The age old question debated over and over :) Well ?

I'm in the Inate behavoir camp, they know its good for them so they eat it ! Much like a Horse will suck at a big lump of salt in a field.
 
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One day, if I can find it, I'll leave the most evil anti-eject carp rig ever devised and actually made, on my death, to Angling History. A fine-gauge, stainless surgical / dental steel wire cage that devilishly enclosed a boiled bait until a carp drew it into its mouth, when it duly "exploded", rendering it impossible to eject. Cooked up over the space of a week or three in my home - idea, more ideas, materials accessed, prototypes made - in Old Windsor by me and my ace-carper pal for his "Blackwater" [the name HE cooked up for Colne Mere because to use its real name invited being overheard by some old dear in a supermarket who'd only blab...] long before the rest got there...

Evil.
 
Well i started useing boillies for barbel much later than most of you guy's.... erm... being just a young whippersnapper :) about 99 i think, though i had been using them for my carp fishing obviously, the ' Grange ' had become my favorite, and i used to have them rolled By Ian Russell his 'factory' was in his back garden then !, but when i didn't find the immediate succsess for barbel that i had with them on Rodney Meadow, and Orlitts, Frimley, and a few others where the Grange had worked so well, i lost my bottle ! and started to chop and change, with the result - i lost myself up my own rear end, so much so i went back to my old meat recipe, i was still experimenting but mostly with paste mixes of my own design, then this bloke turned up on the stretch, and proceeded to empty it taking double after double ! and i thought i was doing well ! :mad:
Anyway over time we became very good friends ( luckily for me ) and..... eventually, and i have to admit not without a little arm twisting from me :p he divulged a few of his secrets.

- remember the scene from ghost where Patrick Swayze sings ' i'm 'enry the 8th ' - well that was kind of the torture i put him under !:D

It wasn't so much HNV, i'd read much on the subject already, but he showed me hands on how to use it and get the best from it, and my fishing never looked back, in effect i was able then to target big barbel confidently, instead of playing the numbers game, .... as much fun as that can be, and still is went i want it to be.
That guy turned my fishing round 180 degrees, i'll never be able to thank him enough.
I'm not going to name drop as he's a secretive sort and certainly has never sought the limelight, but those who know him - Mike :) will know who he is,
a real gent, and i owe him a lot.

Ian
 
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Similar to the 'Needle" rig i was once told about then Paul, hard bait, fine sewing needle threaded through it, anti-eject you bet, right ? most definetly not :(
 
Simon Lush said:
Got to back track here ! The age old question debated over and over :) Well ?

I'm in the Inate behavoir camp, they know its good for them so they eat it ! Much like a Horse will suck at a big lump of salt in a field.
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Hmmm...All I know for sure on this one is that it would take a better man than me to come up with a definitive answer :D But I can tell you what I think.

Barbel seem similar to carp in that pre feeding with a quality food type bait will allow you to catch well, and for a long time on that bait. However, certainly with carp (and I gather with barbel) if you feed in the same way with low food value 'attractor' style baits, you chances of catching well, or for a decent period...are greatly reduced. Which would seem to point to nutritional recognition....almost as though they know what is good for them.

Conversely, you can also do well with carp and barbel for long periods by feeding heavily with certain natural particle type baits, which have some nutritional value, but are ultimately damaging to the fishes health for one reason or another...which would seem to suggest they do NOT know what is good for them.

I have also heard it said that we humans can not recognise food of high nutritional value without reading the stuff on the back of the box...so what are the chances of a fish being able to differentiate? On the other hand, there are many senses that fish and other 'dumb' critters have that are vastly superior to our own...and who knows what senses our distant ancestors had that kept them alive before food came with lists of ingredients...but which we have now lost :D

Like I said, I don't really know. But I THINK...on ballance...that they probably can tell, at least to some extent...what is good for them :)

Appart from hooks that is...silly sods :D:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
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