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Barbel Groundbaits

Richard Isaacs said:
Bait dropper, swim rest, straight lead, Job done!

I’m a pretty crap feeder angler to be truthful especially at range and any fish I’ve landed on the rare occasions I’ve used them certainly haven’t come from skills of using a feeder effectively that’s for sure.

I don’t use ground bait very often at all.
The exception for me would be a little cage packed with liquidised bread flicked out for a winter chub. That’s caught me a few fish and it’s a method I can use proficiently but if any distance, accuracy, consistency required in a feeder is to be used I’m pretty much Bambi on ice 🤣
Give me a stick float any day over them daft bloody cages I build 🤣
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That'll be those bleedin' Torrix sticks you use for casting. Get yourself a decent Free Spirit Hi S and you'll be casting down the same hole every time :p
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Bait dropper, swim rest, straight lead, Job done!

I’m a pretty crap feeder angler to be truthful especially at range and any fish I’ve landed on the rare occasions I’ve used them certainly haven’t come from skills of using a feeder effectively that’s for sure.

I don’t use ground bait very often at all.
The exception for me would be a little cage packed with liquidised bread flicked out for a winter chub. That’s caught me a few fish and it’s a method I can use proficiently but if any distance, accuracy, consistency required in a feeder is to be used I’m pretty much Bambi on ice 🤣
Give me a stick float any day over them daft bloody cages I build 🤣
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Thought you'd be an expert feeder angler with all those beauties you make🤣
 
Never felt the need to use anything other than scalded pellet in all honesty !! If you get it right, it’s like groundbait anyhow………
I’m a simple soul, when I can sight fish on a smaller river, I’ve either fed by hand or used a PVA mesh filled with pellets (nicked onto the hook) or ‘bombed’ a ‘coconut’ of scalded pellet wrapped around a lead through the weedbeds (method style or with the hook link moulded into the ball !! Rivers like The Kennet, I’d use a PVA mesh attached to the lead, sometimes used a helicopter rig pinned right down. Big rivers ? I just tend to lob out a feeder full of pellet mush, long hook length, usually a straight lead downstream on the 2nd rod (if using one).
That said, I rarely fish for barbel these days (rarely fish at all tbh 😔).
 
Terry Simner said:
This talk about using dry mixes in PVA bags, and us learning from carper, sounds good ... but most carpers aren't fishing in rivers. Flowing water can make fools of us all .. and brings to mind Barbel Days & Ways, and how we can get it SO wrong 😂 (I always put my lead in the bag, and hope:))

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I’ve got these DVDs, not watched them in 6 years so maybe time for a revisit. I’ve always attached my mesh bag to the lead, but as they show here you can never be 100% confident the bag hasn’t gone for a wander.
 
Paul Matthews said:
Never felt the need to use anything other than scalded pellet in all honesty !! If you get it right, it’s like groundbait anyhow………
I’m a simple soul, when I can sight fish on a smaller river, I’ve either fed by hand or used a PVA mesh filled with pellets (nicked onto the hook) or ‘bombed’ a ‘coconut’ of scalded pellet wrapped around a lead through the weedbeds (method style or with the hook link moulded into the ball !! Rivers like The Kennet, I’d use a PVA mesh attached to the lead, sometimes used a helicopter rig pinned right down. Big rivers ? I just tend to lob out a feeder full of pellet mush, long hook length, usually a straight lead downstream on the 2nd rod (if using one).
That said, I rarely fish for barbel these days (rarely fish at all tbh 😔).
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I’m the same really, I just fancy trying groundbait out as an alternative. Scalded pellets moulded around a gripper lead are a great option, as is buying the hook in it method style, especially when wanting to underarm lob your rig under some trees.
 
Tim Lawrence said:
I’ve got these DVDs, not watched them in 6 years so maybe time for a revisit. I’ve always attached my mesh bag to the lead, but as they show here you can never be 100% confident the bag hasn’t gone for a wander.
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Attaching it to any type of clip always runs the risk of that joint being the first bit to melt and let go. I’ve often just knotted mine to the lead swivel in the past but again that could easily fail if it lets go there first before the content empty’s.
Gotta be lead in the bag really to get it to work properly in a decent flow.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Worst conditioned car on your street always belongs to the mechanic 😉
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Richard Isaacs said:
Attaching it to any type of clip always runs the risk of that joint being the first bit to melt and let go. I’ve often just knotted mine to the lead swivel in the past but again that could easily fail if it lets go there first before the content empty’s.
Gotta be lead in the bag really to get it to work properly in a decent flow.
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Or use a well made feeder to release the contents more gradually 😉
 
Terry Harman said:


Take a look at this Tim you don’t have to thread your hooklength through the stick just attach it to the lead using pva clips



There’s so much stuff we can take from carp fishing but apparently all you need is a hair rig a feeder and some pellets 😉😁
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Have negated the stick mix method (for carping) for a long time; a decade ago it did become the 'go to' method but like all go to methods they fall out of fashion - def going to give this a try for barbel this season - don't know why I didn't think of it before, the primary benefit is ensuring your perfectly honed hook point remains intact for longer which on rocky beds can soon get blunt - that and providing a better pendulum in flicking the hooklength forward from the lead on the cast . . .mmmm
 
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Terry Harman said:


Take a look at this Tim you don’t have to thread your hooklength through the stick just attach it to the lead using pva clips



There’s so much stuff we can take from carp fishing but apparently all you need is a hair rig a feeder and some pellets 😉😁
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I use stick mixes most of the time, I thread my hooklink through too (so I only use fine particles in the mix). It guarantees tangle free casting, it can’t come off, the hook point doesn’t get turned over on gravel and there’s a nice bit of attraction around the hookbait - I also often nick a small pva bag onto the hook before drawing it into the stick too.

I make up a load of sticks and soak them in whatever liquid I fancy, this increases the breakdown time too and when tested in the margins I get a good 60-90 seconds even in summer conditions. I’ll have a couple ready on hooklinks when night time comes, then I can just change the hooklink via a quick link and be fishing again in seconds.
 
Rob Mitchell said:
I use stick mixes most of the time, I thread my hooklink through too (so I only use fine particles in the mix). It guarantees tangle free casting, it can’t come off, the hook point doesn’t get turned over on gravel and there’s a nice bit of attraction around the hookbait - I also often nick a small pva bag onto the hook before drawing it into the stick too.

I make up a load of sticks and soak them in whatever liquid I fancy, this increases the breakdown time too and when tested in the margins I get a good 60-90 seconds even in summer conditions. I’ll have a couple ready on hooklinks when night time comes, then I can just change the hooklink via a quick link and be fishing again in seconds.
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Think its a lot of faffing about, when you can use a feeder which you can fill tight or loose depending on the flow,i usually have a mix of pellets and hemp and maybe some bottled flavour,3ft hooklength and they can come up to find my hook bait, hopefully 😃,mind you ive struggled last couple of seasons 🤣
 
Never used pva bags, paranoid about them rolling off down stream with the free offerings, might be ok when the rivers low, but get a foot or so on the trent or dove and they might be ok in a peg down nottingham way,,,,,
 
Mark Pevy said:
Think its a lot of faffing about, when you can use a feeder which you can fill tight or loose depending on the flow,i usually have a mix of pellets and hemp and maybe some bottled flavour,3ft hooklength and they can come up to find my hook bait, hopefully 😃,mind you ive struggled last couple of seasons 🤣
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For some reason I’ve never really liked feeder fishing and never done that well on it. Probably my own shortcomings, but I’m much more confident with pva, spoppers and a straight lead.I don’t find it much messing about either, it takes me maybe 20-30 minutes to make enough sticks to last 48 hours. Sometimes I even do them at home the day before!

Push a long baiting needle through, pull it back with the hooklink loop and thats it.
 
It would be interesting to see a similar video showing how much of the ground bait and particles reaches the bottom when using a feeder in various depths and flows using different groundbait mixes. One of the reasons I make my hemp & maize ground bait sticky using the natural starch in the grains is that you can virtually guarantee that the feeder hits the bottom full and returns empty.
 
Drennan flat maggot feeder.
Mix of pellets 2 4 6 mm
Holes enlarged near the base of the feeder according to flow.

2ft hooklink. Banded 10mm elips. Maybe change to 6mm if preoccupied.

Add some monster crap to pellets in winter.

Very high flood water...hemp and hali groundbait with monster crab added plus mixed pellets.
Packed very firmly into a large feeder. Same elips 10mm or bigger pellet or 15mm fishmeal boilie.
 
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