I sort of get this argument of presenting a bait 'naturally' when looked at in a clear river where maybe you are close to the fish , in essence stalking it ,and don't wan to spook them but want to place the bait near the fish without scaring them , but basically when you are ledgering you are pinning the bait to one place on the river bed , is that a natural presentation ? Chuck,for example a lump of spam[ unattached to a line ] in to the middle of a river with a decent flow and it will get washed along in the current until it stops in a pace where the current hasn't the strength to move it further or it is trapped by river bed features or weed , where the spam , or any other sizeable bait ends up is controlled by the river, that to me , if we could control it ,would be natural presentation ., free lining or rolling baits is the closest angling method to mimic this . Pinning the bait to the river bed in the middle of the flow is not natural but that's how we catch them in most instances , i.e. we get the fish to come to the bait by whatever attractant that it gives off. I don't believe that all these sophisticated rigs make any real difference in terms of reducing the chance of spooking fish in a turbid river , if they find it and are hungry they will take it , Barbel, in my opinion are not a sophisticated / canny fish and I think we anglers sometimes over think presentation . Basically on big / medium size rivers most barbel anglers chuck their bait out to wherever they think the fish may be or maybe turn up at some point , sit back and wait for something to happen and that's it ! Varying hook lengths , using hair rigs etc will make a small difference but I don't think its critical in terms of catching or not catching
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