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Do Barbel go off baits

Iain Tutt

Iain Tutt

Senior Member
Do Barbel go off certain baits ?. On one of the stretches i usually fish the Barbel have seemed to go right off Spam and paste. I usually fish with a size 4 to 8 hooks with a big lump of spam. This has worked for the last 4 or 5 sessions but now even if i place a lump right in front of them they just swim straight past it.
If i drop down to a size 10 Drennan specialist wide gape with two pieces of corn they can't get enough. So as i asked do fish go off certain baits. I hope not as ive got about 30 cans of spam to eat myself.
 
Depends what you mean by ' go off 'Iain. I think Barbel become wary of certain baits , particularly if they have been caught on them and they can see them , but I don't think this is a long term / permanent phenomena . I bet if you fished the same swim where you can see the fish avoiding your meat in clear conditions , they would gobble it up in turbid floodwater . I wouldn't start scoffing all your tins of spam just yet
 
Meat

Meat blows very quickly in my experience, they soon wise up to it and especially in low water conditions.
 
True Jeff. This may be the case Mike. Am out again tomorrow and am going to a place along the river why i know a stream joins it. It gets a bit more flood water there. Do you think i should try with the size 10 hook or just stick with the larger hook as usual?. This time, I'll take an assortment of baits to give them ago. Fingers crossed.

Ps Robert i prefer the opposite.
 
I don't think it's quite as cut and dry or one-size applicable to all as that. Contrary to others in this thread, in my experience if meat isn't catching, then nothing is, except maybe maggots. Further, I've tried pellets of all sorts many a time and they just don't seem to catch at all on my local stretches of the Bristol Avon, findings which are shared by many other more experienced BA anglers I've spoken to.
 
Robert lol
 
Hi Anthony, no I'm using the new ones and Ive found them just as good, in fact I have a few originals mixed in and when I pull them out I just throw them in !
 
Back from my morning session. Tried elips, Bollies, Sweetcorn and Bread. I caught one 4lbish Barbel but this was on a slug i found with a size 10 hook. After an hour i found another slug in the undergrowth this time with a No 4 hook but only had knocks. I again changed to a Drennan wide gape specialist size 10 and bingo a nice 9lber. Then another on Sweetcorn again on a size 10 hair rig. Having only used size 10 for Carp and Trench in the ponds i would have thought a 10 was a bit small and not strong enough for Barbel but it seems to be the key this season. May have to go back to the larger sizes for meat once winter arrives.
 
I do fish other waters but i know there are bigger Barbel and Chub in this stretch. I try to just concentrate on one river for a session or two instead of flirting between different rivers all the time. This way i can usually tell when and where they hold out in different water levels and temperatures. This year they have been acting differently regarding patrolling stretches and bait.
 
Bob. Am not one for sitting on the same peg for hours, preferring the roaming approach. I suspect the fish have wised up to large hooks
 
Try a selection of punched meat pellets.

Used to fish jonking great meat cubes on the Dearne . Always preferred plumrose ham and pork to spam [much firmer], usually glugged with a halibut liquid enhancer a few hours before fishing, always keeping it chilled and taking a ice pack when fishing. Found in the last few years mixing various sized hair rigged punched meat has often worked and does make the bait similar looking to any loose fed pellets as well, although sometimes given the right conditions only a king size bait will do .
 
If anyone has a cupboard full of garlic spam I'd just like to tell them that yes, all the barbel in England have definitely gone off it. It just doesn't work any more. Thank goodness they've stopped making it or we'd all be wasting our money.

So I'll take it off your hands for let's say 50p a can and I'm sure I'll eventually find a use for it.

Deal?
 
Hi men ,

I dont think barbel will ever stop taking any one bait full stop . I think they become weary of it , and even the bait in a baited situation , I.E. big patch of bait , rather than a single , or the opposite .


Hatter
 
Out again this morning. Think ive worked it out. They will only bite if i use a small hook like a 10 or 12 with small baits such as Sweetcorn, Pellets, Maggot or Slugs. Sweetcorn and Maggot seem to be the cocktail to use this morning.
As Mark said perhaps they are getting weary of large baits and hooks. Caught 6 Chub, 8 Barbel and 2 slimy Eels in 4 hours from 3 different swims that i baited with Hemp half an hour before fishing the first spot. Keeping my cans of Spam for the winter now unless i go hungry.
Alex, by saying Spam i do mean Plumrose ham and pork. I just say Spam as everyone knows it. The cheapest around he is 85p but seen it in other shops for £1.30.
 
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