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Groundbait ?

Kevin Earley

Kevin Earley

Senior Member
Have heard differences of opinion of using groundbait amongst fellow Barbel anglers.

One favours a smelly groundbait laced with pellets and hemp delivered by several Spomb casts to feed a swim before a night fishing session. Another says use a minimal amount of groundbait, use pellets instead in a PVA bag.

My own thinking is to use a fairly heavy groundbait mixed with pellets & hemp using a Spomb in the hope / expectation that the feed will stay in the swim for longer than just a pellet / hemp mix.

Would appreciate learning Member's thoughts on the subject.
 
I use Robin red method mix, for capping my feeder full of pellets off. Also works well as a thin coating over a boilie or pellet hook bait.. if your on fish, barbel will actively search for this method mix plug from the feeder. Thats why it works well as a wrap/paste...
 
I’ve never done any good using it and I put it down to two things. Skill level with it and the volume of barbel in the river I fish.

My first ever session on the nene I hit it hard with ground bait and caught just about every bloody species in the river except barbel. I went home looking like a painters radio I had so many bream.

I think a good groundbait angler in a river with a potential of a good volume of feeding barbel in the river can really hit a home run but it’s not going to play any part in my fishing at the moment. I’ve found other methods work better for me.
 
An interesting topic, and one I think depends on what you want the G/B to do. For me, it's always as an attractant rather than feed. I plug my feeders with a nice smelly G/B but fill the feeder with food items I feel the fish will feed on. The G/B is there to provide a scent trail for the Barbel to home in on, then find the freebies from the feeder, and hopefully, my hookbait.

A lot to be learnt from Matchmen in this regards. I've watched International matches where enormous amounts of G/B were thrown it at the start, but perhaps not much food content, but maximum attraction and a carrier for the free offerings and something for the freebies to sit over.

The "Bagging Waggler" method of Carp match fishing. Very, very fine G/B with hardly no food content whatsoever, but maximum attraction. The Carp home in on the smell, there 's nothing there for them to eat except the hookbait.

Molehill soil, Leams. Carriers of food items, but no food value in themselves.

Interesting subject.
 
Use it to plug the feeder ends with very stoggy stuff spicy meat or margin mix that any spare gets wanged in garage frezzer becomes the base mix for next session.
 
A lot depends upon where I am fishing, a slow moving or slack water swim , I will only loose feed small amounts of hookbaits in the area I hope to catch, plus a pouch or two of hemp. The hookbaits are usually Spam or Halibut pellet behind the smallest lead I can get away with, even sometimes freelining the hookbaits.

If the river is moving at a better pace I prefer to have the freebies delivered in a more targeted manner, usually via an open ended feeder or sometimes using PVA mesh. The bigger the river the bigger the feeder.

My feeder mix is very simple, Brown Crumb, Hempseed , and hookbait samples,be they smallish cubes of spam, or halibut pellet , with some micro pellet mixed in the crumb. I cook all my hemp in a vacuum flask, and use the hemp water to mix the groundbait . I have no doubt that commercial groundbait mixes will work, but being a tight Yorkshireman I prefer to make by own mixes from cheap ingredients that I know work for me.

As a final attractant I usually mould a good big walnut sized or much bigger lump of Halibut Pellet paste around my pellet hookbaits. Spam cubes are fished as they come or fried in Garam Masala, which gives them a tough skin which the smaller chub seem not to be able to munch upon so much, as they can sometimes muller spam as it comes from the tin.

I think the above is pretty bog standard really , having seen lots of anglers using similar setups.

David
 
If Iam using a feeder it’s got chopped up hookbait offerings, liquidised bread, micro pellets, ground up pellets basically a cloud attractant in the hope it draws the fish onto the hookbait
 
Thank you all for the responses, plenty there to work through.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I’ve never done any good using it and I put it down to two things. Skill level with it and the volume of barbel in the river I fish.

My first ever session on the nene I hit it hard with ground bait and caught just about every bloody species in the river except barbel. I went home looking like a painters radio I had so many bream.

I think a good groundbait angler in a river with a potential of a good volume of feeding barbel in the river can really hit a home run but it’s not going to play any part in my fishing at the moment. I’ve found other methods work better for me.
Click to expand...

Hi Richard,

What methods do you prefer for where you fish?
 
I have a similar approach to Jon, use Robin red groundbait to plug pellet feeder and also mix it with eggs to make a boilie wrap paste
 
Ben Marr said:
Hi Richard,

What methods do you prefer for where you fish?
Click to expand...
I like to use a 2oz spopper and I generally put it in 3 times before a short evening session. 2 with natural hemp and 1 with afew broken boilies that will match my hook bait.
I’m not trying to draw fish in, I’m fishing for what’s hopefully already sitting there and just trying to entice it to poke it’s nose out.
My session usually starts after work and ends as it just starts to get dark.
1 bite is all I’m after
 
I use groundbait. Barbel love eating it which I realised when bream fishing in my match fishing days, being broken off regularly.

Groundbait is so versatile all year round and my approach is to cast regularly, even in winter. Summer time sees me plugging the ends of the feeder and filling the middle with pellets and hempseed. When it cools down in late Autumn the hemp and pellets are mixed with the groundbait and the mixture is less damp to make sure everything leaves the feeder. During low/ clear / cold conditions in Winter I will hardly have any pellets in the groundbait and will cast less frequently. Still important to keep casting though.

I have just tailored my match fishing approach from the past to my present day barbel fishing. Works for me.

On occasion I have had small barbel feeding on pieces of groundbait at my feet.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I’ve never done any good using it and I put it down to two things. Skill level with it and the volume of barbel in the river I fish.

My first ever session on the nene I hit it hard with ground bait and caught just about every bloody species in the river except barbel. I went home looking like a painters radio I had so many bream.

I think a good groundbait angler in a river with a potential of a good volume of feeding barbel in the river can really hit a home run but it’s not going to play any part in my fishing at the moment. I’ve found other methods work better for me.
Click to expand...
😀
 
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