how

[Leon Dodd]

hi all,
this is not really how to bait with hemp, but how much and how often?
if i am fishing a stretch with a good head of average sized barbel and plenty of other species too should i put say four pints of hemp in in one go then leave it a couple of hours before fishing or would i be better putting in a pint an hour for four hours then leaving it a couple of hours before fishing or would another approach be better?
thanks in advance, leon

 

[Sam Lloyd]

why not do 2 or 3 sessions trying the different ways you've discussed ? that way you'll know what works for that particular stretch rather than rely on the opinion of someone who may or may not have fished it

 

[Andrew Boyne]

It's all relative to what you call 'a good head of barbel' but 4 pints won't last very long on many of the stretches i fish. If you intend to put the whole lot in at once i'd be fishing over it within half an hour, after 2 hours they may well have eaten the lot and buggered off! Feeding smaller amounts regularly may extend the time the fish frequent the swim but the problem then is topping up the swim without spooking the fish. If you can see them, all well and good - just wait until they have left the area, if you can't - not so good, as you could potentially ruin the swim by swinging a bait dropper on their heads.

 

[Jon Frisby]

On a local river to me a stretch which has a smallhead of barbel and nigh 8 times the amount of Chub. Whilst prebaiting a big shoal of chub would be over the bait for as long as there was bait in the swim. The Barbel would make a quick appearance never more than a minute, which IMO they didn't like to be in an area with so many Chub. I tried this many times prebaiting this stretch and this always happened no matter what I baited it with.
Just something to think about

 

[Keith Speer]

Leon

I fish on some very heavily fished public waters, some think that Hemp is a blown bait, I think that putting a lot in, in one go is probably the reason for this.
However I catch quite a few on a single grain of trotted hemp, what I do is feed little and often, by this I mean 10 -20 grains every trot, this builds confidence and very often, fish, Barbel included, will start to feed in a frenzy!
This can take several hours to build a swim and to be fair it IS hard work, but the very fact that I catch on several waters where Hemp is supposed to be the kiss of death proves that is is not the bait but the method of feed pattern that is at fault.

If where you are going to fish is NOT heavily fished, put a lot in, in one go, but if it does see a few anglers then think very carefully and apply the bait you have in a manner that will increase your chances, not send them scurrying down to the section below.

I see a lot of Barbel anglers fishing the same method and baits no matter where they fish, the words "I am on such and such bait this season" is quite common, Barbel are similar to Carp but not the same, what works for Carp anglers does not always move across with success to our rivers.

Doing the same thing every week, or doing the same as everyone else will probably produce the same or similar results, if you want to do better than that, fish a little differently.

I hate the term "Thinking outside the box" but in this instance it covers what I mean very well, if you want to change your results then change what you do, and learn from the experience!!

Tight Lines.

 

[Leon Dodd]

how????

thanks for the replies guys,
conflicting opinions, i am no nearer deciding which way to go:confused:. i have three swims earmarked for my first session so may try feeding one over a few hours, piling it all in another and not feeding at all in the other and see how that works out, i'll let you know how i get on,
cheers, leon

 

[Chris Jones]

It's going to depend entirely on where you are fishing. There are stretches of the Swale that I've found that piling any amount of bait in seems to have a negative effect. I stick to relatively small PVA bags in such circumstances and play the waiting game. Introduce much more and the barbel tend to spook out of the swim.