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how?

Chris Thomson

Chris Thomson

Senior Member
Do barbel get a boilie into their mouth? I'm looking at a scenario of a barbel coming into a swim close to the bank with a handful or even no boiles as freebies in fairly slackish flow, do they suck from close above the bait or do they actually pick it up with their lips and take it back? Or do they do both depending on size, caution or flow? Just curious as surely it affects the effectivness of certain rigs.
 
Chris, as far as i,m aware, barbel suck, and chub mouth. :D Hence, a longer hair for barbel, and a very short one for chub. But i,m no expert. ;)
 
Hi men,

It's like if you watch the underwater Korda stuff , it makes you wonder how we ever hook fish :D . Me and Sue repeatedly watched a Teme fish picking up our hookbait , after about 6 attempts we wound it as something was not looking right . The bait was in fact lodged in a gap in the bedrock :( , and took some moving :mad: , then a simple replacement in around the same baited area see an instant take from that same fish :D , sometimes it's just luck .

Hatter
 
I would class barbel as grubbers rather than pure suckers. Hence the mouth shape. However they have no problem sucking in a lump of meat midstream even if it often means they turn upside down to do it.
 
i agree with graham, major part of the time they will be rooting on the bottom but have had a fair few sucking in or grabbing float fished baits too, with trotted baits they invariable turn on their side and grab the bait as they turn.
 
They are grubbers all right, ever seen a barbel ripping the bottom up, clouds of gravel and mud everywhere, fantastic to see.
 
But how do you think they would approach one single bait in the swim, say at night, would they go over it and suck it up or go over it and close their lips around it with their lips tight to the deck?
 
So you want a rig that when it pulls tight against the lead (as the barbel sucks it in) turns the hook point down.

Size 7 curved shank esp raptors work very well I have found.
 
i use size 2s with half a tin of spam sometimes, nothing fancy as if the fish do have it the top whacks round and its hooked
 
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