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Mainline Active Maple 8 - RIP

Bait is a confidence thing,when fish are having it they will take anything IMO.When you use a bait and catch barbel in dire conditions ie cold,frost,snow it gives you total confidence in that particular bait also luck plays a part having your bait in the water when the fish decides to eat.when it is cold one bait I will use above all is paste.A few years ago whilst fishing the hants avon I saw a chub swim 20 yards plus strait to my paste hook bait and take it without hesitation now that gave me confidence in that bait.Good luck to all.
Jamie
 
Neil, Trefor West does rate Elips as the ultimate barbel bait, though admittedly they are not really the same as manufacturd boilies. Interesting point about crayfish boilies, years ago I used to flavour bread with Richworth (I think?) crayfish concentrate and caught plenty of fat Cherwell chub on it. Mind you, I caught many more on plain bread too. My take on different baits is that they are fun to try out and I still love mixing my own various concoctions. If you enjoy messing about with baits I guess that's all part of the fun of angling :)
 
Many years ago I used to fish the middle Severn on a particular stretch just before Halibutt pellet started being used . I would fish hemp and caster and after about 20 minutes of starting , I would get my first Barbel and on a good day I could catch up to a dozen Barbel .

Then it all changed :( I turned up the one day with my hemp and caster and could not get a bite let alone a fish :eek:
Then this guy turns up late afternoon and fishes in the next swim up from me and within about half hour he catches his first Barbel and goes on to catch more .

So I am sat there scratching my head wondering what I am doing wrong :eek:
Curiousity finally gets the better of me and I go over to the the guy and explains I have been here all day and not had a bite :eek: and ask I am curious to know what bait you are using :eek:
He tells me he is using Halibutt pellet . I say to him , I have never heard of those and he gives me a handfull and he says go and try them :eek:

So of I go back to my swim and put one of these pellets on my hook and casts out and within a few minutes the tip arches round and I have my first Barbel of the day and went on to catch more Barbel until I run out of pellets .
After I packed up I made point of thanking the guy for giving me the pellets and saving me from a blank :eek:
Just goes to show if you are not using the right bait you can end up blanking ?
 
David Gauntlett said:
How right you are Hatter. I had an 11.04 last night,

I would just love to be stood behind Neil while he was trying to catch on the baits he so condescendingly and sarcastically infers are all you need....would be the funniest thing since Morecambe and Wise :D

Cheers, Dave.
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Well done on the catch David, but Morecambe and Wise were about as funny as tooth-ache, just not funny in the slightest.:)

Stephen
 
Alex Gowney said:
Neil, Trefor West does rate Elips as the ultimate barbel bait, though admittedly they are not really the same as manufacturd boilies. Interesting point about crayfish boilies, years ago I used to flavour bread with Richworth (I think?) crayfish concentrate and caught plenty of fat Cherwell chub on it. Mind you, I caught many more on plain bread too. My take on different baits is that they are fun to try out and I still love mixing my own various concoctions. If you enjoy messing about with baits I guess that's all part of the fun of angling :)
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Hi Alex, hope you are well, have you been on the Arrow recently? She is looking in fine fettle at the moment, what with 8' high nettles and the like, it's paradise.:)

I agree it's all about ringing the changes, in my words, perhaps I am guilty in swapping baits too much in a session, I will go through the lot, until I get some interest, you know a tell tell knock, I must have the wrong DNA to be a good Barbel angler, I don't trust boilies as much as 'naturals' or meat to get me bites, and boilies normally is a waiting game.

A few years back I was fishing the WA on a mild November afternoon, and the bait was Source Boilie, I was getting little knocks, but nothing developed, so I put on a 2'' cube of meat and soon as it settled, wrap round, result 12 & three quarter lb Barb, next cast a 11, glorious...but who's to say if I hadn't swapped baits I wouldn't have caught, but I felt the meat was what they couldn't resist, and let's face it who can:eek:

As you know Martin James is the bread man, and uses lots of different flavours, I reckon bread is the most under used of all baits, it's the ideal medium for flavouring and presentation, and will catch all species, I still forget to take it though.:rolleyes:
 
I have found similar on the WA Neil, meat will generally get a bite when all else fails, it is consistently the top bait on the WA in my experience. I haven't got an Arrow ticket as I got no reminder so wasn't sure if they were available this year. A good few years ago I was talking to Martin James on the BS stretch of the Teme, can't remember where it was, and he was catching barbel on bread. He rated it one of the best barbel baits of them all and I recall reading an old Angling Times annual where the late Fred . J .Taylor said he used nothing else but bread, crust usually, for Thames barbel purely due to it's versatile presentation possibilities.
 
There is no one more cynical than I about the plethora of carp baits available today Neil. And yes, I totally agree with you that anglers are some of the most gullible folk around. For instance, some are so daft that they imagine you could fish successfully with bread or worms on any barbel waters in the UK, with no regard to other residents of that water :D

Leg pulling aside Neil, there are SOME rubbish boilies out there (I say that guardedly, in view of events on another bait based ongoing thread) but most baits from the big manufacturers will catch fish, especially so when careful baiting has the fish feeding with abandon. But...there are also some gems out there, baits that have stood the test of time and been proven to stand head and shoulders above the also rans. True (and this will horrify you Neil) these were mostly developed and proven to be winners in the field of carp fishing...but a good carp catching boilie will catch barbel just as well.

You really must get a grip Neil, stop frothing at the mouth every time the 'C' word pops up. Some of the best barbel fishers out there also fish for carp...and vice versa. Angling skills, watercraft and pure fishing ability are NOT things that are unique to barbel fishers, however much you wish it were so. Sadly, the yobbo mentality is not the sole preserve of carpers either...having fished different areas of our hobby for an awfully long time, I would say the scores are pretty even on that one too.

As for Trefor West...he made his name long before crayfish were a major problem in general. My local water has ALWAYS had native crayfish present...but they never caused any problems, to the extent that most anglers were not even aware that they were there. You could happily use the mass maggot/caster/hemp baiting method that was one of his, and certainly Tony Miles favourite methods back then, without a single problem from crayfish. In fact you could do so up until fairly recently on my local...but you most certainly can't now. It would be a huge waste of time and money on the particular stretch I fish, and have you pulling your hair out in frustration. The same goes for many stretches of the Kennet and other classic barbel waters in my area.

Fact is mate, you will need to go through a whole new learning curve if the dreaded crays reach your neighbourhood. And they probably will, sooner or later. You may well then end up being very grateful indeed for a handful of specially hardened boilies...and various other aids developed by carp fishers :D

All the best Neil,

Dave.
 
Alex Gowney said:
I have found similar on the WA Neil, meat will generally get a bite when all else fails, it is consistently the top bait on the WA in my experience. I haven't got an Arrow ticket as I got no reminder so wasn't sure if they were available this year. A good few years ago I was talking to Martin James on the BS stretch of the Teme, can't remember where it was, and he was catching barbel on bread. He rated it one of the best barbel baits of them all and I recall reading an old Angling Times annual where the late Fred . J .Taylor said he used nothing else but bread, crust usually, for Thames barbel purely due to it's versatile presentation possibilities.
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They don't send reminders Alex, they are not like that :)

BS stretch of the Teme, Bransford was it? Yep I attended a BS roadshow with Martin as the guest speaker, back in January,(with thanks to my mate Joe for driving us there) in the middle of the Forest Of Dean, that was scary :eek: He talked of bread as the bait and the fish he has caught with what is a very cheap and ordinary bait, that fish can't resist, of course the bait manufactures hate the stuff, but to try and get a piece of it, developed simulated bread that lasts for ever :rolleyes:

Martin is a member on here, so Martin if you are reading this how about giving that Carper turned Barbel botherer Dave Gauntlett a lesson in the art of River fishing :p
 
David Gauntlett said:
There is no one more cynical than I about the plethora of carp baits available today Neil. And yes, I totally agree with you that anglers are some of the most gullible folk around. For instance, some are so daft that they imagine you could fish successfully with bread or worms on any barbel waters in the UK, with no regard to other residents of that water :D

Leg pulling aside Neil, there are SOME rubbish boilies out there (I say that guardedly, in view of events on another bait based ongoing thread) but most baits from the big manufacturers will catch fish, especially so when careful baiting has the fish feeding with abandon. But...there are also some gems out there, baits that have stood the test of time and been proven to stand head and shoulders above the also rans. True (and this will horrify you Neil) these were mostly developed and proven to be winners in the field of carp fishing...but a good carp catching boilie will catch barbel just as well.

You really must get a grip Neil, stop frothing at the mouth every time the 'C' word pops up. Some of the best barbel fishers out there also fish for carp...and vice versa. Angling skills, watercraft and pure fishing ability are NOT things that are unique to barbel fishers, however much you wish it were so. Sadly, the yobbo mentality is not the sole preserve of carpers either...having fished different areas of our hobby for an awfully long time, I would say the scores are pretty even on that one too.

As for Trefor West...he made his name long before crayfish were a major problem in general. My local water has ALWAYS had native crayfish present...but they never caused any problems, to the extent that most anglers were not even aware that they were there. You could happily use the mass maggot/caster/hemp baiting method that was one of his, and certainly Tony Miles favourite methods back then, without a single problem from crayfish. In fact you could do so up until fairly recently on my local...but you most certainly can't now. It would be a huge waste of time and money on the particular stretch I fish, and have you pulling your hair out in frustration. The same goes for many stretches of the Kennet and other classic barbel waters in my area.

Fact is mate, you will need to go through a whole new learning curve if the dreaded crays reach your neighbourhood. And they probably will, sooner or later. You may well then end up being very grateful indeed for a handful of specially hardened boilies...and various other aids developed by carp fishers :D

All the best Neil,

Dave.
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We are paved with Eels Dave in these parts, hardly surprising I suppose when you think of it, but in the summer they are a nightmare, don't believe it when they tell you they are scarce, they are not.

Fished the Kennet about 6 years ago and the Crays were a real problem, so yes I do take your point about boilies being so essential in such rivers, in truth it was never mentioned in the thread before Hatter did, and you followed through :p

Thanks for making me look like a tool, and your still a miserable 'C'

Well done on your '11' (cough) ;)
 
Neil Smart said:
He did however capitulate a little with his sausage sizzle, granted, but hey everyone has to make a living.

Talking of which, perhaps the next best thing would be Signal Cray Boilies, it would certainly serve two purposes in clearing your rivers of the things and probably be a pretty good fish catcher too, there you go Dave something to get your teeth into, just remember who gave you the idea after your first £1m;)
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Didn't Pallatrax used to make a boilie with Crayfish in it, Elixir 6? Looks like it is discontinued now.
 
The original assassin8 and active 8 were brilliant baits. Unfortunately nothing stays the same. The current active 8 liquid is nothing like the original much much thinner and just doesn't smell as good. I found an unused bottle of activator in my shed the other week from years ago and it still screams carp. The new one just doesn't.
 
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