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Pre-baiting

Luke Agacy

Luke Agacy

Senior Member
I'm thinking of starting a "small" pre-baiting campaign in the run up to the new season.

Now I'm not talking piling in kilos of bait - just a few handfuls in maybe 3 - 4 swims a couple of times a week.

I usually use a fishmeal boilie as a hookbait - which are expensive at £12 a kilo but they have caught me lots of fish and I only go through a couple of kilos in a season which include my hookbaits and a few thrown in while I fish or a few broken into pva mesh.

Would it be detrimental to pre-bait with something cheaper such as sweetcorn, pellets, hemp, pigeon conditioner etc. ?

What I mean is - would the fish be wary of my usual bolies when i come to fish if Ihaven't been using them in the pre-baiting or am i thinking into it too much?
 
Luke,
Prebaiting on rivers brings about much debate. We all agree that putting a little bait in an hour or two before fishing gets the barbels confidence up and improves your chance of catching, and we often use a different loose feed to our proposed hookbait. So I am sure the actual content of the feed will not be detrimental, but does it improve you catch rate, I honestly do not know. I will be interested to hear the views of our friends.
Mike
 
I feel that the value of prebaiting is totally dependant on location and the head of barbel in the first place....so Luke looking at where you live I'm guessing that you are thinking of the Loddon or Kennet in which case you may well be wasting your time
 
I have a friend who lives on the Thames, probably half a mile at least away from 'public access' in either direction and who has had some success prebaiting boilies close in for the carp.

I have to think that it has something to do with the lack of angling pressure, as Richard has alluded to above.
 
I'd think a bit of light pre baiting with your intended hookbait, in the swims you'll be fishing, would be good. Especially if it's something other anglers wouldn't be using.
With the crayfish problems in your area something like maple peas, cheese, or tiger nuts would be suitable.
I've over the last few years found prawns to be a brilliant instant bait for Barbel, Tench, Carp and Perch but they can attract the crayfish.
 
Interesting thread. In my own thread on this subject the other week, it all got a bit diverted onto the subject of clearing access to the unfished swims, so I never got much in the way of replies about pre-baiting and will be having to trust my own instincts too. I´m working abroad this month and can´t get back to my river(s) till the 29th May, but from then on I will be pre-baiting various unfished and rarely-fished swims with small quantities of different baits at approximately weekly intervals, including some swims that will receive only one type of bait and some that receive a smattering of each of many types. Records will be kept and my whole summer fishing campaign can then have a bit of an ´experimental edge´ to it.

As I mentioned in that thread, cheese melted onto stones will be a feature of some of my pre-baiting in stony swims, as it seems a good way of turning barbel onto cheese, because really only barbel are designed for getting food off stones, and you can be precisely sure of the exact point you´ve attracted the fish to. I´ll be experimenting with mixing various other substances into the melted cheese too.
 
Graham Shaw said:
Interesting thread. In my own thread on this subject the other week, it all got a bit diverted onto the subject of clearing access to the unfished swims, so I never got much in the way of replies about pre-baiting and will be having to trust my own instincts too. I´m working abroad this month and can´t get back to my river(s) till the 29th May, but from then on I will be pre-baiting various unfished and rarely-fished swims with small quantities of different baits at approximately weekly intervals, including some swims that will receive only one type of bait and some that receive a smattering of each of many types. Records will be kept and my whole summer fishing campaign can then have a bit of an ´experimental edge´ to it.

As I mentioned in that thread, cheese melted onto stones will be a feature of some of my pre-baiting in stony swims, as it seems a good way of turning barbel onto cheese, because really only barbel are designed for getting food off stones, and you can be precisely sure of the exact point you´ve attracted the fish to. I´ll be experimenting with mixing various other substances into the melted cheese too.
Click to expand...

Interesting and possibly original thoughts on the stones/melted cheese trial Graham. Look forward to reading the results of that and your overall campaign...do please keep us informed.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Luke, I have pre-baited for barbel in the past, with great success, although I did use the bait I was going to fish with, so different scenario really.

Obviously, the whole idea of pre-baiting regularly is to get the fish used to finding bait in your chosen areas, so that eventually they will eat it without suspicion when it's found at those spots again. The question you ask is the $64,000 one....will they eat a different bait to that which they are used to finding there? I think I would hedge my bets by putting at least a few of the intended hook baits mixed in with the other feed. But then, I tend to over think things too, so I guess it's toss a coin time :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Luke, I have pre-baited for barbel in the past, with great success, although I did use the bait I was going to fish with, so different scenario really.

Obviously, the whole idea of pre-baiting regularly is to get the fish used to finding bait in your chosen areas, so that eventually they will eat it without suspicion when it's found at those spots again. The question you ask is the $64,000 one....will they eat a different bait to that which they are used to finding there? I think I would hedge my bets by putting at least a few of the intended hook baits mixed in with the other feed. But then, I tend to over think things too, so I guess it's toss a coin time :D

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

What I've decided to do is prebait with various bits and bobs (4-6mm pellets, various boilies I have in the freezer, hemp, sweetcorn etc. ) throughout May and then for the first 2 weeks of June up to the 16th I will feed mainly my intended hookbaits to "turn" the fish on to them and get them used to them.

Mainly just to keep costs down if anything - and the fact that her indoors is nagging me about freezer space so a great opportunity to free up some space.... :D
 
Luke Agacy said:
What I've decided to do is prebait with various bits and bobs (4-6mm pellets, various boilies I have in the freezer, hemp, sweetcorn etc. ) throughout May and then for the first 2 weeks of June up to the 16th I will feed mainly my intended hookbaits to "turn" the fish on to them and get them used to them.

Mainly just to keep costs down if anything - and the fact that her indoors is nagging me about freezer space so a great opportunity to free up some space.... :D
Click to expand...

Know where you are coming from with the freezer space bit Luke. I got so much grief from my 'her indoors' that I bought myself another freezer for my bait. I'll be damned if she didn't fill that one up with unnecessary luxuries like food as well :eek: You really can't win where the aliens are concerned.

I like the sound of your latest plan, could be onto a winner there. However, don't tell her indoors about it....if she gets to hear that your cunning plan has saved the family budget some money, she will rush out and buy another pair of shoes with it :D

I wish you well with your campaign Luke, let me know the results if you wouldn't mind, very interesting. Not to mention the fact that her indoors is nagging me for another pair of shoes.....

Cheers, Dave.
 
I have my own bait fridge/freezer in the shed, i tell people its full of maggots, worms, slugs etc. Any non anglers wont go near it :D
 
Luke, I'm planning something very similar on my bit of the Trent in the run up to the new season. I had a go with similar tactics in Feb/March, I only managed a couple of chub but conditions were challenging and it seemed like I had flu for most of the time so fished very little.
 
Somewhere on here is Keith Speer's account of how, by pre baiting, he and A.N.Other moved the Barbel out of a Thames weirpool into the main river, where it was easier to fish for them.
They used maple peas initially, which was successful in moving the fish and then used maggots before and when the fishing proper started. It was a success, so your method could well be a winner.
 
Paul Collins said:
Somewhere on here is Keith Speer's account of how, by pre baiting, he and A.N.Other moved the Barbel out of a Thames weirpool into the main river, where it was easier to fish for them.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads-up on that.

Found the late lamented Keith´s article
https://barbel.co.uk/site/vbulletin/forum/barbel-talk/7721-ever-thought-pre-baiting.html

incidentally here´s the other one by his mate that he mentions. At first I thought "that´s not very relevant to my little river", but maybe it could be. If I pre-bait the right spot then maybe the bigger fish will start to out-muscle their smaller cousins to get my hookbait (not that I´m bothered - this summer I just want more barbel, whatever the weight).
https://barbel.co.uk/site/vbulletin...rticles/5661-baiting-pyramid-mike-wilson.html
 
Whilst googling around for more info on pre-baiting, I stumbled across this gem from back in the day. I wonder how much more great info is lurking in the archives.

link
 
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