Pre baiting?

[Wayne Glossop]

Is Pre baiting a good idea on small rivers?, Iv always believed it is a good idea to get the fish feeding confident but on the other hand it can spook the feeding fish when dropping the rig in can't it?

 

[Lawrence Breakspear]

The thing that you need to assess is what is the holding area on a small river and what is a feeding area, the Teme for instance responds well to pre baiting, i.e. prior to an evening session, as fish move quickly out of the deeper holding areas and they then graze and move in much shallow swims, a carpet of bait can hold the fish in a particular area, The Lower Severn responds even better to a 3 day pre baiting programme, this has been proven many times, especially this time of year.

 

[Wayne Glossop]

The thing that you need to assess is what is the holding area on a small river and what is a feeding area, the Teme for instance responds well to pre baiting, i.e. prior to an evening session, as fish move quickly out of the deeper holding areas and they then graze and move in much shallow swims, a carpet of bait can hold the fish in a particular area, The Lower Severn responds even better to a 3 day pre baiting programme, this has been proven many times, especially this time of year.

The actual swim I fish I always bag at least one a session and not known to be reliable else were on that stretch, it just got me thinking after I went fishing Saturday day was there a couple of hour and netted one then I packed up and went back late evening and casted to the same spot and within ten minutes I had a wrap round the conditions remained superb and I fished on till 4:30am but never got a twitch which was very suprising that's all, obviously earlier in the day I put abit of bait in.
Regards

 

[Lawrence Breakspear]

Without a doubt what you did was ( by default) was you rested the swim and with bait in the feeding area, what a confidence builder that was for the Barbel, on larger rivers I have proven to people that you can put a dropper full of freebies over the heads of Barbel with no detrimental effect, however on small rivers a period of swim resting with an amount of bait present is the perfect method, for catching throughout a fishing session, thats why baiting 3 swims, catching and resting can be the ultimate approach.

 

[Wayne Glossop]

Without a doubt what you did was ( by default) was you rested the swim and with bait in the feeding area, what a confidence builder that was for the Barbel, on larger rivers I have proven to people that you can put a dropper full of freebies over the heads of Barbel with no detrimental effect, however on small rivers a period of swim resting with an amount of bait present is the perfect method, for catching throughout a fishing session, thats why baiting 3 swims, catching and resting can be the ultimate approach.

Thanks for that mate, just shocked me a bit how it was so instant when I went back and then got absolutely nothing I was casting very tight up to a feature which holds the barbel and baiting slightly off the feature so the first bait that the fish come to will be my hook bait, but I later dropped on to the bed of bait after not getting another twitch against the feature and still nothing I will bait a few swims up and see how I get on with that can see it been effective I used to do that for carp fishing.
Regards

 

[Lee Poultney]

I've bait dropped bait onto the heads of Barbel on the Teme and they weren't bothered at all. However, as soon as a line and bait went it their behaviour changed and they would not approach the area with the line in it. Very interesting to watch and shows how important line management can be in clear water. Agree with the resting approach. One of my red letter days on the Severn was as a result of fishing 3 swims in rotation, taking a fish, rebaiting and moving on. Had 22 including my first double that day and never waited more than 5 mins for a bite, in fact one bite was about 8 seconds after casting. Once you have a their confidence they're not at all difficult to catch.