Wayne Glossop
Senior Member
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?
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
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.
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.