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Pre-baiting

N

Nick Anderson

No Longer a Member
Well as some may know from previous posts I'm employing a pre baiting campaign on my syndicate. It's a large river so im going hard and heavy with boilies (hnv) and good old hemp. I did it last year but not in the volume of this years attempt. My question is to any others who pre bait, have you had good results from your efforts?

Regards

Nick.
 
Hi men,

Nick , what is the reason for the baiting ?, to get the fish onto a single type of bait , or to concentrate a number of fish into one area ?.

Hatter
 
nick, if its working on a pyramid baiting then why not pile in hemp and frozen sweetcorn with a couple of handul of boilies, this will put em on your bait and cut back a bit when actually fishing mate, its a souns way of prebating and creating a larder effect:)
 
You don't need the hemp, if you feed a quality boillie, sparingly but on a regular basis i.e. 3 times a week, the Barbel (and Chub) will switch on to it.

This said my experiences are from a small river, where virtually no one else was fishing the length in question. If it gets to the stage where the fish are waiting to be fed, you'll get a take within seconds of casting in.
 
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Nick Anderson said:
Well as some may know from previous posts I'm employing a pre baiting campaign on my syndicate. It's a large river so im going hard and heavy with boilies (hnv) and good old hemp. I did it last year but not in the volume of this years attempt. My question is to any others who pre bait, have you had good results from your efforts?

Regards

Nick.
Click to expand...

No, but then it wasn't as prolonged as your planned campaign.

I'll not say it won't produce fish Nick, but IMO it may not be as selective or as effective as you might hope.

The river has a whole load of other species that will delight in being fed regularly. The huge head of very nomadic Carp for starters will much through s**t loads of feed and the Eels will be happy to gorge themselves on boilies. We won't mention the Bream.

The other worry of course is Mother Nature kicking your butt. I think there is someone on here did exactly what you're planning, on the same river ............2007 !! :eek:

Personally I'd go for large quantities of cheap feed and keep the boilie element to a minimum, just start introducing them at the final stage

Check out this post/thread from just 12 mths ago. It may make you adjust your thinking

https://barbel.co.uk/site/vbulletin/forum/barbel-talk/7721-ever-thought-pre-baiting.html

You may also get bored of catching the same fish, again and again, and ............................ The scourge of the specimen angler
 
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Nick,

Save your money, pre baiting only works well in very selective instances and all you will be doing is making the Bream fatter. You can't "buy" fish Nick you have to get out there and catch 'em

Steve
 
Ian Grant's written a really good article (in BFW articles) on targeting bigger barbel. Seems like he's got the good way to go with any pre-baiting as such.

It's an 88 mile round trip to the river for me, that, the expense and the general idea/tactic of it mean I've never really tried it, certainly not on this more industrial scale anyways.

Nick C
 
I can perhaps see the benefit of pre-baiting small but regular amounts of good quality bait when targeting a small number of very big fish, on a small river. But on a bigger river like the Severn ? As others have already said, I'd be worried about feeding the bream, so personally I wouldn't bother. Keep away from the river until the 16th June and go and try catching some big tench or bream from a stillwater instead....both species that will respond to a well thought-out pre-baiting plan.
 
I am starting a pre baiting session or two for the Tench, hopefully it might result in a fish or two, but the Severn is another thing entirely, I reckon the shoal fish such as bream will scoff the lot before the Barbel will ever get to it. On a smaller River I can see the point, certainly where you might see the fish, pre baiting would certainly help, but the Severn? Good luck.
But I have thought of doing the same tbh, with a mate, (not him as such but ground bait) never got around to it, but if you get the right results I will gladly copy.
 
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Funny you should mention the Severn Neil in regards pre baiting ,I recall fishing Tewkesbury just above the weir a few years ago ,I asked for advise on here and you helped me out, not 100% it was you but i was told to pre bait a few swims for 2 or 3 days before fishing ... and i recall it worked .. 3 splashers in 3 hours haha.

I do when possible pre bait new venues as it has worked before if the fish are feeding .
:)
 
I agree with the comments above but add the general comment that it's a no-no to put in large amounts of bait into small rivers. Doesn't do anyone any favours at all. Like I say Ian Grant's article is the way to go.

Cheers Nick
 
Thanks for the replies guys. What im doing hatter is introducing a specific boilie.
I've fished the syndicate for the Last ten years and ive put in an increasing amount over the decade each season. Steve Cole is very correct in that you do catch the same fish multiple times sometimes. Reference the bream, we really haven't been that bothered by them to be honest. We usually feed 5 times a a week, peaking at the end of may and stopping the last ten days before the start of the season. If you will remember for most last season's start was poor, however with three dubs on the bank between two of us we were more than pleased. We have noticed that we catch smaller fish early on with the larger fish coming at the usual witching hour.

So you see mr stringer, you can buy a barbel.
 
I remember when I used to carp fish at night on a 4 acre lake. One by one they used to arrive under cover of darkness and creep around the lake to their chosen swims with their buckets of secret baits. In it went and then silently they left. Only hours later the next one would turn up and do the same thing in the same swim; all of them stupid and all of them buying their fish.

Me? I just sat quietly in the margin catching fish on a tin of corn and a float.

No need for anything more Mr Anderson

Steve
 
Nick - I'm struggling to see that pre-baiting with boilie in the amounts you speak of, is having that great an effect on your catches. That'll come as a shock to some who reacted unfavourably to your first posts. I'd even go as far to say that you may well have caught 3 dubs without the expense. My logic is :-

If last season you did 50kg in the close over 9/10 weeks that's only 5kg a week or less than 1kg a day. Well a single 20lb Carp stumbling on your bait will woof those down in 15 minutes, so where is the benefit? Going large with 100kg still won't make that much difference IMO.

I still think bucket loads of cheap Maise/another largish particle/Vitalin which will get scoffed and then s**t out again to become yet further food is the way to go. As I said above, the 7rn has a huge head of hungry fish. It would be difficult to over do it as on a smaller river, and I believe the only way to make a difference, is to pile it in. :eek:

ps Had many Carp off the syndi stretch ?
 
Haha to compare the longest river in the UK to a puddle of mud just shows you don't know what your dealing with Steve.

This isn't some carp puddle mate. This is well thought out not just by me but with 58 years experience of fishing the river.

Thanks for the reply though. Good luck with the small uns haha
 
Paul Boyle said:
Funny you should mention the Severn Neil in regards pre baiting ,I recall fishing Tewkesbury just above the weir a few years ago ,I asked for advise on here and you helped me out, not 100% it was you but i was told to pre bait a few swims for 2 or 3 days before fishing ... and i recall it worked .. 3 splashers in 3 hours haha.

I do when possible pre bait new venues as it has worked before if the fish are feeding .
:)
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Hi Paul
tbh mate I can't remember, these days I can't remember what I said half an hour ago,:rolleyes: anyway for me to give advice on such a thing, especially the Severn I would take with a pinch of salt.

The Severn is an enigma and doesn't play by the rules, however I do recall a certain local tackle dealer that approaches Barbel fishing like a carper, well he is anyway, and he 'filled in' a peg at Severn Stoke a few seasons back, and apparently he did very well, and when I asked how much ,£ wise it was ' at least a couple of hundred quid' in bait, now that might be a price worth paying for some but not me.

And Joe and I have discussed pre baiting so not off the scale as a possibility but £200? I don't think so.

I guess if there is a reasonable head of Barbel in the stretch then all you need to do is put down a scent trail via a feeder, but the lower has not a large head of Barbel at most times so it would be very hit and miss unless you could pull 'em down from as far as Bewdley :)

But an interesting thread nonetheless, especially with 3 barbel caught at Tewkesbury :)
 
Nick Anderson said:
Haha to compare the longest river in the UK to a puddle of mud just shows you don't know what your dealing with Steve.

This isn't some carp puddle mate. This is well thought out not just by me but with 58 years experience of fishing the river.

Thanks for the reply though. Good luck with the small uns haha
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You really don't know Jacksh!t Nick, have a dig at anyone you like , and you do but leave out the blokes who actually put their money where their mouth's are, Steve probably knows the Severn better than anyone else I know, along with Scuba, crazy comments by even you.

And I have seen the pics, just saying like.:rolleyes:
 
Steve Stringer said:
I remember when I used to carp fish at night on a 4 acre lake. One by one they used to arrive under cover of darkness and creep around the lake to their chosen swims with their buckets of secret baits. In it went and then silently they left. Only hours later the next one would turn up and do the same thing in the same swim; all of them stupid and all of them buying their fish.

Me? I just sat quietly in the margin catching fish on a tin of corn and a float.

No need for anything more Mr Anderson

Steve
Click to expand...

Very true, have stocked up on the cheapo tins of corn and chick peas for the Tincas, all you need.
 
Neil Smart said:
You really don't know Jacksh!t Nick, have a dig at anyone you like , and you do but leave out the blokes who actually put their money where their mouth's are, Steve probably knows the Severn better than anyone else I know, along with Scuba, crazy comments by even you.

And I have seen the pics, just saying like.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

:eek:

Bloody hell Neil - I'm a long way off expert mate, but thanks for your kind words
 
It's worth asking: if your pre-baiting technique is so well refined and successful why bother to publicise it with a thread here? :confused:
 
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