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Should I strike before the baitrunner goes off??

The thing is that its easy to strike at chub pulls hoping that they are cagey barbel and, by so doing, spook any barbel out of the swim.
 
Nathan Walter said:
Have to agree with Gavin on this. Had lots of chub bites this season that I didn't think were chub, just cagey barbel. Struck at a few when I could, as did others I was fishing with and made contact with a few barbel. On one day I waited for the rod top to wrap round with all these sharp pulls and it never did!
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Hi Nathan, do you get the pulls when fishing a hair rig or just straight on the hook??
What I also mean is; are you striking on the hair rigged pulls and hitting into fish also??

Jon
 
Hi Wayne,
over the past couple of weeks i have had more rod rattles than they sell in a baby shop, hair rigged, single elip, with a covert talon tip size 12, which is the sharpest, and best hook that i have used over gravel, the culprits have been Roach, for some wonderful reason, they are back in numbers on the Hampshire Avon and the Dorset Stour at Throop, they have all been on holiday and seemed lost forever, but here they are again, there are plenty of good fish to well over a pound, the only problem is, that it's a shame to catch them on Barbel tackle, well at least it's much better than eels.
So the advice that you have just had is to sit on your hands and wait for the three foot twitch.
Brian.
 
hi wayne, sound advise from the above members, in most case chub, but at same time barbel can mouth the bait aswell, and this will pull rod tip round very fast,but not enough to hook them selfves or to kick in bait runner, if ure fishing one rod hold it at all the time and try hit these bites or big knocks you will find that if ure lucky you will hit the the odd barbel, but more often than not you will miss it,
its a matter of working out the bites, ie slam rounds, then quick down and up bite , fast like a chubb bite, then you have the double pluck ,witch is two knocks, then two very quick taps,but if in doubt, let them hook themselfes, hope this helps you,
 
Brian Willson said:
Hi Wayne,
over the past couple of weeks i have had more rod rattles than they sell in a baby shop, hair rigged, single elip, with a covert talon tip size 12, which is the sharpest, and best hook that i have used over gravel, the culprits have been Roach, for some wonderful reason, they are back in numbers on the Hampshire Avon and the Dorset Stour at Throop, they have all been on holiday and seemed lost forever, but here they are again, there are plenty of good fish to well over a pound, the only problem is, that it's a shame to catch them on Barbel tackle, well at least it's much better than eels.
So the advice that you have just had is to sit on your hands and wait for the three foot twitch.
Brian.
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I'd like to start by saying it is a shame to catch the good roach on heavy tackle to me I love the sport and the challenge so I use a 1.75lb t/c rod with 8lb and 6lb bottom it's fantastic. But I think with the majority of replys Iv had I think Iv got to the bottom of them not been barbel. However I'm pretty new to the barbel fishing and would like to know what people mean by the three foot twitch?? Thanks
 
The three foot twitch is what happens just before your rod gets pulled in!
 
Haha should have known yeah that's similar to the bites I was getting that's what was confusing I thought to myself what am I doing wrong but I couldnt thing of anything that I could have possibly been doing wrong or different. But the adrenaline when the rod whips round and the spool is screaming is better than anything especially on a narrow river.
 
Yeah these were on hair rigged elips pellets. The medium sized ones. Two particular days come to mind, both on the same river and similar areas. The first day in one particular swim, which I was fishing down stream, I managed one fish which pulled the rod top round and lots of sharp knocks. The second day after having lots of sharp knocks I decided to hit one and it was a barbel. The guys I was fishing with did the same and managed to make contact. If left we got nothing more that very fast sharp knocks. I was confident that they were barbel and after the experience over two days I'm now certain they were barbel, that maybe were not feeding confidently or had been under a lot of angling pressure recently. One of our mates returned to this place a week or so later and decided after having no action other than lots of fast knocks to start trying to hit the bites. When he did manage to make contact, they were barbel.

Roach certainly like pellets and we do catch a few on the Kennet and we get lots of roach bites. These were not roach though.
 
Good read this thread.

I have had very similar bites fishing a small thames backwater for big chub. One day I had these lightning bites that really whacked the tip round, so I held the rod. With the reflexes of a koala I missed the first two and connected with the third bite. Confident I had just hooked a nice chub. Turned out to be a double figure carp, led me a merry dance on a pin and 6lb line only to slip the hook at the last.
Then in the winter again after a big chub I had a stonking bite and confidently struck into a chub cleverly disguised as a 4oz dace. Both on pellet.

I agree its definately a chub............
 
It would be a good read if I could get my head around the idea of using a baitrunner when you're gonna strike before it goes off?
 
Ditch the baitrunner,hold one rod in rest,and when you get a bite, big or little ,hit it.
Bit of a confidence thing.
I would not wait for the big tug cos unless you are fishing directly downstream in a flow it might not come at all.
Amazing what little plucks produce as a few others have already said.
Maybe it is chub or nuciance fish but just cos you dont get massive pull dont think it cant be a barbel.
Chub get blamed for a lot of things.
 
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