Sitting it out on a single bait

[Mike Hodgkiss]

Some really interesting answers here and much food for thought . I would say , never underestimate the pulling power of a single large bait , particularly the wiffy versions of spam . .In the Yorkshire spate rivers I have caught barbel , sometimes in numbers with the rivers holding 10ft + of angry boiling floodwater using only a big lump of spam , the fish manage to find it easily enough , there ability to detect a bait in a huge mass of water , often full of debris is amazing . In the biggest of these rivers the Ouse , I used to fish here with feeders / PVA bags but they often attracted bream which inhabit the river in large numbers . Once they arrived your chance of catching a barbel would diminish significantly hence my current single bait no feed approach .

 

[Mark Mole]

I agree about the big bait equals big fish theory. On the lower Severn last season I initially tried the big meat,but I found the snotties would whittle it down until eventually it was all gone or pulled off the hook or hair. Large boilies were my next bait,but even then the bream were still taking baits well over 20mm. I then tried lengthening the hair,which seemed to work more often than not. It looks ridiculous at first with such a gap between bait and bend of hook,but it was a way around the large bream numbers.