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Stef Horak - Bait and wait.

Neil Blood said:
Bit of a rum bugger Stef Horak and used to enjoy his writings in CAT (the last great fishing mag available at the news agents). Surprised he got away with writing some of it, including once doing something very rude with a sock, and after a curry, tiling a very small room, which was fitted with a smoke alarm. His guts were so bad that he set the smoke alarm off! 🤣
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I think he told the sock story at a Barbel Society meeting, he didn’t notice two youngsters sat at the back...whoops!
 
Stef would often get sniping comments about the cost of his bait and wait tactics. I've always found that a bit strange.

Stef has never been one for using expensive tackle. When I fished with him he used battered old drennan 12' 1.25lb TC blanks and Mitchell 300's for smaller rivers, and a pair of budget Korum 2.25ntc blanks for heavier work on the Trent. The only item of tackle I think he spend money on was good line (Pro-gold and Pro-clear).

Back in the day Stef generally only fished twice a week. And only during the day after a very early start until dusk and perhaps an hour so into dark at most. He found night fishing tedious and unnecessary as he was able to catch so many during the day, even in gin clear water and bright conditions.

He would think it really odd that someone would wince at paying £10 for 4 pints of casters (£16 on todays money), yet spend north of £200 on a custom rod.

We all have different priorities I suppose.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Stef would often get sniping comments about the cost of his bait and wait tactics. I've always found that a bit strange.

Stef has never been one for using expensive tackle. When I fished with him he used battered old drennan 12' 1.25lb TC blanks and Mitchell 300's for smaller rivers, and a pair of budget Korum 2.25ntc blanks for heavier work on the Trent. The only item of tackle I think he spend money on was good line (Pro-gold and Pro-clear).

Back in the day Stef generally only fished twice a week. And only during the day after a very early start until dusk and perhaps an hour so into dark at most. He found night fishing tedious and unnecessary as he was able to catch so many during the day, even in gin clear water and bright conditions.

He would think it really odd that someone would wince at paying £10 for 4 pints of casters (£16 on todays money), yet spend north of £200 on a custom rod.

We all have different priorities I suppose.
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I agree 100% Joe .. I'll pay top price for top quality bait , line and hooks ....
 
I fished with Stef once on the Middle Trent and his ability to underarm flick a plastic Thamesly bait dropper half way across the river was a sight to behold. He did it so effortlessly and his accuracy was spot on every time. He was using an old Mitchell match reel and a korum rod, whilst I was using a fancy shimano baitrunner and a much nicer rod and I couldn’t get anywhere the distances that Stef was achieving. They say don’t meet your hero, but I’m glad I did, because he lived up to expectations and more. I have used the bait and wait method myself and it is devastating on the right waters. If you haven’t tried it, and have access to a water with a relatively decent head of barbel, get on it. The method done right will massively increase your catch rate.
 
Adam King said:
I fished with Stef once on the Middle Trent and his ability to underarm flick a plastic Thamesly bait dropper half way across the river was a sight to behold. He did it so effortlessly and his accuracy was spot on every time. He was using an old Mitchell match reel and a korum rod, whilst I was using a fancy shimano baitrunner and a much nicer rod and I couldn’t get anywhere the distances that Stef was achieving. They say don’t meet your hero, but I’m glad I did, because he lived up to expectations and more. I have used the bait and wait method myself and it is devastating on the right waters. If you haven’t tried it, and have access to a water with a relatively decent head of barbel, get on it. The method done right will massively increase your catch rate.
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On smaller rivers he had a knack of flicking out the Thamesley and feathering it down so that it landed almost flat onto a thick strand of ranunculus protuding out of the water without emptying its contents, then would twitch it back towards him into the run...absolute stealth and very skillful.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
On smaller rivers he had a knack of flicking out the Thamesley and feathering it down so that it landed almost flat onto a thick strand of ranunculus protuding out of the water without emptying its contents, then would twitch it back towards him into the run...absolute stealth and very skillful.
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Dean Macey did a fishing TV series years back and Stef was a guest on one of the episodes fishing the Hampshire Avon and from memory it shows Stef demonstrating that technique whilst trying to catch chub. I remember watching it when I was young and practicing doing the same on the Great Ouse, unfortunately for me the barbel stocks were pretty low by that point, so i never caught much.
 
Having read this thread , I have quite a few cat magazines as was in pocket mags . There is a Stef Horak article named ‘back on the trent’, he mentions that a certain ‘joe ‘ he was fishing with managed to cast his new fleece in to the trent !!!!
Just wondered if it may be someone on here ??
 
On coarse
 

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I use his maggot feeder approach on my local river for chub in the winter when the water is very low and clear. Inline feeder with a 2 inch hook length and a size 18 with single or double maggot. I feed the swim for anything up to two hours without a hook length attached and look for bumps or pulls around on the tip to let me know that the chub are in the swim. Funny thing is most of the locals thought that there were not many chub left in the river but the change to this tactic dispelled that theory. Forget scratching around for a single bite now I'm getting 10+ fish in a single session, sometime more.
 
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