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Sweet Bait for Barbel

Neil Blood said:
Have to agree re Mainline Maple 8, greatest Barbel boillie/paste ever for me, was gutted when they stopped making it!
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Loved the smell of that bait. On the carp syndicate I was on one of the guys used to put big bait orders in for everyone and when it arrived he’d call you to tell you to come grab it as he obviously couldn’t fit it all in his freezer. So I drove the hour to his house and when I got there they hadn’t sent our maple 8 boillies. Fair play to the guy though he gave us a free 15kg sack of the pellets for our troubles and re ordered the boillies. Shame they stopped making them though as the next time we ordered the mk1 boillies instead and wasn’t that impressed with them. Still got about 6 kg in my freezer
 
Mark Swaby said:
Many years ago I prebaited heavily a section of river Colne over a couple of weeks with John Baker Frost and Flood. I really struggled to get a Barbel on it though everything else wanted to eat it. After a few Barbel blanks and a blank first hour in perfect conditions I changed to Active 8 . The bait had been out less than 5 minutes before the rod dragged round. Five other Barbel were caught that evening along with a 6lb chub all over my frost and flood baited swims but all on Active 8, I never used Frost n Flood again. My view is that other species like Chub, Bream and Carp see sweet baits as a food source quicker than Barbel do and take advantage first. The Barbel were in the swims so knew something was about, possibly due to the other fish activity, but for some reason would not pick it up. At the time down on the Dorset Stour those in the know were having it away on Frost and flood boilies. Steve above mentions sweet flavours on milk bases, I have fished milk protein baits over the years and suspect that a quality milk base mix is the major attractant not the flavour .
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I think its getting the fish investigating and into your swim, or getting other fish into your swim that the barbel then follow. I always like at the start to get a heavy waft of something into the water, with very few free offerings and feed items.
So there may be something in attracting the other species into your swim.
I always use quality boilies, not instant junk baits. I have caught more on Nutrabaits Tecni Spice, than halibut pellets so far this year.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
The important thing is not to get to hung up on bait. A lot of people think it’s the reason they blanked that day and a change of bait created success on the next session. I’ll politely nod my head but in the back of my mind I’m thinking “total poppycock”
We are quite lucky in the respect that our target species will literally have a munch on anything and they ain’t known for being particularly fussy or wary of baits.
I remember the original mainline 8 baits Years ago and yes they used to catch well And we all had confidence in them but they were no better than a 2 inch square lump of spam or a 22mm Hali
There are one or 2 of the JB mixes that I use now that are every bit as successful as any bait that has been and gone before.
Hook Baits for barbel is just about confidence.
They’ll take it if they are on it.
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Usually the case but not sure always the case Richard. I think in terms of what they initially find palatable you're right, but I think some baits seem to blow quicker than others for some reason. I know the instant attract shelf life have a reputation for that, but I never found Activ8 blew at all. Nor for that matter Elips pellets. But broadly speaking I agree with what you say. I once used a base mix made paste from a well known source which I won't name, that had the fish practically climbing up the rod for it, it was a total revelation; but just one day later I hardly got touch on it. It sort of settled down to be a semi decent bait in the long run and I'm still unsure why it blew so quickly. It did occur to me that so many fish, chub and barbel, had a go at it that all were spooked next day. But if had recorded every barbel I've ever caught, and sure many others could say the same, I'm pretty sure the winning bait would be meat.
 
Strange Baits for Barbel dont really feature in my fishing, It is virtually Spam, Corn, or Hali Pellets, Spam ( similar ) because its cheap, and sold virtually everywhere , Corn, same reason, Hali Pellets, because most waters these days the fish seem to have had so much thrown at them they are "conditioned " to them.

I always use Hemp in my bread feeder groundbait mix, or in a bait dropper ,occasionally with micro hali pellets.

This week on the Wye is different than I have experienced before... firstly, Hemp is seeming to switch the fish "OFF" using the feeder/pellet approach I have done quite well though.

Fishing with a friend we were chopping and changing to see what was working, I fished Hemp in the feeder, and Spam on the hook, couldnt buy a bite , we changed swims after a couple of hours, he had been catching on Spam with chopped spam in a PVA net as an attractor. He continued with the same rigs and baits, in the swim I had been in, I fished my same combo in his swim. Within next to no time he was catching again on his Spam and Spam PVA in the swim I had failed in.
I proceeded with my approach Hemp,and Spam, and even though I was sat in a hot swim, caught nothing at all.
After an hour I changed to Micro Pellet in the feeder and spam on the hook, withing five mins I had a fish and they started feeding confidently.

Changing tactics worked, I have for the most part been using Pellet and doing well, Corn doesnt seem to be working either, as I have used it for Barbel and Chub on the Wye for 3 years on my visits, had a few fish, but really almost not worth the effort of opening a tin, anyway, I have baited up a swim with my remaining Hemp and Corn, just to see if I can switch them onto Corn before I return home on Friday .

David.
 
funny subject this bait thing. i used to catch quite a lot of barbel on milk baits but then most of my bigger fish came on fishmeals. Or maggots.
 
Mike Hodgkiss said:
As I said earlier , if they are feeding Barbel will eat almost anything you put in front of them . I have found that if no bites are forthcoming a change of baits can often bring a quick result . When things are very slow try a worm/worms , they often trigger a response , particularly if you nip the end off the worm to let the juices flow so to speak
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True, worms have a very high scent trigger, matchmen swear by chopped worm to get them feeding when all else fails.
 
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