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Sweet Bait for Barbel

Gary, people will normally tell you that Barbel eat anything if you get them going but probably like you I feel more confident with a spicy meaty type baits BUT having said that I’ve caught with baits soaked in molasses. I don’t think things come too much sweeter :)
 
Morning all,I've been looking in on the bfw forum for a while,and decided to register a couple of weeks ago.Some very knowledgeable folks on here.
I've had two evening sessions this week,and managed a barbel on each,both caught on Pallatrax Crave Squabs,and coated in their very sticky sweet glug.Crave is plum,cranberry and crab,smells great to me,and obviously the fish like it too.
It's a small river,doesn't see a lot of pressure,which I bailiff,so I don't think the barbel are that fussy.As said,barbel will eat anything.
 
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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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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The original Activ8 was just about the best barbel bait I ever used, and that includes pellets.
 
In winter I use a milk based boilie with a very subtle sweet flavour added and have successfully caught many times.
Last winter it didn’t work for me mind 😞 I never had a single fish between November and February but I can put some of that down to the fact the river spent a considerable amount of time in the fields
 
Tried a few over the years ,like to keep it simple now , Boilie & Pellet for hook baits , both matching flavours .If fishing a feeder I use crushed halibut pellets ,that I grind up with a meat grinder and then flavour and add hemp.Keeping it meat & potato is the key for me , there’s no wonder baits out there
 
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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Only wished activ 8 was the same now. Used it for many years. it seems a different bait now for some reason even the smell
 
Hi men ,

For a sweet bait I tested a Choc/Orange bait that was not released in the end , and they loved it . As we sight fished as much as possible at the time we could see the reaction to baits , and they really liked the combo .

Hatter
 
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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