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Teme Severn Lamprey Dumbells & Lamprey Spiced Liver Paste

The Bait Trap

Every Year a new wonder bait comes out thats endorsed by anglers who have bucket loads of them given to them..If you apply logic then you would realise that nearly every bait available will produce fish at a given time..These anglers who are promoting a said bait dont tell you how many blanks they have had whilst field testing or how much of the stuff they have had to introduce over time to get the fish feeding..For example if you were to feed sweetcorn at regular intervals into a few pegs over time i would bet that eventually you would catch some good fish on that bait..As already written its how you apply a bait that gets the results..Its far too easy to fall into the bait trap especially when you havent been catching well and question if your bait is any good, when odds on at some point you can guarantee the fish will have eaten the very bait you have been feeding..What bait is good for one man wont be good for another, its just the way its applied that differs..
 
JABB

Think of it every time you buy a pellet, boilie, paste, magic pixie dust or whatever. Its Just Another Barbel Bait.

Whenever you catch a fish ask yourself, did I catch that fish because of or in spite of the bait? Bait is often the least important part of the equation. Where, when and how you fish it is what makes the real difference.
 
Bait is only one part of the equation, but never the least important in my opinion.
Where when and how are equally as important, but never more.

With any old bait in the water you'll always stand a chance, especially if the the stretch is prolific. Fishing on stretches with lower populations is a different kettle of fish - pardon the pun, you need to tick all the boxes or you'll suffer a lot of blanks, but yes chuck any old bait in, and in the 1st convenient swim, and you'll still likley have a few if you fish often enough. :D

Ian.
 
I tried teme/severn boilies and pasts a couple of seasons ago for about 6 months on one rod on the recomendation of a friend, I caught 2 chub on it..........the pellet on the other rod catching barbel almost every session, so from my experience I would most definitely say it is not a wonder bait.............

I would guess if it wre applied on it's own over time it would catch a few, as any bait would, as has already been said.........

I would appear that when people don't catch they look to the bait first when it is probably something much more fundamental which is affecting their results.........
 
How can bait type be equal to where?

If there aint any fish it doesnt matter what you bait with you wont catch any.

Bait is certainly the least important factor in catching in relation to where and when.
 
Thanks for all the responses.

So if bait is not that important and I was to go with a bog standard boilie, straight off the shelf, what should I go for?

Matt
 
Matt - so there you go. The responses have run the gauntlet and you're probably more undecided than you were when you started the thread. If you ask 10 barbel anglers the same question, it's often the case that you'll get 10 different answers.

I caught my first barbel on halibut pellets, so carried on using them. Tried source boilies and caught on them too. Same with T7 lamprey boilies and salmon ellipse pellets.

If it's any help at all, I just try to use something different to the other anglers on the stretch.
 
This old chestnut could roll back and forth forever. For instance, if a bunch of equally good anglers, all reading the water well, and applying their bait well, were fishing on equal pegs....then the guy with the best bait would win. Where would that scenario place bait in the 'what is the most important part of fishing' list? :D

Surely, the fact is that every part of the equation is as important as any other. The angler who most frequently gets the majority of the individual parts of the jigsaw in the right place at the right time is the angler who catches well consistently.

In fact the whole argument is pointless nonsense...just get out there, do the best you can, with the best bait you can afford...or a bait you are happy with...and enjoy. In fact, I would say that 'enjoy' is without doubt the most important aspect of fishing :D:D

Cheers, Dave
 
going back to the original post..............

are we right to assume matt is new to barbel fishing ??

if so matt, satisfy your own curiosity !

most of my fishing , when i get chance , is done on what my instinct tells me to do , if i think it , i do it !

you are in the market for a ready made bait , so why not T7 ?
i have no loyalty to them or any other bait company , i buy my bait like most others . just start of wiht a small purchase and see how you go from there ??

it is true though what a lot have said allready , location is key , then present a decent enough bait well , and bang , you should be in

good luck
 
Hello Stuart,
Matt is a bit like myself. Been fishing for barbel a few seasons but doesn't get out too much due to work and family. Also like me his local river is the Tees which has been challenging to say the least the past two years, I must admit I have questioned by bait before but then have sat biteless while the lad 50 yards down the bank pulled in a 12lber. As many have said it is more about locating the fish which can be difficult on the Tees as it does get very overgrown in the summer and fish location is hard by sight due to the natural peaty brown water.
 
I've been using a particular brand of boilie specifically aimed at barbel for the last year or so. It's been decidedly average on the Trent. OK on the Swale below Topcliffe weir and inexplicably fantastic for chub and barbel on the Swale well above Topcliffe. I can only think that it's simply down to angling pressure and the amount of different baits seen or I've got very lucky when fishing the higher reaches of the Swale. Bog standard halibut pellet has been better on the Trent and Spam more reliable on the lower Swale.
 
I asked in my original post if anyone had used the T7 baits before and what they thought of them. I wasn't looking for the 'latest wonder bait', although I am fairly new to barbel fishing I realise that wonder baits don't exixt.
Because the stretch I fish has quite a low population of barbel which move around a lot it is hard to compare different baits because you can catch on one session then the following session they are no longer in the swim, or in the stretch for that matter.

So I asked the question before parting with my hard earned, which is in short supply these days.

Matt
 
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Matt
its now fairly obvious that location is going to be the key issue. BUT...on low density waters I would favour a better quality bait applied correctly. That suggets either Freezer baits or DIY but not Shelf Life. DIY is slightly cheaper and gives you the option to tailor the bait to your unique preference. In either case plenty to choose from: eg Nutrabaits, CCMoore, John Baker, Mainline. Dont use T7 after bad experience a few seasons ago.
 
Hi Matt
Started using T7 Lamprey pellets a year and a half ago on the Sussex Ouse, which is not a prolific river. Result were really good from the word go. The stretch I fish does not get a lot of pressure, so it is unlikely lots had been fed, and I am not someone who chucks tons in.
Most will tell you that where and how you fish is more important, and that is quite right. However If I was told I may only use this range next season, I would not have a problem with it.
The advantage they have over Halibut pellets is that you don't arrive home smelling like an incontinant tramp.
Shaun
 
Just to clarify one or two things. I was the first person to use Lamprey flavour anything on the Wye (when I was part of Teme Severn), a full year ahead of the rest. My results were excellent and there were times when it out fished anything else - the chub went gaga for it.

But I never got hung up on it. I have had equally good results on other baits/brands in fact, the only boilie that I failed to catch on was a home rolled essential oil flavoured one. This was more down to my mix than the fish though.

If you are in the right place at the right time and the barbel in front of you have a mind to feed then any boilie will get a response. Crush a few into a pva bag and one or two on the hair - its not rocket science. I've caught on more mixes and flavours than I can remember - sweet, savoury, fishy, meaty fruity the lot, all different colours shapes and sizes.

I will stress though, that if you are the first to use a 'different' bait you will likely see a short spike of extra results as the barbel will not associate your bait with danger and previous capture. In the old days (bends double and reaches for crooked walking cane) we used to get the fish biting again by presenting our meat differently by changing its size, shape, colour etc. Now we can by baits in all different shapes and sizes but they are all JABBs.

Just Another Barbel Bait.
 
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