I’m sure that the same bait left un

With the tremendous popularity of carp fishing, and the increasing number of anglers who are regularly using boiled baits, it was only a matter of time before these baits were used on rivers, and for barbel. I first tried them myself in the early 80’s, making them mostly from meat proteins as I thought that would be the most attractive to barbel. They weren’t too successful, though I have to confess that I probably didn’t give them a fair chance at that time. The initial purpose in carp anglers boiling paste baits was to solve the problem of small fish whittling away the soft bait, which had to lie out in the water for a relatively long time before a carp might come along. This is not really necessary where barbel are concerned, or at least it wasn’t until the Red Signal crayfish population exploded in many of our rivers. The hardness of a boiled bait does help in preventing these strange creature from demolishing it within a short time, as they can do to other baits such as worms, or luncheon meat. There is a lot more to it than that though. There is no real magic attained by actually boiling the bait – I’m sure that the same bait left un-boiled, in a paste form would do just as well, possibly even better. It is however far easier to pre-bait (and I’ll come back to that in a minute) with baits that are already made to the right size, and that don’t stick together. That is one consideration. The aforementioned crayfish are the other reason you will probably want to harden your baits. Certainly, once the bait is working, and providing the crayfish weren’t a nuisance, then there is no reason why the paste version shouldn’t be used on the hook. Having no skin on it, it will probably provide better attraction than a boilie. But then the other side of that coin is that in strong currents, some of the attractors might wash out of the bait. One thing about crayfish – yes they can be a nuisance, but I usually found that if the crayfish were active, then the barbel were either not around, or not feeding. In which case, I’d either wait until they arrived, at which time crayfish activity would cease, or go and find another swim. It can take a fairly long time for a crayfish to break up a boiled bait, and while they were in the process of doing so I always imagined that minute pieces of the bait would be drifting off downstream, eventually attracting any fish that were lurking below you. Having had, as I am prone to do, several years off from barbel fishing, I became enthusiastic about them again round about 6 years ago. At that time I was doing fairly well on the traditional baits, meat, cheese and lobworms, fished over beds of hemp, or breadcrumb. But I found that I couldn’t catch the fish in the daytime. I have become increasingly disenchanted with catching fish in the dark. For me fishing is a very visual thing, and I was finding that I was hardly getting a decent look at the fish I was catching. There had to be a way of making these fish feed in daylight. At this time I’d just joined a new fishing club, and though most people who joined this club were there to fish for some very big and difficult carp, among the member’s ranks were some successful river anglers. I had again been thinking along the lines of a special bait for barbel, and developing the fishmeal based baits I had lately been using for carp seemed a good place to start. I tried these a few times, but while the meat and cheese baits on the other rod still produced fish, the fishmeal boilies hardly got me a bite. But then a whisper reached me – barbel liked milk! And plenty were being caught on milk protein boilies, in the daytime too. During the 80’s I’d caught many carp on milk protein baits so had a good idea which ones might attract barbel. I didn’t plan on using vast quantities so I went in with one of the best on the market at that time – Nutrabaits Hi-Nu-Val. I initially flavoured this with cinnamon (another whisper). It seemed an unlikely choice, and maybe it was because I didn’t have too much confidence in it that I failed to do well. At around this time I made the acquaintance of another barbel angler, an angler who not only fished the same areas as I did, but who had been successfully catching barbel on boiled baits. He too was using milk protein, but in spite of the apparent lack of success with fishmeal baits, fishy flavours were working very well for him in milk protein baits. I fished through that late autumn and winter and had good numbers of barbel on the Hi-Nu-Val baits, flavouring them with salmon and…. errr… well… ingredient X. Come on – I’m telling you enough here – I’m not giving everything away! I used to roll the paste into a sausage, in lengths that would fit into the chip pan in which I boil my baits, and boil them whole. Then, at the river, I just broke off as much as I’d need and fished them on a very short hair. In winter especially these “open-ended” baits provided extra leakage of the attractors as the ends were not skinned over. Not only did the barbel love these baits, but so too did the chub. I remember one particular evening when the barbel weren’t around, that I caught 5 chub for a total weight of 25lbs 1oz. As it happened, by this time, although I found I could catch fish during the day, I was catching most of my fish either at dusk, or during full darkness. I was constrained mostly by work to fish at these times, but then I think that whatever the bait, generally most big barbel are going to get caught in the dark. The following season I visited the river much earlier than usual. Finding I had some unexpected free time, I drove to the Kennet on a mid-week August afternoon. Expecting to find the river devoid of anglers, I headed for the Benyons. There were anglers everywhere – I don’t know what was going on but it was packed. The temperature was almost in the 90’s – it was very bright and baking hot. I found a stretch of the river where there were only 3 other anglers fishing. As I walked past them they all looked pretty grim – no fish, no bites. In deference to the low and clear river, they were all fishing small baits on fairly fine tackle. I had in my bag some of the Hi-Nu-Val that had been in the freezer since March. I moved into the first reasonable and vacant swim and cast out, scattering half a dozen free offerings around the hook-bait. In less than 2 hours, I’d banked 4 barbel under the blazing sun. Even the angler in the next swim couldn’t get a bite. He was on feedered maggot, which you might think would be a good bait in these conditions. To maximise his opportunities, on seeing the fish I landed, which were all around 7 pounds, he actually began casting into my swim, but it did him no good. I would have stayed longer, but after the bailiff visited me I had to pack up rather hastily!It was however, a very good example of the effectiveness of the bait. Even on such a bright day, and with the river running clear, these fish had not only picked it up, but also shown a definite preference for it over other baits. And they had never seen the bait before. I wasn’t fishing especially fine either, using as I was my standard barbel kit of 14lb Fireline together with a 20lb braid hook-link. The bait was fished on a short hair rig attached to a size 4 Tiemco 2457 hook on a running link leger weighted with a half-ounce bomb. Not that these baits are always that instant. If you want to get the best out of them you have to apply them properly. This I believe is the most important thing. As the autumn approached I had a re-think about my base mix. My friend Bill Cottam at Nutrabaits had been very generous in helping me out with the Hi-Nu-Val, but to be honest, I didn’t like to keep asking. Also, other people at Nutrabaits were starting to get a bit touchy about my supply of bait. So I phoned another friend of mine, John Baker, to discuss other options. John had been developing his own barbel mixes for some months, and for some time had been attempting to wean me off the Hi-Nu-Val. He was convinced that you didn’t really need that high a quality bait for barbel, and was beginning to prove it by himself and his friends catching some good barbel on his new baits. The new bait was an alternative protein bait, which would cost less than the Hi-Nu-Val. The bait still contained milk proteins, but in lesser quantities than Hi-Nu-Val, and this was supplemented by cheaper but equally effective vegetable proteins and meat meals. John was also developing a whole flavour range specifically aimed at barbel. I suppose it took some courage for me to change from a successful bait, but John’s enthusiasm is infectious, and at last he won me round. I’d be starting again really, and I’d have to start the application from the beginning to get the fish used to the new bait. I’ve already said how important I believe application to be, and I make no excuses for repeating that. It isn’t just a case of going down to the river and piling the bait in. In fact, quite often, you don’t actually put that much in. First, you should know your river. By that I mean you should have some idea of where the fish are, how many there are and how big they are. Bait put in places where there are no fish is likely to be wasted bait. Bait put in to excess of the fish’s requirements is also likely to be wasted. An over abundance, especially of a milk protein based bait, can do more harm than good. It is likely to quickly become rancid, and may put fish off even a fresh bait that has similar attractors. So, always use fresh bait, or fresh frozen bait. We all hear tales of fish being caught on baits which have been knocking round in a tackle bag for months. But this is the exception. If you want the best from your bait, use it as fresh as you can. Initially put bait where you know the fish are, and put in just the amount you would judge they would eat. Roughly speaking, on average I’d say this amounts to about a handful of bait per day for a 6lb barbel. I might be slightly out there, but that’s what I do, and it seems to work. It’s ideal if you can get to the river every day, but in practice it’s likely most of us can’t. Try to visit the river at least 3 times a week, carrying out around 10 baitings before you fish the bait. Try to vary the times that you visit the river to avoid the fish only being on the lookout for your bait at a certain time of day. And try, if it’s at all possible, to avoid anyone seeing what you are up to. Later on you might have to become even craftier about this. Certainly try not to leave any of your bait on the bank – if someone else discovers what you are using, they could well reap the rewards of all your hard work. Be patient – don’t rush things. If you do things properly and wait for the bait to become firmly established, then results can be astounding. More than once I’ve had the rod almost wrenched from my hand as a barbel has grabbed the bait before it has even hit the bottom. This in the daytime too. Once the bait is established you might find you can create new feeding areas away from the known swims merely by baiting them on a regular basis. Again, if you manage to create such an area, it obviously pays to try to keep it to yourself. Nefarious tactics such as keeping wet landing nets or weigh slings out of sight might come into play. You might choose not to fish the swim from a chair, merely creeping into it with a single rod after dark. The flash from a camera is a dead give-away – it shows up like a bomb going off! If you want to keep your catches quiet, then you might consider photographing barbel in a swim other than where you caught them, or at least some way back from the river as most other anglers will be looking at their rod tops. That said, do think about this and always put the welfare of the barbel first. You might well think all this is going a bit too far, but I can assure you, there are a lot of people out there with an awful lot of time to fish. On some stretches of river, once a swim is known to start producing good fish, it will become almost permanently occupied. Use relatively small amounts of bait while you are fishing As far as you can judge, maybe 3 or 4 boilies for each fish judged to be present. Don’t take any bait home with you – bait up as many areas as you can when you leave. It’s rare that I’ll take as much as 2 pounds of bait with me for a late afternoon/evening session on the river, and in winter I’ll probably take less than half that. Do be careful about over-feeding in winter. The barbel’s digestive processes slow down considerably when the water temperature is very low. It is all too easy to fill them up. Baits. I’ve mentioned 2 suppliers, Nutrabaits and John Baker. I’m a little out of touch with what Nutrabaits are doing in so far as barbel baits go, though I’m sure Hi-Nu-Val will still work as well as it ever did. John Baker’s barbel baits and flavours are continually being developed. The base mixes all work very well. Coupled with John’s flavours they work even better. All the flavours are natural, and attention should be paid to the recommended levels per mix. Barbel Search4 is a great stand-alone flavour. The others, Shellfish, Frost & Flood, Meatball, Ala Salar, Musk Spice and Salmon are all terrific barbel attractors in their own right. Any of these can be mixed and matched, but again, be careful with levels. In winter I normally increase the levels of attractors by about 30% over summer levels. If you are in any doubt phone John on 01189 404837. John is in regular touch with some of the most successful barbel anglers in the country and will be more than happy to help you and give you any advice you wish. If you are not successfully using boiled baits already, then now could be just the right time of year to start – so get rolling…

Alan Tomkins