A highly effective Barbel tip - use bait bands

A highly effective Barbel tip – use bait bands

March 2, 2010 david No comments

I decided to put this piece together after reading the blog piece where Graham was catching chub on the new ‘chubby chops’ but was also missing plenty of bites. Graham was fishing the baits on a short hair.

One of many winter doubles that has fell to the boilie / bait band combination

The situation above closely mirrors that of one that I found myself in many winters ago whilst fishing on the Lower Severn below Worcester. I was fishing trimmed down boilies on a short hair and was getting lots of sharp pulls on the rod tip but only caught one barbel in the 8 hour session.

Now obviously there were plenty of barbel in the swim but the rig I was using wasn’t effective enough to catch them. The water was cold (around 6ºc) and because of this I was sure the barbel were not feeding properly but were merely picking the bait up in their lips without getting pricked by the hook (because of the hair being used).

Now I had caught a lot of good barbel through the Autumn on banded pellets. This got me thinking of using the bands for the boilies as well, so that the bait was right next to the hook. This would mean that hopefully the barbel would not be able to mouth the bait without getting pricked by the hook.

The switch worked like a dream and on only the second time I used it I caught 11 decent barbel in an afternoon on the Lower Severn on a day where there was very little else caught.

This is a method I now use on one rod all the time whilst barbel fishing and it really is very versatile.

If I use the bigger John Roberts clear bait bands (on a Korum size 10 or 8 S3) then I can use a trimmed down boilie or a 14 / 16mm pellet without having to change the hook. If I use the smaller brown bands on say a Korum size 12 S3 hook then I can use a barbel / chubby chop on its own or easily mould a paste wrap around the bait (my favourite!).

All the bits you need

Getting the band onto the hook (I thread it back through itself), can be a little tricky but with a little practice becomes a lot easier. Start off practicing with the bigger bands (to make things easier). I want the band tight on the hook so that it cannot move and then after ‘tying’ the band onto the hook, I use the band has the hair.