Neutral buoyancy baits

[The Flying Tench]

Various people seem to believe in the value of having you bait have almost exactly the same density as water. For example Archie Braddock recommends a bait combining cheese and breadcrust to have neutral buoyancy, and some barbel fishers recommend using a hair so that the hook doesn't make the luncheon meat seem heavy.

 

I can see this might be necessary fishing for big carp in a hard fished water, but I find it hard to believe in most rivers and even canals that it makes much difference for normal fishing. For example, if you get the barbel into your swim and you've got a big hunk of luncheon meat on the hook, isn't one of them going to take it regardless?

 

But much better anglers than me obviously think it does matter. Has anyone any experience of changing to neutral buoyancy baits and finding their catch rate goes up? And does it always matter, or just sometimes?

[Peter Waller]

I can only relate to pike fishing on this one. Yes, I believe that it matters. Wary old pike can feel a difference. I'm sure that they know what to expect when they pick a bait up, if it ain't right then they drop it. So atleast pop-up enough to overcome the weight of trace etc.

[The Flying Tench]

3 questions, Peter:

 

1) How did you come to this conclusion? Watching pike in clear water or finding your catch rate went up when you used some buoyancy?

 

2) Presumably you're saying that you should always have neutralising buoyancy - whether ledgering on the bottom or hanging midwater from a float?

 

3) It could be quite a bother balancing each deadbait. It's easy enough to put on a 'pop up' piece of rig-foam to get the bait to float above a ledger - but arguably this would have the same problem as no buoyancy as the pike might think it felt too buoyant? Or maybe there's no need to be too exact, and you just push a bit of rig foam down the dead's throat based on experience, and you don't need to mess about testing each dead in the water?

[Peter Waller]

johnclarke:

3 questions, Peter:

 

1) How did you come to this conclusion? Watching pike in clear water or finding your catch rate went up when you used some buoyancy?

 

Both. And also by comments from another piker, Chris Bishop, whose ability I hold in very high esteem. He had made the same observations.

 

2) Presumably you're saying that you should always have neutralising buoyancy - whether ledgering on the bottom or hanging midwater from a float?

 

No, not always, but most times, especially with a ledger.

 

3) It could be quite a bother balancing each deadbait. It's easy enough to put on a 'pop up' piece of rig-foam to get the bait to float above a ledger - but arguably this would have the same problem as no buoyancy as the pike might think it felt too buoyant? Or maybe there's no need to be too exact, and you just push a bit of rig foam down the dead's throat based on experience, and you don't need to mess about testing each dead in the water?

I'm not a waterside scientist but drop a rigged, and an unrigged dead into a bucket. I don't use unattached foam because I don't like the idea of a pike swallowing it. But when both sink at the same rate then you are there! Bait sizes might vary, rigs don't. Lets be honest, suck it and see!

[*Ant*]

I think the idea is so the bait will waft up in front of the fish as it disturbs the bottom, thus tempting a take.

Of course I am no expert but it does make sense, and there has been times whilst carp fishing that I have found balanced baits to out-fish regular bottom baits.

The cheap branded luncheon meat usually contains a lot of fat which makes it, to a certain extent, counter-balance the hook and act as a neutral buoyancy offering.

[Kappa]

Do you really want neutral buoyancy bait for barbel? Surely it will wave around un-naturally in a swift current? If you're worried about the bait not looking natural try rolling it thru the swim. A killer method I've found on kennet is to fish with as light a lead as I can get away with and fish with a bow in the line and twitch th bait downstream every few minutes (like rolling only slower and easier). All my largest barbel I've caught have been from a slight twitch just as the bait has stopped moving. But never whilst the bait is static (usually ends up as smaller fish).

 

Rich

[Bruno Broughton]

In some situations it is THE key difference between catching and not, although I cannot claim any experience of balanced baits in rivers.

 

Just one example. Fishing Sywell a few years back, in the next peg to a mate and using the same soft boilie bait, he caught seven 7-pound tench in seven casts (I kid you not) whilst I didn't have a take. I was exasperated, so we compared baited rigs by dropping them into the margins. My bait sunk like a stone; his JUST sank.

 

Re-rigging with a very slow-sinking bait, I had a fish within about 5 minutes and caught a fair few more. Next morning I had three 8s and two 7s in four hours! I have no doubt whatsoever that I would not have caught those fish on 'normal' boilies.

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

i remeber the late great peter stone, on one total fishing show,he was floatfishing for tench,anyway baisicly he knew there were tench in the swim feeding but no bite?so he thought about it...and came up with the idea of putting a sliver of cork on the hookshank...the result was bites instantly..why?well as he was fishing corn on the bottom and the bottom was silty,the weight of the hook was making it sink into the silt slightly, so when the browsing tench came over the hook bait (sucking up food off the bottom)the hook/bait remained where its was,by balancing it with a bouyant materail he overcame the problem he trimmed the cork so it just sank i have no doubt antonys thoery also apllies here.

[Tim Kelly]

I can't really believe it would make any difference in a fast flowing river, in a lake there is definitely something in it, but a fast river would counteract any of the advantages I would have thought.

[Rob Ward]

johnclarke:

, and some barbel fishers recommend using a hair so that the hook doesn't make the luncheon meat seem heavy.

That's not a critically balanced bait and the theory makes perfect sense to me. The bait might behave unnaturally when impaled with a huge hook - hence the smaller hook and hair-rigged meat.