For me, the only bait I used for years was the carp head, steped on for extra flavour in the water, but I sat with the problem of missing to much barbel this way until I one day went and watched a barbel actually feeding, and what I observed was this, the fish swims around and eventually finds the food (your bait), what the barbel does is sucking the bait in and then almost immediately spits it out again. He repeats this process about five or six times before he actually decides if he wants to swollow this bait or not. In my oppinion, because it was a bigger fish (about 12kg), it was more cautious and used it`s extremely well developed taste to ``evaluate`` the bait and decide if it is safe to eat (the reason why it is so immencely important not to have any funny smells on your hands when you prepare the bait). After observing this, I saw how impotrant hook choice and placement really is. What I saw was that if your hook is to big and hindering the fish, he will drop it and move on and on hhe other hand, if your hook`s shank is to thick (I only usa katanas and linx hooks for barbel) the hook will not penetrate as wished. The best place to hoot a barbel is in the side of the mouth because of the crushing plates in front. The problem with fish heads is the fish sometimes takes a wile to actually take it in but this is not a problem if your hooks are proud and you practice the needed patience before setting the hook. Another observation I made was that a correctly presented fillet drasticly increase your hookup rate. I take a carp fillet, fold if double (skin inside) and work its case with the cotton (I use latex), place my one hook at the boyyom of the bait and one hook at the very top. I then take the intestines of the fish and put it onthe bait and fasten it with the latex for the bloody taste that Mr. Whiskas love
I have fished for barbel for many years now and this is whwt works for me.