I bought some frozen Barbel Ground-Bait to use in

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Steve Catlin

New member
I bought some frozen Barbel Ground-Bait to use in conjunction with chicken hearts and boilies. The ground-bait is a mixture of various bloods and other nasty things. I defrosted it in order to store it in smaller containers. It turned out to be the skankiest, worst concoction I had ever come across. It can't be healthy to handle such stuff, my hands started burning from all the acid in the material and I eventually ended up burying it in the garden. I have no doubt that this would have worked well as ground-bait but I want to enjoy the experience, I could smell it for the rest of the day even though I washed my hands a million times.

Today I bought some fresh chicken livers, liquidized them and will use a binder to make a ground-bait, I feel much better about this and reckon it will work just as well.

Any other tips for ground-bait would be appreciated.
 
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Kosie

New member
I think that the type of groundbait might not be as important as the attractants/nutrients that is in it. If one add the basics like blood, oils and amino acids it should work just as fine. I dont really know how big the difference is on preasured venues but some cats might prefer A natural or natural looking bait with these ingredients added to it. Maybe use A whole fish or half and inject this mixture into the body and stomach for slow release. But I think H2O craft should get you A bigger fish than A "special" bait. Then again there is enough papgooiers hooking 20kg+ cats on their mieliebombs to justifie A BIG boilie bait! But I agree with you that one should rather take the time and effort to make fresh bait rather than buying some mixture with preservatives, thats if you have the time. When it comes to creating some type of feeding spot I believe pastes are the way to go.
 
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Alien Invader

New member
Try and go as natural as you can and select the correct spot to drop that bait off,, look for holes or perhaps where the original river ran through,, etc etc etc,,, rewards for effort will be given.... Many here say use Carp heads or full carp etc,,, I'm rather fond of Tilapia as bait, even a small one rigged up as a live bait with a decent sinker to keep it down... This will attract Catfish! At night, stick a live bait out on a heavy float 20/30 meters to the side infront of a weed bed or something, Cats will come!

Best advice I could give is this, look at the dam/water carefully where you intend dropping your bait. Your bait should be what a cat would be expected to come across and eat in that specific area... Keep it simple and keep the hooks proud!
 
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nobbles

New member
I believe kosie has hit the nail on the head.

If your going to use a ground bait go natural, but add protiens, amino acids. That is what the fish want to smell in the ater and will attract them faster.

But i personally will not use any ground bait as yet to try catch my fish. I am a firm advicate that ground bait attartcs small cats 90% of the time. As kosie said 20kg plus fish are cuaght by guys, but this to me is more an exception than a rule. You will always have a hunter coming near its prey. Those cats in my mind have come to look at eating carp and by chance ate the carp bait. This doesn thappen every time you out and i wouldnt bank on it. I know some guys throw chunks of carp into the water around the bait to attract a fish. If you really want to look at those 25kg plus fish, you try give them anything man made and you havent a chance. Going to piss off carp guys again her ,lol. im goo at it. But a barbel is not a carp, for it to reach that size its a bloody clever fish, its not a big carp that is tricked by some fancy baits. One of the few ctfish specues that is is wels catfish, but you look at guys who target piriaba in the amazon its all about the spot they fish. I agree with the them. I walways spend an hour scouting the water before i make a bait drop. I make a map of everything i have seen on the finder, than i sit down and try under stand how the fish is likely to move through the area, where it will stop and what is a likely place to put bait. I will than use our Dead red spray on my bait as a small attractant to generate a faster bite not really to get fish into the area. id rather know my bait is in the right spot and than think about something else like an attractant. You can use all sorts of things to try bring the fish to you, again carp fall for it all the time, its how they are designned. Catfish are hunters and for me have alot more brain power than carp, small inexperienced fish will fall for it. but once they are over 20kg that fish is clever and is harder to fool.
 
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Gcvanheerden

New member
Kosie is right regarding the amino acids.It is the basic building blocks for them to get bigger so why would they not take it?Watercraft is also very important to me I will rather get my baits out to the right spot then fish the perfect bait at the worst spot,I can't imagine what I would do without seeing what the bottom looks like.I don't really agree with the 20kg plus guys picking up the floaties and mielies.Yes,it does happen but not very often and probally a once in a lifetime thing for that angler.
 
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Kosie

New member
Have to agree with the guys here. H2O craft should be on top of ones list above bait choice. And then the most natural bait possible for that time and area. I think some guys like to target more/smaller cats sometimes to catch with light tackle or to keep busy while waiting for the big one so I think it fair to also investigate good feeding spot techniques. GcVanHeerden I totally agree that those big cats should not be targeted with A mielie or float hehe. My thinking is rather that they sometimes pick up the mieliebom itself rather than the mielie or float and gets hooked in the process, and like you rightly said, purely by chance. But for me any bait/technique that catches A 20kg+ weather by luck or not is worth investigating , never know what one might end up discovering! But yes I think more time should be spend on proven baits and techniques rather than trying to discover new ones. Except if you live and work next to the dam! lol.
 
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Steve Catlin

New member
My main reason for experimenting with ground-bait is to practice with the smaller cats in setting circle hooks properly and getting used to braid while I have the big baits out. There is nothing wrong with using tried and tested baits it is just nice to use your own imagination and enjoy when it pays off. The more I approach this challenge of only targeting large Barbel the more I want to study them and attempt to understand them. Anyway it is far better than fishing across the board without any goal in sight.
 
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Alien Invader

New member
Steve Catlin wrote:
My main reason for experimenting with ground-bait is to practice with the smaller cats in setting circle hooks properly and getting used to braid while I have the big baits out. There is nothing wrong with using tried and tested baits it is just nice to use your own imagination and enjoy when it pays off. The more I approach this challenge of only targeting large Barbel the more I want to study them and attempt to understand them. Anyway it is far better than fishing across the board without any goal in sight.
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Point taken!, Go for it... It's all about being able to do what you enjoy! Experiment away and have some fun!

Can you imagine what would have been said about boilies the first time they were used?
I wont even talk about putting TCP on a bait... lol
 
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Kosie

New member
Steve there is one other ground feed most guys tend to overlook. Maroek. In my previous years of kurper fishing I have learned that there are few things that can attract cats like maroek.
 
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Grunty

New member
Stink bait to me has never seemed superior than fresh baits & it's uncomfortable to work with so no longer use it. I now use a snelled rig with two hooks one with crab or plattie & the other with salted chicken liver.

I ground bait on occassion with grain floor sweepings/soya/bran/blood & sometimes mixed with brewers waste "Massesse" mixed in at the last miniute so it doesnt start fermenting and producing alcohols.

I place more importance on chumming with fish pellets/kapenta/chopped carp bodies & boilies.
Bait too much & the riff-raff will come.
 
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nobbles

New member
Go for it steve. THats the thing with barbel, the more you fish them the more you want to learn. For your small cats, chum the way you have been and use day olds as bait. In natal the 5kg fish cant leave a day old alone for more than an hour. You bring them in to that bait and you will be a very busy man.
 
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Steve Catlin

New member
Terrible weekend, on Saturday my Daughter suddenly had to go to school which meant Daddy's fishing plans went out the window. Today I ended up Baby-sitting 4 Grand-Children and these were my days off. I work most weekends either Sat or Sun as we have our own businesses and only take one full weekend every 4 weeks so when this happens it is really frustrating. If all goes well I will drop the kids off at school on Wednesday go straight to the dam, fish for about 5 hours then pick them up from school again, hectic but it has to be done.
 
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