hemp

[Gord]

in my youth I used hemp as bait with good results so I am going to try again to target roach using hemp as bait as I think this is one of the most selective baits you can get. I am just wondering is fishing with hemp a dying art as more and more anglers missed fishing for roach by moving straight to carp so what do you think

[Vole]

It selects dace, chub and barbel, too... had my first "hemp" barbel yesterday, trotting a single grain wedged onto a #12; also my first wheat-caught barbel.
Oh, and it selects the occasional carp, too - great fun on roach gear, given acres of open water and plenty of line. Can't recall ever getting a bream on it, though.

[Gord]

I have only caught dace and roach on it and I cant imagine a barbel on light gear, I envy your catch well done

[RBTraditional]

I use hemp for most of my river tench and barbel fishing, but as loose feed either by dropper or carefully fed into the margins by hand. At this time of year I'll not go without it.

[Vole]

Gord, I confess I was half-expecting one, and the #12 hook was tied to a 6lb hooklength!
My three best carp on single seeds (two on hemp, one on a tare were, oddly, all about 13-and-a-half pounds, with #16s to 3.5 lb line or thereabouts. Two were lake fish, and just got bored and eventually wandered into the net, but the tare fish was from the Colne, on a twenty-foot float rod, and that was an argument to remember!

[Marc]

River fishing is dying, so therefore hemp fishing is rarer now. More space for us though.

This is a profound statement and very true. I've been fishing on the river Wear over a dozen times this season and other than two salmon anglers, way off in the distance, I've never seen another soul.

Sad in some respects but as you say better for those of us that make the effort.

I use hemp as ground bait regularly. It's good because it sinks fast and gets them digging.

[RBTraditional]

I agree with what you've said there PoD regards just how quiet the rivers are....but the upside is that you get peaceful undisturbed angling, which to me is what it's all about....

[Paul F]

I use hemp a lot (I only fish rivers) as loose feed for barbel/chub, I use it for roach fishing with a tare on the hook in the summer, I also like to use it in liquised form as a cloudy bait for roach

[Chubman]

hemp is just about the best summer bait. one grain on the hook and only 6 grains loose feed every cast, it can take a while to get the roach on the feed, but once there on it be prepared for good bags of roach

[DaceAce]

I prefer to feed hemp and fish tares if the roach will have them. Also caught carp, silver bream, bronze bream, dace (lots!), chub, barbel, rudd, perch (a fluke) and bleak (rarely) on tares but mainly roach. I'll switch to hemp if the roach are cagey. It only seems to work on waters where plenty of hemp goes in. On the upper Stour I have failed totally on a couple of stretches though try to feed some whenever I fish the hardly fished sections to try to wean them onto it.