Not allowed on my water anymore because people take the p1ss. Thank god.
Not a bit of me at all I'm afraid, unless you're using one because you physically can't cast that's different obviously but as someone said, why use them when you can cast to the spot easily. I've seen people on another lake literally bait boat into snags, yes they caught but that's not on surely.
Or unless you're fishing a mahoosive lake where the fish are at 200 yards plus maybe if normal.boats aren't allowed.
You wouldn't see Terry using one for a 50 yard cast would you 🤣
Not a bit of me at all I'm afraid, unless you're using one because you physically can't cast that's different obviously but as someone said, why use them when you can cast to the spot easily. I've seen people on another lake literally bait boat into snags, yes they caught but that's not on surely.
Or unless you're fishing a mahoosive lake where the fish are at 200 yards plus maybe if normal.boats aren't allowed.
You wouldn't see Terry using one for a 50 yard cast would you 🤣
I wouldn't say the norm yet. In the last 10 years+ they've not been allowed on the 5 waters I've fished in earnest. But that possibly says more about the types of water I like to fish than the general consensus.
Terry Hearn using one was the beginning of the end IMO.
In reply to Post #18
Sorry but that is a nonsense statement . . . if Terry Hearn feels like using a boat (when/as appropriate) then why should the rest of us feel any different?
A bit like the 'brolly in winter / move on a fishes fart' brigade I think there's a lot of bs bravado around 'not using a baitboat' in that by intentionally not doing so its somehow more skilful by default and therefore more 'carpy' (whatever that means) . . . . I think the actual reasons are more likely lake rules / cost / habit and self-contrived guilt based on how someone wants to be perceived. . .or cares about how they may or may not be perceived by others
IMO I can pretty much guarantee - if you 'forced' a non-bb advocate that has never used one before to have a play with a fully specified boat and experience the tech if nothing else their eyes will light up and you'll struggle to get the handset off them (a bit like a kid with a rod when they hook into their first decent fish) . . .
I remember being initially 'shamed' on a tough low stock / mega weedy syndicate as the first adopter of the humminbird smartcast. Although the tech was basic for the time it was brilliant for finding holes in the weed at short range and made the whole process quicker / less noisy than a bare lead / marker and three tons of weed piled next to my rods before I'd cast them out. My results started to improve and eventually pretty much every other member (we were all struggling) either wanted to have a go / borrow it 'just to check' or ended up buying one themselves. . . . . . . . .
Sorry but that is a nonsense statement . . . if Terry Hearn feels like using a boat (when/as appropriate) then why should the rest of us feel any different?
A bit like the 'brolly in winter / move on a fishes fart' brigade I think there's a lot of bs bravado around 'not using a baitboat' in that by intentionally not doing so its somehow more skilful by default and therefore more 'carpy' (whatever that means) . . . . I think the actual reasons are more likely lake rules / cost / habit and self-contrived guilt based on how someone wants to be perceived. . .or cares about how they may or may not be perceived by others
IMO I can pretty much guarantee - if you 'forced' a non-bb advocate that has never used one before to have a play with a fully specified boat and experience the tech if nothing else their eyes will light up and you'll struggle to get the handset off them (a bit like a kid with a rod when they hook into their first decent fish) . . .
I remember being initially 'shamed' on a tough low stock / mega weedy syndicate as the first adopter of the humminbird smartcast. Although the tech was basic for the time it was brilliant for finding holes in the weed at short range and made the whole process quicker / less noisy than a bare lead / marker and three tons of weed piled next to my rods before I'd cast them out. My results started to improve and eventually pretty much every other member (we were all struggling) either wanted to have a go / borrow it 'just to check' or ended up buying one themselves. . . . . . . . .
Since a kid I've always had an issue with my shoulders locking up past a certain point and it's limited my ability to cast any distance. It's limited a lot of my fishing to short ranges floater/margin fishing. This year I bought a bait boat for the very first time, I've yet to use it in anger, but I'm looking forward to dropping out baits at features I could only dream of casting to.
I think like every sport new tech comes along and there will always be some that feel it's not for them, some that need it, and some just view it as another tool in the toolbelt. I think as long as you use your tools safely and respectfully (both of the fish and others) I think it's okay to do what works for you
I think like every sport new tech comes along and there will always be some that feel it's not for them, some that need it, and some just view it as another tool in the toolbelt. I think as long as you use your tools safely and respectfully (both of the fish and others) I think it's okay to do what works for you
In reply to Post #19
In your opinion, which I respect.
Personally I have never fished anywhere that baitboats are allowed where users haven't taken the piss. And I mean constantly.
Current syndicate; I turn up look across the lake and can straight away see that swims 6, 7 and 8 are empty. Excellent! I push my gear round there to be greeted by a boat going up and down the three swims. The boat user is sat in his bivvy down in swim 4. Not even aware that someone wants to fish where he's busy look for holes in the weed.
Many, many times over the years I've witnessed rigs being taken way out of an anglers own water.
If they were always used within the rules of a water and/or within the boundaries of decent etiquette I wouldn't have anywhere near the dislike of them that I have.
In your opinion, which I respect.
Personally I have never fished anywhere that baitboats are allowed where users haven't taken the piss. And I mean constantly.
Current syndicate; I turn up look across the lake and can straight away see that swims 6, 7 and 8 are empty. Excellent! I push my gear round there to be greeted by a boat going up and down the three swims. The boat user is sat in his bivvy down in swim 4. Not even aware that someone wants to fish where he's busy look for holes in the weed.
Many, many times over the years I've witnessed rigs being taken way out of an anglers own water.
If they were always used within the rules of a water and/or within the boundaries of decent etiquette I wouldn't have anywhere near the dislike of them that I have.
I think I am what is generally considered Old School, both in tackle and ethos. I fish for my own pleasure, don't do social media, don't post pics of my captures. I make or improve lots of bits of tackle and make my own bait as it's a part of the sport I enjoy. I fish midweek on a proper syndicate when there's no one around just as I like it. I like to do things as much as possible as they were when I started in the 70's.
But yes, I have a bait boat and have had one since the early days of the original AT Baitboat. I used it for reaching beyond casting range initially. With an upgrade to a Microcat in the 90's also came the “Fish Finder” fitted. I annotate “Fish Finder” as I've never met a carper who uses it for finding fish, using it solely for studying the bottom topography. My latest boat has a RayMarine fitted and it's used for the same reason but much more detailed and accurate. I also have a boat and motor which I use regularly. Between, boating around fish spotting and checking out spots visually, scouring the bottom, dropping out baits and baiting up I probably put a lot more effort in than someone who rocks up, does a pub chuck, catapults a few boilies out or a couple of spods, so I don't follow that argument. The lakes I fish midweek I rarely see another angler and I'm also responsible anyway, so the nuisance angle is ruled out. Cheating - don't see it that way either, no more than bolt rigs, spods/spombs, rigs with so much metal and plastic bits on them to make them anti eject. Shop bought boilies? Is using a marker float to feel and gauge the bottom cheating? Is using it to mark your spot in conjunction with a line clip or distance sticks cheating?
So I use one, I'm happy to do so, and don't get over exited about it. Would I use one on a small pond with anglers packed in every swim? No. However as I don't fish waters like that it's not a problem I've had to face.
But yes, I have a bait boat and have had one since the early days of the original AT Baitboat. I used it for reaching beyond casting range initially. With an upgrade to a Microcat in the 90's also came the “Fish Finder” fitted. I annotate “Fish Finder” as I've never met a carper who uses it for finding fish, using it solely for studying the bottom topography. My latest boat has a RayMarine fitted and it's used for the same reason but much more detailed and accurate. I also have a boat and motor which I use regularly. Between, boating around fish spotting and checking out spots visually, scouring the bottom, dropping out baits and baiting up I probably put a lot more effort in than someone who rocks up, does a pub chuck, catapults a few boilies out or a couple of spods, so I don't follow that argument. The lakes I fish midweek I rarely see another angler and I'm also responsible anyway, so the nuisance angle is ruled out. Cheating - don't see it that way either, no more than bolt rigs, spods/spombs, rigs with so much metal and plastic bits on them to make them anti eject. Shop bought boilies? Is using a marker float to feel and gauge the bottom cheating? Is using it to mark your spot in conjunction with a line clip or distance sticks cheating?
So I use one, I'm happy to do so, and don't get over exited about it. Would I use one on a small pond with anglers packed in every swim? No. However as I don't fish waters like that it's not a problem I've had to face.
In reply to Post #1
I do wonder how many videos have been done by baitboat but they not shown this. It might just be that they think people more open to it now so showing it.
They are banned on the majority of the waters I fish so I can't use them. However I've seen them being used in one lake that was less then an acre in size and you can literally underarm to the spots. It's when they get used in stupid situations or to go over other people that gave them the bad name
I do wonder how many videos have been done by baitboat but they not shown this. It might just be that they think people more open to it now so showing it.
They are banned on the majority of the waters I fish so I can't use them. However I've seen them being used in one lake that was less then an acre in size and you can literally underarm to the spots. It's when they get used in stupid situations or to go over other people that gave them the bad name
In reply to Post #22
You use a rowing boat to find your spots, then a bait boat to drop your rigs on the spot?
Have I read that correctly?
You use a rowing boat to find your spots, then a bait boat to drop your rigs on the spot?
Have I read that correctly?
In reply to Post #24
I have a bait boat and a Bic 252 with a motor.
On this particular lake I fish mid week, normally Monday to Friday, pulling off before the weekend to free up the swim for anglers who can only get out at weekend.
Only 2 of the swims on a 26 acre lake are on dry land and of the others all the ones on the far bank can only be accessed by boat. On arrival I do the usual walk around looking for any signs of life. There's rarely anyone else on but if there is there's enough room to avoid them by quite a few acres. I use the Bic to initially check out any likely areas, bays, reedlines, lillypad beds that can't be seen from dry land. I'm specifically looking for movement in the reedbeds or lilly pads. I also check out the line of the lilly pad beds as sometimes you get single rogue lilly plants off the edge of the main pad line. You need to avoid these like the plague as fish will snag you on these. Your own eyeballs are the best for this. Having found any likely spots, I drop a H marker out then I boat out my gear (and dog) to the most suitable platform. Fishing to spots which can't be reached other than by boat is always a good tactic on this lake. I then send out the Baitboat from my swim to the H marker and have a good look at the bottom as due to it being a silty Mere you can't make out the bottom from a rowing boat. Once happy with the spot, it's saved by GPS. Job done. The baits will be initially boated out and dropped by hand as I like to bait up a large general area with a more concentrated baited area around the Hookbait and retreive the H marker. For the rest of the time I will use the Baitboat. I will repeat the large area baiting up with the Bic boat as required, but all other trips will be by Baitboat.
Of course with GPS and the ability to save all your spots in the Baitboat app it is possible to just use this but I always have a mooch around in the Bic first before using the Baitboat. I need the Bic in any case to get to the platforms to fish off.
Make sense?
I have a bait boat and a Bic 252 with a motor.
On this particular lake I fish mid week, normally Monday to Friday, pulling off before the weekend to free up the swim for anglers who can only get out at weekend.
Only 2 of the swims on a 26 acre lake are on dry land and of the others all the ones on the far bank can only be accessed by boat. On arrival I do the usual walk around looking for any signs of life. There's rarely anyone else on but if there is there's enough room to avoid them by quite a few acres. I use the Bic to initially check out any likely areas, bays, reedlines, lillypad beds that can't be seen from dry land. I'm specifically looking for movement in the reedbeds or lilly pads. I also check out the line of the lilly pad beds as sometimes you get single rogue lilly plants off the edge of the main pad line. You need to avoid these like the plague as fish will snag you on these. Your own eyeballs are the best for this. Having found any likely spots, I drop a H marker out then I boat out my gear (and dog) to the most suitable platform. Fishing to spots which can't be reached other than by boat is always a good tactic on this lake. I then send out the Baitboat from my swim to the H marker and have a good look at the bottom as due to it being a silty Mere you can't make out the bottom from a rowing boat. Once happy with the spot, it's saved by GPS. Job done. The baits will be initially boated out and dropped by hand as I like to bait up a large general area with a more concentrated baited area around the Hookbait and retreive the H marker. For the rest of the time I will use the Baitboat. I will repeat the large area baiting up with the Bic boat as required, but all other trips will be by Baitboat.
Of course with GPS and the ability to save all your spots in the Baitboat app it is possible to just use this but I always have a mooch around in the Bic first before using the Baitboat. I need the Bic in any case to get to the platforms to fish off.
Make sense?
In reply to Post #25
It makes sense. I just haven't heard of anybody fishing this way, or any lakes that allow both bait boats and row boats.
It wouldn't be my choice, but each to their own if it's within the rules.
It makes sense. I just haven't heard of anybody fishing this way, or any lakes that allow both bait boats and row boats.
It wouldn't be my choice, but each to their own if it's within the rules.
Cheating is probably a step too far but a moral conundrum for both the anglers using and those others that fish without.
These days a few hours and pounds can buy you a boat that takes you to places that you can't reach by skill or practice. They can take you to spots that previously were a sanctuary for fish, where the bets were off and when they ventured out proper angling was fairer.
They can take you back via satellite to a spot whilst you crack on a Stella watching Geronimo sail away in the distance with a couple of hoppers worth of food.
You can look at the bottom via a camera, check rig placement, signs of feeding, clear spots etc.
You can scan the lake quietly and get a topography map whilst you grill some bacon and butter your bap.
All of which are of course artificial edges and in my opinion any substantiation regards bite alarms, bolt rigs and the like are ridiculous.
Aside from disability which is a total other ball game, then absolutely I believe it impacts the merits of a catch. I have used one on a holiday venue, in laziness regards getting bait out and not spodding. So not exactly the righteous!
My personal morals are around effort = reward and I admire those type of endeavours- maybe they have more time, access, better bait, but I still look in awe at some captures and wonder if I have the stamina and single mindedness to achieve similar. If the capture was done via the help of a toy boat, either my capture or anyone else's it's more of a shoulder shrug for me. The user won't care, and neither will I but it's different.
Lots of people don't have all the features, or don't use them, or use them responsibly- but if I had a lake, I would not allow them - I want them to have sulking spots, I want them to have have some mystery and natural edge over the hunter, it's the least they deserve.
Would it be OK for hunters to shoot thier prey via drones as long as they pressed fire?
These days a few hours and pounds can buy you a boat that takes you to places that you can't reach by skill or practice. They can take you to spots that previously were a sanctuary for fish, where the bets were off and when they ventured out proper angling was fairer.
They can take you back via satellite to a spot whilst you crack on a Stella watching Geronimo sail away in the distance with a couple of hoppers worth of food.
You can look at the bottom via a camera, check rig placement, signs of feeding, clear spots etc.
You can scan the lake quietly and get a topography map whilst you grill some bacon and butter your bap.
All of which are of course artificial edges and in my opinion any substantiation regards bite alarms, bolt rigs and the like are ridiculous.
Aside from disability which is a total other ball game, then absolutely I believe it impacts the merits of a catch. I have used one on a holiday venue, in laziness regards getting bait out and not spodding. So not exactly the righteous!
My personal morals are around effort = reward and I admire those type of endeavours- maybe they have more time, access, better bait, but I still look in awe at some captures and wonder if I have the stamina and single mindedness to achieve similar. If the capture was done via the help of a toy boat, either my capture or anyone else's it's more of a shoulder shrug for me. The user won't care, and neither will I but it's different.
Lots of people don't have all the features, or don't use them, or use them responsibly- but if I had a lake, I would not allow them - I want them to have sulking spots, I want them to have have some mystery and natural edge over the hunter, it's the least they deserve.
Would it be OK for hunters to shoot thier prey via drones as long as they pressed fire?
In reply to Post #27
Well put and we have the same ideas about merit. I've also made the hunter analogy before, same as a golfer putting by remote controlled vehicle.
Well put and we have the same ideas about merit. I've also made the hunter analogy before, same as a golfer putting by remote controlled vehicle.
Reading all these comments wonder what peoples thoughts are on deepers as it surely has the same outcome when it comes to "merit" even though you cast it it tells you lake bottom,depth, structures etc all that can be done with a probing lead but that much quicker
In reply to Post #27
I can understand what you're saying but it isn't as black and white as that.
1. If there are spots on a lake that as you say are safe zones for carp then anglers will always try and overcome that, sometimes not safely. When the lengths that were being taken at Rainbow were shown in CarpWorld a few years ago there was uproar. There wasn't a Baitboat in sight but anglers were using all sorts of methods to overcome problem areas. My syndicate Lake does have an out of bounds area which no one can physically access - Baitboat or not.
2. Effort=reward. If you read my post detailing use of rowing boat and Baitboat together there's a lot of effort that goes into getting it set up and just right, a lot more than a quick leading around, pub chuck, bosh out a spod or catapult a few boilies. By the way, the syndicate I described allows rowing boats as without one you'd only be able to access 40% of the lake, and also allows baitboats. Surprisingly only a small percentage actually use boats even though there is a pool boat accessible to all. Most of these anglers can be seen fishing the two dry land swims ( near the car park) so the effort=reward scenario doesn't hold water.
3. There is always the Old Chesnut about lack of skill. What if the angler who uses a bait boat actually can cast accurately at distance? I'm a fairly good caster and more importantly can cast and read a marker float, can put a baited rig a fair distance and can repeatedly hit it with a spod/spomb. It's always bandied about that Baitboat users don't have any skills. I go to France every year so a lot of the venues have bait boat bans. I just take the marker and spod rod no problem and have never unduly been at any disadvantage.
4. Personal morals. This is a tricky one. I wouldn't use a drone and I wouldn't use an underwater camera so what that proves is open to conjecture. However as these are personal issues I tend to not comment on people who do as who am I to criticise?
5. As I don't do social media or publicise my catches, in fact totally the opposite, then as long as I enjoy my hobby as no one else is involved who's to upset?. I very rarely see many people on my lake. It's just me and my little toy boat.
So most of the arguments don't really stack up and it really is just a case of whether it's for the individual or not, and let it rest there.
I can understand what you're saying but it isn't as black and white as that.
1. If there are spots on a lake that as you say are safe zones for carp then anglers will always try and overcome that, sometimes not safely. When the lengths that were being taken at Rainbow were shown in CarpWorld a few years ago there was uproar. There wasn't a Baitboat in sight but anglers were using all sorts of methods to overcome problem areas. My syndicate Lake does have an out of bounds area which no one can physically access - Baitboat or not.
2. Effort=reward. If you read my post detailing use of rowing boat and Baitboat together there's a lot of effort that goes into getting it set up and just right, a lot more than a quick leading around, pub chuck, bosh out a spod or catapult a few boilies. By the way, the syndicate I described allows rowing boats as without one you'd only be able to access 40% of the lake, and also allows baitboats. Surprisingly only a small percentage actually use boats even though there is a pool boat accessible to all. Most of these anglers can be seen fishing the two dry land swims ( near the car park) so the effort=reward scenario doesn't hold water.
3. There is always the Old Chesnut about lack of skill. What if the angler who uses a bait boat actually can cast accurately at distance? I'm a fairly good caster and more importantly can cast and read a marker float, can put a baited rig a fair distance and can repeatedly hit it with a spod/spomb. It's always bandied about that Baitboat users don't have any skills. I go to France every year so a lot of the venues have bait boat bans. I just take the marker and spod rod no problem and have never unduly been at any disadvantage.
4. Personal morals. This is a tricky one. I wouldn't use a drone and I wouldn't use an underwater camera so what that proves is open to conjecture. However as these are personal issues I tend to not comment on people who do as who am I to criticise?
5. As I don't do social media or publicise my catches, in fact totally the opposite, then as long as I enjoy my hobby as no one else is involved who's to upset?. I very rarely see many people on my lake. It's just me and my little toy boat.
So most of the arguments don't really stack up and it really is just a case of whether it's for the individual or not, and let it rest there.