Pearl barley is one of the most common and popular baits for catching peaceful fish among most anglers. It can be actively used both as a bait for fishing and as bait to attract the attention of the inhabitants of the reservoir to the fishing spot.
However, in order to successfully use pearl barley as bait for catching fish while fishing, it must be selected correctly, and also boiled, steamed in a thermos, or prepared in another accessible way. There are many ways to properly prepare this cereal, both at home and in the field.
The first thing to do is to choose the right pearl barley porridge, not rancid, without a lot of broken grains and debris
What is pearl barley and why do fish eat it?
Pearl barley is barley grains from which, thanks to the so-called primary processing, the peel (bran) is removed. It is popular both in cooking and among experienced fishermen. After all, this grain, after proper preparation, is one of the best baits for catching white fish.
You can use pearl barley to catch underwater inhabitants of reservoirs such as bream, carp, roach, bleak, and carp. In addition, pearl barley is one of the most effective baits that are used when catching such common fish in domestic reservoirs as crucian carp.
Pearl barley is a good summer bait for catching crucian carp, carp, bream, roach...
Pearl barley can be used either as bait (for example, when fishing with a float rod) or used as bait. As a rule, when using such grain as bait, special flavors are additionally added to it, which actively attract the attention of fish.
On a note! Pearl barley is the most affordable bait that can be used to successfully catch fish, even during inactive biting. It is easy to prepare it yourself at home, and its shelf life is about 3 days. Therefore, you can make such bait a few days before your fishing trip.
Cereal selection criteria
Not every pearl barley sold in stores is suitable for preparing bait for fishing. When choosing and purchasing, you should pay attention to such nuances as:
- Grain shape . It is preferable to select cereals with large, well-cleaned white grains.
- Date of manufacture . It is best to buy pearl barley from fresh, just harvested crops. This is due to the fact that fresh cereals are easier to prepare, and their grains have a lighter shade.
- Grain color . It is not recommended to use dark-colored grains for preparing bait. Fish react poorly and show much less interest in dark grain.
Good quality pearl barley porridge - the boiled grains are clean, strong and without unnecessary inclusions
It is not recommended to use cereals that have been damaged by pests (insects, rodents) for cooking for fishing purposes. For successful fishing, it is best to use high-quality pearl barley, without any defects or cracks, with well-peeled grains.
Barley in a thermos
A thermos for barley can be used in any suitable container, but it is better if it has a wide neck and a metal flask. When loading pearl barley into a thermos, you should take into account that it will absorb water and swell, so do not fill more than 1/4 of its volume.
- Pour pearl barley into a thermos;
- Fill the thermos with boiling water;
- Leave it overnight or for several hours.
If the pearl barley from the thermos turns out sticky, rinse it with warm water.
Cooking pearl barley - several successful ways to get high-quality bait and groundbait
There are a large number of different ways to prepare pearl barley. As a rule, pearl barley is used for fishing in boiled or steamed form.
To prepare this cereal, you can use modern kitchen devices (microwaves, multicookers, steamers) or resort to the classics and cook it the old-fashioned way, on a gas stove.
Steaming grains on gas - rubber pearl grains for strong adhesion to the hook
To properly steam pearl barley grains, you need to take a pan, fill it with cereal and pour water. This recipe requires one glass of water per glass of pearl barley.
Then you need to put the pan on medium heat and wait until the water starts to boil. After this, it needs to be removed from the stove, covered with a lid, wrapped in a blanket or blanket and placed in a warm place (you can use a thermal bag) for 4 - 5 hours.
On the hook, pearl barley, welded in this way, holds very tightly; you just need to pierce the grain so that the sting comes out, otherwise the fish may spit out the bait even before hooking
How to cook on gas - soaking, cooking, flavoring
Properly cooked pearl barley can be used both as a bait and as groundbait. To prepare it you will need a saucepan, water, and the cereal itself. In this case, you can also use a variety of aromatic additives.
At the first stage of preparation, you need to take pearl barley and pour it into a plate or bowl. Then it must be soaked for 1-2 hours in water at room temperature. During this period of time, the grains will begin to actively absorb moisture and swell.
It is advisable to soak pearl barley before cooking - this will soften the porridge and remove excess odors and elements that can harm the quality of fishing
Then the cereal, along with the water in which it was soaked, needs to be poured into a saucepan. Then cold water should be added to the container (the grains should be under water at a depth of 4-5 cm). After this, you need to put the pan on the fire and wait for the water to boil.
After boiling, the cereal must be cooked over medium heat for about 20 - 30 minutes, until its consistency becomes elastic. At the final stage of preparation, the resulting contents must be placed in a colander and left for a short period of time so that all the water drains.
After this, the boiled grains can be placed in a bag so that they do not lose their “sliminess”.
Flavorings are an additive that improves the quality of the bite, a particularly important quality when fishing for carp fish that are susceptible to smells.
How to steam pearl barley in a thermos
Ready-made, already steamed pearl barley can be purchased in specialized stores. However, it is much cheaper to make such bait yourself, at home, using a regular thermos. It is recommended to steam the cereal in a thermos in the evening, just before the day of going fishing, so that it can brew properly. To do this you will need:
- thermos (you can use an old thermos);
- pearl barley;
- boiled water;
- towel or cloth.
To steam pearl barley, you need to rinse it two or three times, then pour it into a thermos, and then pour boiling water over it.
Porridge from a thermos is a delicacy for fish, convenient for fisherman
After this, it is necessary to close the lid of the thermos as quickly as possible so that steam does not escape from it. Then you need to shake it so that the porridge does not stick to the edges and wrap it in a towel or thick cloth (you can use a blanket) and leave for 6 hours.
After the specified period, the steamed cereal should be thrown through a sieve (you don’t have to rinse it), and then used for catching fish.
It is necessary to steam pearl barley in a thermos carefully, observing safety precautions. You cannot fill a vessel with grains more than 1/3 of its original volume. If you put a large amount of cereal in a thermos, then after it swells in boiling water, it will increase in size and simply destroy its integrity. For example, if the capacity of a thermos is 0.5 liters, then in this case, no more than 3 tablespoons of pearl barley grains can be steamed in it at a time.
The thermos must be washed thoroughly before use. This is due to the fact that pearl barley is able to absorb foreign odors well, which can scare away fish. During steaming, you can add a few sunflower grains or a couple of drops of sunflower oil to the flask. This will make the bait more flavorful and attractive to fish.
How to steam pearl barley for fishing in a thermos for catching crucian carp, carp, bream and other peaceful fish:
Using a microwave
To cook pearl barley in the microwave, you do not need to pre-soak it in water. This is due to the fact that, unlike a gas stove, a microwave can cook cereals to a ready-made state much faster.
Before cooking, pearl barley grains should be thoroughly rinsed in cold water. Then you need to take a special container (glass bowl), place the cereal in it and pour boiling water over it. Barley is cooked in a microwave oven for 20 minutes (microwave power 800 W).
Then you need to take out the resulting porridge, mix thoroughly and put it back in the microwave for 10 minutes. Then, after finishing cooking, you need to take out the porridge, cover it with a lid, wrap it in a towel and let it sit for several hours.
Cooking porridge-delicacies for fish in a slow cooker
You can prepare pearl barley in a slow cooker. To do this, the grains need to be soaked for 3 hours in cold water (there should be 3 times more water than grains). After the cereal has swollen and increased in size, the water must be drained and transferred to the multicooker bowl.
Then add fresh water (about 4 measuring cups) to the already swollen cereal and cook in the “Porridge” or “Rice/Pilaf” mode. After cooking, the porridge must be poured into a pan and covered with a towel for several hours.
How else can you make pearl barley for fishing - recipes and tips
There are a large number of different recipes for preparing pearl barley; for example, when cooking this porridge on gas, some fishermen add various flavors and natural dyes to it. Some cooking recipes also involve the use of vitamins, sugar and salt.
To prepare an effective bait, you need to take water and pearl barley (in a ratio of 5 to 1) and cook it in a saucepan over a fire. At the final stage of cooking, when there is practically no water left in the porridge, the pan must be removed from the heat and covered with a lid.
Then, after about 1 hour, you can add natural flavors such as dill, cinnamon, honey to the bait. You can also use raspberry or strawberry syrup.
By the way! Pearl barley with cinnamon and vanilla is one of the favorite delicacies of crucian carp and small carp.
Karasik is not averse to eating pearl barley porridge with vanilla
To prepare pearl barley bait, after boiling it over the fire, you can add 1 teaspoon of soda to the pan. Then the resulting porridge must be stirred until the foam formed after adding soda subsides. This bait actively attracts the attention of fish to the fishing spot, however, it is very crumbly and is not suitable for fishing with a float rod.
How to prepare pearl barley for bream fishing
Fishing success depends on well-prepared bait. But here it is worth mentioning that there are many types of preparation of pearl barley porridge. All of them, under different conditions, can be equally successful. It all depends on the taste of the fish and the skill of the fisherman.
How to cook in a saucepan
The first and most obvious way to prepare pearl barley porridge is to simply boil it in a saucepan. Not a lot of pearl barley is spent in one fishing trip. If this is just a hook attachment, then one tablespoon will be enough. If cereal is added to the bait, then one glass will be enough. The product is perishable, so it is better to cook it for one or two fishing trips.
Before cooking, the cereal can be washed. Then in a saucepan it is brought to a boil and after boiling it is cooked for 50 minutes. You should keep an eye on the grains; they may cook earlier. Grains that are elastic but at the same time soft are considered ready. Barley is easy to overcook. The overcooked cereal will be easily crushed into dough in your hands. Such porridge for bream will not stick well to the hook. But it is suitable as an additive for bait. But if the pearl barley is undercooked, then it is unlikely to interest the fish.
Groundbait based on pearl barley porridge
Pearl barley can be actively used as one of the ingredients of effective bait. To do this, other components are added to it directly during cooking. Such additional ingredients may include:
- ground sunflower seeds;
- breadcrumbs);
- millet;
- corn or cornmeal;
- peas;
- potato.
You can add corn, peas and other grains and cereals to barley.
Some fishermen add a small amount of milk or anise seeds to barley when preparing bait. As a rule, baits made on the basis of pearl barley are used to attract large, large fish to the fishing site.
However, due to its consistency, such porridge does not hold well in feeders. Therefore, when preparing bait from it, it is best to use additional ingredients such as breadcrumbs and semolina for binding. Thanks to their use, complementary foods will have a more uniform consistency and will be better retained in the feeders during casting.
Experienced people keep secrets
During cooking or steaming, you can add a small amount of sunflower seeds to the porridge. Thanks to this, the bait will have a more attractive aroma to the fish. If you plan to catch crucian carp, then you can add a small amount of garlic to the porridge.
Immediately before using as bait, you can add a small amount of honey to the already cooked cereal. If you plan to use pearl barley as bait, then you can add breadcrumbs instead of honey.
To prevent the grains from sticking to the edges of the pan during cooking and the porridge from burning, it must be stirred constantly.
Recipe for pearl barley bait for roach
All baits are made on the basis of boiled or steamed cereals with the addition of flavorings. There is no fundamental difference between pearl barley for bait and for bait, only the flavors differ.
Suitable for bait:
- Anise seeds;
- Dill seeds;
- Crushed sunflower seeds.
Good bait is made from a mixture of pearl barley and oatmeal, flavored with the addition of crushed garlic. Feed balls are molded from this composition and thrown into the fishing area. The soaked flakes slowly float to the surface, attracting fish.
Variations of pearl barley porridge with different flavors allow you to achieve a stable bite. Mixtures of pearl barley with millet, pea porridge and cake are good.
When using feeders, there is no need to press in pearl barley bait, otherwise the feeder will cause bad dust.
About methods of planting grains
When fishing, boiled or steamed pearl barley can be used both as bait and as bait. As a rule, it is used to catch white fish using a float rod. In this case, you need to be able to properly place the grains on the hook.
For example, it is preferable to place only one grain of this cereal on hooks No. 16 or No. 18. If the hook size is No. 9 or No. 10, then 2-3 grains of cooked barley can be attached to it.
When using steamed cereal, you can make special sandwiches. To do this, you need to place bloodworms or maggots between the planted grains.
How to put pearl barley grain on a hook:
Cooking pearl barley for bait
The most universal way to prepare bait is by boiling cereals: it is used by the vast majority of fishermen. So, the most popular and simple recipe:
Properly prepared pearl barley has a medium-density consistency: the grains are easily placed and held securely on the hook. They are slimy to the touch, which is great: it is this starchy mucus that attracts fish, which is why many anglers prefer to use pearl barley in its pure form, without adding additional components.
After filling the cereal and water, the thermos needs to be shaken gently. It is better to insist in a lying position. It should be borne in mind that the higher the temperature of the boiling water poured, the faster the pearl barley will cook.
