Barbel

[davidbennett]

Anyone know anything about Barbel?
I dont but want to
I ve been catching lovely brownies on the Goyt all summer and have seen double figure barbel in the shallows
Brown trout season is nearly closed so was going to target barbel next - any advice of where they hang out, tactics, rig and baits?
Cheers
Dave

[Izzetafox]

Keep it simple I would say, especially in shallow water. You may find things a little hectic in the shallows, first advice would be keep rod low and use side strain.

If possible keep an eye on where they tend to lie and feed and see where you can approach from unseen. Pre-bait if possible to get them feeding confidently. Depending if they have been fished for keep bait basic.
If they are un-caught fish I would go for more natural hook baits, bread, meat, corn, maggots even casters. I have had some great fish on double caster.
Pre- bait and loose feed hemp caster and corn. Consider using a hair rig via a knotless knot if you miss bites
Personally I would go for a running lead and a 2-3ft leader for starters. Hook size to match the bait obviously.
If they are educated fish then you may have to go down the pellet or boilie route

Depending on flow keep rod high to reduce tension on lead, which can vary from a couple of swan shot on a link to a 3oz flat lead or even bigger.

This is just from my experience....we do have Cam here who has a reputation for barbel down on the Avon who may have better advice.

One important thing......FISH WELFARE!!!
Don't bother with a keepnet, barbel and keepnets do not mix. Return the fish as soon as possible and hold it in the water until it swims off of it's own accord. Too many fish go belly up after a hard fight and not being rewarded with the care it deserves.

Terry

[Daz]

can i add one little thing to that....which is from my experience with barbel.

DO NOT LET GO OF YOUR ROD OR YOU WILL LOOSE IT ;D

[B]

Good advice

[B]

If i were to fish deeper water when the weather get colder - is murky cloudy water better than clear water?
Am looking for the still parts of the river or fast moving parts?
cheers

[DAVID BENNETT]

Sorry to be a pain but could you give me a shopping list for
my first barbel fish
I ve got reel/line and rod etc
just need a break down of what to buy
Cheers

[Izzetafox]

Have alook in the carp sect of the tackle shop and get some flat arsley bombs you can even get gravel coloured ones.
I have the lead free running on a link swivel with a swivel between main line and hook length.
For hair rigged baits I prefer wide gape hooks, have a word with the tackle shop and see what carp hooks they have probably 6-8 down to 14 or 16 with double caster.
remember it's not just meat and boilies you can hair rig you can have a string of 3 or 4 kernels of corn with a fine hair you can even have a bunch of maggots on many people swear by using dead maggots, drown them in coke.

OR you could go down the feeder route. large blockend feeder with hemp and maggots/casters with maggot or casters on the hook.
You could loose feed small halibut pellet or chopped large pellets and then hair rig a 10mm halibut on the hook. or any other boilie flavour.

To me the priority is getting a bed of bait down to hold the fish. Beware they can be timid fish and can be easily spooked.

Just promise me one thing.....don't do like some of the barbel boys do and throw abuse around when they get a 4lb chub instead of a barbel.

Terry

[db]

perfect and thanks for all your help!

[dacab]

Have a look here

www.barbel.co.uk/

[Daz]

Sept 15, 2012 8:12:10 GMT dacab said:

Have a look here

www.barbel.co.uk/

good bunch on there

[cam]

hello chaps sorry been so busy ..ok so barbel the first thing i want to say is when you get it into the landing net .stop do not lift the fish from the water.
Barbel give an awful lot in the fight and the one thing they do not want now is to be denied oxygen .think of it like this you have just ran a hundred metres nearly as fast as Usain bolt and someone then thrusts your head underwater...
you really need a large net for barbel will benefit from not being folded up i use a very big spoon net but a carp net will sufice ...you also need an unhooking mat which i suppose on a yak will have to be stored behind you and then placed over your legs ...
they do not jump about much unlike carp which i have real resevations on with regard to yak fishing .
AFTER A FEW MINUTES IN THE NET BRING ONBOARD AND LAY ON THE UNHOOKING MAT ...unhook the fish and if a mate is present do a quick snap if not just do it on the matt .RETURN THE FISH TO THE WATER DO NOT LET GO HOLD BY THE TAIL ROOT AND TRY TO FACE THE FISH UPSTREAM IT WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN IT WANTS TO GO .
fish welfareis very important with all fish but the Barbel is very delicate especially in water with depleated oxygen ...
AS TO CATCHING THEM ......
I would feed them...Maggot or small pellet ..do not fish just watch, feed again and just watch ..it is actually nearly as much fun as catching them ,what you are doing is raising their confidence .some anglers will do this for hours before introducing a hookbait ..this is very neccesary for educated fish which is why kayaks have no place on some barbel rivers for the river is to small to paddle down and ruin the efforts of a bank angler who has been feeding a shoal of barbel for hours to see his whole day in tatters because some kayak has just ploughed through his swim ...
i am not against kayaks on rivers or lakes where there are no bank anglers or the river is navacable i just do not believe in upsetting bank anglers for my own ends ...Terry understands where i am coming from and so do the angling trust ...others dont give a dam ...
tackle... well dependant on the river and the state of the weed growth ,my own rivers the stour and the avon have lots of weed ,the avon is a chalk stream river and for the main runs clear ,the stour however is basically a spate river which is very much rain dependant .During the summer months the weed on both rivers is prolific and the stour in particular needs very strong tackle ...if you are using mono on the stour in the summer twelve pound line is minimum i personally use twenty pound braid ..which cuts through the weed .in the winter when the weed has gone then 6lb minimum ......i use size fourteen drennan barbel hooks i find i can hair rig boilies and pellets or use it to fish castor or maggot a good all round barbel hook .
To me the barbel is one of our most perfect fish ,its strong in the fight and can be fished for on a budget a bag of boiles will last all season .DO NOT FISH FOR THIS FISH LIKE CARP .you only need to use a dozen boilies a day .they are not pigs like carp and an individual fish is only likely to take a couple of bolies .if you want to pile it in use maggot or hemp and castor .
The very biggest tip i can give anybody who wants to catch a barbel is this ...buy some polaroids for where you can see them in the summer they will be nearby in the winter ....personally i like to see the barbel and that means daytime summerfishing ....this is not normal barbel angler behaviour for most barbel anglers like a coiloured river after dark but that is just because they do not possess the skills to do otherwise

[Izzetafox]

Thanks Cam, I knew when you had time your input would be quality.

As Cam says if you are after specimen fish then leave the yak at home.

Where I am currently trying to find barbel is on a stretch of the Trent that is unfishable from the bank so the yak is the only way. The depth drops to as much as 25ft and there are loads of boats passing by. So... a kayak anchored 10ft from the bank on a 25yd wide river is not a problem. BUT 20ft wide and a couple of feet of clear water as many prime stretches can be then stealth and patience are essential. The slightest bump of your rod on the side of the yak could spook fish and ruin your chances.

So it really does depend what the river is like. Don't be tied to the yak. One place I fish I paddle 3 miles upstream, haul out and walk another 20 yards and crawl the last 10 yards and fish 2 ft of gin clear water, 4 ft wide with rushes either side.

BTW No longer in the AT, said I would give it 12 months and see the results......worth the gamble but am happier trying to find waters using a forum like this. Eyes and ears all over the country with no hidden agenda.

Once again Cam thanks for contributing here your knowledge is appreciated.

Great photo I bet it was refreshing .

Terry

[Daz]

[/quote]

ive always chucked them back when there that size thinking they was large gudgeon ;D

[cam]

the reason i am in the water is because the bank was so steep i could not reach the water to put her back so i jumped in knowing the depth and SI handed me the fish .she was actually 12lb 14oz and came after I had lost a much larger fish ..
With the pressure the barbel of the dorset stour are under from bad handling, foriegn anglers killing the fish, otters eating the fish an the enviroment agency destroying the habitat by dredging and straigtening, they are very precious to me i actually feel guilty fishing for them .
so every effort is made to return the fish in fine fettle to grace another net another time .please take care they do not go back like other fish .

[Izzetafox]

Sept 26, 2012 15:57:46 GMT cam said:

the reason i am in the water is because the bank was so steep i could not reach the water to put her back so i jumped in knowing the depth and SI handed me the fish .she was actually 12lb 14oz and came after I had lost a much larger fish ..
With the pressure the barbel of the dorset stour are under from bad handling, foriegn anglers killing the fish, otters eating the fish an the enviroment agency destroying the habitat by dredging and straigtening, they are very precious to me i actually feel guilty fishing for them .
so every effort is made to return the fish in fine fettle to grace another net another time .please take care they do not go back like other fish .

That's why I hate to see them match fished and kept in keepnets. There is untold damage done. Now they are stocking them in commercial fisheries too. I dread to think what sort of a mess their dorsal fins are in.

[cam]

i agree with both your concerns .terry i dont do keepnets and i dont do ponds full of fish swimming in there own piss so some match angler can be on the coin by catching more fish ripped of the hook and thrown in a keepnet for five hours .i have no time for that side of angling none at all .
they say but our nets are friendly now and we use barbless hooks ,well the barbless hooks cause the mouth damage and i can prove it .there is a local match lake which is only ever had a barbless only rule and only been match fished by fishing club teams ...so not kids or noddies but men with thousands of pounds worth of poles,the fish arein a terrible state and having both lips is rare .but they can get 100 pound bags ..makes my blood boil .

[Izzetafox]

Roy Marlow a once famous match angler who was in the Likely Lads team with the late great Ivan Marks runs a very exclusive commercial fishery called The Glebe in Leicestershire.

He has worked hard establishing a 'fish friendly' fishery and has obtained grants from virtually every organisation you can imagine because of the caring side of the fishery and indeed he has done a lot of good.

HOWEVER..... it is barbless only and no nets except in matches.

He has a pool called 'Pretties' which has lovely silvers along with crucians and rudd. He also has ' Uglies' which contains lots of large carp well into the twenties. They all have one thing in common they are ugly have you ever seen a double figure carp with no lips at all or the fins are stubby like stockie trout often do.
They are a sad reflection of what 'hit and hold' fishing does. That is the only way to fish matches on a water where you need over a ton just to frame.

If you saw this volume of fish being tipped down a keep net for weighing you would weep.

I have fished charity matches there in the past and seen people fish the margins with a very large hook to foul hook 'accidently of course' spawning carp.

One of the great things about kayak angling is that you can often just slip the hook at the side and a keepnet is totally impractical.

[Daz]

100% agree on the not using barbless hooks unless they are trebles and you have to use a net.

ive seen some horrible mouth damage caused by barbless hooks on carp and i dont like mugga type hooks either