viney's Blog

An honourable draw I'd say Viney, not a loss by any means. I've only caught barbel trotting, not many but on each occasion they've been hiding in streamer weed and from the bank you'd never believe that they were there. If you're fishing during the morning that might be your best chance. I've seen plenty of barbel tails poking out from bankside vegetation which dangles in the water so it's always worth trotting past as close as you can even if it looks too shallow, I've seen them in water which could only have been a couple of feet deep. Remember to keep feeding.

I get more barbel ledgering on halibut pellet athan anything else - though it is just about all I use these days. Long since gave up on doing much baiting up - save your pennies - location and timing is way more important. I only ever bother ledgering at dusk now - first couple of hours of darkness usually most productive. Or do what Rusty says an trot for them - in the fast shallows though the best time for this is rapidly fading they tend to slip back into deeper water come the autumn. There's an article on AN I wrote on trotting for barbel - but the real essence is keeping the maggot trickling in - the exact opposite to my ledgering approach where I tend to fish with 14mm halibuts which I give an added flavour of monster crab.

 

 

HTH

 

 

Chris

cheers guys!

matt