Barbel on a tidal stretch?

[philocalist]

Out of my comfort zone here a little, so looking for a nudge or three in the right direction

I've got a chance, possibly two, of fishing a tidal stretch of a local river in an area known to contain barbel. 'Accidental' catches top out around the six pound mark, but there are believable reports of substantially bigger fish being viewed in summer (and lost recently).

Barbel, no problem - a tidal stretch on a river maybe 50m wide max, with tides running at 3 - 4m between low and high water is definitely new ground.

One of the problems I'm faced with is access, which is lousy - likely only via one or two swims at most, both of which are apparently in the right area's for fish but neither of which appear to have any obvious fish-holding features beyond banks uniformly lined with trees ... so nothing specific to cast to, and not really the opportunity to do much re feature-finding etc.

Gear-wise I've access to pretty much anything I might need, but there are two aspects that are escaping me (and asking local anglers in not an option); when during the tidal flow is likely to be most productive ... and advice on baits too perhaps? ... I'm starting to think that trying to attract them to a baited hook (most likely on the bottom, rather than under a float) might be more productive than searching blindly for them, no?

[lutra]

On rivers that the flow changes a lot (because of tide or spate), I think you will find they move a lot to find the flow that suits them.

 

So yes if you chuck a bait or two out into the flow and/or the edge of the flow, there should be a good chance one might find you eventually. Mild weather and warmer water temps always helps this time of year. Tight line.....

[Tigger]

I fish the lower tidal stretches of a couple of rivers. As for which method is best, leger or float fishing, you won't know until you've tried it and it may change depending on the time of year. I like fishing on an incoming tide. If float fishing I fish the incoming tide until it starts to push the flow back inland, then carry on trotting upstream until the waters flow becomes slow. At that point I lay-on until the water stops flowing altogether and then starts to flow back out. Once the river has picked up a decent pace as it goes back out I then revert to trotting again.

If legering i'd fish the tide in and out the same but be i'd be sat like a gnome throughout as legering anglers do lol.

[philocalist]

Any thoughts on baits? I normally tend towards 'natural' baits rather than boilies and commercial pastes etc, but I'm wondering whether or not the attraction factor of a manufactured bait might be higher in these circumstances? In fairness, there is a very high possibility these fish have rarely if ever seen an anglers bait other than something that might drift past from a (very) occasional angler who is more likely to be fishing for 'bits' rather than targeting anything larger.

[lutra]

I'd like to think barbel aren't stupid, but I think everyone in my local river must have been caught a zillion times on manufactured baits and often the same ones.

 

After dark or with some colour in the water and warmer temp's seem to be bigger factors to me than natural bait or not. They just seem suckers for a lump of spam, pellets, boilies, or a blob of paste. I'm sure they should wise up at some point, but they never seem to.