Part 1 "Barbel Behaviour"

[Neil G]

A good read that

 

I'm fairly new to barbel fishing and have had good results so far apart from this year (river too low and weeded up).

 

I firmly believe that barbel aren't actually that hard to catch really, just a case of keeping the tackle simple and just being in the riight place & time when they're on the munch. When they've got their heads down they don't seem to be too fussed about much else!

Edited July 29, 2011 by Neil G

[emaze]

Hi Ricky,

I was going to welcome you to AN, but I see you've been a member longer than I have!

 

Thanks for an interesting post. I Have spent almost as much time over the last 50yrs, watching fish, as opposed to fishing for them, so I too must be a little mad. Most of my barbel fishing has been on the Yorkshire rivers, and at a time when there wasn't as many big fish about. In fact I think that a 10lb Yorkshire barbel is equal to a 14 or 15lber on some of the other rivers. So my experience is not with the 'monsters' that are almost taken for granted further south, my best being just short of 9 1/2 lb. Add to this my early days were spent mostly match fishing rivers, and 'specimen hunting' has never really been my 'thing'.

I have however experienced some of what you say in your opening post, although I came to a slightly different conclusion. As it's been said, I've found barbel react to different stimuli depending on the swim, the weather, the conditions of the river, the presence of other species in that swim, and of course the time of day/night. With this in mind, I would caution you about making hard and fast conclusions from your research.

 

One thing I have experienced many times, is the chub and barbel connection. But again this depends on the swim. As chub are usually more numerous than barbel, (in the rivers I fish), there are often chub there but no barbel, and in some swims barbel, but few if any chub, so I suggest that your connection between the two is dependant on the swim choice.

My match fishing was mainly on the Yorkshire rivers and most hold barbel, but my experiences have differed according to the river. The River Nidd is a prolific barbel water in places, and at certain times of the year, (the fish travel up the river to spawn in spring, and back down to the Ouse in late autumn). A tactic that won me money on several occasions on the Nidd, was to get the chub feeding, and the barbel will follow. This involved using floating caster, and nothing else. If I drew the right kind of swim, (a long featureless straight) I knew I was in with a chance. Introducing floaters, a few at a time, would find the chub, and they would take them on the surface. This would build up to a feeding frenzy similar to that in a trout stew. My tackle was a 4lb line direct to a 14 with 2or3 casters, fished 6ins deep under a small float. If I kept the feed rate right, I could take fish regularly, but too much or too little and I would lose them or they would come too close and get spooked. I found that if I did make a mistake, then casting a leger below where the chub were feeding, resulted in catching barbel. I would do this until the chub either came back, or if not, I'd carry on catching barbel. During this time I never fed anything that would attract the barbel, (except maybe the odd caster would sink), and I am convinced that the actions of the feeding chub, attracted the barbel, and nothing else. Interestingly, I never caught a chub on the leger at these times. The Nidd is narrow (about 25ft), shallow (averaging 3-5ft), and I have experienced this behaviour in similar swims, on other rivers, but not on the deeper, wider ones like the Ouse or Ure.

I have long believed that the actions of other (smaller?) fish often dictate those of different (larger?) fish, as much, if not more, than any groundbait, bait or 'scent' trail, introduced into the swim.

These are my findings, but I would never say that this, or any other tactic will work all the time, or in all swims, there are too many variables.

And besides, angling would be so boring if it became too predictable, (like some of the popular, aspects of modern angling ).

 

John.

 

John,

 

That was a very well written and a interesting read. I have too witnessed Barbel being turned on by Chub behaviour, it's something I didn't put into my article for some reason (late night). What I have wrote in my findings is based upon what I have found in my testing and in my experience. Of course Barbel behaviour varies from River to River and I have found this in my testing also. The trent for example is largely deep and you are unable to see feeding Barbel in most areas however the Wensum is shallow and largely clear so seeing Barbel is not an issue. The elements of weather do have an effect on Barbel behaviour but in my article I detailed how Barbel feed when not conducive conditions for the most part and in my findings. Of course like many other aspects of fishing it's full of contradictions what I could find will not be what you have found and vice-versa. Although I agree largely with your post, scent trail is important and to keep fish in the spot but yeah Barbel are stimulated by other feeding fish like Roach or Chub for example.

 

My rig (detailed in part 2) are what I use for a large portion of my Barbel fishing, I found that Barbel will not reject a bait suspended off the bottom in any of my testing when conducive conditions. However there is exceptions like flooded or clear conditions and when I have a clear swim when I will choose the float as oppose to the feeder method. This rig has uncounted for many Barbel I have caught and has improved my catch rate like you wouldn't believe so for me it works and works well. I can't argue with your findings and 50 years experience makes my 4 years make me look like a novice and I found it incredibly informative. I will take that into my fishing and the way I look at fishing for Barbel for sure. But I know what I have found and it works on my River and on the Wensum where I tested also. There are variables I understand that but this rig has changed the way I fish in the most part. I just want to help the novices understand more about Barbel and ultimately catch more Barbel, it works for me and if I didn't feel confident enough it wouldn't work for others or feel confident enough to write this article I simply wouldn't have wrote it or mentioned the rig.

 

Thanks again mate your thoughts are much appreciated.

 

Ricky

Edited July 29, 2011 by emaze

[emaze]

Bump

[fishtec1312]

I could do with a pair of your polaroids emaze, they sound far better than mine

how far away are you from these pellet particles,because at 5.5mt i struggled to see the pellet,any closer ,with walking down the bank following it ,in gin clear water ,im supprised the chub stayed

[emaze]

how far away are you from these pellet particles,because at 5.5mt i struggled to see the pellet,any closer ,with walking down the bank following it ,in gin clear water ,im supprised the chub stayed

 

I was very close and water was very shallow and the Chub did stay, they weren't bothered by my presence.

 

how far away are you from these pellet particles,because at 5.5mt i struggled to see the pellet,any closer ,with walking down the bank following it ,in gin clear water ,im supprised the chub stayed

 

I was very close and water was very shallow and the Chub did stay, they weren't bothered by my presence.