Oh its a struggle mate if you want to target them this time of year, well it is up here. You need to keep a close eye on weather, and not just on the day you are fishing, watch the weather for a week in advance. Also water temp and water level. Look for a couple of days of mild weather. If you can combine this with a rising river and a water temp about 6 degrees you should be on a winner. The barbel will feed in mega floods but you just cant hold bottom where they are, not even with 6 ounce. If you want to make some baits for barbel consider salmon oils or blue cheese. I make a wicked paste that rocks ass for barbel any time of year but its a very secret recipe. lol. Look for steady water but its the water temp that is critical over the winter months.
And when fishing for barbel any time of year dont discount particle baits. I know boilies are th trend but hemp, maggot and castor are a must whenever I go for them. Buy a baitdropper and a copy of Bob Roberts and Stewart Walkers new dvd that comes out next month. That will give you all the info you need and its got some great underwater footage of barbel feeding.
i wasn't thinking of trying to hold bottom, more along the lines of rolling a mega chunk of meat covered in curry powder. will try fishing for the barbel a lot this winter. to be honest it's near impossible for me to leave the cat rods alone for ten minutes in the summer, so winter's my only chance at my first beard.
In my experience the current is just too much for that approach in winter but its worth a go in steady water. This method works well when you roll it under streamer weed. Big feeders mate and baitdroppers. Even in winter try the roving approach. Fifteen baitdroppers of hemp and castors in about 6 different swims and then give them all twenty mins with a large feeder and a bunch of castors or maggots of a big bit of meat. This is my general approach even in winter. Have found maggots really good in winter. Strawberry flavoured meat is good too.
And when fishing for barbel any time of year dont discount particle baits. I know boilies are th trend but hemp, maggot and castor are a must whenever I go for them. Buy a baitdropper and a copy of Bob Roberts and Stewart Walkers new dvd that comes out next month. That will give you all the info you need and its got some great underwater footage of barbel feeding.-sas
i already own a baitdropper thankyou!! i've been snapped up using bread flake on a light ledger rig, my 'parachute' rig. i've used hemp a bi before but i never get many bites fishing over it i think they get obsessed with the tiny stuff. tried maggotts too, but the size of hook you need to use with maggots i doubt would land the barel. (and yes it is size 2 cat hook man saying that, lol)
you used corn for barbel? i'm thinking of a pva bag of corn covered in salmon oil so it's PVA friendly fished with a piece of plastic corn.
by the way i wasn't even planning to fish with boilies, i don't think they're that good a bait on the rivers where nobody has ever put a boilie within a mile of the river.
Good lad. Trust me the barbel go wild for hemp. You need to put a fair bit down as they destroy it quickly then just move out the swim, have watched it happen. They can do a large pan full in half an hour easily. Fish the feeder and keep it going in. I take a couple of gallons of the stuff with me. Corn works but I find they can be a bit wary of it. Try getting some elipse pellets from Hinders. They are seriously good. The barbel go crazy. One of my favourite ways that has accounted for big fish is a load of hemp and small hallibut pellets and two hair rigged elipse over the top. and dont worry I use size 14 animal or kamasan xtra srong and a bunch of 4 maggots or 5 castors on the hook. It will handle most barbel.
i think the river is a bit too weady for a scaled down maggot approach. have you tried the Kryston bogey tha holds hemp in a ball for hemp in a ball for hair rigging? i've heard thet barbel are a bit line shy, do you use a backlead of any sort? the river's a bit fast for my usual slack lines.
Barbel are not line shy at all and I can show you underwater footage that proves it. As long as they can see the line they dont give a monkeys, its when you use flourocarbon that they cant see that they spook as they hit it. Barbel are eating machines mate and thats all you have to remember. Feed and feed heavy and keep it going in. I can go through a gallon of hemp and 3 pints of castors when I go barbeling no problem. Thats also with the bag of 4mm pellets too. If you dont feed them enough they just leave the swim and same goes for if you stop the feed. They dont care about a feeder or baitdropper going in, many times I have nearly had the rod pulled out of my hands before its even on the rest. Thats the first tip I will give you, feed a lot, particles all the way. The river is never too weedy, remember its winter soon, the weed will be gone. If you have located a stretch you want to target then put some effort in and walk the stretch with some polarised glasses. Spot the barbel and chub and make notes on where they are. They wont move far even when the floods come, they only move when its time to spawn. In fact take a load of hemp and your dropper, put some in and watch the barbel feed. This will give you an idea of how greedy they are.
As for the slack line thing mate dont bother. Just fish tight to the feeder with a slight bend in the rod tip. The barbel hook themselves on the take. You need to be quick though or you will lose your rod and that is no joke. Both me and my barbel partner have had to serch for our rods in the river a few times. I cant stress enough how important it is to do some homework on the stretch while the rivers are still in decent condition.
the trouble is the river is too deep and murky all season long to see any barbel or chub. all you ever see are the splashes of the river carp, the occasional dark shadow from carp or chub at dusk or Something Big barging through the dense cover. the only way i know there's barbel in there is because i actually talked to the guy that put them i there in the first place. as far as rod losses go i will be using a DAM ATP premium freespool reel with the freespool on a fairly tight setting to set the hooks. i'm thinking of fishing through the autumn and the back end of the season, not right through the coldest months.
Autumn is a great time but if you are gonna fish freespool like that then you are missing out on so much. One of the main thing about barbel is the take and watching the rod bend double in a split second. Please fish a feeder rod or quivertip, its so much more fun. If you are gonna freespool on an alarm then pva bag with salmon oil pellets with a couple hair rigged to a size 8 or 6. This way you dont have to recast every 3 mins. Seriously though mate fishing like this is missing out on half the fun. Would love to take you on the dove or swale and show you how its really done and I donyt mean that in a bad way. We walk about 4 or 5 miles down the river just giving each spot 20 mins. Its bloody great.
i'm not fishing a freespool on an alarm!!! im gonna have the rod on double rests, 90 degrees to the bait with a quiver rod. i'm only gonna have the freespool on so it's just enough give so don't lose my rod, like i would fishing a match just in case a carp grabs the bream food.
hopefully i will have a couple of barbel under my belt by the time we get into winter. sinse we started this opic i've found a couple of new venues, one a much narrower and faster stream all year round with water cabbages and lillies instead of bullrushes but still hardly ny angling pressure, and one vertually weedless and a bit of pressure for barbel. i did well there for chub fishing a 1.5oz lead helicopter syle with breadflake, which accounted for my PB 4lb 12oz chub and four lost big fish (barbel or carp) in two hours.
nick do ya cast out an goto sleep because if ure sat next to ure rod watching the tip for bites then theres no need to freespool its just lazyness. here lads is a true carp boy.
You can use the freespool no problem, especially if there are carp around. My choice of venue out of all of them would be the faster river. Just fish a block end feeder, hemp and castor and 4mm pellets in the mix and fish either a bunch of castors on the hook or hair rig a couple of pellets, simple and straight forward. This method has caught nearly all my barbel and it never lets me down. Just feed them plenty is all I will say. Can put you in touch with one of the countries best barbel angler if you want nick, well he is in my opinion. Its one of the lads who has made the dvd I keep telling you about. He will answer your questions better than me cos even though we have fished together for twenty years he has always been head and shoulders above me for the barbel but everything I know about catching them is things we have worked on over the years. I have drifted to the cats and he gets at least one double figure barbel a session over the summer. Just let me know.
nick do ya cast out an goto sleep because if ure sat next to ure rod watching the tip for bites then theres no need to freespool its just lazyness. here lads is a true carp boy.-johny101
it's not laziness, i just don't want to see my rod go flying down river at a rate of knots as i have had that happen before when there's a barbel or carp on the end.
Thats half the fun nick, you have to be quick off the mark.
nick wat if ure fishing right next to snags ya cant freespool inless ure mad lol so would ya just pack up, an the best un with feeder fishing is not knowing wen ure rods gonna try an jump out the rests. so ure constantly sat on the edge of ure seat
i wouldn't use a freespool next to snags, man. i'm not THAT mad. the thing is i don't know what the stock levels are in the river i'm on which is the disadvantage of there being next to zero angling pressure. if it's hard going i don't want to be watching a motionless quivertip for four hours solid. don't get me wrong, i'm not going in for PVA, boilies, alarms, bobbins and bivvy approach much as it is tempting. i'm just thinking of fish safety, i doubt it's peasent for a barbel to be dragging half a ton of rod and reel.
If the barbel are there you wont be sat waiting long. Use that bait dropper, put a bed of hemp and pellet down, leave it twenty mins or half hour and then drop in with the feeder filled with the same mix and a couple of pellets on a hair. If the barbel are there then it wont take long to get one. Do the bait dropper in about 6 different swims and just keep doing twenty mins on each one. This approach means you are not sat in an empty swim all day and maximises your chances. Do this and you will soon learn what swims hold fish. You need to travel light when doing this. One feeder rod, one baitdropper rod, tackle bag and bait. Thats all you need.
i will give it a try, gonna get a kilo of hemp and a kilo of pellets on thurs, maybe do saturday depending on weather. if i catch i'll let u know, if not i'll pretent u didn't go. lol.
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