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I will cover this section fairly briefly, as its pretty
basic stuff really, and I did not intend this piece to be a
beginners guide, so therefore I will keep the basics to a minimum!
First of all, do ensure you have an adequate rod which is up
to the job! It is quite common place to be using mono lines
in the 10-12lb b.s range, and you will typically be fishing
in areas full of streamer weed, and sunken trees, and the like!
Therefore a nice through actioned rod with the backbone to bully
hard fighting barbel is the tool for the job, and a rod with
a test curve of 1.5 to 1.75 tc is perfect. It is also essential
to use a rod with a soft enough top section for bite registration.
Several years ago specialist barbel rods were
few and far between. But nowadays there are loads of specialist
rods on the market designed specifically for landing big hard
fighting barbel. Anglers who use inadequate tackle when barbel
fishing are in many ways a bit irresponsible, because they inevitably
end up losing fish, with hooks and line left in there mouths.
With regard to the line, the same applies
as to the above. In other words use appropriate strength of
line for the areas you are fishing. I used to use 10lb Berkeley
Big game line, which is excellent. However recently I have changed
over to Berkeley Whiplash braid, which is basically a very tightly
woven dark green braid, which is amazingly thin in diameter.
I use 20-30lb whiplash, which is much thinner in equivalence
to big game and other mono´s, and is very abrasive resistant.
Hooks need to be sharp and very strong. For
hair rigs I generally opt for a small size 6 or 8 Drennen Super
Specialist hook, and these are very strong, especially in the
smaller sizes. For paste baits, and luncheon meat I usually
opt for a size 4 Fox series 3 hook.
An essential item of tackle I would never
be without is a baitdropper, which is essential for placing
groundbait successfully on the river bed. Also Polaroid's are
another must have item of gear for summer fishing, and are very
important for fish spotting, and detecting clear patches on
the river bed. One other important item to take with you is
a good hat with a wide brim, which is also useful when fish
spotting etc.
One final point on the subject of tackle is,
do keep it to a minimum. Mobility is an important part of my
barbel fishing and when I am on the bank I can easily move from
swim to swim, with a made up rod, and landing net, lightweight
chair, bank sticks, and rucksack which contains my bait, rigs
and accessories, photographic gear, and a barbel tube. I DO
NOT take anything to the river bank I do not need,
and everything that I do take, I can easily carry, with the
minimum of fuss. This mobility factor is very important, as
it enables me to be able to fish several swims in a session,
and cover possibly half a mile of river in one session. Putting
in the extra effort, and fishing lots of potential areas in
one session is one of the important factors of putting extra
fish on the bank. If you don´t like walking, or you insist
on carrying loads and loads of gear around with you, you will
not catch as many fish!
Bait
This is an important section for me, as I am now becoming
increasingly aware of the importance of correct bait when fishing
pressured venues. A fair few years ago, the best method for
catching barbel on many of the river stretches where I live,
was the old standard approach of luncheon meat on the hook,
fished over a big bed of hemp.
This technique can be a brilliant method,
on un-pressured areas, where 'naive' fish exist. There is no
doubt that hemp seed is one of the best barbel attractors around,
and it does seems to draw them into your swim! Several years
ago this was a killer method on some of my local stretches.
However nowadays, on certain stretches, it generally has the
opposite effect, and barbel will soon vanish when this bait
is introduced.
Many modern thinking barbel anglers have now
completely abandoned the particle approach, and are now adopting
carp style tactics, involving boilies, trout pellets, and method
feeders etc. My approach to barbel fishing these days mainly
involves the use of boilies, and paste baits, and I always use
a good quality base mix. It is now widely known that carp anglers,
who use a good quality base mix for their boilies generally
catch more fish. I am almost certain this scenario also applies
to barbel, and the better the quality of bait the more barbel
you will catch. So just like carp, barbel know what is good
for them!
I use the John Baker range of ingredients,
which are of excellent quality, and are a proven fish catching
bait. But there are many other quality base ingredients on the
market that can be used these days.
 If
you are doing a pre-baiting campaign, then it is essential to
introduce a bait in boilie form. But you can use a paste bait
on the hook, if you wish, which works really well as a ´fast
leakage´ , in conjunction with a good flavour, which attracts
fish quickly. I am always very flexible with my hook baits,
and you do not have to use a standard boilie, on a hair, as
your hookbait. I often use both paste baits, either moulded
straight around the hook, or moulded around a cork ball, attached
to a hair. Or I often attach a boilie onto a hair rig, and then
mould paste around the boilie, (see fig 1).All of these approaches
have caught fish for me.
I have also experimented with the shape of
boilies, and sometimes I use square boilies instead of the standard
round shape. All of these approaches can make a difference on
their day. It is important to be flexible in your approach,
and always try to do things differently to other anglers, as
sometimes a different approach can make a lot of difference.
If you are fishing a stretch of river where
barbel have not seen a lot of boilies, you will almost certainly
need to embark on some form of baiting campaign. However once
the resident fish have been weaned onto their new food source
they will take boilies, or paste baits in preference to more
traditional standard baits, and as I said earlier, a high quality
bait will always outscore a poor quality bait or a more traditional
one like say luncheon meat.
 These
days, I very rarely use the particle approach for barbel fishing.
However I have had a lot of success using small trout pellets,
as a bed of bait in preference to using the old traditional
style of baiting up with hempseed. I use one millimetre, and
three millimetre sinking pellets, as a loose feed bait, which
I introduce with a bait dropper. I usually place about a pint
or two of these small pellets, over clean gravel, and I have
found that this will hold fish in my swim for several hours.
I have used this technique a lot in the summer, and by priming
several swims with trout pellets, in advance, at the start of
a session, I can then go on and fish these areas through the
hours of darkness.
This method has produced lots of multiple
catches for me in recent seasons. I will cover the subject of
baiting up in more detail in the next section.
Summer Fishing
The Summer months of June July and August are great times to
be out on the river bank. The barbel may not be as big as they
are in the winter months, but if you apply yourself and your
fishing correctly, you can catch a lot of barbel!
To be honest, most of my barbel fishing during
this time of year is done during the hours of darkness. You
can catch them during the day, in the summer, but if your angling
club allows it then night time fishing is always more productive.
Fortunately for me, nearly all the areas of the river Great
Ouse that I fish do allow night time fishing, and for this reason
my techniques and approach are geared towards a nightime assault!
One of the most important aspects
of barbel fishing, especially in the summer is familiarising
yourself with the stretch of river you plan to target. This
involves hours of walking the back side, watching, observing,
taking mental notes of features, gravel runs, weedbeds, clear
patches, clean gravel, etc. Also the most important aspect of
this routine is to locate where the barbel are, as locating
the fish is always the key to success.
This bank side observation is usually carried
out during the close season. This time of year is usually the
best time to do your fish spotting. The first warm days of summer
usually occur during the middle of May, and at this time the
barbel begin their spawning rituals. During this period the
fish are easily spotted, and this information can provide invaluable
knowledge as to their location when the fishing season starts
proper.
You will typically find spawning barbel on
the shallow gravel runs, where there is clean gravel, and they
are often located fairly close by when the fishing season gets
under way! Incidentally, I always carry out this close season
bank side observation, even on stretches of river I know very
well. It is surprising how much rivers change from season to
season, in term of weed growth, and direction and speed of flow,
and I often discover new areas or swims which I never new existed
whilst on the river bank in the close season.
This time of year is also the ideal time to
do some pre-baiting, with boilies, and placing bait in likely
areas at this time can give you a head start.
Now that we have discussed location, the next step is to go
out and catch them. As I mentioned earlier, most of my summer
barbel fishing is done during the hours of darkness. However
I always arrive about four of five hours before dark, to have
a look around, and try and spot some fish, and get a general
idea of the areas I want to be fishing, and to formulate a plan
of attack for the night fishing session ahead. I will usually
have a fair idea of where I think the barbel will be 'lying
up' during the day, and it is often a case of placing your bait
in an area close to the barbels daytime cover, so that you can
intercept them when they move into open water after dark to
feed.
I always insist on placing my loose feed over
clean gravel, if possible, as I am certain that barbel prefer
to feed over this type of river bottom, as opposed to a bottom
covered in light silt weed.
 One
of the most important items of gear I carry to the river bank
is a bait dropper, which I consider to be an essential
item for summer barbel fishing. I use three bait droppers of
various sizes. The largest one is very handy for placing large
amounts of bait on the bottom very quickly, whilst the smaller
one is handy for placing bait further out on the far bank. Once
I have decided on the swim I wish to fish, I use a pair of polaroids,
to look for clear patches on the bottom, and clear gaps in the
streamer weed I then begin placing trout pellets with a bait
dropper, and I usually place between one and two pints of small
pellets over clean gravel in each swim I have chosen. In addition
to this I also place a dropper full of broken boilies in to
each swim, as well. Once the areas have been primed I will leave
them well alone, and wait until sunset to begin fishing in my
first chosen swim.
Upon sunset I will start fishing, and I will
fish each swim for up to 2 hours before moving to the next one.
Therefor, throughout the night I will be covering all the hotspots
of a given stretch of river. Each swim has been primed with
my small pellets, which can hold fish in a swim for a few hours.
This technique is a highly effective and productive way of catching
barbel, and multiple catches are quite common place when this
type of fishing is adopted.
For some barbel anglers, the method of fishing
mentioned above is quite well known and widely adopted. But
I am amazed at the number of anglers who spend a whole session
fishing one swim only, and will not move even if they are blanking.
I can only assume this apathy is due to pure laziness, on their
part. Most of my summer and winter fishing involves a lot of
walking. If I am not catching, I always move. I have lost count
of the number of times I have moved after blanking in one swim
for 2 hours, and then catching almost instantly after moving
to another swim!
I cannot emphasis enough the importance of
being mobile when barbel fishing, and remember that the more
effort you put in, the more fish you will eventually catch.
Generally I like to keep things simple with regard to rigs
and barbel fishing. However many of the carp rig innovations
of recent years can be used to great effect for the river barbel.
On some pressured venues, barbel have become very nervous of
anglers lines, and will flee, if they detect , or see an anglers
line in the water. If you have applied your bait correctly and
their are barbel milling around in your chosen swim, then line
bites are often inevitable! In these situations, the use of
´carp style´ backing leads can definitely improve
your catch rate, when barbel have become nervous of anglers
lines.
I am very keen on the use of PVA products.
Their use has been much publicised recently, particularly by
carp anglers. PVA braid, and PVA bags are great for depositing
bait and hook samples very accuratly around your hookbait, and
this approach can give you a real edge. Fig.2 Illustrates three
typical summer rig set ups that I use. (A) ahows a simple link
ledger rig with a 5 bait stringer. (B) shows a link ledger rig
with a trout pellets in a PVA bag . (C) is a combination of
the last two.
I usually, most often use version (C), which
when cast out will provide the perfect presentation, in terms
of a small bed of bait with my hookbait right in the middle.
I have found this method to be very productive, and will definitly
put extra fish on the bank!
Although barbel will feed right throughout the period of darkness.
There are definitely key times when the fish feed more avidly
than they normally do. Dusk is probably the best time to be
on the river bank. and the first hour of darkness is also a
hot period. I have known times when the barbel have failed to
feed until very late at night at 2am in the morning! Several
years ago I had quite a few fish around this time of the morning.
Also if you can stay awake, the first hour just before light
is a very good time as well.
When I am fishing at night, I always hold my rod, and touch
ledger. This is an important aspect of night fishing for barbel,
for me. During the hours of darkness, it is very easy for your
mind to wander, and staying awake can sometimes be difficult.
However by touch ledgering, I do not have to religiously stare
all night at an isotope on the end of my rod, and this makes
the whole experience a more enjoyable affair.
It is essential when touch ledgering that
you are sitting comfortably. I usually have my rod at a 90 degree
angle to my line, and I always position my rod low down, nearer
the water surface. I hold the rod as normal and the line is
always wrapped around my forefinger. If you adopt the right
position, it is possible to sit comfortably for quite a few
hours.
When you get a bite from a barbel, it is always
a very positive pull on the end of the rod, and by touch ledgering
you get a very quick indication, and the whole transition from
hooking and playing the fish is a very simple instinctive affair,
when you adopt this approach. Some of the bites I have experienced
have been particularly savage rod wrenching pulls, and if you
are not holding your rod when this happens it is possible to
get your rod pulled in! So for me holding your rod, and touch
ledgering at night is definitely essential.
The bites you get can take several forms.
The most common one is the rod wrenching pull I mentioned above.
With this type of bite the fish nearly always hooks itself,
and the rod will pull around very quickly! Another type of bite
I have experienced a lot is an initial ´bounce´of
the rod top, where the line goes a little slack, and then you
get the rod pulling around, as usual. Again this is another
very confident take which usually results in a fish hooking
itself. Anther type of bite is a slow but very firm pull around,
a bite like a chub.
During the summer months, most of my barbel fishing is done
in close proximity to potential snags such as thick streamer
weed, bull rushes, and overhanging trees, etc. Earlier in this
article I mentioned the importance of using adequate tackle,
and strong line for this hard fighting fish. Once you have hooked
a fish, and you are hopefully using the correct tackle for the
job, it is essential that you do not allow the fish to have
the freedom to find these potential snags when you are playing
them.
It is vitally important to play these fish
on a tightly set clutch. Back winding is not an option in this
situation, and the angler must ensure that the barbel has to
fight for every inch of line during the battle. As mentioned
earlier, I am now a great believer in the use of braids for
barbel fishing, and Berkeley Whiplash is a very tough line,
with a very thin diameter, which is ideal for playing big bargel
in thick streamer weed, and other typical weedy summer river
environments.
I have put this section here, as fish retention in the summer,
can cause the barbel problems, particulairly in very hot humid
weather, when dissolved oxygen levels are low. First of all,
only retain a fish if you want a quick photo, and you absolutely
need to! If not then you should always return the fish after
weighing it. However if you've caught a big one and you want
to take photos, then retaining a fish in a barbel tube is fine,
providing a few precautions are taken. First of all I do not
recommend using a carp sack, and commercially available barbel
tunnels are much better for the job. Always peg the tunnel in
shallow medium paced flowing water, with a steady flow. This
will ensure that the fish gets sufficient dissolved oxygen through
its gills and can recover inside the tunnel, whilst you get
your camera gear together. Once you have got the photos done,
carefully carry the fish to the river edge, and hold the fish
in a medium paced flow, and do not let go until the fish
is strong enough to swim away! Once the fish is released
stay next to it and watch it swim away. Please ensure that the
barbel does not turn on its side once released as this is how
fish deaths occur. All specimen anglers alway like so ensure
that their catch is returned unharmed, and this is especially
important for barbel, as they always give theie all during the
fight and it is essential that us anglers ensure that these
fish are always returned to fight another day!
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