barbel swim

[Specihunter ( the Korum Kid)]

Iwas told that the stretch i fish has barbel,so i had a walk down .I know what to look for in a chub swim but what do i look for in a barbel swim ?

The only way i know if it's a barbel swim is if i spot 1.

Overhanging trees/bushes, snags in the water, midriver obstructions, streamer weed, depressions on the bottomwhere the river goes a little deeper.

When the river enters a pool, the faster water at the head/tail of the poolbut if you can manage tospot one or two fish thenthats a really good start mate!

[Bryan Baron 2]

look for the river travilling at walking pace. Over a clear bottom.

They will not be far from the chub if you know were they are.

To make it simple, look for a gravel bottom on the outside of a bend. This is particularly the case on big rivers.

On very big rivers such as the Tidal Trent and the Severn, the spotting of fish can be almost impossible. However on most rivers, barbel have a habit of rolling on the surface. Watch out for this.

However barbel are very nomadic and often will vacate what you might think is a good swim and come back to it later.

[Paul H]

I fished the far bank of a swim on the Derwent on Saturday where there is a depression in the bottom making it a foot or two deeper then the surrounding area.

I caught small chub and bream all day but landed a decent barbel and then a 5lb chub much later in the evening.

As Ron says even the good spots can be devoid of fish at certain times of the day. You can opt to sit it out and wait or travel lighter and seek them out.

I stayed put and kept casting with small pva bags happy to be catching smaller chub.

I believe Lee Swords motto at Collingham is 'chuck some hemp at 'em' in that if you feed enough on a big river like the Trent you'll eventually draw them in.

[Keith M]

<blockquote class=quoteheader>Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA) wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>

barbel are very nomadic and often will vacate what you might think is a good swim and come back to it later.</blockquote>

I believe that a lot of Barbel tend to travel fairlylarge distances on their feeding routes revisiting the same spots over and over again; following small depth changes, weed growth, boulders etc. which would explain why they regularlyappear to be caught in particularswims when none were seen earlier.

I've lost count of the times on a smallishstreamthat someone has moved into a swim down stream of me and I have suddenly stopped getting bites even though they are quite a good distance away but as soon as they leaveI start getting bites againfrom the Barbel, It is possible that the person downstream of me had sat in full view of the Barbel and had interrupted the Barbel on its feeding route. anyway it's worth a thought.

Many has been the time when below Bewdley, on the extensive shallows, I watched numbers of barbel moving up and down the river. They reminded me of cattle grazing in a meadow. The first time I really was able to observe a big shoal of barbel was on the Swale at Myton ca 1959.

They suck in gravel and spit it out after rolling it around in their mouths. They dig up quite large stones, obviously toget at the insect life underneath, and they upend or turn on their sides to intercept nymphs coming down with the current. When they do this, they look like a bar of gold as they turn, the sun glinting on their scales.

It's fascinating to watch, the only problem is that watching them can interfere with your fishing time.

[Keith M]

I would have loved to have seen that.

We used to hear themon a warmnightturning upside down making loud grunting noises as they sucked snails eggs etc from the underneath of streamer weed laying across the surface. or thats what we thought they were doing. some nights it sounded more like a real piggery. and it wasn't Carp slurping either.

[slime monster]

[they turn on their sides]........i have witnessed this ron looking down from a bridge i was fascinated ,could this be the way they take a floatfished offering?

Heck! I've just noticed that I have been fishing for barbel and their African cousins for half a century. I caught my first one in 1958!!

The barbel has a very underslung mouth. They do turn on their side and at times-upside down,to take food moving up in the water or down with the current.

No doubt they do this when you are trotting for them.