Barbel less than 4lb !??

[no-one in particular]

Why have I never caught a barbel less than 4lb anywhere in all my years of fishing?
Equivalent of Chub, Roach Bream etc, no problem, thousands of them. My smallest barbel is 4lb that I can remember.
1lb barbel just do not seem to exist. Just out of academic interest, where are they?

Just adding, I never have seen anyone else catch very small barbel, I never hear of anyone being plagued by small barbel as you often see or hear with other species, in fact it is more often the case; smaller fish of any species are more common, form bigger shoals and feed more ravenously. I find that odd and peculiar to barbel alone. I may be wrong and its just what has happened to me. I am just curious if anyone else has found this and any reasons why.
I rarely fish for barbel these days but, I have done a fair bit in the past on the Kennet and Avon. Shoals or single fish of over 4lb only. Shoals of small fish or even single small fish, never. Odd !

 

[greenie62]

Why have I never caught a barbel less than 4lb anywhere in all my years of fishing?
Equivalent of Chub, Roach Bream etc, no problem, thousands of them. My smallest barbel is 4lb that I can remember.
1lb barbel just do not seem to exist. Just out of academic interest, where are they?

As someone who has caught baby barbel - down to about 4oz - in the same swim as one of about 3lb on trotted maggot - I would suggest they haven't grown to a size where they can snaffle big lumps of cheese/paste intended for Chub!

 

[nicepix]

I was the same. I spent quite a few years fishing the Wharfe near to Collingham and Boston Spa back in the 1970's and never hooked a barbel under 4lb. Then nearer home on the Dearne the smallest was 4lb 7oz and the next smallest was over 6lb.

A few months ago I was talking to a German angler who is now resident in France and he reckoned that he had caught several hundred French barbel, but none over around 3lb. He dreamed of catching a 6lb barbel and couldn't believe that I hadn't had one under 8lb in France. I don't get many, but when I do they are worth catching. Mind you, he put the curse on me. Just as he got back in his car my tip pulled round and I landed a micro barbel of around 12oz. mg:

Since then I've had another of around 1lb 8oz.

 

[greenie62]

... Mind you, he put the curse on me. Just as he got back in his car my tip pulled round and I landed a micro barbel of around 12oz. mg:

Since then I've had another of around 1lb 8oz.

He's definitely used the 'fluence there! Did he throw a towel over your car as well?! mg:

 

[nicepix]

He's definitely used the 'fluence there! Did he throw a towel over your car as well?! mg:

No, but he told me what rigs and bait he uses. So now I know how to avoid catching too many of the little 'uns.

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

I'm the same on the Ribble. Ive never had one under 4lb. Most fish from 6 to 8lb with the odd 9s and low doubles thrown in.

Is it fair to say that the small 'schoolies' spend their time in fast shallows tucked under rocks?

 

[Titus]

I've caught loads of small barbel on the Severn, especially when fishing blockend maggot feeder.

There are certain areas of all rivers which seem to be nursery areas where the larger shoals of younger year classes hang out and then there are the places where the bigger solitary fish live.
As anglers we are drawn to certain areas which have a history of producing bigger fish and even when we go somewhere new we look for swims with the same characteristics so we should not be surprised when we consistently catch the larger specimens.
In fly fishing circles it is well known that a good lie will always be a good lie and the best lie always holds the best fish, even when you remove a fish from a good lie the chances are that if you fish it again a couple of hours later you will catch another good fish from there.

The situation is the same in coarse fishing, on certain match lengths the old sweats know to within a few ounces what certain swims will produce to the point that some of them will not even fish the match if they make a bad draw. This of course becomes a self fulfilling prophecy insomuch as certain swims with a reputation for producing winning weights get fished harder and more efficiently than others with no track record which are seen as pools fodder; That is until a good angler with no history on the venue draws an unfancied peg and aces it on a day when the hot peg has a duffer sat in it and then in consequent weeks what was a no hoper peg starts getting fished properly and turns into a flier.

I have seen this on a river where, in an effort to distract other anglers away from a spot I was prebaiting one close season, I spent a couple of days building an armchair swim on an unfished stretch near to the entrance but about 200 yds from where I was baiting. During the early part of the season this swim got fished a lot and turned into what is now a very productive swim, all down to anglers baits.

Back in the day when large matches were fished on rivers I, along with many others, would scour the results pages in the weeklies and then go and fish the winning swims with feeder fed maggot. I also caught a fair share of larger fish by simply fishing a big lump of meat down the side on a sleeper rod, this rod would normally produce as the light levels started to drop.

The logic for the sleeper rod was the bigger more dominant fish would position themselves downstream in the margins mopping up the inevitable spillage from the feeder which occurred before every cast and the large lump of meat simulated the matchmans practice of breaking the remainder of his bait up at the end of the match and throwing it in the side so the fish were used to finding it.
This rod would produce as light levels dropped as that was the time the fish were conditioned to looking for the larger baits.

I seem to have drifted a bit away from the original subject but I suppose what I'm trying to say is if you want the smaller fish study the match records, the areas which used to produce the match weights of smaller fish will still be the nursery areas.

 

[barbelboi]

Possibly small barbel have predominately different feeding habits - insects, larvae, etc. Most of the few very small ones I've caught have been on a maggot or caster although I've had some around the half pound mark on 10mm pellet/boilie.

 

[binka]

I've had a fair few over the years in all fairness, I think Greenie is onto something when he says about the bait size often used as practically all my small barbel have fallen to trotted maggot.

Barbel around the 12oz mark weren't uncommon in my neck of the woods back in the mid-eighties but nevertheless quite a rarity overall in the wider scheme of things.


This is by far my smallest "mini" pb which was taken earlier this year...



Wouldn't it be a novelty if people abandoned, as a show of their prowess, the higher weights of fish in favour of how difficult it was to instead catch a tiny example of certain species, surely more difficult in some instances?

I can see it now... Potoshopped trophy shots with the fish craftily downsized by anglers carefully tucking in their elbows and holding it as close in to their body as possible whilst a camera set from afar snaps away!

I can't see it catching on...

 

[greenie62]

I've caught loads of small barbel on the Severn, especially when fishing blockend maggot feeder.....

My bag of baby barbels was also on the Severn - at Monkmoor - fishing a 'good' barbel swim - nothing - switched to trotting the head of the swim in the faster water round a large reeded rock - bite after bite! My fishing buddy fished the main pool and his persistence paid off with a better stamp of grown-up Barbel - I reckon it was down to my loose-feeding the head of the pool!

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

Maybe I have had some. I just thought they were 4lb gudgeon!

 

[greenie62]

.....Wouldn't it be a novelty if people abandoned, as a show of their prowess, the higher weights of fish in favour of how difficult it was to instead catch a tiny example of certain species, surely more difficult in some instances?......

Similarly to Barbel - baby Tench are difficult to catch - in a local water I will occasionally catch a 4oz tench but more often the smallest is 1lb+ - at least the babies show they have been breeding since the last stocking about 4yrs ago!

 

[chub_on_the_block]

Only time i have had really small barbel was trotting on the Kennet at Aldermaston in the 1980s - caught about 5 from 4oz up to a whopping 12oz. That was my first (and only ever) "twelve".

The point Greenie makes about never seeing baby tench is also true. A lake i was fishing recently had a small relict stock of big old tench, hardly any ever coming out less than 6Ib. But when i netted around in the margins with my landing net looking for something to do on my fifth blank in a row i was amazed to find the weed teeming with baby tench up to about 3cm long.

 

[Terry D]

Had one of about 4 or 5oz in a match on the River Wey many moons ago. Took double maggot on a size 22 going for roach.
Also had plenty of smaller barbel 1 - 3lbs or so in some commercial waters, but I suppose they don't count do they?

 

[tigger]

I don't often catch small barbel but over the years I have had quite a few. I've actually caught small groups of them the size of Bink's and a little larger mixed in whilst catching five to 10lb barbel.
I've often watched little ones, much smaller than Bink's as they bully minows, they really are aggressive little bu&&ers !

 

[sam vimes]

I can't recall catching small river barbel for over twenty years. When it has happened, it has coincided fairly neatly with publicised river stockings. Other than that, I've only seen them come out of commies.

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

What are Binks Tigger?

Never heard the term before.

 

[john step]

Donkeys Yonks ago I was a member of Verulam at St Albans when the club stocked the upper Lea with baby barbel. They came out in numbers at about 8 to 10 ozs. I have heard they are quite large now!

Recently I was a member of a certain club with a very fast straight offshoot of a river. It was (I think it still is) stuffed full of small barbel in the summer under the 3lb size. When the weather cools down they disappear into the main river.

It got very crowded as you can imagine, with would be barbel catchers wanting a first barbel and also those that caught many and imagined themselves as barbel experts.

The plus size is that there were BIG chub there as well.

 

[nicepix]

I'm the same on the Ribble. Ive never had one under 4lb. Most fish from 6 to 8lb with the odd 9s and low doubles thrown in.

Is it fair to say that the small 'schoolies' spend their time in fast shallows tucked under rocks?

That's where the German angler fishes (not the Ribble. Fast, shallow water). No wonder he can't find a decent barbel. Don't tell him Pike!

---------- Post added at 17:05 ---------- Previous post was at 17:00 ----------

What are Binks Tigger?

Never heard the term before.

Bink's as in Binka's fish described earlier.

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

Doh! I didn't see the apostrophe!