Why are barbel attracted to sea flavours

[meat63]

So why do barbel seem to like boilies and such, flavoured with sea fish flavours? , for instance sardine and anchovy , monster crab , mussel squid cod liver oil etc ? Also how predatory are barbel I know they do eat other fish , well I have been told that anyway never actually seen it , and if so how much of their diet is live fish , % wise , I suppose conditions may influence certain areas on different rivers , but how reliant are they on this type of food?
If you could get a readily supply of freshwater fish,like they do from the sea would you catch on minnow and roach flavoured boilies if you catch my drift .
Just curious if anybody has answers cheers Rick.

 

[barbelboi]

To honest, over the last 15 years or so, I've caught more barbel on strawberry boilies than any other flavour on two of the rivers I fish. Minnow live bait is an effective bait for barbel, particularly early in the season - I caught my first double on minnow from the Thames in the 70's and Fred J used to regularly trot them down the Thames with a lot of success.
Jerry

 

[Simon K]

No more so than several other species, e.g. carp, bream and chub, all of which take small fish and fry.

Substitute the words "sea flavours" with meat or cheese?
They're not a particularly discerning fish in my opinion. If they're hungry and it's on the table, they'll eat it.

Small fish, live or dead, have long been known barbel baits. I've had them take gudgeon.

 

[meat63]

Interesting you mention deliberately trotting with minnows , I for one wouldnt even think about this method , I have sometimes thought about hooking a minnow on a ledger but a gudgeon I wouldnt really have much confidence trotting it through, is this a method you would use often , or just at certain types of the year ?
Still curious.

 

[dangermouse]

Also how predatory are barbel I know they do eat other fish , well I have been told that anyway never actually seen it ,

A while back someone, PoshPaul perhaps, posted a video of someone successfully spinning for barbel.

 

[barbelboi]

A while back someone, PoshPaul perhaps, posted a video of someone successfully spinning for barbel.

If I remember correctly wasn't a barbel that beat the record of the time caught on the Royalty many years ago (40's?) by a salmon lure angler during the coarse close season? I believe quite a few others others were also caught in the same way.
Jerry

 

[peter crabtree]

Is there a bait barbel won't take?

 

[binka]

Also how predatory are barbel I know they do eat other fish , well I have been told that anyway never actually seen it , and if so how much of their diet is live fish

I've noticed that some of the Trent anglers had started using inch long lamprey sections to good effect, makes me wonder if some barbel had been falling to pike anglers using larger lamprey?

 

[S-Kippy]

If I remember correctly wasn't a barbel that beat the record of the time caught on the Royalty many years ago (40's?) by a salmon lure angler during the coarse close season? I believe quite a few others others were also caught in the same way.
Jerry

Dont think it was the Royalty Jerry. I believe the fish you are thinking of features in a well known photo with Colonel Crow whose beat was Ibsley . 16lb and [I think] 1 oz when the record was 14-6. It was foul hooked too !

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

Same as pike taking sea baits.I.suppose

 

[sam vimes]

I've noticed that some of the Trent anglers had started using inch long lamprey sections to good effect, makes me wonder if some barbel had been falling to pike anglers using larger lamprey?

I know of anglers on other rivers that also use lamprey sections. Both chub and barbel will happily take it.

 

[barbelboi]

Dont think it was the Royalty Jerry. I believe the fish you are thinking of features in a well known photo with Colonel Crow whose beat was Ibsley . 16lb and [I think] 1 oz when the record was 14-6. It was foul hooked too !

Yes Skippy, it's coming back to me now (hence the question marks in the post) - it certainly was CC at Ibsley, hooked in the pec'. I believe that three fish equalled the record of 14.6 - two from the Thames (the other may have been the Hampshire Avon?)
Jerry

 

[binka]

I know of anglers on other rivers that also use lamprey sections. Both chub and barbel will happily take it.

Have you ever tried it Sam?

I've toyed with the idea but the problem on the Trent nowadays are the small Zander and with such small sections I reckon I would be quite likely to get a pick up.

Just wondering how to get around it rig/trace wise?

 

[sam vimes]

Have you ever tried it Sam?

I've toyed with the idea but the problem on the Trent nowadays are the small Zander and with such small sections I reckon I would be quite likely to get a pick up.

Just wondering how to get around it rig/trace wise?

I'm sure I have fished lamprey before but I'll be damned if I can remember what I was fishing for!

Not keen on the prospect of using it to target chub and barbel, no matter how effective it might be. Even on the rivers with no zander have always got a pike or two lurking.

 

[S-Kippy]

Yes Skippy, it's coming back to me now (hence the question marks in the post) - it certainly was CC at Ibsley, hooked in the pec'. I believe that three fish equalled the record of 14.6 - two from the Thames (the other may have been the Hampshire Avon?)
Jerry

Correct. 3 fish all at 14-6 and Aylmer Tryon's was a Royalty fish. Then the BRRCFC in their wisdom chucked all 3 out ! OK...some of the then records were a bit dodgy [have you seen the "7lb grayling"....not only is it not 7lb I dont think its even a grayling] but others [like the barbel] should IMO have been retained. What we ended up with was a "record" list with no credibility because in many cases it was known that bigger specimens had been caught.

 

[meat63]

So basically , fish live or dead will be part of the barbels diet , but at what percentage would you think , perhaps as high as 50 %, or more say at the start of the season ,then getting less as anglers bait takes hold , seems to make sense . How would you go about this method , would you have to know where the barbel are first , as im sure other species would be willing to take it too ,perch chub etc , do you set out on the day with this method in mind , and stick with it all day or is it something you do say on the off chance later in the day when all else fails ? Im game though and will give it a try in the right swim.

 

[iannate]

The Barbel may move to where other water dwelling creatures are re-producing.

Like most fish [and them crayfish], barbel will choose an easy meal and will go where they can get one. This might be anglers bait or natural food items: roe, insects, snails, crayfish, fry, wounded fish, slow fish, nymphs, bloodworm, algae, vegetation, maggots, worms, seeds, flies etc.........

Hatching season may be better to use a fly.

Natural fish can tend to become pre-occupied on certain things at certain times of the year unless they have been exposed to regular feeding of what you might call anglers bait and have come to think of them as natural; this is the philosphy of a lot of carp baiting tactics.

Chasing Dreams by Tony Miles is a good read and may give you some insight, it's not just about barbel and is available quite cheap on eb.

 

[Sean Meeghan]

I'm sure I have fished lamprey before but I'll be damned if I can remember what I was fishing for!

Not keen on the prospect of using it to target chub and barbel, no matter how effective it might be. Even on the rivers with no zander have always got a pike or two lurking.

I used Lamprey section for a while and it worked well for chub (fished it in Winter), but I also hooked a fair few jacks so I stopped using it.

 

[clive morton]

Have you ever tried it Sam?

I've toyed with the idea but the problem on the Trent nowadays are the small Zander and with such small sections I reckon I would be quite likely to get a pick up.

Just wondering how to get around it rig/trace wise?

ive met a angler who use cannelle supretress its like a reinforced braid and hes caught perch zander and chub on this set up i witnessed him take a 19lbs pike on the same set up using small circle hooks another curious fact his biggest trent pike of 21 lbs was taken on a halibut pellet it really makes you think just what fish will take if they are hungry.
has for lamprey i know of some big chub that have been caught on it and small deadbaits caught 3 carp for a mate of mine in the same session 1 of which was twenty pounds so there is scope to think outside the box.

 

[Titus]

One of the biggest barbel I know of from Ironbridge was caught on half a mackerel intended for pike.
I think all coarse fish are predatory, I posted last week about my Koi eating the goldfish my daughter introduced into my pond.