Barbel, tip or float?

[binka]

I generally tend to avoid raising a subject in Barbel Fishing for fear that it may turn nuclear but...

What’s your preference?

This came about as a remark I made to Flighty during a late night conversation recently and I mentioned that I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to catch them on the tip anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with a barbel on any method and circumstances will often dictate what it is but given the choice I would much rather catch them on the float.

It’s not just the enjoyment of the method either, the fight is a completely different affair altogether with the tip tending to be a downriver or bust job against maximum force, whereas the float is more of tactical affair as the fish turns when it realises downriver isn’t working and pumps its way up the far bank against the flow to an upstream position where you then know it’s surely all but beat barring any slip ups during the often prolonged battle which will ensue in the pool below the rod tip, once you’ve brought the fish back towards you.

Having said that I got done big time only yesterday by an upriver fish which wasn’t following the script and just kept ploughing on until it dumped me in a snag but I reckon it was a carp, could’ve been a big barbel though.

What say you…

Float, tip, rolling or not bothered either way?

 

[103841]

I'm not bothered either way, infact anyway, I'd just love to catch a barbel full stop...one day.

 

[thecrow]

As you know Steve all my Barbel have been caught on either a lead or a feeder, the float is something that I never used for them so have no experience to give an opinion. My biggest (not best) Barbel have come from the Trent and hopefully with some guidance from you and some Botulinum toxin jabs to help my arm stop shaking (saw the consultant today who recommended them) I will be in a much better position to have an opinion

Some of the rivers I fished during my early Barbel years were to weedy to run a float through and even up until a few years ago that was the case. It was a bait and wait or bait and creep up later situation with some of it being sight fishing and I suppose that was the way I most enjoyed catching them watching them move around the swim avoiding the hook bait at times but at other times racing in to get at it and by far the best for me was seeing the bait taken which often had me so mesmerised that I didn't need to strike the rod was sometimes almost pulled from my hand.

Maybe it could be added to "preferences" I am sure others have enjoyed this method.

---------- Post added at 19:33 ---------- Previous post was at 19:08 ----------

I do believe that Barbel can be landed on much lighter tackle on the float as they can be led instead of pulled, I first saw this on the royalty during the maggot period watching a chap catching them on the float and light line and not having to play them to death.

 

[108831]

Steve I love catching them on any method,the three foot twitch has to be experienced,but after all that,catching them on the float is the dogs b*ll*cks,better on the pin,but good on anything,i've had them on the pole,waggler(on many rivers including the H.Avon),stick,chubber,balsa.I think the most enjoyable is on a light 3 no.4 stick on a small river,where you hold back the float buries and you into a torpedo with around 3lb line...fun with a capital F....

 

[Neil Maidment]

Most of my early barbel (starting way back in the 1960's) were on the float both on the D. Stour and H. Avon. There is a side stream at Sopley on the Avon that was particularly suited to the fat balsa.

In later years many came to static methods especially different versions of the feeder. Even more so when I realised a good proportion of them on the Upper Loddon seemed to be nocturnal. Once I had a few from there and got to know a couple of places I did trot in the dark with isotopes and pleased to say I've had 6 barbel to 11lbs at night on the float

Whenever I can I now get the float rod out particularly on away trips to the Severn around Highley and with a bit of luck I'll do the same on the Wye later next month.

 

[barbelboi]

Which ever way's better to avoid the snotties at the time.....................

 

[108831]

Which ever way's better to avoid the snotties at the time.....................

You luv em....:thumbs:

 

[flightliner]

The lead, feeder, such blunt instruments, lovely to see the rod hoop over but far nicer to work up a swim, make all the tiny adjustments to your rig, shotting, depth etx then watch the float dissapear somewhere along its intended path.More thought, more application, sometimes more fish, certainly (for me at least)more satisfaction.

 

[fishing4luckies]

I've never caught one so I'd be happy on any method you could care to dream up. I'd probably stop short of Electro-netting though.

Probably.......

 

[tigger]

I think everyone knows my preferred method . Only problem is legering is often the better/more productive method of catching them!

 

[sam vimes]

Same as any other species, float. I just like float fishing.

 

[Keith M]

My favoured methods for Barbel are trundling a bait along the bed or semi static link legering, and with both of these methods I use my fingers to detect what's happening around my hook, or if I am fishing a stretch that is suitable for trotting then I love trotting a stick, Avon or balsa using a centrepin whenever it's suitable.

I don't really have an outright favourite method as I enjoy fishing them all.

Keith

 

[Philip]

I guess it’s the float, its funny but I almost feel like a catch is more meritable on a float for some reason but I don’t really know why.
However there is also a certain something about watching a rod top as well especially after dark. Everything seems amplified when your watching the glow of a isotope or starlight. My best ever Barbel bite …probably my best ever bite thinking about it was my first good Barbel from the Kennet and that was on a lead..

I was fishing an undercut right under my feet. I had diligently baited it with droppers of hemp & left it to settle exactly as the writings of Tony Miles and Trefor West had told me to do. Then after dark and following a heavy summer downpour all was silent and still & I crept into position and lowered my big lump of meat down into the swim and then sat back to watch the isotope on the rod tip. Only a few seconds past and there was a rapid thump on the tip. My hand hovered over the rod in anticipation. In the still after the storm the atmosphere was electric. Thump ! ….it banged again, springing back immediately…I closed my hand over the rod handle, sitting forward in my chair almost willing it to go ….then after a few more seconds (that seemed like an eternity) BANG !…the rod absolutely hammered vertically down & literally took off …if I had not had my hand over it I would have lost it. I was lucky as I was using 6lb line and from memory a pre-streached hooklink too…at such short range under my feet it was a recipe for disaster but I managed to land it.

That would have been maybe 25 years ago but I can still see the bite clearly in my head today.

 

[Keith M]

That would have been maybe 25 years ago but I can still see the bite clearly in my head today.

I still remember my very first barbel as if it were yesterday and that was back in 1975 on the Kennet at Newbury using a B.James & son MKIV Carp rod with a Mitchell 300 loaded with 8lb Silcast and a size 4 Specialist hook and using a shortish link leger (5 SSG on a link) I remember feeling the bottom gravel as the rig moved a foot or so downstream when I raised the tip slightly and the streamerweed knocking against my line through my fingers just before the barbel took my luncheonmeat

Keith

 

[mikench]

They remain an aspiration for me but maybe, just maybe, that will soon change

 

[barbelboi]

What's that - a tip or a float................

 

[mikench]

Oh a float, very definitely a float!

 

[dicky123]

Steve.

I think we should look at the question in a slightly different way see if you agree.

Fishing for barbel with a float is a niche method in my humble view:wh. Why well barbel are one of our best fighting species, and mostly live in fast water.

Most barbel angler fish with carp style/weight rods, big hooks 8s on upwards, and line of 10lb plus. On the Trent its 15lb average, small river barbel anglers accepted.

The float trotting angler is fishing in a style that is all about compromise, again in my humble opinion. He uses a rod that mostly takes 6lb mainline weight, small hooks 12s and less, often 16s and sometimes lighter hook-links.

From a method of catching/landing it really shouldn't work, but it does, and again in my view mostly better than the ledger. Remember too we only fish with one rod, the ledger guys can/do fish two.

It's a very involved way of fishing as your always doing something. As you plummet the swim carefully, you also know the riverbed better than the ledger angler. He will often cast directly into a snag and not know. He will learn, but will not know exactly where that snag is. I plum the swim the Harrell way, and it tells me all I need to know. I may lose a lead or two, but I'm learning in the process. I accept some ledger guys may plum a swim properly, but none I've seen. They arrive and cast out, so forgive me if I've not mentioned the guys that do.

Do I ledger yes, but always in the margins with as little weight as possible.

I float fish at times when I know a bottom bait would be a better option, but I just love the feeling of teasing the fish to take my bait, rather than setting a trap for them to fall into.

But it's only my way, and to those that only ledger and love it, good on you.:w

 

[thecrow]

Most barbel angler fish with carp style/weight rods, big hooks 8s on upwards,

That may be because lots of anglers fishing for Barbel have come across from carp fishing with some of them knowing no other way of fishing.

There are lots of delicate ledgering ways of fishing depending on river conditions, clarity, weed, Barbel population etc, my biggest Barbel came on a 14s from the trent while my best small river fish came on an 8s, having said that I have also been guilty of just lumping a feeder out

 

[108831]

I agree with the above post,i'd go further and say there is little specialist fishing at all done on the float,thus controversially most anglers are not adept at float fishing lakes,let alone rivers,it is such a widely diverse a method that many never get to grips with it.