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This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Barbel Fishing - A Summer of Barbel
Barbel Fishing - A Summer of Barbel
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Graham Elliott 1
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Andrew
A Really excellent article, with a very thoughtful approach.
And highlights amongst other things the importance of different mixes/sizes with different breakdown/feed release times within the feeder. This especially so according to river flow/conditions.
Well Done.
Graham
A Really excellent article, with a very thoughtful approach.
And highlights amongst other things the importance of different mixes/sizes with different breakdown/feed release times within the feeder. This especially so according to river flow/conditions.
Well Done.
Graham
MarkTheSpark
Senior Member
An excellent article, Andrew, and very well written. It has given me some great ideas and more appropriate methods for the river I fish, which is also on a smaller scale than the Trent.
My greatest frustration is that it's such a long time until the season opens! One question, though; what's your choice of reel line; I'm toying with braid, despite the fact that I'm nedver casting any distance. I just think it may allow me to use lighter feeders.... or is a heavy feeder important to the methods you describe?
My greatest frustration is that it's such a long time until the season opens! One question, though; what's your choice of reel line; I'm toying with braid, despite the fact that I'm nedver casting any distance. I just think it may allow me to use lighter feeders.... or is a heavy feeder important to the methods you describe?
Judas Priest
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At last, a really good well written thought provoking article on barbel fishing. Well done Andrew.
barbelboi
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A most enjoyable read Andrew.
Jerry
Jerry
Andrew Kennedy
Member
Hello chaps, sorry it's taken so long for me to log in and respond. Thank you all for your comments. I'm a little surprised, but extremely pleased that this article has had such a positive reaction. It's the culmination of a fair bit of thinking and a little bit of tweaking over several seasons and I didn't think it was too revolutionary, but if it's provoked a bit of thought about your own tactics then that's brilliant.
---------- Post added at 07:51 ---------- Previous post was at 07:45 ----------
@Graham Elliott 1 - Yes Graham, I really worked hard on this side of things last season and I kept hearing that other anglers were struggling, but I had consistently good results. Coincidence, maybe, but I like to think that varying my mixes was a contributing factor.
---------- Post added at 08:24 ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 ----------
@MarkTheSpark - My own braid use is restricted to lure fishing, float fishing for pike & long-range feeder fishing. I used braid for barbel fishing on the Dove for a couple of seasons but there are three properties of braid that I'm not keen on for leger/feeder fishing for barbel.
The first is the inherent buoyancy and drag created by the micro filaments, which combine to lift your mainline upwards, which can actually cause problems in keeping light
feeders where you want them. The rig I use is a self-hooking rig, so the weight of the feeder does come into it and I rarely use less than 2oz of lead. However, there have been situations where I haven't cast to fish I've spotted because I know my heavy feeder will spook them. My main reason for using heavy feeders though is the amount of bait I can fit in. There aren't many large capacity feeders with less lead than 2oz (although Fisky's Fantasctic Feeders sell them now). Plus, another bonus of using heavier feeders is knowing that they're staying put in your feeding area, so you're not spreading bait all over the river.
The second reason I don't like braid for barbel is its abrasion resistance. It will cut through streamer weed like cheese wire, but start rubbing against rocks and branches, as often found in good barbel swims and braid will let you down more often than a good mono.
The last reason I don't use braid for barbel - and this will be of most significance for you if you're fishing at close quarters - is lack of stretch. Even using braid hooklengths with mono mainline, I was experiencing regular break-offs within seconds of hooking barbel. I kept stepping up the breaking strain and still kept getting snapped! Someone suggested it may be down to a lack of stretch when I was giving the fish some stick to draw them away from snags when I first hooked them. I switched to an all-mono setup and I haven't suffered a similar break-off in three seasons. I've only had breakages in snags since. With the turn of pace barbel have, stretch in your line can buy you an extra few milliseconds of reaction time, which can sometimes be the difference between landing and losing a fish.
The mainline I use is Daiwa Infinity HT, which is good value and available on bulk spools. It is coated with flourocarbon and is very abrasion resistant, clear and has a bit of stretch without being like powergum! I now use this stuff for all my barbel fishing and the majority of my pike & zander fishing and it's superb stuff. It works well with Palomar and Grinner knots, which are the main ones I use, so it suits me down to the ground. For hooklengths I use Ultima Powersteel.
I hope this helps Mark and please let me know if it works for you when the rivers reopen!
---------- Post added at 07:51 ---------- Previous post was at 07:45 ----------
@Graham Elliott 1 - Yes Graham, I really worked hard on this side of things last season and I kept hearing that other anglers were struggling, but I had consistently good results. Coincidence, maybe, but I like to think that varying my mixes was a contributing factor.
---------- Post added at 08:24 ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 ----------
@MarkTheSpark - My own braid use is restricted to lure fishing, float fishing for pike & long-range feeder fishing. I used braid for barbel fishing on the Dove for a couple of seasons but there are three properties of braid that I'm not keen on for leger/feeder fishing for barbel.
The first is the inherent buoyancy and drag created by the micro filaments, which combine to lift your mainline upwards, which can actually cause problems in keeping light
feeders where you want them. The rig I use is a self-hooking rig, so the weight of the feeder does come into it and I rarely use less than 2oz of lead. However, there have been situations where I haven't cast to fish I've spotted because I know my heavy feeder will spook them. My main reason for using heavy feeders though is the amount of bait I can fit in. There aren't many large capacity feeders with less lead than 2oz (although Fisky's Fantasctic Feeders sell them now). Plus, another bonus of using heavier feeders is knowing that they're staying put in your feeding area, so you're not spreading bait all over the river.
The second reason I don't like braid for barbel is its abrasion resistance. It will cut through streamer weed like cheese wire, but start rubbing against rocks and branches, as often found in good barbel swims and braid will let you down more often than a good mono.
The last reason I don't use braid for barbel - and this will be of most significance for you if you're fishing at close quarters - is lack of stretch. Even using braid hooklengths with mono mainline, I was experiencing regular break-offs within seconds of hooking barbel. I kept stepping up the breaking strain and still kept getting snapped! Someone suggested it may be down to a lack of stretch when I was giving the fish some stick to draw them away from snags when I first hooked them. I switched to an all-mono setup and I haven't suffered a similar break-off in three seasons. I've only had breakages in snags since. With the turn of pace barbel have, stretch in your line can buy you an extra few milliseconds of reaction time, which can sometimes be the difference between landing and losing a fish.
The mainline I use is Daiwa Infinity HT, which is good value and available on bulk spools. It is coated with flourocarbon and is very abrasion resistant, clear and has a bit of stretch without being like powergum! I now use this stuff for all my barbel fishing and the majority of my pike & zander fishing and it's superb stuff. It works well with Palomar and Grinner knots, which are the main ones I use, so it suits me down to the ground. For hooklengths I use Ultima Powersteel.
I hope this helps Mark and please let me know if it works for you when the rivers reopen!
Andrew Kennedy
Member
@Titus - The results of this really surprised me to start with. It was tried out of desperation when I was struggling a few seasons back and it worked straight away. I've continued the experiment since and I definitely get better results with pellets or boilies when I fish two different baits on the hair together!
Since I've tried it and it has seemingly worked so well for me, I have wondered why this hasn't been tried and documented more frequently by others. It's not a new idea in coarse or specimen fishing in general to use "cocktail" baits (worm & corn for bream, snowman rigs for carp, etc. etc.) so surely it's not a new idea in barbel fishing. Is it?!?
jasonbean1
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i've used that daiwa line for a few seasons and got on with it really well, i got it cheap when it was discontinued i managed to get a couple of bulk spools...i dont think they do it anymore
i would'nt use i for snag fishing though, just a little temperamental
power steel...reliable stuff