Barbel. Traditional vs modern

[Ric Elwin]

Hi folks

I've recently rekindled my interest in Barbel after 10 or so years in the (Pike) wilderness.

Reading whatever information I can, it seems that modern tactics are mainly based around pellets/ boilies, often with a 2 rod approach. This is rather different from my old hemp/ luncheon meat or hemp/ worm with single rod tactics from the past.

Question: Do you consider the 'old' tactics to be inferior to the more modern methods? Is there still scope for reasonable catches, or are barbel on popular rivers conditioned to pellets/ boilies? Does any perceived etiquette exist that promotes or downgrades either method?

I'd be delighted to get all you views.

Thanks in advance.

Oh by the way I used to fish the Dane, my targets will be the upper Severn, the Dove and maybe the Ribble, if that effects any of your thinking!

 

[Matt Brown]

I only fish two rods only when I think I'm going to really struggle for some action. If I'm expecting bites then I fish one rod so I can concentrate on it properly.

I'm happy for people to use whatever methods they like as long as it doesn't harm the fish and they don't impede anyone else's judgement.

 

[jp]

The "old" methods still work at the right time and in the right place, but if you don't use them wisely you will blank, just as you can with boilies and pellets.

I don't fish the rivers you mention but on the Avon & Stour using meat during the day in clear water will not catch you many fish.

Big baits in general are best left till after dark or for floodwater, particles will usually catch fish in daylight, but again used wisely, it does depend to a certain extent on the number of fish competing for your bait and how often they've been caught before.

I don't do ettiquete, so you're on your own with that one.

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

Hi Ric.
I have just completed my first season on the Lower Ribble. Pellets outfished everything.

Maggots, Castors and hemp worked during the day in low conditions but once the sun dropped out came the eels.

Never had a touch on meat at all. A mate had a good night with chub on Bakers complete with the Chub 5 between 5Ib and 6.5Ib but no Barbel.

Tried various bollies no Barbel just Chub

 

[John Howard]

I have read the posts correct havent I??????? Bryan Baron2 fished the Ribble during the close season?

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

John how do you work that out.
For your information i have not stepped foor on the bank since the beginning of March.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Yes, he never said that! He said "just completed my first season", which ended in March. I'll stick up for your Bryan, just as I did before!!! Stand on me.


All's fare in love, war, and barbel fishing. I would only ask "What the hell do you think you're doing?" if I saw FOUR rods out on bit alarms and you bivvied up for a week. Only because I wouldn't see the sense in it.

Meat never does as well through the day, in my reckoning. Small boilies (I'm giving The Source a crack this year), pastes, maggots, casters even. If it gives you confidence, give it a try.

 

[John Howard]

sorry mate its my eyes. I read season as session.

 

[john conway]

My opinion is you fish whatever method you’re happy with, which ever method puts fish on the bank, with the over riding proviso that you don’t harm the fish, environment or cause your fellow anglers any inconvenience. Having said that some anglers get upset if you just look at them the wrong way or your attire is unconventional.
What is controversial are long sessions in one swim. Not that the traditionalist of years ago didn’t spend very long sessions on the river bank, it’s just that with modern gear and equipment it’s much easier and more comfortable to fish long sessions and therefore more people do it, hence the problem.
One thing about fishing is nothing stays the same and one method may be great for a short while but eventually the river will change, big fish come and go in cycles, new species become dominant, so we have to change with the river or we’ll just become moaning old farts.

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

Cheeky Cheers mate. But you had better not visit us on the Ribble. One stretch i fish you can count at least a half dozen bivvies with rods on buzzers from the car park up the river at the weekend. There was one guy fishing buzzers in a fast streamy section his alarms were constantly giving little bleeps. I asked do you not get sick of this. His reply was no it keeps me awake. I walked away.

 

[Ric Elwin]

Thanks for all the replies they have been very interesting and useful I'm sure. What's the general feeling as what constitutes long stay fishing? Or perhaps more accurately, after roughly how long does this become annoying to others?

As an aside, has anyone any opinions as to, generally, whether these long sessions, in catching terms pro-rata to time spent there, are worthwhile?

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Long sessions? Wasn't it Fred J Taylor who was supposed to have said "I'll be glad when I've had enough of this."

 

[Ron C]

Wasn't it Fred J Taylor who was supposed to have said

C/M
Yes.

 

[john conway]

I find this one very hard to answer, however, so long as I had the opportunity to fish all the swims on my clubs water at least two or three times I a season, and that other, swims were always available to me, which contained fish which I thought worthy of getting out of bed for, then I would not be bothered if others fished in swims for several days. Again with the proviso that in doing so they didn’t harm the fish, the environment and didn’t upset or interfere with adjacent anglers etc. If however, anglers occupied key swims such that it was impossible for me to fish them at any time that was available to me, then yes I’d be annoyed and would leave the club. I can think of various rules to stop this form happening but equally I can think of a way around them and I’d hate to be in a club where I’d need a degree in angle etiquette before I could fish. So I choose clubs like I choose a place to fish, i.e. do I like the scenery, the atmosphere and the angling members and the way they behave.

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

On the rivers if i can not carry all my gear to the swim in one go. Then i would be stopping to long. As i see it any more than this in a swim is wasted. I plan this year to spend no more than a hour in a swim before moving, returning later to give it another go if time permitts.

 

[Big Rik]

Most of the clubs I am/have been in have time limits on the river.

24 hours usually.
They also say that's it's brollies only and no bivvies.
Which in my mind is how it should be.
One night in a swim is enough and you should be awake and on your rods.
Barbelling on a river doesn't seem the place for sleeping bags and bedchairs, but that is only in my experience on the waters that I fish and have fished.
I think I could probably get away with it on the slower, deeper stretches of the Severn, and thus, I wouldn't question those that did it.
Seeing it on fast or snaggy sections, then I would feel compelled to question the antics and ethics of those persuing the fish.

 

[john conway]

Re moving or staying put? As Rik?s mentioned some rivers lend themselves to both methods and on some rivers its more effective just to stalk. It?s a personal choice but if you like stalking and the main body of your club prefer to set traps and wait, then I can see some possible conflict and would suggest you pick a club with like minded members as yourself.
Between setting traps and stalking no one method I would think outweighs the other, but there again I?ve no hard facts to back this up. You wouldn?t get very far stalking bream on the river Lune, but there again I don?t call doing your homework on feature finding and fish movements stalking, just a load of hard work before you set your trap. However, it would be very interesting to fish about eight or nine swims in a session on a river like the Lune just to see what turns up, some very large hybrids in the Lune which seem to have a wider distribution than the bream. Sorry about that lads I seem to have strayed a wee bit, our lass has left me in charge of the animals for a couple of days and I?m trying to put off doing my chores, rather talk about fishing.
"Seeing it on fast or snaggy sections, then I would feel compelled to question the antics and ethics of those persuing the fish."
Absolutely right Rik, it's not on.