Which ticket for barbel on the Cambs Beds border?

It is time to restart my river barbel campaign I have been asking around allot locally having just moved to Cambourne between St Neots and Cambridge ,so I am within easy reach of the upper reaches of the Ivel and lots of the great Ouse.
Big but here is that most of my info has been second or third hand or maybe even rumor about were to get barbel.

What I want is ideally a stretch of river within 20 minutes drive (so i can go at night three times a week) that has a good head of barbel still.
I don't want to pay a huge amount if I can help it.

The general jist is that the Ivel was amazing but has a very large concentration of otters and the barbel have dropped off completely in some areas.

I have been told that they are in some areas of the ouse but never been told exactly which ticket would be worth me getting , it seems to vary so much from one section to another and the boat traffic is extremely annoying on some bits.

I had a godmanchester ticket for the last 7 weeks of the season but the river was too flooded and high for half that time I did get out three times and there are what look like good barbel spots wears etc though there is not much talk of there being barbel around.

I have fished the Cam on open day ,one of the town stretches and caught a few small fish and seen some huge chub and roach but not really heard of this being a barbel river.

Last Sunday I fished the Offord stretch of the Ouse at great paxton but this was extremely annoying far to many boats going far to fast and I did not even see a fish though I spent some time hunting around .
It was like a large canal with loads of weed everywhere and the only fish were fry .Found some very tenchy looking spots especially on a backwater though no signs of fish not even chub on the surface to catch all the flies!! could this stretch be an otters lair ?
Oh I did see two cormorant's so maybe the fish are a bit more clever and feed at night here?

So if anyone can help you don't have to make it common knowledge you can PM me I would be most great full .

I have got my tackle set up finely honed with barbel in mind though I have been practicing on carp and now all I need is the right place to fish.

I have two 1,75lb rods one has a much softer action than the other ,coupled to 10lb or 8lb sensor and 8lb sensor or 9lb incognito hook lengths .
I do have brown and green coated braid hook lengths as well though they have not caught me as many fish.
I have korum s1(I think) hooks ready ,though all successful fishing has been with Guru QM1 's or the new drennan power hair riggers (almost a third the price of the Qm1's)in size 8,10 and 12 so I would start with these they have never let me down so far even with a 19lb 10 minute fighting carp on a size 14 so I think they will be strong enough.

I don't like the big carp style hooks they seem to effect presentation to much for me.

You could have a crack at Adams Mill...

Now available on a normal club ticket. See HERE

I hope your post works for you. The problem is that the Ouse is probably the worst affected river re sudden barbel decline. All the better known spots which were once prolific are now apparently devoid of barbel so if someone still has a good swim he's likely to keep it to himself, and you can't blame him!

That is what i thought too One of my neighbors was a hard core barbel angler on the Ivel 5 years ago but he is now a carp angler he said back then there were only really two sizes of barbel and not many small ones.

I have been told about a stretch in bedford that people have caught barbel on but everyone who has told me this has also said that it is one 200 yard stretch and not anyware else around there.

I might check out the adams mill stretch but it was in the angling times so I suspect it will be very busy now.

---------- Post added at 04:11 ---------- Previous post was at 04:01 ----------

I wish I had had a bit more time to spend fishing for barbel last summer up in derby before I moved but I did think at the time it's ok Cambs has loads of rivers and water to go at ,now I think it would have been much more easy on the derwent,dove or trent.

Make sure the fishing times are right for you at Adam Mill!