R
Ron 'The Hat' Clay
Guest
During the 60s I did a lot of barbel fishing on the Yorkshire rivers with Mk IV, floppy hat, Mitchell 300 and sausage meat paste. We used to touch leger at night and by crikey did we catch barbel. I remember catches in excess of 30 fish at times.
We thought that touch legering was the thing until I stated putting the rod in rests and the barbel started hooking themselves.
We had a guy in the Northern Specimen Group called Roy Ward. He used to attach a whopping great lump of lead to his rig, the idea being that barbel would "hook themselves" against the weight of the lead and he would miss less bites.
There is absolutely no doubt that the majority of barbel rigs used on the Trent are slightly modified carp rigs, and only slightly modified at that.
My own rig these days is very similar to the rig that Big Rik described some years ago, the only exception being that the hook length is some 4 feet long.
If there is something I do not like about single species groups such as the Carp or the Barbel society is thew fact that when you read their newsletters, magazines or websites, all you read about is carp or barbel as if they were the only fish that mattered.
Let's face it guys, a carp, or a barbel or a chub, is just another species of fish - no more.
And barbel are not the most difficult fish to catch.
We should never attempt to elivate single species as being something special, almost a deity! I don't think this does the sport of angling any good in the long term.
It leads to an over proliferation of the species in the waters where they do not belong, and I am including rivers here. This results in the dermise of other species. The rudd is a prime example.
This is why the formation of the Don Valley Specialist Group is a darned good idea. We in the group are not single species crazy, and this is healthy make no mistake.
I hope more groups like ours will appear.
We thought that touch legering was the thing until I stated putting the rod in rests and the barbel started hooking themselves.
We had a guy in the Northern Specimen Group called Roy Ward. He used to attach a whopping great lump of lead to his rig, the idea being that barbel would "hook themselves" against the weight of the lead and he would miss less bites.
There is absolutely no doubt that the majority of barbel rigs used on the Trent are slightly modified carp rigs, and only slightly modified at that.
My own rig these days is very similar to the rig that Big Rik described some years ago, the only exception being that the hook length is some 4 feet long.
If there is something I do not like about single species groups such as the Carp or the Barbel society is thew fact that when you read their newsletters, magazines or websites, all you read about is carp or barbel as if they were the only fish that mattered.
Let's face it guys, a carp, or a barbel or a chub, is just another species of fish - no more.
And barbel are not the most difficult fish to catch.
We should never attempt to elivate single species as being something special, almost a deity! I don't think this does the sport of angling any good in the long term.
It leads to an over proliferation of the species in the waters where they do not belong, and I am including rivers here. This results in the dermise of other species. The rudd is a prime example.
This is why the formation of the Don Valley Specialist Group is a darned good idea. We in the group are not single species crazy, and this is healthy make no mistake.
I hope more groups like ours will appear.