setup

hello all,ill be having my first barbel session on the first day of the new season on my local river wensum and wondered if somone could tell me what kind of setup ill need rod,reel,mainline,hooklenths etc any info helpful.many thanks

Marcus,
im not sure how big the wensum is or its features, but i can stil offer some advice!

a avon style rod can be ideal, these vary in test curve bettween 1.lb. through to 1.75lb. avon rods consist of a straight through tip and feeder tip/s. these enable you to fish a lead or a feeder on the perfect rod. of course none of this is actually neccesary you can catch a fish on any of you existing rods!

a fixed spool reel, something with enough power to cope with the fight and the size to be loaded with some 10/12lb breaking strain line!

with regard to hooklinks that will probably depend on your conditions! but a breaking strain a bit smaller than your mainline is ideal!

for bait and end tackle; a feeder filled with pellets and a slightly larger one on a hair! or you could fish a cube of luncheon meat! both are tried and tested methods, although all i can catch is chub!

thanks for that christian iv got a john wilson system avon quiver rod that i was going to combined with a shimano 4000 size reel,do you think it would be of benafit to have a baitrunner reel also dose anyone use braid for barbeling i use braid for all my pike fishing now and wondered if it would be sutible for barbel fishing.sorry if these questions seem a bit dimm but 90% of my fishing is for pike so bit of a novice with other species

Marcus,I've fished the Wensum,you don't need a baitrunner,that's for certain.
Your JW is fine also.
As far as braid is concerned, if your used to using it, there's nothing wrong with sticking to it.

As fred says baitrunners are not needed unless you fish 2 rods static.usefull then for when your playing a fish on one rod. Would suggest a rod of around 1.5Ib for summer levels stronger if fishing near snags. A freind as had double figure barbel on his JW quiver though he landed them he said the rod was struggling a little. That said he was fishing the Ribble which is a bit bigger than the Wensum.

Main thing to remember with summer barbel is they can take a long time to recover. Up to 30 mins and if you have just spent a couple of hours trying to catch on then whats another 30 mins

hi marcus ,
try www.barbel.co.uk for additional info there is a lot of articles on there and everything you need to know about barbel fishing
cheers john

when i said i could only catch chub, i really wasnt joking!

I'm really happy with my shimano fighting drag reel and 1.75lb feeder rod set up. Use it on the Trent often!

Glad to hear it Mark,welcome to FM