Neil Maidment
Moderator
I'm now really regretting not joining you after the Idle meet Sean! But the thought of a 4 hour+ drive home got the better of me.
I've not had too many barbel of late but way back, I had a fair degree of success with single maggot on a size 12 (!) fished in conjunction with a tiny feeder with hemp. Sounds crazy but quite a number of winter barbel fell to that method.
I was intrigued by our conversations the night before. Down here in the South, we get all depressed when water temperatures drop into single figures and some will tell you it's usually a waste of time to try for barbel (they're wrong). But your (and Bryan's) comments about barbel in much lower temperatures really suprised me. It never occurred to me that such differences exist. Maybe we Southerners do have it easy!
Back in October on the Severn, I had a great day with the barbel in fairly tough conditions (very low and clear). The first two barbel came after I struck at the smallest of knocks on the rod tip. I was using a long (3ft+) hooklength and 8ml pellets on a hair (size 12). Other fish nearly wrenched the rod in but I'm not sure I would have had those first two had I waited for a pull around!
I've not had too many barbel of late but way back, I had a fair degree of success with single maggot on a size 12 (!) fished in conjunction with a tiny feeder with hemp. Sounds crazy but quite a number of winter barbel fell to that method.
I was intrigued by our conversations the night before. Down here in the South, we get all depressed when water temperatures drop into single figures and some will tell you it's usually a waste of time to try for barbel (they're wrong). But your (and Bryan's) comments about barbel in much lower temperatures really suprised me. It never occurred to me that such differences exist. Maybe we Southerners do have it easy!
Back in October on the Severn, I had a great day with the barbel in fairly tough conditions (very low and clear). The first two barbel came after I struck at the smallest of knocks on the rod tip. I was using a long (3ft+) hooklength and 8ml pellets on a hair (size 12). Other fish nearly wrenched the rod in but I'm not sure I would have had those first two had I waited for a pull around!