Hello chaps, sorry it's taken so long for me to log in and respond. Thank you all for your comments. I'm a little surprised, but extremely pleased that this article has had such a positive reaction. It's the culmination of a fair bit of thinking and a little bit of tweaking over several seasons and I didn't think it was too revolutionary, but if it's provoked a bit of thought about your own tactics then that's brilliant.
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And highlights amongst other things the importance of different mixes/sizes with different breakdown/feed release times within the feeder. This especially so according to river flow/conditions.
@Graham Elliott 1 - Yes Graham, I really worked hard on this side of things last season and I kept hearing that other anglers were struggling, but I had consistently good results. Coincidence, maybe, but I like to think that varying my mixes was a contributing factor.
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One question, though; what's your choice of reel line; I'm toying with braid, despite the fact that I'm nedver casting any distance. I just think it may allow me to use lighter feeders.... or is a heavy feeder important to the methods you describe?
@MarkTheSpark - My own braid use is restricted to lure fishing, float fishing for pike & long-range feeder fishing. I used braid for barbel fishing on the Dove for a couple of seasons but there are three properties of braid that I'm not keen on for leger/feeder fishing for barbel.
The first is the inherent buoyancy and drag created by the micro filaments, which combine to lift your mainline upwards, which can actually cause problems in keeping light
feeders where you want them. The rig I use is a self-hooking rig, so the weight of the feeder does come into it and I rarely use less than 2oz of lead. However, there have been situations where I haven't cast to fish I've spotted because I know my heavy feeder will spook them. My main reason for using heavy feeders though is the amount of bait I can fit in. There aren't many large capacity feeders with less lead than 2oz (although Fisky's Fantasctic Feeders sell them now). Plus, another bonus of using heavier feeders is knowing that they're staying put in your feeding area, so you're not spreading bait all over the river.
The second reason I don't like braid for barbel is its abrasion resistance. It will cut through streamer weed like cheese wire, but start rubbing against rocks and branches, as often found in good barbel swims and braid will let you down more often than a good mono.
The last reason I don't use braid for barbel - and this will be of most significance for you if you're fishing at close quarters - is lack of stretch. Even using braid hooklengths with mono mainline, I was experiencing regular break-offs within seconds of hooking barbel. I kept stepping up the breaking strain and still kept getting snapped! Someone suggested it may be down to a lack of stretch when I was giving the fish some stick to draw them away from snags when I first hooked them. I switched to an all-mono setup and I haven't suffered a similar break-off in three seasons. I've only had breakages in snags since. With the turn of pace barbel have, stretch in your line can buy you an extra few milliseconds of reaction time, which can sometimes be the difference between landing and losing a fish.
The mainline I use is Daiwa Infinity HT, which is good value and available on bulk spools. It is coated with flourocarbon and is very abrasion resistant, clear and has a bit of stretch without being like powergum! I now use this stuff for all my barbel fishing and the majority of my pike & zander fishing and it's superb stuff. It works well with Palomar and Grinner knots, which are the main ones I use, so it suits me down to the ground. For hooklengths I use Ultima Powersteel.
I hope this helps Mark and please let me know if it works for you when the rivers reopen!