If I was forced to think hard,I would be able to remember things that caused me to use certain tactics in my fishing,now barbel have a reputation of not being too difficult to catch,I can remember however fishing on the Severn back in the day on maggot feeder and did what i'd been doing for a few years,double and treble maggot on a 14 to 5lb hooklink,I'd even caught on single maggot on a 10 at times,then it happened,,you didn't get a fish,now I farted about trying several things,nothing,then I tried single maggot on a 16,bingo,I caught steadily and in spite trying bigger hooks at times during that session didnt get a single fish on anything other than that 16 hook,that worked like that for at least four years before I stopped going up to the Severn,during that time I had many,many catches of more than 50 barbel,the biggest 88,all on that 16 hook.Then on the Trent I was in a match and had drawn a good barbel peg,now this was when 6-7lb fish were big,now I started with a 5-6lb hooklink and struggled,and after a couple of difficult hours dropped to a 3.6lb hooklink,hoping for a few chub but it didn't work like that I had a barbel,then another,then I lost one so stepped up again,nothing,not a sausage,went down again and bang,into another,I lost an odd one and kept trying heivier ,with smaller hooks but to no avail,you just sat waiting and waiting with no response,I went on to win the match,but scratching my head a little. I've had many such experiences within fishing for all species,that formulate my thinking today,how about you???
Last edited: