Winter Bait changes

[magna barbus]

I gained a lot of insight to winter Barbel fishing whilst fishing for winter Carp on an odd shaped fairly shallow crystal clear lake back in the early 80's, what was interesting was the way these fish held up in particular spots, for what appeared to be the protection of some feature, this was usually some type of branch or defined snag. We would walk around the pond spotting the black dense groups of modest size Carp, also noting huge areas completely devoid of fish, we would then cast a float fished bait to them, it was amazing to see the carps reaction, if the bait (single grain of corn) was more than 6'' away from the fish they would not move forward to take it, the bait had to be carefully edged to be within 2" from the fish's nose, then they would slowly edge forward and suck the bait in. Now you may ask how can this help the winter Barbel fishermen, well I have had considerable success over the passing years keeping this in mind, I am talking about falling water temps bellow 7c, I came to the conclusion that to achieve consistency in my catch rate was to choose 4 or 5 swims (known producers) and fish on a rotation basis as part of the session, but more importantly devised a mental grid system of each swim and ensured as best as possible that every inch of that swim was searched by ensuring the bait was cast or moved on a very regular basis, if no fish were forthcoming, a small bag of casters or dead maggots was placed in the swim to entice a fish to feed without filling the fish before my return in an hour or so, I think the way to a blank is to fish a sit and wait for a fish to come to you, yes you may be lucky and cast upon a fish first cast and take the fish, and this explains why one man can can sit all day without a touch and another can be in the next swim and catch, but remember this isnt just about being mobile and moving swims, it is about systematically searching out a swim inch by inch, upstream and downstream of the casting position, only recently I proved this when fishing the middle Severn, where there were 3 Barbel anglers fishing statically and blanked, whilst I had 3 fish over 8Ib on a short afternoon spell, and one of those fish was taken from a swim that had been fished by one of the Anglers all day, the difference was is that I cast upstream from his sitting position and edged the bait down towards me on a minds eye line. Best baits I find are paste covered mini boilies, this gives me the chance to increase or decrease the bait size at will, another important factor in winter Barbel fishing I believe.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Some really interesting and informative thoughts here.

I was also fascinated by what Magnus said about carp.

last season with ice around a carp puddle, whilst fishing for perch with single maggot on a size 16 I managed 5 carp to 18lb. All from the same swim in a corner with overhangling trees.

This year, again on a very cold day, I thought I would go for many of the excellent roach. It was a quiet day and not much was happening. Changing lakes to the one that had given me the carp the previous year, I tiptoed back to the same corner, in what was now a crystal clear lake.

About 20 carp were stacked, motionless in about 5 square yards of water. (no they wouldn't move for a bait or any loose feed flicked in)

I wandered around the lake and didn't spot another single fish.


In one of the articles I had published in the XX magazine I talked about success in flooded conditions with an actual filled feeder being rolled along the bottom, almost like Rolling Meat.

Judas and Magnas thoughts make me believe it might be worth a go also in cold weather conditions to try and locate the fish, given a reasonable snagfree bottom. Something I might not have considered without those comments. Thanks

Graham

 

[magna barbus]

You are welcome Graham, the approach and tactic does work, you may remember the stunning picture of Ray Walton with his snow caught Barbel years ago..... what's Rays favourite method......think about it, but my approach isn't just a rolling meat/bait method,yes it combines that discipline with the ability to allow the bait to settle until you wish is to be moved to another area and sticking with the bait theme, dont forget what I said about the mini boilie with the moulded paste, as well as bait movement and placement, bait size,flavour and scent is also important and the mini boilie can be used as a carrier for these factors, this will allow a diversity of bait size, flavour etc., and with a choice of paste's on the day a complete bait change with each searching cast could be achieved and be successful, the whole method and mind set emphasises a diversity of approach, rather than sitting it out in one spot with just hope as your ally.