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Stalking Barbel

Chris Fox

Chris Fox

Senior Member
Have had real fun this season stalking fish with a bit of success... however, its nearly always been with fish that I've seen before putting any bait in. However, I'm interested in some advice on drawing fish into swims/spots from nearby snags/deeper holes...

I would normally feed a few pellets (maybe a dozen) into an area (usually by hand), then leave the swim and come back to see if fish have moved in. There is a large head of chub in both the rivers that I fish this way so the pellets do draw them in very quickly... I'm wondering if I should feed more and wait for longer for the Barbel to move in? How long/how much feed do others use? Any other thoughts/advice appreciated...

Thanks

Chris
 
Chris,

I've found that patience is the real key in this....something I'm only just getting enough of:rolleyes:

I've found that reading the swim so that you are able to make a decent guess at where the fish will be lying, where they'll come from and where you want them to be feeding when they arrive is also essential....

....I've fed up shoals of Barbel this way down on the Teme and the pattern seems to follow most times that you will place the pellets/paste/boilies/hemp or whatever else you use as the initial attractor in the swim and nothing much will happen - sit on your hands!!

Eventually though, you will see a few Barbel Scouts(Chub) appear just downstream of the feed who will edge closer and closer over a period of time until one of them is brave enough to take a nibble before the lot of them bolt off in panic !!!

Sit on your hands some more after putting a bit more feed in and wait until they come back again - as they surely will:cool: This process might be replicated many more times with the period of time between visits to the dinner table ever shortening until they scouts are well on the munch and in the swim almost continually - often taking pellets on the drop !!

In amongst the commotion that this causes you will begin to see the odd Barbel investigating the feeding frenzy that the Scouts are in and nudging their way closer to the scrum until one of them takes a nibble too;)

At this point in time I usually introduce some broken boilies and/or paste samples before sitting firmly on my hands again !!!!

Once the Barbel have visited the spot a few times and are digging around looking for the food items, they become almost too boisterous for the smaller scouts and take over the feeding regime at the imitation larder that you've created - sit on your hands !!!;););)

Keep the feeding going for as long as you can bear it before quietly lowering a baited hook onto the dinner table at a time when the Barbel are away and basically hold on:D:cool::D

Paul
 
Scubes,

As long as you can mucker....The Chub are usually feeding heavily well within 30 minutes or so and the Barbel are never far behind:)

I've sat on the Teme in the close season and fed Barbel constantly for hours and hours, usually until I run out of pellets. In a fishing situation as soon as I see more than one Barbel on the prod in some kind of style it's game on and I'd expect this situation to manifest itself within an hour of starting the feed.

Paul
 
Helpful stuff mate, thanks. When on the Teme earlier in the week, I sat in a swim for around 30mins before anything arrived. The chub were upstream feeding and the Barbel came in one at a time, until they became very confident and I had two or three good sized fish rooting around stirring up the bottom.

I guess that you would feed any shallow area near to snags or deeper holes?
 
Hi men ,

Chris , the swim you were in the fish seem to drop down from the right ;). With the feeding as above in Pauls post they end up under your tip ( as you prob see ), and in the end the barbel will be there long enough to pick a bait up before the chub . I had big problems with the chub in that swim , and hooked 2 even with barbel smoking over the bait . It mucked the swim up , and I ended up moving . The chub at the mo are in big numbers , on any bait strait away , and even with my long hairs were suicidal , done my head in .


Hatter
 
The Barbel came in from downstream, although I think that some dropped in from the right. Only saw one chub drop in... I did hook one in another swim that pulled the rod in - only weighed about a pound too.
 
Great thread this! Having only fished larger rivers like the Trent until recently stalking barbel is something i'm really getting into.

I'd like to know how far away from the holding spot you guys would look to draw the fish. Do you simply look for the nearest 'safe' area from which you can hook and land the fish? I've been told it is possible that fish can be drawn from a long way downstream, perhaps several hundred yards!? With patience could you effectively draw barbel from several different holding spots into the same area?
 
I like to find a likely swim, with good visibility of the bottom and a good vantage point to watch....

Then as said, drop in a few freebies and wait, then wait, then continue waiting until Barbel are feeding confidently.....

You can get it so the bottom becomes completely cloudy with silt as the fish stir up the bottom...

When your confident they're feeding drop in your baited hook very carefully and sit back and wait, hopefully as mentioned the chub won't get to it first...

I always consider a spot where I can either return the fish by hand, or even if necessary slide into the water myself but it's a key factor, and one that sometimes limits where I can fish as one of the rivers I enjoy has some horrendous banks, very steep and with little to no access unless using a long landing net which isn't ideal to assist the fish recovering....
 
If I fish an area shallow enough to see the bottom, which is not often and there are chub in numbers, I will generally put in a good amount of bait as far upstream in the swim as possible to draw the chub and smaller barbel up, the bigger ones generally hang back and pick up what comes downstream so I will place my hookbait further down the swim, it is suprising how often you will pick up the bigger barbel trying this approach.
 
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