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Trotting and Foul Hooking

Julian Peacock

Julian Peacock

Senior Member
Hi Guys n Gals,
I have yet to foul hook a barbel when lead fishing (probably because my meagre catch rate lowers the probability), but i know that anglers who trot for barbel, foul hook fish as a regular occurance, usually in the pectoral fin, sometimes in the tail and occasionally in the dorsal. There are probably some glory hunters that even claim them!:)

My questions are:
Does anybody know of a method (when trotting), that lowers the foul hooking probability?

And

Do you think it is acceptable to regularly foul hook barbel on trotting gear?

Cheers,

Jules
 
Julian Peacock said:
Hi Guys n Gals,
I have yet to foul hook a barbel when lead fishing (probably because my meagre catch rate lowers the probability), but i know that anglers who trot for barbel, foul hook fish as a regular occurance, usually in the pectoral fin, sometimes in the tail and occasionally in the dorsal. There are probably some glory hunters that even claim them!:)

My questions are:
Does anybody know of a method (when trotting), that lowers the foul hooking probability?

And

Do you think it is acceptable to regularly foul hook barbel on trotting gear?

Cheers,

Jules
Click to expand...

Absolutely, go for it. After all a fish is a fish and foul hooked fish go like hell. Even more fun on a 3lb bottom.
 
I think you are right there is probably more chance of foul hooking a Barbel (or other species for that matter) while trotting, simple arithmetic tells us that.
On a normal day trotting I run the float through up to 500 times, if I fish the lead I would probably cast out up to 10 times at a maximum and during that time in the water the hook will be motionless, so the chance of foul hooking is greatly increased.

On one of the rivers I fished recently we have had several fish come off because of hook pulls, I rather suspect these are foul hooked fish.
This year I have landed 3 Barbel that were foul hooked, one in the tail at about 9lb and two in the pec both about 6lb and one of these was very recent.
This years tally is now up to 190 Barbel so 3 in 190 is about 1.5%, not a lot but more than I would prefer.

As for lost fish ,this year I have lost 10, 4 to hook pulls and 6 to breakages, I don't know how the fish that broke me up were hooked but I suspect at least one was foul hooked.
You can normally tell when they are foul hooked as the fight is different from the start, that is of course assuming you hook them on heavy enough gear to land them, most of my breakages have happened when fishing for Roach on the Upper Lea and my poor old Diawa Amorphous and 1.1lb bottom is not quite man enough to bully Barbel of any size, particularly when you hook them between weed beds.

All that said, I don’t think a small hook can do too much damage and at the end of the day, I do so many work parties and spend so much time caring for the rivers, ensuring that our fish have the very best chance in life, I don’t think that leaving a small hook in a fish every now and then is too large a price to pay.

For me, my conscience is clear, I shan’t worry about it too much!

Tight Lines.
 
I must say that i foulhooked 3 fish out of 11 barbel i hooked, one day on the Trent this summer, 2 in the Pectorals and one 9lber in the Tail which was an absolute nightmare to get in as i hooked it at the xtremity of my peg. i also hooked another 3 which i lost and i also put this down to foul hooking. I put the foul hooked fish down to having a fair few fish in the peg and as keith says, after trotting through i dont know how many times , you are bound to foul hook a fair few, especially when you think that a barbel swims near to the bottom, its size and also its shape of fins.
I dont generally plumb the depth but after a few trotts i generally find the right depth to run through, which is generally just tripping the bottom right in the Barbels living room.

I cant really see a solution to it apart from laying on a little bit more.
 
Jon Frisby said:
I must say that i foulhooked 3 fish out of 11 barbel i hooked, one day on the Trent this summer, 2 in the Pectorals and one 9lber in the Tail which was an absolute nightmare to get in as i hooked it at the xtremity of my peg. i also hooked another 3 which i lost and i also put this down to foul hooking.
I cant really see a solution to it apart from laying on a little bit more.
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Those are the kind of numbers i mean Mr Frisby. In any other 'discipline' of our sport that would be deemed unsporting. I like your suggestion of laying on a bit more but i imagine that would not prevent it unless you held the hook still?
 
Julian Peacock said:
Those are the kind of numbers i mean Mr Frisby. In any other 'discipline' of our sport that would be deemed unsporting. I like your suggestion of laying on a bit more but i imagine that would not prevent it unless you held the hook still?
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Mr Peacock, You cant really call it unsporting, as the peg is 8 feet deep and 10 yards out, and i have never seen a trent barbel from the bank, so i am not purposefully foul hooking them. However if i was fishing/foul hooking Barbel while they were spawning, i would expect some sort of condemnation.
And dont you think after losing a barbel and my second foul hooking i thought about the problem and a solution??
 
Maybe you could try altering your feeding pattern, if you are feeding as you trot, the hookbait is running through with the freebies, so as the fish get stuck in, and they move about, they are more liable to pick up the line etc. If you feed as you retrieve, the hook is out of the way, as you then trot through, the only new bait is on the hook, so may get munched. sounds odd, but it might just reduce the foulhooking potential?
peter
 
thats what qent through my mind, so as i cast downstream at 11oclock i would feed at 1 oclock. If you get my drift. Then agaon it was just the one session where this happened.

Good advice thanks
 
I used to foul hook quite a few when fishing maggot feeder, the fact is if you have got your feeding pattern right and there are plenty of fish in your swim competing for the food it's inevitable you will get a few in the pec as they snatch a grub and turn looking for the next one.

And if you're in a match they all count.
 
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Jon Frisby said:
Mr Peacock, You cant really call it unsporting, as the peg is 8 feet deep and 10 yards out, and i have never seen a trent barbel from the bank, so i am not purposefully foul hooking them. However if i was fishing/foul hooking Barbel while they were spawning, i would expect some sort of condemnation.
And dont you think after losing a barbel and my second foul hooking i thought about the problem and a solution??
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Mr Frisby, i have no intention of condemning you or suggesting that you intentionally foul hook fish.:) Although i do believe that if 25% of any other species was foul hooked it would be frowned upon and like you have suggested an alternative presentation would be used. Did your solution solve the problem?
 
Julian Peacock said:
If you were to foul hook a disproportionate number of barbel would you alter your tactics?

Cheers,

Jules
Click to expand...

Hi Jules

If that were to happen I probably would but it has not been a problem for me.

If I am honest I think I have foul hooked more fish when I fish over depth and hold back hard, but it is a relatively rare occurrence so I am still not that bothered.
I tend not to record my Chub captures as much as my Barbel captures but I think I have foul hooked more Chub this year for some inexplicable reason, possibly because I have been targeting Barbel more and therefore fishing hard on the deck more.

Mind you as you have mentioned this I will probably take a bit more notice from now on.

Perhaps in a year’s time I will have a bit more data and be able to come to some sort of conclusion.

Tight Lines Chaps.
 
Julian Peacock said:
If you were to foul hook a disproportionate number of barbel would you alter your tactics?

Cheers,

Jules
Click to expand...

Another solution might be to loose feed a particular swim and then trot a swim a couple of yards either side. In the past, I have found this greatly reduces the number of foul hooked fish.
 
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