Barbel taps - Fact or Fiction

[rd115]

Another thing ive started doing is Feeding with a Spomb, about 2 - 3 hours before Dark i bait up with the spomb Not much about 5 chucks full of Pellets, Hemp, and 8mm meat thats been through the Cutter.

This is what i was doing in summer although didn't bring me any success

Although my dad got a decent one after me putting 6 spopper fulls in his peg for him.

Really looking forward to this summer and getting out Barbelling again

 

[dave brittain 1]

For me people feeling the sand paper effect, i.e. the barbels' barbules feeling the bait without indication on the tip is a total fallacy. Assuming the bait is on a 2.5-4ft hook length typical of most feeder rigs the bait will be downstream of the feeder. Fish on a river tend to face upstream, letting the current bring food to them unless they are actively feeding in which case the search the bottom moving upstream as they methodically search the bottom.

If you watch a number of the on-line video's of fish feeding it's a well know fact that a fish can mouth and eject a hook bait multiple times, even on the most sensitive bolt rigs/sets ups without the angler being aware of the activity. The first thing an angler will know about a bite is when the fish has the bait in its mouth and moves sideways or downstream. This is indicated by either a knock or pull on the rod tip or by a drop back bite if the feeder is dislodged.

If the fish moves directly forward with the bait in it's mouth this will give slack between the feeder/lead and the bait and as such would cause no indication leaving the angler unaware of the activity until the slack in the hook length is taken up and the fish either moves sideways, forward past the feeder or drops back down with the bait in its mouth.

Twitches, pulls and knocks are generally caused by either a fish having the bait in it's mouth and moving away with that bait, small fish plucking at the bait, fish brushing the line or fish moving the feeder. The only other thing is debris or weed brushing or hitting the line between the rod tip and feeder/lead while the line is under tension.

Most phenomenon's can be explained however you need to look closely at the physics, methodology and the information proven by science, (in this case video footage), to try and understand what is actually going on underwater and how it all links together. If you haven't seen the video's of fish feeding and the impact of rigs, sets ups they can be quite enlightening and are well worth watching.

This is a stillwater video link, the difference being that on a river the flow will actually straighten out the hook length so that it is downstream, however if you watch the other submerged video's it may not be behaving how you think it is.

 

[robert d]

No mate someone took his Boat or Outboard from the Pig pens before ya went through the Sheep Gate. Then he has a little like Gypsy hut caravan thing on the sandbank, he'd gone down and had a nice evening and BBQ locked up and left the BBQ to Cool next evening someone had chucked it in the River. so enough was enough he shut it 2 years back.

Put together and buy him a little boat and barby

 

[Wise Owl]

Put together and buy him a little boat and barby

Last year was a No goer anyway, i dont think the Rivers had as many Visitors with the Lockdowns and Restrictions. But saying that if he is happy that no ones allowed on his land so be it mate. I for one dont wanna push anyone into something theu dont wanna do.

 

[robert d]

Last year was a No goer anyway, i dont think the Rivers had as many Visitors with the Lockdowns and Restrictions. But saying that if he is happy that no ones allowed on his land so be it mate. I for one dont wanna push anyone into something theu dont wanna do.

Yes your right Wise

 

[Zerkalo]

Great post again @dave brittain 1. I should listen and watch that video too.

So the jury is out - fiction when using 2oz+ leads. Fact when touch legering?

 

[mickthechippy]

Ive never caught a river barbel, they are pretty rare round here,

theres a few in the stour that have bred from a stocking the canterbury club did way back in the early 80's along with some grayling and the upper reaches of the medway have some good ones, mainly on private or club only stretches

the grayling dissapered, but the berties are still there, well spread out over about 10 mile of river, but you gotta be pretty dedicated to hunt em down, and those in the know keep thier cards close to thier chests about any info regarding them,

one was caught a couple years back that went 15lb plus, though the guy that had that was almost obsessive in his search for them

only ones Ive ever had were when Monks fishery had them in match lake 2, caught a few of them and they didnt half pull the laccy, though those fish seem to have dissapered too over the last few years, rarely if ever, are any caught now

 

[squimp]

At one stage the U.K. record barbel came from the Medway.

The current one was caught in Sussex.

 

[mickthechippy]

At one stage the U.K. record barbel came from the Medway.

The current one was caught in Sussex.

Bag up, an old regular member that used to post on here, used to catch a few proper fish on the upper medway, around the tonbridge area and in a couple of the Medway feeder streams too

he could never publically post pictures of his fish, just send you private ones with the proviso that you couldnt share or post em after

the club he fished with on there would ban and chuck you out if you made barbel catches public, they were pretty strict about it too

some of the pics he sent me were of really nice fish, bigguns

 

[Line Clip]

Ive always Believed that the Whiskers on the Barbel being so sensitive would be better on a roughed up bait than a smooth one, i have a little Grater i use regular to do this with Boilies and Halibut pellets, also Broken Meat not cut

That is what I call thinking out of the box

 

[RedhillPhil]

Some years (probably 2012-13) ago I had a few out of the Medway on the free stretch at East Farleigh fishing into the weir race. Nothing of a size, the biggest was probably about four pounds. I was fishing a maggot feeder for anything that came along.The bites came as a couple of plucks followed by a fairly fast pull not unlike a decent Chub.
Mick, I've also had a couple of small ones - same years - out of Puma Lake at Monks.
The ones in the Mole tend to give the classic three foot twitch.

 

[Wise Owl]

That is what I call thinking out of the box

Mate dont know whether its Paranoia but i sit there with our Albert sometimes wondering why im not getting a bite, no one else is like but i just want to Present the Bait how i think the Barbel would want it. Im sure Albert laughs at me.

 

[buygoodtackle]

At one point I spent a lot of time on a local small river, very clear and weedy but in one spot in a shaded gully there was about 2feet of water and a gravel bottom with the odd larger rock so you could watch the fish taking the bait. I fished the spot with plasticine wrapped around a running bead to a 12inch hooklength with a hair rigged size 8 fishing meat. The barbel would first show about 5-6 feet downstream, then turn and disappear, five minutes or so later they would reappear and move to within a foot of the meat, again turning back downstream. In another five minutes they would reappear and a fish would come right up to the meat and knock it up into the current with its snout- this caused a three foot twitch on the rod (I always held the rod in the rest and had my finger around the line), a couple of minutes later it would be back and this time pick it up in its mouth and turn downstream, the rod would just go round and keep going! On the deeper pegs you were unable to see what was going on and it used to make me chuckle when I heard of people missing unmissable wrap arounds.

 

[Me and my lad]

Would love to try touch legering for them but just have to wait until I'm in the right situation. They are wonderful fish in many ways, usually a good hook hold and don't dive for snags!

Try the island at Arley mate if you are still allowed. Go through the railway crossing after driving through the farm and walk to the island. Wade to the island (inches in summer) and bounce a lead with meat under the far bank. An underarm flick will do and feel for the twitches. Some pull your arm off but most feel like taps. Lots of whiskers but we only caught small ones.
It used to be through the holiday cottages at the bottom of ye olde new Inn or something

 

[Northantslad]

Depends how you are fishing, but for me and due to the mechanics of a lead in place even a lightish one, then anything touching below the lead, i e the hooklength wouldn't be transmitted up past the lead. Touching/brushing the mainline then different story.

Pulling on the hooklength of course then different too.

 

[carphauler]

Try the island at Arley mate if you are still allowed. Go through the railway crossing after driving through the farm and walk to the island. Wade to the island (inches in summer) and bounce a lead with meat under the far bank. An underarm flick will do and feel for the twitches. Some pull your arm off but most feel like taps. Lots of whiskers but we only caught small ones.
It used to be through the holiday cottages at the bottom of ye olde new Inn or something

Coombys farm, would be closer to park at Harbour Inn and walk up, I sat and watched a bloke in the summer do exactly what you have said, he didn't catch anything in the hour I was there but the water was very low.
I've watched others catch there when there was a bit of water on and the island was just visible, they had a quad to travel through the water.

 

[Zerkalo]

I think I know that Island as I went canoeing from Bridgnorth to Arley and saw someone land a Chub from there as we went past. I always fish Arley RB as it's a bit of a nice drive for me through main roads through Bewdley to get there, compared to LB being closer but sat nav taking me down lanes to get there. I might be wrong and it's a different island though. I'm thinking of a kind of Gravel Island. The other one I saw was a proper Island and had someone fishing up against it. He had a stern word with us in the Canoe for going too close to his line.

 

[carphauler]

I think I know that Island as I went canoeing from Bridgnorth to Arley and saw someone land a Chub from there as we went past. I always fish Arley RB as it's a bit of a nice drive for me through main roads through Bewdley to get there, compared to LB being closer but sat nav taking me down lanes to get there. I might be wrong and it's a different island though. I'm thinking of a kind of Gravel Island. The other one I saw was a proper Island and had someone fishing up against it. He had a stern word with us in the Canoe for going too close to his line.

Just measured the distance and it's about the same from either end, it's the gravel island @Zerkalo, a few meadows up from Arley RB

 

[Zerkalo]

That's the one I think.

 

[carphauler]

Just found the picture with the blokes on the quad, water was lower than I thought.