Am I a barbel fanatic ?. They say it is the fish we do not land which excite us most, and this might well be the case. I have seen big barbel in the river. Great, bronze fish big enough to beat my PB of 12lb and 14oz's by two or three pounds at least, and every time a big barbel pulls at the rod top, I think of those fish.
I am not alone in my obsession. Walk along the banks of the Royalty Fishery in summer, a quiet meadow beside the Dorset Stour, the Kennet, Swale, Thames, Trent or any other barbel river, and there you will find the followers of the barbel cult.
Today the word is barbel. We have seen the changes and trends, we who have developed into anglers over the past fifty years. At first there was the carp, and this was the first great step towards specialisation.
For fifteen years the carp reigned supreme, but now the barbel challenges this supremacy.
Each season more and more anglers come under its spell, and because the barbel is not as widely distributed as we might wish, many anglers travel hundreds of miles to rivers where these fish exist. James Denison being one of them !!
But really this is nothing new. Well over one hundred years ago the barbel knew great popularity, but at that time the great barbel river was the Thames.
Also in the Trent, before pollution struck, there were some really big barbel, but let us return to the Thames. At the various fishing stations there would be intricate preparations before a barbel fishing session.
For days, sometimes weeks, a hired man would be baiting up swims for anglers.
Thousands of lob-worms would be gradually introduced to the water in clay balls holding a dozen or so worms for a medusa effect, until the fish were swarming in little swims along the river.
Then the visiting angler would station himself above one of these swims in a boat, and trot his tackle to the fish massed downstream.
There were huge catches made in those days, and forty or fifty fish at a sitting was not exceptional. From this mighty barbel river the fish found their way, by steam wagon, to the Stour, and from there into the Hampshire Avon.
Then the scene began to change. Barbel interest waned as class values came into angling. Certain species became the right fish to fish for, or at least, to be seen fishing for, and fish without that little fin became established as coarse fish. Barbel were forgotten.
Now the popularity has returned with added fervour, and even the tackle trade caters now for the barbel specialist. With such a concentration upon barbel, I believe that very soon there must come a barbel large enough to beat the current record easily, a 25lber ? well why not ?
Anyway with the weather ridiculously mild after what has felt like a really long and cold winter I fancied trying for an Untrodden Barbel with the water temperature on the rise. They are here because not only have I seen them, but Eric has also lost a couple when trotting.
There are some good chub as well to be caught, so for this session I'd be a bit lazy and fish a couple of rods, one with a small piece of flavoured meat and the other with a boilie with a PVA bag of freebies. I'd ping some pellets out for some much needed catapult practice from time to time, where hopefully the noise would bring the fish in for a nose.
There is a good reason why I don't do this very often because sitting behind motionless rods is just not me really where dusk is king for good reason.
After an hour or so without a bite I'm looking to move on, and in this morning session I decided sit it out far longer than I usually do, which soon got me thinking about the other distractions, not only where there lots of cormorants about and the odd heron, but the planes, boy the planes, so loud and a few of them going around and around and mostly right over my head.
In the end I decided to move swims for the last hour without even a chub pull where the same thing happened again, nada, zilch not even a pull.
The water temperature was good, very good in-fact but when the Avon is green and clearish like it was today, trotting is the way to approach it really because it can often bring those fish out from their hidey-holes. Fishing static probably isn't the way to go but you never know, I'd rather hook a barbel knowing that I've got more of a chance of landing it on proper gear.
So in the end I packed up and headed home early knowing that at least there is a bit of bait out and that I might as well give it another go later on in to dusk, where the probability of a bite would be much better. To be honest I could have probably told you what the outcome of the session would be before it had finished, yeap a blank.
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