Barbel Fishing

• Scours at the end of gravel bars, fast water under bridges, and riprap banks.
• May to October is the productive window; feeding picks up clearly above 14 °C.
• It responds very well on summer nights and in coloured water after rain.

• Feeder: 60-120 g cage, with maggots, cubed cheese, pellets or sweetcorn.
• Trotting: let the lead touch bottom and roll it slowly; the bite is sharp and unmistakable.
• 0.28-0.35 mm mainline and a strong size 6-10 hook; it fights long and stubbornly in current.

Spawning runs May-June; check cantonal minimum sizes and closed periods.

• Barbel are one of the UK's most popular river species. The Trent, Severn, Wye, Thames, Kennet, Great Ouse, Dorset Stour and Hampshire Avon are among the best-known rivers.
• In England and Wales, the coarse fishing close season on rivers runs from 15 March to 15 June, so the barbel season opens on 16 June.
• Summer evenings and nights, and rising, coloured water after rain, are prime times.
• Many clubs and fisheries have their own rules on baits, rigs and night fishing, so read the rules before you fish.

• A long, rounded body with a bronze to olive back and a flat belly suited to life on the riverbed.
• An underslung mouth with fleshy lips and four barbels, two on the upper lip and two at the corners of the mouth.
• Young barbel are often mistaken for gudgeon, which only have two barbels.

• Fish of 3–8 lb are typical; a barbel over 10 lb is a specimen on most rivers.

• Halibut pellets: drilled and hair-rigged, with loose pellets in the feeder.
• Boilies: small, fishmeal-based boilies are a classic on big rivers.
• Luncheon meat: cubed or torn, especially good in floodwater.
• Maggots and casters: fed heavily through a feeder, they often bring several bites in a row.
• Sweetcorn: cheap and effective on pressured rivers.

• A heavy feeder or fixed lead with a hair rig, size 8–12 hook and 12–15 lb mainline.
• Feed regularly with hemp and pellets to hold fish in the swim.
• Fish the gravel runs, the tail of weed beds and the crease where fast water meets slow.
• Bites are violent: always keep a hand near the rod or use a secure rest.

• Barbel fight hard and can be exhausted after capture. Rest them in the net, then hold them upright facing into the current until they swim off strongly.
• Barbel roe is poisonous. The species is almost always released in the UK.