Mild weather keeping them going

[The bad one]

Your a rum un you Phil .

Isn't it strange though, how people get the wrong idea about how a northern spate river fishes and think or imagine them to fish the same as southern chalk stream rivers?
Same goes for fishing methods used to try and induce a take.... scaling down using very low diameter line, single maggots on tiny hooks etc etc. They just don't seem to realise that we've tried all that on countless occassions mg:.
Hard work in'it Phil when people just won't listen to you and would rather throw names of well known anglers at you, who have caught large specimens in their own regular waters where they know it inside out.
You may have seen my invitation to those knowlegable people to come and show northern anglers how it should be done and how to catch those elusive barbel in sub zero temp's on a trotted bait. Unfortunately no one was willing to come and demonstrate.
I think artist may be offended by my offer to come and show me how to catch barbel on the float in winter but I wasn't being nasty, he should take it as a compliment and nothing else!

Indeed it is Ian It's a bit like an ATOS adviser telling a dying cancer man he's fit for work, finding out he's died before he sends out his benefit withdrawal notice.

 

[Keith M]

I have only fished the swale in Yorkshire a couple of times during the colder months (near Richmond) and I was just trying to catch a few Grayling, but I can well believe tigger when he says that the barbel are extremely hard to catch in the depths of winter on the northern spate rivers.

Keith

 

[tigger]

I have only fished the swale in Yorkshire a couple of times during the colder months (near Richmond) and I was just trying to catch a few Grayling, but I can well believe tigger when he says that the barbel are extremely hard to catch in the depths of winter on the northern spate rivers.

Keith

Thanks for that Keith, I appreciate your vote of comfidence bud ..
We all know that you can be very lucky on occassion and catch barbel in cold weather trotting a float (i'm talkin' round here now) but you certainly won't be catching them very often and you need to be prepared for a hell of a lot of blanks if that's how you want to target them. Legering can still be very hit and miss when the temp's are just above and below freezing but there's no doubt that it gives you a much better chance of catching.
To be honest chub are catchable on the float easily enough when it's colder but when it goes really cold your best chance of a fish would be to target grayling as they seem to feed well beyond the point that everything else switches off.
The above is reference to the rivers around me in my part of the country and obviously in other rivers in various parts of the country the fishing may be totally different.

 

[Philip]

Well as the forums a bit quiet at the moment...

All this Southern angler knocking by the Northern experts who really should know better. Fact is trotting wont work for Southern Barbel because you can't trot more than 10 yards without encrouching on the next angler downstream. :wh

 

[flightliner]

Well as the forums a bit quiet at the moment...

All this Southern angler knocking by the Northern experts who really should know better. Fact is trotting wont work for Southern Barbel because you can't trot more than 10 yards without encrouching on the next angler downstream. :wh

Much the same on the Trent Philip if you try running a float downstream opposite a Barbel angler.

 

[thecrow]

Much the same on the Trent Philip if you try running a float downstream opposite a Barbel angler.

I have had an angler above me trotting a float down his swim far enough for it to end up at my feet mg: it didn't bother me as I was fishing much further out away from where his float was travelling, the only thing that annoyed me was the constant striking at the end of his trot.

 

[flightliner]

I have had an angler above me trotting a float down his swim far enough for it to end up at my feet mg: it didn't bother me as I was fishing much further out away from where his float was travelling, the only thing that annoyed me was the constant striking at the end of his trot.

Fair comment Graham , I'll re phrase mine to-- "some Barbel anglers"
A pity tho that two guys opposite each other can't respect each other's right to fish their own club water without one suffering the others gear in front of them be it a float or (two) feeders.

 

[theartist]

I think artist may be offended by my offer to come and show me how to catch barbel on the float in winter but I wasn't being nasty, he should take it as a compliment and nothing else!

I'm not offended, the same as I wasn't offended when you offered to teach me how to fish last year, if I have caused any offence to any Northern Angler that was not my intention and I humbly apologise

 

[Keith M]

All these Northern v Southern disagreements are just daft banter.mg:

We southern anglers usually have a lot milder winters than our less fortunate brothers of the north, so it’s not really that surprising that we sometimes have quite different ideas of what fish will feed and what won’t feed in our rivers and streams in the depths of our winters; but that doesn’t mean that they are wrong and that we are right, so :hippieeace man :rockon:

Keith

 

[Alan Whitty]

I have re-read through this thread and still can't get over how guys can get so irate over what others find on different rivers more than 150 miles away, in my neck of the woods barbel could be caught on two rivers trotting right through the winter, if the river was right, as soon as flow rates got too much you wouldn't dream of it, if you fish spate rivers like the Ribble, the cut off for float fishing comes much quicker, as Flight posted on the Trent, thus too soon becomes impossible to present a floatfished bait, so your wasting your time, not much to do with ability there, but when you can, your catches can be enhanced dramatically, using the right tactics on a given day is what makes a good angler, just wish I could do it more often....🫤