TF Gear and Fishtec online marketing manager Ceri Thomas talks about his new-found favourite river fish – the hard fighting barbel!
Through my angling career I have cast a fly at almost everything that swims, especially trout, grayling and the like, and cast a lure for pike, perch and all manner of toothier critters. Even carp, bream and tench have all come to my net, albeit on rare occasions. But, I had never experienced the mythical thrill of hooking up with the fabled barbel.
Over the years I had of course heard and read an awful lot about barbel – the fight and strength of these fish being almost legendary among the angling community. The fight they said, ‘’it’s all about the fight”… others would talk of the ‘’three foot twitch” – the epic moment when the barbel takes your bait and speeds off at a rate of knots. It sounded great and something I would love to try, but I never had the privilege – until last summer.
When researching, everywhere I looked barbel fishing seemed to be growing massively in popularity; so It really was time for me to give it a go. It seemed that perhaps barbeling was becoming an alternative to carping. Commercial fisheries and syndicates are now often crowded hostile places, where radios blare, dogs bark and people call you ‘geeze’ a lot. Escaping to the river bank is the quite opposite of this – pure peace, tranquillity and not a soul in sight – just the way I like it.
Now living in Wales we don’t have many options for barbel, except the Taff of course, my local river. I have on a few occasions in my pursuit of grayling stumbled across barbel, sitting still in the gravel runs near Cardiff. Naturally I tried to get them to inhale a heavy grayling bug – but failed miserably despite almost walking the fly into their mouths.
Wading and flicking a fly on the Taff is one thing, but sitting on the bank coarse fishing is another – you have your back to the water, and every passerby (dog and all!) can see you and wants to stop and chat. ‘‘Any fish in there butt?” they all seem to ask. ‘’Yeah, a few. Mainly tuna with the odd mackerel” I answer to amuse myself. . It really grates after five or six similar questions- as do the dogs and stick throwers. So I didn’t pick the Taff to try and catch my first one.
With luck I had heard of a river that starts in Wales and makes it way along the border which supposedly teemed with barbel – the Wye. I have fished the upper Wye a lot for game fish, and the middle beats for pike but never barbel. So about June 20th last year I booked a stretch at Canon bridge with my good friends the Wye and Usk foundation, to see what it was all about.
I like to travel light so I only brought along the basics. 11 foot TF Gear rod in 1.25 test curve, size 4000 baitrunner reel, 10lb mainline. A light cage feeder with a hair rig of about a foot of fluorocarbon and little 8mm robin red pellets that I had been recommended.
Being June I turned up about 2.00pm with the intent of fishing late, and hopefully avoiding the canoes. I did have a few canoeists interrupt the peace, but to be fair it wasn’t too bad and most were quite considerate.
I didn’t have the first clue on barbel fishing, but I applied some basic watercraft – I looked for a swim with some nice features, and made sure I was quiet. After a reccie with the odd handful of pellet thrown in to prime a few nice spots, I made my first cast in a pool opposite the lovely Weir gardens, casting only a few yards out. I never ignore the water close in if it looks good, and always fish this first rather than blasting out mindlessly to the far bank.
I settled back quietly and moved slightly up the bank away from the rod, eagerly awaiting a bite. I had angled the rod as high up as possible on the bank stick, so to avoid any untoward influence from the current. Within just minutes the rod tip jagged a few times, then pulled right over with a solid take. ‘’This must be the three foot twitch!” I almost said out loud. I reeled down and felt a thumping, kiting, head-shaking weight at the end of it. Got to be a barbel I thought! And indeed it was. I gave my fishing buddy Tim a shout, and after a dogged, very spirited fight I had my first barbel on the bank! To quote a famous angler – ‘’don’t they hang on!”
The fight I thought was quite like a salmon. Dogged, tenacious, with strong unstoppable runs. But without the jumping. Pound for pound I will admit it, they are one of the strongest fish I have encountered including bonefish. Salmon on a budget I suppose…
The action continued for the next couple of hours– with many thumping rod wrenching I landed and several nice barbel all in the 5 to 8lb size range. At one stage the bites were frantic – it was literally every cast, and just minutes after the feeder hit the river bed in some instances. This was great fishing – what you might call a red letter day! I was hooked – these fish really were addictive.
Since the first taste I returned to Wye on many occasions last summer and autumn, enjoying some superb sport, in what otherwise would have been the difficult ‘dog days’ for game fishing. It was great fishing, and for most of the time the barbel were pretty obliging, certainly nowhere near as hard to catch as a salmon.
So now, I am literally counting down the days until the June 16th opener – when I can get onto the river bank straight after work and fish into the balmy late midsummer evenings. Bring on the three foot twitch!
