Winter barbelling is to me all about timing. We all know of the days when we are sitting at work looking out the window at those all too rare days of mild settled conditions when we just know the river is going to be perfect, the fish are going to be having it off big time. Yet we have no way of being on the river for another couple of days by which time the conditions have passed by and we are faced with far less favourable river and weather conditions. So what can the winter barbel angler do with his limited times and strong possibilities that he is likely to be fishing at times when it seems that there isn’t a chance in a million of catching a barbel? Is there any way to know whether sitting on your chair on a cold winter’s evening is a total waste of time or whether by staying another hour or so may give us a chance of a fish? In my opinion the most important thing is to be sure that you have fish moving around in your swim, if they are not there or are lying there seemingly glued to the bottom you’re onto a loser!
Many anglers better qualified than me have written at great length about how you can activate those static barbel into feeding fish, often with the use of a steady stream of maggots, casters or tiny bait fragments. Let us, therefore, assume that you have been steadily feeding your swim or are fortunate enough to have found the riverbank high, muddy and full of warm floodwater. Both situations mean you should have a chance of catching, assuming of course that the fish are in the swim or have been turned on by the flood water/baiting. I can picture the scene now as I sit on my chair watching the rod tips, which become betalights as the light fades. This is where I wish to place you my fellow readers, sitting watching the tips; this is where we realise whether we are going to catch because if we really watch hard we will soon know whether we have moving fish in the swim as they will almost certainly give away their presence by tiny and (sometimes not so tiny) knocks on the tip.
If I find that after an hour I’ve had no signs of any movement on either rod, (yes, I usually fish two!), I either move swims or go home for a warm. Any sign of movement at all and I’ll sit it out as a moving fish usually means a feeding fish! What are they? So what are those tiny movements of the tip and how are they caused you may well ask! They are caused by the barbel inadvertently touching the lines in the vicinity of the hookbait as the often-torpid winter fish move slowly around the swim. Now this may go against the grain but I try to encourage liners by keeping the rod tips high and hence a tight line passing straight through to my lead, this used in conjunction with shortish hooklengths (9″ or so) will increase the chance of fish hitting the line and hence my noticing the ‘knocks’ on my soft rod tips/quivertips. Many anglers may be horrified by the thought of fish touching the lines and spooking, as I have often seen when carp fishing or on pressured waters for example – the Great Ouse. On these waters anglers go to great lengths to avoid fish feeling lines on their bodies, as they are likely to spook and flee the area. This, however, isn’t the case in less pressured areas where barbel will quite happily put up with lines passing through the swim without taking flight.
I have also found that their tolerance to lines is greater in the winter, maybe this is due to the fish being more lethargic and less alert in the colder water temperatures or maybe it’s due to less anglers fishing the waters and therefore lesser frequency of lines to avoid. What I do know is if you witness no movement of the tips your chances of a take are a lot lower than if you have the odd twitch, so my advice is to concentrate hard on the tips and see if you onto fish before sitting it out to darkness.
I hope this helps a few winter anglers as I’ve found that even short ‘in the dark’ sessions are worthwhile by concentrating on the tips for an hour you seem to know whether you’re in with a chance or not and packing up early means I get to go again the next day when the tips may start moving. It’s all about trying to be there when the fish are having it and not being there when they’re not, and an hour should let you know. Why sit on a dead swim? Life is too short in my opinion to waste time on a freezing cold night. I hope this little tip helps some anglers struggling on long gruelling sessions and contemplating giving up until next June! |
Welcome!Log into your account
