barbel virgin help

[littleboybream]

hey
the saturday after next im off to try and catch my first ever barbel on the river trent around fiskerton area. i know its not the best time but a lot of the other fishing i do has become redundant and i fancy the challenge. please can i have advice on baits, rigs, methonds etc. ooh and if anyones fished there before what pegs etc. ive fished the river for some stonkers of perch and pike. my friend had 3 3lb perch in one day on the spinner. either way please help people. cheers

[Twiddler]

Although I haven't had the pleasure of catching barbel yet (keep blanking) this time a year I would scale down in bait......a friend had great success on the River Severn using a 8mm S-Pellet on a size14 hair rig.

A feeder with casters and maggots would be good idea too.
Usually halibut pellets are great for barbel, not sure if they are very effective in the winter though...but give it a try.
Luncheon meat can be a good bait too

I would suggest to use fluro carbon for hook length and make sure to use a long one, as the barbel can get easily spooked by feeders.

As I said, I'm not very experienced in barbel fishing but I'm sure someone will be along to give you better advice.

[littleboybream]

cheers. ill give it a go
also does anybody know how far out i want to fish??

[mithrandir]

would have thought temperature would be against you this time of year, so small baits is probably the order of the day.

[BoldBear]

I dont know what the Barbel on the Trent like at this time of year but on our stretches of the upper lea and upper Gt Ouse we have found that once the water starts to get cold in the winter the Oily baits like halibut pellets or fatty baits like sausage and some luncheon meats start to lose their efectiveness and switching to spicey, chilli, lamprey or curry flavoured baits instead can score more (especially Spicey). although when the river is low, clear and cold we normally fish for chub instead. It looks like rain this weekend so the river may get a clearout by the weekend after. and if it is relatively mild and the levels are on on their way back down you may have a good day, I hope you do, Good luck. Let us know how you got on.
NB. Its still warm enough to use the halibut pellets now though.

[littleboybream]

i read that barbel switch to sweet and spicy baits when the temp lowers somewhere before. ill rpobably get some sweet and spicy baits then. peperami....i know carp love it but would barbel go for it???help

[BoldBear]

LBB, I havent used peparami that often but when I have used it; its been quite good. I should imagine that if you got them feeding on a few small freebies like soft chilli flavoured pellets or some small pieces of peperami and then put a piece of peperami in the middle with a hook attached it might be just what they want.

If the water is clear, I sometimes squat down and feed a few pellets slowly for 10 to 15 minutes slightly upstream of them without putting my rod in, and if they look like they are feeding a bit more confidently I then cast across them and slowly move my bait into the middle; keeping my rod high to keep as much line out of the water as I can.

But dont neglect the deeper runs at this time of year as on our stretches of the Great Ouse they start to move out of their summer haunts and seem to spend more time in the deeper slightly slower runs.

I don't know what it's like on the Trent though, Ive always wanted to give it a go, perhaps I will this coming summer/Autumn. But every river can be different and methods that are succesful on one river may not always be succesful on another.

Good luck and let us know how you get on, tight lines. BB