1st Time Barbel Fishing

[Poisson dans la Fleuve]

Hi all,

I am off either next Monday or Tuesday (depending on weather and river state) for my first Barbel fishing session. I mainly fish stillwaters but manage the odd river or two now and then but never for barbel.

I will be fishing the Teme at Stanford Bridge purely because it's the closest to me (I live in Kidderminster). I have read many of the threads in these forums and am going to try halibut pellets/Boilies/paste, flavoured luncheon meat, worm etc, probably using a groundbait of chopped luncheon meat, small soft hallibut pellet and hemp.

Just one thing though, I have read lots of recommendations for the halibut pellets, is there a preference for soft or hard pellets as I was thinking 14mm hard pre-drilled on a hair rig as hookbait with soft pellet amongst the groundbait.... what do you think?

As far as rods go, I have some big carp rods (2.75 and 3lbs test curve) that i think will be a bit over the top, i was thinking of using my Daiwa Proteus 12 ft feeder rod, it will take line to 10lbs, has a 1.75lb test curve along with some 10lb mono and I also have 10lb braid on an Okuma Epix ER40 reel which is really the only lightish reel I have.

thanks! ....... Les

[BoldBear]

I use hard halibut Pellets on a hair and smaller soft halibut pellets in a PVA stocking. I sometimes use Crab pellets or Lamprey Pellets and they all catch plenty of Beards on the upper Lea, Ivel and uper Gt.Ouse so I see no reason for them not to work on the Teme.

I think your 1.75lb Daiwa rod and Epix40 reel sounds fine.
If its warm and sunny I would fish into the evening untill it gets dark for you best chance of a Beard.

I have never fished the Teme but if it is a smallish stream type venue then see the links below for how I would attack it for a Beard.

looking forward to reading about your first Barbel.

Tight Lines
BB

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/keith.m...allstream.html

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/keith.m...allstream.html

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Good luck mate

[rob@home]

Good luck i'm using pepperami just now as is my mate whose had 4 barbs in the last week jammey beggar over elips pellets

Rob.

[Poisson dans la Fleuve]

Thanks all, i feel a bit better now, at least I am going in the right direction and thanks for the links Boldbear...... useful reads!

I am not getting my hopes too high on bagging one first time out although it wont be for want of trying but I'll let you know how I get on..... cant wait!

[jamie g]

i went yesterday on the seven had one chub about 2 lb but missed a couple of bites early in the morning. one was a clonker as well which must have been barbel

[Poisson dans la Fleuve]

Looks like it's gonna be Monday, weather looks good for the weekend with no rain, Mondays is mild in these parts, 21 or 22C with very light winds but not too bright, after 3 or 4 days without rain hopefully the river will have settled back to it's normal flow for probably the first time in 6 weeks..... looking good!

[BoldBear]

I'm having a few hours after work after beards on Monday evening as well.

Hope you have a good day Les.

BB

[rob@home]

Good luck mate,rivers running low & clear down here. Near on impossible to pull barbel out under those conditions there were a couple of small barbel pulled out the parlour pool on friday afternoon but not a lot else. I managed a bream from 2pm till 9pm on the stumps but even that was a struggle there were (big) barbel in the swim as I could see them flashing across the gravel & I even baited the swim for a couple of hours before even putting a lead in. I even waded out & placed my lead in the swim instead of casting out in the hope of not spooking the fish in the swim but to no avail. It was very hard work needs some rain to liven things up a bit I think.

Rob.

[BoldBear]

Hi Rob, the rivers are low and clear here as well, there were some showers on Friday which gave the river a good flush through but the groundwater is still quite low and the river didn't retain it's extra water for long.
But we can usually count on one or two small to medium sized Barbel especially if we fish the slightly swifter swims where there are a few obstructions and some streamer weed nearby.