Luke’s first ever barbel session, 24 for the day, “Happy Days”

Now I guided Luke before a couple of times chub fishing in the winter  and tench fishing in early spring. It’s great because once he see’s what I’m doing and from what he has learnt he returns and replicates the methods and catches fish. He was telling me he has now had tench to over 6lbs using the methods and practices learnt from me.

Anyhow he wanted to go and catch some barbel on the river Wye. So we discussed exactly what he wanted from the session and it was pretty obvious it was to catch barbel and understand what tackle and methods are required.

So we met early in the morning on a beat that I know contains plenty of barbel. However the larger ones don’t seem to be around this swim at the moment. But it’s a barbel you are after you can’t go wrong in this swim.

We went through the tackle and methods quickly. Rods 2.25lb t/c 12lb line and FFF cage feeders of 4oz. You need this weight as you need the feeder to stick on the bottom and not be dragged around into the rocks. I use Korda curve shank size 12 hooks. They are excellent for keeping sharp when the small fish keep bouncing the hooks around on the rocks.

The ground bait is the West Country barbel slick sense which is perfect for attracting the barbel into the area. I use their large barbel pellets too. It’s the perfect combination.

So after casting out it took all of 5 minutes before the rod hooped over and Luke was into his first barbel. He couldn’t get over the fight they gave for their size. This fish was about 2lbs or so.

This followed by another and another. The bites kept coming and so did the barbel. We had to reel the rods in for a while to have a tea break. It was funny that none of the chub showed.

The largest fish of 4lbs 10oz was landed after a great tussle.

4lbs 10oz barbel

Even using the 2.25lb t/c rod was not over gunned for this type of fishing.

The bites at 11.30am started to evaporate and so we decided to go to another stretch and see what was around. We fished a couple of swims and landed just the one barbel for the afternoon however it was slightly larger at 4lbs 12oz.

4lbs 12oz barbel

It just didn’t seem to be happening on this stretch, and we decided to return to the original swim. And guess what within 5 minutes of casting out the rod bounced a few times and Luke was into another barbel. We were keeping count and soon we were around the 20 mark for the day which is fantastic fishing. Luke was a happy man.

Then he hooked a good chub of 3lbs 6oz which is a pb for him.

Luke with a 3lb 6oz chub

The barbel continued to feed, Luke lost a couple where they got behind the odd rock or so. We got to 24 barbel and decided to finish the day.

Luke had a great day and thought it was much better then fishing the lakes. He will for sure be taking his mate there to fish together for barbel.

Fan-barbel-tastic