Small leads and short hooklinks

[Craig Lea]

The river Chew in Keynsham was the first river i fished that held a variety of coarse fish. Before that i was only able to fish my local Cam brook which only had trout and minnows. We used to fish in the park in Keynsham from the weir to where it joins the Bristol Avon as it was free to fish. On occasion I'd even catch a flounder here. Another favourite spot was the weir in Keynsham (Jackie whites if I'm not mistaken) on the Bristol Avon as again another free spot that held massive bream and good chub and eel fishing. These places are where I learnt to fish as a kid. I did hear recently that there's been a stocking of barbel on the river Chew. Hopefully they do well there and breed.

the first river i fished was the chew as well . used to catch huge roach in the park .
i think there was a barbel stocking a few years back , i had 3 from the weir last season.
i only live a ten minute drive away, so it’s handy .

 

[Neil Smart]

The river Chew in Keynsham was the first river i fished that held a variety of coarse fish. Before that i was only able to fish my local Cam brook which only had trout and minnows. We used to fish in the park in Keynsham from the weir to where it joins the Bristol Avon as it was free to fish. On occasion I'd even catch a flounder here. Another favourite spot was the weir in Keynsham (Jackie whites if I'm not mistaken) on the Bristol Avon as again another free spot that held massive bream and good chub and eel fishing. These places are where I learnt to fish as a kid. I did hear recently that there's been a stocking of barbel on the river Chew. Hopefully they do well there and breed.

All my old stomping grounds Etienne, yes there were barbel stocked in Keynsham, probably found their way into the Avon, well certainly I would say, upper Chew too shallow imo.
I am old as dirt, and used to fish Shepherds Boat House weir Keynsham before Barbel were a thing, trout and even the odd salmon were present.
Happy memories.

 

[Neil Blood]

I can see the sense in this Neil, but I very rarely put any feed in preferring to fish a single large smelly bait , the only exception being when fishing maggots in winter when I will use a feeder full of maggots . I primarily fish the Yorkshire Ouse , feeding lots of pellets , groundbait , boilies simply attracts Bream and small chub which abound in the river , particularly in the warmer months . I believe that a large smelly bait is sufficient attraction to bring the Barbel in to my swim , I want to catch them not fill them full of freebies !

Horses for courses, when I fish half a tin of spam on a hook, its an 18” hooklength

 

[Andrew Jackson]

All I know is reducing the hooklink to 18" - 2' has made no difference to my catches. I am not saying it never will but I think it is very often unnecessary. Clear river, wary fish hanging well back then maybe. But after dark, coloured water I doubt it. Yes I know the main point is to stop the fish contacting the line but there are other options such as backleads if found necessary. I know people who use short hooklinks of 12" and you cannot argue with their results. As always an open mind is paramount.

 

[Lee Backshall]

With a 1/2 oz lead and a metre plus extra water I am presuming your lead wasn't sufficient to hold bottom and your bait/rig simply settled in the calmer water near the edge . I have often found that in high water conditions Barbel will come in very close to the edge of the river , often literally under your rod tip .Perhaps your bait had simply landed where the current took it and thats where the fish was, keeping out of the main flow , saving energy, and waiting for the food to come to it . As for hook length , In normal conditions I tend to fish a longer distance between hook and lead and keep my rod tip low to avoid line bites that can spook fish . In high water conditions I tend to use a shorter distance as a bait on say a 3ft hook length held down by a heavy lead will tend to waft around unnaturally in a strong flow , where as with a shorter hook length, maybe a foot or so it should stay static on the bottom .

 

[Lee Backshall]

That's really interesting to read that a 3ft hook length held down with a heavy lead will waft around in a strong flow.. .....that's really made me think!
I have always used longer hooklengths in stronger flow.......I generally use lead and pva bags, so I kind of assumed the bait would wash further downstream thus meaning using a longer hooklength........but after reading this thread seemingly not the case