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All night fishing for Barbel , is it worth it ?

M

Mike Hodgkiss

Senior Member
I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have fished all night for barbel so my experience is negligible . I note on some of the river threads that some anglers fish all night sessions , sometimes 2 or 3 days and nights in sucession , particularly on the larger rivers like the Trent . I would be curious to know what people feel to be the most productive times through the dark hours . From my readings the best times are seen to be to be the dusk 'noddy' time up to 2 hours into the dark, and then around dawn with the in between hours being relatively unproductive .If this is correct does this vary seasonally , i.e is it more of a trend in the short summer nights and less prevalent in the longer winter nights or vice versa ?
 
Mike, I have never fished a night session for Barbel, or indeed past 9pm!! Whilst I would not consider myself to be amongst our elite I have a reasonable amount of success based on good 'Rivercraft'. If you can locate the fish or a very good possible holding area and then have the patience to 'Trickle feed' the swim and not put a baited hook in for a couple of hours, you can catch fish at any time of day! I recently had 3 Barbel off the Avon in a few hours (although not monsters at between 7-8lbs) first fish 11.45, second 14.30 and third 15.45! If you remain quiet and be carefull and patient anything is possible!!
 
I've caught steadily all through the night on a few occasions, but generally it goes quiet around midnight I find.
 
Rhys Perry said:
I've caught steadily all through the night on a few occasions, but generally it goes quiet around midnight I find.
Click to expand...

Really depends where you're fishing and if there's a good head of fish in the section. More barbel there are the more competition there is for food.

From my experience particulary this season the barbel I have caught have been caught between midnight and 3am (good percentage of blanks as well). Barbel are low in numbers and are wise to most baits where I fish. Yet a short drive away on another river you have a chance of catching throughout the day into dark due to more numbers being present, and as i said more competition for food is the reason IMO.

EDIT:
Never done an all nighter. Come 2/3am sleep tends to win,so when that happens it's time to pack up. It ain't carp fishing.
 
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I mostly fish 24hr sessions as this is pretty much the only way I can get any fishing in. While I have had fish at all hours of the night most have tended to come between first dark and 2am during the summer months. My sessions tend to tail off as the weather gets colder so not sure how this compares with winter.

Cheers
m
 
Keith is absulutely spot on..I fish the dorset stour which doesent have loads of barbel and is pressured..I try to find the barbel first either by seeing them first or putting small amounts of bait in likely looking swims and watching for up to an hour to see if they come out to play..Usually dont cast in until the barbel have visited my baited area at least 3 times by then they are usually confident..Another thing is barbel dont fight as hard during nightime as opposed to day time..If they are in your swim and you get them confident it doesent matter what time of day it is..;)
 
Great replies chaps , many thanks . I take your point that barbel can be caught in daylight given the right conditions and approach . What I was keen to tap in to was the experience of regular all night anglers and there observations on barbel feeding patterns in the dark and any seasonal variances they may have noticed
 
Night fishing

I tend to do mostly night fishing or evening sessions and I find in the main that the results are inconclusive as I have had nights where action is steady all night to where its just bites between 7pm and 11pm then again at around 2-4am -this is on the trent,I find sometimes an evening session is much more productive as you tend to focus more.I can be quite lazy on a 48 hour session and also treat it as a bit of a "social" .
The one thing I will say is you can really get some bait in and get the fish feeding which is sometimes noot possible over a couple of hours.
I also love the night fishing "craic" which probably apeals to the hunter gather instinct-you know cooking and camping ,roughing it in our great outdoors.

On that note my PB once came at around 9pm and after that fish I wound in and didnt fish again that session -Whats the point I wasnt going to top it!!!

Matt
 
I found like Matthew bites seem to taper off at 11ish l did alot of evening early night fishing on the tees found it hard going through the day unless it was cloudy got more chance then...
Always try to fish into the first two hours of dark seems to be the witching hour just as ye put ye isotope on...also bites are more positive !!
At the moment cant seem to get a bite either day or evening..maybe electro fishings a option..lol
 
Again as already said it depends on the river you are fishing, and indeed the stretch of the river you are fishing.

In 3 seasons on one stretch I've had one bite in daylight, so I'd say pretty strongly yes it's worth fishing through the night if you're struggling during the day.

I am 50 miles away from the river so in order to take advantage of the best time I stay the night rather than drive home late as it's pretty dangerous and I find pretty exhausting. I stay awake til about 3am and if I have about 4 hours kip I'm just about able to function for the next day and drive home safely.

I grew up with night fishing and absolutely love it. Being out at night on the river or a lake is pretty magical I find.
 
Midnight can often be a productive time but I'm not sure there are any hard and fast rules in either daylight or darkness fishing. Night fishing is more excitng I find as the sense of anticipation seems to increase as the beta light starts to glow and the countrysides nightlife prepares for action. It's a wonderful time to be out on the river
 
Sometimes,especially if you are travelling a long distance,it is advantageous to arrive the previous evening and fish for a few hours at dusk.This is a productive time,especially on a low river in summer.As has been stated,you can get a bit of feed going in and more importantly you are in situ and ready to fish at dawn.Another potentially good feeding time.

Night fishing can also offer a brief respite from the nocturnal activities of your infant children ;)

mike
 
"Night fishing can also offer a brief respite from the nocturnal activities of your infant children "

But not if your sleepy mate is snoring his head off and his buzzers and LED's going off every 10 minutes:D
Especially if one is out in the pouring rain with no umbrella:mad:
 
I am not a fan of night fishing, i have done, and caught well, but i stay awake all night and tend to my rods every 30-40 mins to keep the bait going in (Trent). By 6am i am absolutely fatigued out, i also find it dangerous to drive home because of the fatigue and we have all felt that, i believe. For those who can cope with the fatigue, i take my fishing hat off for you.
Now, i limit myself to Midnight, admittedly early summer it doent get really dark by 11pm, but by September i am getting a good 4 hours of night time fishing, prior to going home, which imo, at this time of year, with the fish packing some weight on, is prime big Barbel time.

Jon
 
When i was younger & more foolhardy I wouldn’t think twice about enduring a cold uncomfortable night on the bank, attempting to concentrate on a rapidly diminishing green light (due to sleep deprivation) attached to my rod top. Nowdays, to preserve body & soul I generally only fish 4-5 hours after sunset.

Regards
Andy
 
I'am also not a fan of night fishing as I tend to catch during the day on all of the rivers I have fished so far this season and that includes catching during bright sunlight mid-afternoon. The rivers have been varied from small rivers like Idle /Arrow/Erewash to rivers like the Derwent/Trent/Nene/Avon. Can't knock it really as it works for some but not my cup of tea.
 
I'm not a night man either, mainly because I have to go to work the next day. I don't class myself as a top angler more a competent angler. During the early part of the summer I arrive on the river bank (Trent) around 4am and fish through until around mid-day, late summer I will start around mid-day and fish until around one hour after sunset. Had a night permit but never used it.
Had some decent fish although my two best came on a flooded river at around 7pm in late summer.
In my view a lot of fishing is about confidence, if you have confidence in the swim you are fishing and confidence in your method the odds are in your favour not what time of day you fish.
I recall a session on the Kennett which was organised by Graham Elliot, a few of us travelled down for a fish in and Graham suggested I move swims, I declined because I was confident I would catch. Later in the day I had a fish of 8lb and lost another. Confidence, patience and a little effort thats all it takes IMHO.

Paul
 
Just done my last overnighter this season I think. Bloke I know has never fished all night, never used a pellet and catches consistently on the tidal trent. He fishes about 1 hour into darkness and then packs up, done this for over 40 years.

Only thing I'll miss is the "dawn chorus".
 
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