• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

Barbel Book Recommendation

J

Jon Whelan

Senior Member
Afternoon all,

I have been enjoying purging all things barbel related on the net for the last month or so. Could anyone please recommend any book that focuses more scientifically on the behavioural ecology of barbel ie migration, spawning, habitat choice, tagging etc?

There is quite a bit of information on the net & references to academic papers but a lot of these requires a payment of £30 for the nitty gritty rather than that within the abstract. I would have thought that someone might have consolidated this already?

I will be going to Nottingham University which have a very good library & photocopy the relevant bits - but it would be equally convenient to have a book form too.

Many thanks in advance.

Jon
 
That's right Jon...no longer published. I did manage to get a signed first edition at about three times the price of the original copy...Never know, might be a collectors piece in years to come!!
 
Thanks again. Fred, I had a drink of red wine & had to swallow quick when I saw the price! First edition & I can see why it's that type of money.

Paul, you've got a bargain there mate by the sounds of things. For now, I will keep an eye out in the meantime & if I have to, bite the bullet in a month or so. Any further advice on how to get a cheaper copy would be appreciated.

I doubt there would be much demand, but are there more recent scientific publications similar to this?

Cheers, Jon

PS Paul, any eventual feedback on this books contents would be appreciated. Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
Many thanks Julian for taking the time to scribe that very exhaustive list & Darryl for the pointer.

Much appreciated,

Jon
 
Jon

For the type of information you want I doubt very much that you will find it in an angling book. Nick Giles' book comes closest with his other book 'Freshwater Fish of the British Isles' covering river habitat very well.

Nature of Barbel is written in precis in that you get a ton of information without embellishment. However, I doubt that you will find all the information that you are asking about in your original post. You may do better to delve into scientific papers which could even work out cheaper.
 
Julian, you missed two very good books mate,

The Complete Barbel Angler by Roger Miller
Barbel Rivers and Captures, the second book by the Barbel Catchers Club.

The Nature of Barbel is a fantastic book and well work getting a hold of a copy, i always seem to pick the book up sometime around the beginning of June and read it from cover to cover.

The Roger Miller book again is superb, in my group of friends it was known as the 'bible' for a long while, again it is well worth getting hold of a copy.
 
Many thanks to all for taking the time to respond to this thread - a very exhaustive list indeed.

I have been offered a copy of The Nature Of Barbel by Nick Giles, so I'll start with that at first & go on from there.

Dave - I originally had similar thoughts to you on whether an Angler's Book would take a purely scientific angle on the behavioural ecology of the Barbel - academic writing is not exactly charismatic stuff!! I will be delving into the journals in due course too.

Just wondered as to whether there would be demand for such a book linking this in with an anglers experience of a variety of rivers? Change the language & make direct comparisons of captures, behaviour with science.

Many thanks to all again.

Jon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top