Jon Whelan
Senior Member
Morning all,
Regardless of water type, one of the first questions I have when initially fishing a water is when the feeding times occur. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how barbel get caught at 'more' definite times of the 24hr day. I had my first opportunity to fish the last two weeks of the last season which some striking patterns of feeding on a particular stretch were very apparent.
For instance prime times lasted for about 45 minute durations where I could reasonably expect one or two fish being just before dusk, 7pm, 9pm, approaching midnight, 2am, 5am & 7-8am. On this stretch I fished 3 swims approximately 400m apart & the above times could be equally applied.
I could be nonchalant, look at my watch & think I have not had my 7pm fish yet & one of the rods would go off. The same can be said regarding summer too.
Its akin to responses identified by a Russian scientist Ivan Pavov in the early 1900s experimented to discover the secrets of the digestive system, he also studied what signals triggered related phenomena, such as the secretion of saliva in dogs. For example, he struck a bell when the dogs were fed. If the bell was sounded in close association with their meal, the dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with food. After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, they responded by drooling.
Coming back to the point. What could be the signals to trigger relatively synchronised feeding across a many barbel shoals that inhabit a very long river. This could be equally applied to most of the carp venues (up to 50 acres) I have fished in the past too but that is more a closed system. However, for a long river of many 100-1000s acres, as to why/how this comes about I am not sure?
The obvious times would be around dusk/dawn but then to have relatively synchronised feeding by differing shoals of barbel at time through the night has me scratching my head. It could be linked to invertebrate activity or more an innate response?
Just a thought now that the board has quietened down somewhat.
Cheers, Jon
Regardless of water type, one of the first questions I have when initially fishing a water is when the feeding times occur. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how barbel get caught at 'more' definite times of the 24hr day. I had my first opportunity to fish the last two weeks of the last season which some striking patterns of feeding on a particular stretch were very apparent.
For instance prime times lasted for about 45 minute durations where I could reasonably expect one or two fish being just before dusk, 7pm, 9pm, approaching midnight, 2am, 5am & 7-8am. On this stretch I fished 3 swims approximately 400m apart & the above times could be equally applied.
I could be nonchalant, look at my watch & think I have not had my 7pm fish yet & one of the rods would go off. The same can be said regarding summer too.
Its akin to responses identified by a Russian scientist Ivan Pavov in the early 1900s experimented to discover the secrets of the digestive system, he also studied what signals triggered related phenomena, such as the secretion of saliva in dogs. For example, he struck a bell when the dogs were fed. If the bell was sounded in close association with their meal, the dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with food. After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, they responded by drooling.
Coming back to the point. What could be the signals to trigger relatively synchronised feeding across a many barbel shoals that inhabit a very long river. This could be equally applied to most of the carp venues (up to 50 acres) I have fished in the past too but that is more a closed system. However, for a long river of many 100-1000s acres, as to why/how this comes about I am not sure?
The obvious times would be around dusk/dawn but then to have relatively synchronised feeding by differing shoals of barbel at time through the night has me scratching my head. It could be linked to invertebrate activity or more an innate response?
Just a thought now that the board has quietened down somewhat.
Cheers, Jon