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Best time for catching...

Best time for catching

  • Sunrise/Early Morning

    Votes: 10 10.3%

  • During the day

    Votes: 10 10.3%

  • Sunset/Night

    Votes: 77 79.4%
  • Total voters
    97
C

Chris Griggs

Senior Member
Is an hour fishing at sunrise better than 6 during the day?

I tend to have my best results at sunrise/early morning and to be honest have come to the conclusion there is little point fishing during the day. Not done too many night sessions for Barbel yet, though judging by the ammount of photos on the site in the dark reckon this can be a good time too!

Do you agree? When do you find the best time is?
 
ive had most of my barbel one hour befor dark and one hour after but if the river is in flood i catch in the day aswell but all rivers are diferrent. tees and the swale for me. danny
 
Thanks Danny, I suppose that makes sense. Not had experience of after dark on the Kennet yet, but early morning seemed pretty good yesterday, found this to be the case on most stillwaters for carp aswell.

Not having so much time to get out the bank nowadays, knowing this info really helps in terms of maximising my chances!
 
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I think its more a question of confidence and finding the fish. I fish most sessions mid morning to early evening and catch fairly regularly during this time in all conditions.
 
Last hour before dusk is the best I find,especially when the river is low and clear on a bright day.It it's running high and coloured then they will feed at any time in my experience.
 
Last couple of hours of daylight and into darkness for a few hours works for me.
Having said that, me and early morning are pretty much strangers, unless I've been up all night and nowadays that's only when I've been after sea Trout.
 
Has said earlier, will feed anytime in flood conditions, but I do most of my sessions after work so obviously at this time of year its dark when I get there and catch fairly consistently. Saying that I cant vouch for early morning/sunrise because I never fish them. The more important thing is location, find them and if they are hungry they will eat what ever is in front of them;)
 
In my experience the first and last hour of light is the most prolific time to get a take with daytime opportunities possible during warm coloured water conditions, but then again i don't fish prolific venues, having spent a weekend on the wye this summer highlighted to me just how much difference there can be between one river and the next as in the wye i am sure you could catch right throughout the day in most conditions. I caught more barbel in an afternoon on the wye than i had caught fishing intensely all season on my usual haunts. Another observation i have found in the venues i fish is that fishing after dark is a complete waste of time for barbel, there is a very short window of opportunity in which if you haven't had a take by the time its too dark to see your rod tip you simply will not get one regardless if you fish on into the night yet on some rivers judging from catch reports it seems that the the fishing is suicidal easy after dark. Has anyone else fished anywhere where fishing after dark is a waste of time for barbel?
 
different times for different rivers in my experiance.on the don it seems to be an hour before and an hour after dark on the upper trent there definatly more nocternal and on the dove around tea time especially in the summer.
 
Barbel will feed at any time of the day as long as they are hungry and not spooked/pressured.One highly pressured big fish stretch of the Kennet i used to fish was dead until 2 in the morning when everyone finally packed up/leads stopped going in and went home, then i would catch.We then found out early morning worked just as well,before anglers arrived.The action changed with prebaiting boilies then the fish could feed as soon as you arrived.Fish can change their feeding habits according to how they are fished for. If everyone night fishes you will probably be better off in the morning.But if you are not on the bank you are not going to catch.
 
On the tidal Trent where the tide is more apparent, not the Cromwell/collingham area where it just fills up, but the lower area past Carlton one of the major factors I wait for or time. Myself on an arrival is low water. The hour before and the hour after it starts to flood is imo big barbel time.
Just another slant on the thread.
 
In my 2 seasons, 62% of my barbel have come in an hour either side of sunset.

That said, I rarely fish mornings or after midnight.

I noticed on one heavily wooded stretch last summer that the sun seems pass over the river, and shine directly down it, from about 2 hours before sunset to half an hour before sunset, and like clockwork the fish would come into that shallow stretch, moving up from deeper more shaded water round a bend, when the sun was gone.

Rivers where I have caught at all times of day include the Wye and the Nidd. For those that don't know the Nidd, the fish are never more than a couple of feet from shade and cover at any time of day. From the Nidd, 3 out of my 5 fish have come early afternoon, but 5 fish isn't much of a sample to go by. I didn't catch a barbel on that river at all last season, and definitely this season I'm determined to have more 'silver bashing' sessions which can be very prolific on the Nidd in the middle of the day, then target barbel in the evening.
 
Time of day is pretty much irrelevant, provided you can find the fish and they're feeding then you will catch. Having said that though I will acknowledge that, on pressured stretches, your chances go up at dusk and into first hour or so of darkness.
 
Pretty sure it was Dick Walker who explained this phenomenon, it's all to do with the fishes natural survival instincts. As the sun gets down below a certain level it becomes impossible for sight predators such as Herons and possibly cormorants to see their prey through the water surface. Something to do with angles of refraction.
Naturally the fish take advantage of this and tend to feed most when they're safest. Same reason coloured water is good too.
When Trout fishing in bright weather it's often very noticeable that with a clear sky takes are very rare, as soon as some cloud covers the sun the fish start taking well.
Fishing a very low and clear upper Lea during the day this winter you'd think there wasn't a fish in the river, as soon as the sun dropped behind the trees it could be a fish a chuck, Roach and Chub mainly.
Always and never are words that should never be used regarding fishing but that last hour of daylight is my favourite. Early birds should find dawn just as good.
 
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