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Ever Catch Small Barbel?

John Newman

Senior Member
Why is it anglers never seem to catch small barbel? The smallest I have ever caught apart from a 9" fish I caught in a still water was around 2lbs.

They must eat so why don't we catch them and they don't seem to get caught accicentally by anglers targeting other species.
 
Good question.
Only ever caught two tiddlers 9" ish , both with moving bait in swift shallow water that I had previously tried a static bait with no success.

Maybe small fish frequent faster glides as a means of self preservation ,more weed/cover / oxygen and are therefore happy to take a moving bait as this is the norm.

Static baits may not be so readily received, tiddler may not wish to break cover to pick it up ,hence less captures.
Most of us anyway use a static approach in deeper , slower areas than I am reffering to.
 
it was a long time coming but managed it after a few decades to catch my ambition, a Baby Barbel now i mean baby around 4 oz or so
since the 1st one i have had several but only because the 1st opened my eyes to some aspects, my 1st one was an almost olive green like a tench colour, this then told me the nursery grounds are probably not the same as barbels preferred habitat, hope this helps your quest in some way:)
 
There were a few small ones caught on the Royalty last season, i have had quite a few on the Warwickshire Avon a few years ago,these were caught on trotted maggots,and they were taken in very shallow and fast flows, and i have seen a lot on the Shallows on Throop, i do believe that a few were caught on the lower Stour last season , but i agree with Mark, i think that they must have some sort of different feeding pattern,but it is a very interesting topic that could receive a lot of replies and opinions.
Do the small Barbel only feed on insects and larvae, and only get caught on very small baits such as maggots and caster.
Brian.
 
Babies

Hi All,
Tried a coup[le of times this year to catch tiddlers and Gudgeon on the Loddon, trotted the ford on the Old River at Lands End which is less than 1ft-caught lots of Dace, and eventually caught a 6oz Billy-was well made up. Though on the main river a fish below 8lbs is rare around Reading unfortunately. As mentioned above-I think they live in faster sections, and are very happy to intercept bait the same way Dace do, shame there are not more of them! Years ago you would regularly catch them whilst float fishing/swimfeeding on the Lower Severn, with lots of barbel of all sizes on the local rivers-1lb-all the way through.
Caught my Gudgeon as well this year-from the Thames, was well chuffed, now looking for a Daddy Ruffe.

DT
 
I caught one perhaps just over 1lb and I still think of him as the nicest barbel I have ever seen.colouring out of this world.and he took a bait that would have choked me.
Albert
 
I have found the same thing with tench...catching a tiny one is very rare. It has to be that they feed on tiny food items usually, it's logical whichever way you look at it....all except the one Albert caught :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
First one I ever caught was just over the pound on a dry fly in France.

Had one of 9 oz from the Suffolk Stour near Nayland on a grain of corn.
 
Had 2 in the last 10 days on the Kennet that barely weighed 1LB(estimated),both caught on 14mm boilie,good to see whne we are all speculating around problems of recruitment.Im sure that normally as posted previously they inhabit different areas and dont take standard baits.
 
So there we have it, speculation on how they feed, ie, on small baits and insects, is again proved wrong, big baits have caught tiny hungry Barbel.
I suppose it's rather like the perfect Barbel swim, find the crease, and that's where you will catch, we all know that Barbel can be caught in turbulent swims, slacks, still water and anything wet.
OH WELL, THATS FISHING.
Brian.
 
I was pestered by many knocks and rattles which turned out to be small barbel once I reduced my pellet and hook size.
 
The one I caught took a good sized cube of meat.i have a witness to the catch.
Albert

Hi Albert, I suppose it all depend on what you call a 'good sized' cube of meat...and whether it had been whittled down before it was taken. Logically, it is impossible to catch a fish on a bait that it can't get in it's mouth. Mind you, we all know that a fishes mouth is pretty elastic...and a barbel of a pound+ has a surprisingly large one to start with :D.

Whatever....the only TINY barbel mentioned so far, as in the OP's original question, have all been caught on small baits...hence the 'speculation' that Brian mentions :)

Cheers, Dave.
 
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