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First in the queue and the HNV theory ?

J

Joe Fletcher

No Longer a Member
Back in January of this year on a very mild day I was fishing on the Lower Severn in flood . The river was bank high and coloured and the water temperature was 8 degree's .
In all I managed to catch 4 barbel all on Garlic spam all being caught from the same swim/area .
The first Barbel I caught weighed just over 12lb and the next 3 fish I caught all comming within hourly intervals of each other and which were all a lot smaller than the first fish I caught .
Now assuming the four fish I caught were all in a shoal and as I caught each fish . The biggest being the most dominent and I assume that is why I caught it first and that is why the smaller fish followed ? That is assuming the 4 fish I caught were all in a shoal together .

So my question is this ? Given the the right conditions and the fish are feeding and they have not been spooked .
Is it not the case that if you are using the right bait in the right area at the right time and assuming there are more than fish in your swim the biggest one will all ways be the dominent one and take the bait first ?
Regardless of what that bait may be ? Either a piece of meat , Boilie or pellet etc etc .
 
I think if you had optimum feeding conditions as seem's to be the case here Joe then the bait would be largely be irrelevant. As to the biggest fish being dominant that seems to be the case with most species provided they are feeding confidentally and have no reason to be cautious. I have definitely found with chub that, after a spell of prebaiting with bread mash, you can almost guarantee the biggest fish present will be the first hooked. Again, provided they have not been put on alert or have previous unpleasant experience from the bait which they remember.
 
My findings on smaller rivers where the fish can be watched is that its the smaller fish that will feed first and only after a period of baiting and when the fish are feeding confidently will the biggest fish in the group enter the swim first. This can often take a couple of hours of feeding though.
 
Mark Walters said:
My findings on smaller rivers where the fish can be watched is that its the smaller fish that will feed first and only after a period of baiting and when the fish are feeding confidently will the biggest fish in the group enter the swim first. This can often take a couple of hours of feeding though.
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Mark as you say on smaller rivers when you have watched the biggest fish in the group hold back ?
So regardless of what ever bait you were using . HNV or boilies , pellets the biggest fish in the group would of still held back ? Until it felt safe to enter the swim ?
Had the river been up and coloured would the biggest fish still of held back ?
When fishing meat or any other bait in clear water most bigger fish tend to avoid it and are a lot more wary in clear conditions ? and you only catch the smaller fish .
Yet when the river is up and coloured you can catch the bigger fish on meat or any other bait .
When you would not normally do so when the water was clear ?
 
It is important in my experience to carry out a careful free feeding pattern before starting to fish, something like Stef Horak does. Once confidence is gained the bigger fish will usually be first in the queue. Interesting thoughts on coloured water Joe, not really sure if the bigger fish muscle in first straight away then as they may be less cautious. It's a good point and would also apply to night fishing I suppose.
 
I always work on the principle of the fish reacting the same when I cant see them as they do when I can. I'd be more inclined to think that the 12lber on the severn was a lone fish and hence why you caught it first. I had 9 fish one afternoon on the Lower where you fish Joe and all those came within 3 hours, that was after feeding the swim and allowing the fish to feed confidently before introducing a hookbait. Fishings full of unanswered questions and long may that continue :)
 
Mark those 9 fish you had I would be curious to know . Did you get them all from the same swim/area and was the first fish you caught the biggest ?
 
Alex Gowney said:
It is important in my experience to carry out a careful free feeding pattern before starting to fish, something like Stef Horak does. Once confidence is gained the bigger fish will usually be first in the queue. Interesting thoughts on coloured water Joe, not really sure if the bigger fish muscle in first straight away then as they may be less cautious. It's a good point and would also apply to night fishing I suppose.
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Could'nt agree more Alex;)
 
Joe Fletcher said:
Mark those 9 fish you had I would be curious to know . Did you get them all from the same swim/area and was the first fish you caught the biggest ?
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All from the same swim Joe, water was just below the banks and coloured.The fish ranged from 5lb to just over 9lb and no the biggest didn't come first, If I remember correctly it was somewhere in the middle.
 
Can't comment on barbel behaviour but one water I carp fished had a shoal where one fish was the 'first feeder' and got caught repeatedly whilst the other 4 in the group hung back and rarely saw the bank. They were the bigger fish in the shoal and in the lake and seemed to let the mug fish go in first before they had a go. That behaviour seems similar to that observed by previous posters where the bigger ones hold off until the coast is clear.

Never did find a solution to getting past that old friendly mirror apart from once when I got one of his mates first.
 
Mark Walters said:
All from the same swim Joe, water was just below the banks and coloured.The fish ranged from 5lb to just over 9lb and no the biggest didn't come first, If I remember correctly it was somewhere in the middle.
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Mark I would assume from the fact that the level was up and coloured and that was the reason you managed to catch 9 fish and as you say the biggest did not come first ? and I wonder given the conditions it would of made any difference what ever bait you had been using as to which order you would of caught the fish and it would of been posible to target any of the larger fish that might of been in the area ?
 
Who know's Joe, I'm not a believer that a bigger bait will produce the bigger fish. The conditions definitely helped with the catch rate but I'm a big believer in swim preparation and even on my local Wye which has a huge head of fish it definitely makes a big difference if you can give them some time to feed undisturbed.
 
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