Hook pull / bumped fish

[Anthony Pearson]

Dave, out of interest, what make of line are you using?

 

[Terry Simner]

Burying the hook in the bait helps as does trotting shallower than the swim if you are within 6 inches(or more in deeper swims) of the bottom than the barbel will still take and the hook bait will tend to lift over fish.Dragging the bait along the bottom causes the foul hooking to happen more.If you are good at trotting then holding back severely and overdepth can work.

....but don't try this with a waggler

 

[Jon Frisby]

This river sounds like proper armchair fishing.

 

[Graham Elliott]

I'd suggest netting.

From the M25 all the way to M4 junct 12. Dump a few thousand in the Kennet.

 

[Dave Quinn]

Dave, out of interest, what make of line are you using?

Drennan float fish straight through

I went there yesterday for a bit of chubbing but couldn't resist giving the last hour over to trotting for some barbel

I only had small hooks on me so I wasn't able to go bigger than a 16, 6mm pellet on the hook. The river was the highest I've seen it in a long time and coloured and was pushing through more quickly than usual. It's rare to see it anything other than low slow and clear. Because it was pushing through so fast and with the advice from here in mind I bulked the shot near the hook and fished over depth to try and get the bait down and slow it up

Result was two foul-hooked fish in an hour, one of which I actually landed.

 

[Dave Quinn]

This river sounds like proper armchair fishing.

I think it says more about the relative abilities of barbel anglers from the different regions