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how far out of the river will barbel move when the river is in flood?

This Pike was obviously taking the opportunity to have a look around whilst the river was in flood.

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Dave
 
Iv seen barbel on a floodbank and also seen them up on the surface scrounging for food in the bushes and rocks on the Trent.
 
On the flip side I've been sat on the Ribble when it's been bank high and raging, whole trees, caravans and sheds floating down and watched Barbel rolling out in the middle of the river!
 
Barbel love a flood, it's what they are built for, other species tend to find the slack, bunch of wussies!
 
Martin Bowler was saying on Tight Lines last week that he doesn't believe barbel stray from the normal river course even in extreme floods. He gave an example of having to cast overhead to reach the riverbed of the Ouse when in was in flood...and he reckoned he caught.
 
No disrespect but ouse is a goldfish bowl compared to most rivers
 
After talking to the lads who did the fish rescue on the lower Severn last year, they didn't find one barbel but daft carp and bream were found hundreds of yards away in ditches.
 
Barry Fisher said:
After talking to the lads who did the fish rescue on the lower Severn last year, they didn't find one barbel but daft carp and bream were found hundreds of yards away in ditches.
Click to expand...

I remember the photos on here, some nice ones to.
 
None taken Wayne but the size of the river's kind of the point.

If the barbel were prepared to stick to the stream bed in a narrow river when it was in flood and covering the fields, why would they leave a bigger river's natural course? You could argue of course that the flow might be greater on a bigger river but there is plenty of evidence based on sightings of barbel topping in the middle of raging floods and reported on here. seems that barbel are 'happy' in the strongest of flows. Or maybe they just have little curiosity about what lies beyond?
 
Just to put my oar in, I can confirm that a few years back when the Hants Avon was filling the whole valley (or so it seemed), I saw a barbel quite happily stationed in the middle of the water meadow opposite the sewage works and between the Old River and the Main Carrier at Britford. It appeared to be quite content, with a reasonable flow of water, and I can only assume that it must have been feeding at some point, although it was not obvioudly feeding when I saw it. There were also a lot of chub in the meadow.

By the way, because it is fed by the chalk aquifers, after the initial flood water has passed, the river flows very clear even though it is still out in the fields, so visibility was not an issue.


Dave
 
Someone told me a few years ago that when the cricket pitch flooded in Worcester not a single barbel was seen but bream, carp, chub in large numbers - so barbel obviously do not like cricket :)
 
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