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If You Could Offer One Tip...

Damian Kimmins

Senior Member
or one change that you've made to improve your catch rate, what would you say it was?

Kind regards
Damian
 
Keep moving..

Let me elaborate.
Barbel will eat most things if they are in a feeding mood, most barbel rigs are pretty effective, most rods and reels are up to the job. You can spend too much time sweating the details.

If you don't have fish in front of you. You WON'T catch, simple. Sitting in one peg all day long fishless is a fools errand. If after an hour it's fruitless, move on.

I don't suggest for a second I catch every time I fish, far from it. But I wholeheartedly believe I'm giving myself a MUCH better chance if I've fished 5 or six likely looking spots instead of sitting in one.
 
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try different rigs…. the one your using might not be broken but you just might improve your catch rates…… you don’t know if you don’t try otherwise we would all be fishing with cane rods and cat gut
 
Definitely understand your watercraft.

Rivers change on a weekly basis and by a clear mile the most successful angler is the one being adaptable to the river laid out infront of them on the day.
Read the river,
understand what it’s doing
and fish it accordingly. Definitely catch more fish!
Good old watercraft a dying art"………..surprised Korda don’t try to sell it
 
If it isn't working then change something - peg, method, feeding regime, rig etc. Changing something can boost morale by giving renewed hope. I've frequently switched from stick float to static bait or vice versa and caught almost immediately after a switch.
 
Keep moving..


Sitting in one peg all day long fishless is a fools errand. If after an hour it's fruitless, move on.
I dont really agree with all of that

often a simple switch from say pellet to a boilie or meat or maggot after an hour or 2 where you think there maybe no fish in your peg and boom lots of bites !
couple of seasons ago I fished a club stretch and due to the 300 mile round trip I fish it for 48 hours moving is not really an option for me
I now tend to fish on the rods for 12 hours then reel in sleep and repeat
so my 1st 12 hours 3 bites 2 fish tactics pellet on one rod boilie on the other feeder filled every cast plus 4 boile stringer on the boile rod recast every 30 to 45 mins or after a fish

2nd 12 hours was manic had to fish only 1 rod as had 3 double hook ups ! few times hardly got the rod in the rest it was away had to stop fishing for a while due to exhaustion
rightly or wrongly I believe the large amount of bait I had been putting out either switched them on to feed or attracted them into the swim either way they were not caught because I moved

Im not saying moving does nor work !!..........of course it can and does but often the fish are finicky and dont want to eat that your offering on your hook
 
I dont really agree with all of that

often a simple switch from say pellet to a boilie or meat or maggot after an hour or 2 where you think there maybe no fish in your peg and boom lots of bites !
couple of seasons ago I fished a club stretch and due to the 300 mile round trip I fish it for 48 hours moving is not really an option for me
I now tend to fish on the rods for 12 hours then reel in sleep and repeat
so my 1st 12 hours 3 bites 2 fish tactics pellet on one rod boilie on the other feeder filled every cast plus 4 boile stringer on the boile rod recast every 30 to 45 mins or after a fish

2nd 12 hours was manic had to fish only 1 rod as had 3 double hook ups ! few times hardly got the rod in the rest it was away had to stop fishing for a while due to exhaustion
rightly or wrongly I believe the large amount of bait I had been putting out either switched them on to feed or attracted them into the swim either way they were not caught because I moved

Im not saying moving does nor work !!..........of course it can and does but often the fish are finicky and dont want to eat that your offering on your hook
Was that the middle trent gerry
 
Adaptive to the water, if I decide to fish a swim, I normally give it one to two hours, but I will change my bait and method if I don’t catch. If all that doesn’t work, I will move.
 
I dont really agree with all of that

often a simple switch from say pellet to a boilie or meat or maggot after an hour or 2 where you think there maybe no fish in your peg and boom lots of bites !
couple of seasons ago I fished a club stretch and due to the 300 mile round trip I fish it for 48 hours moving is not really an option for me
I now tend to fish on the rods for 12 hours then reel in sleep and repeat
so my 1st 12 hours 3 bites 2 fish tactics pellet on one rod boilie on the other feeder filled every cast plus 4 boile stringer on the boile rod recast every 30 to 45 mins or after a fish

2nd 12 hours was manic had to fish only 1 rod as had 3 double hook ups ! few times hardly got the rod in the rest it was away had to stop fishing for a while due to exhaustion
rightly or wrongly I believe the large amount of bait I had been putting out either switched them on to feed or attracted them into the swim either way they were not caught because I moved

Im not saying moving does nor work !!..........of course it can and does but often the fish are finicky and dont want to eat that your offering on your hook
48 hours, a lot things can change. And you have plenty time to attract the fish into the swim. But for a short session, I think the best way is to find the fish by keep moving.
 
48 hours, a lot things can change. And you have plenty time to attract the fish into the swim. But for a short session, I think the best way is to find the fish by keep moving.
maybe I should not have mentioned the 48 example

as its clouding my point that you could fish a peg loaded with fish for 2 hours and simply not having the right bait on the hook can give a false impression there are no fish in the peg/swim

and a simple hook bait change from pellet to maggot or something else can INSTANTLY produce a red letter day
 
maybe I should not have mentioned the 48 example

as its clouding my point that you could fish a peg loaded with fish for 2 hours and simply not having the right bait on the hook can give a false impression there are no fish in the peg/swim

and a simple hook bait change from pellet to maggot or something else can INSTANTLY produce a red letter day
I agree with you, you don’t have to move swim every 15mins, as I said before I tend to stay at one swim for 1-2 hours and changing the bait, method.
 
Keep moving..

Let me elaborate.
Barbel will eat most things if they are in a feeding mood, most barbel rigs are pretty effective, most rods and reels are up to the job. You can spend too much time sweating the details.

If you don't have fish in front of you. You WON'T catch, simple. Sitting in one peg all day long fishless is a fools errand. If after an hour it's fruitless, move on.

I don't suggest for a second I catch every time I fish, far from it. But I wholeheartedly believe I'm giving myself a MUCH better chance if I've fished 5 or six likely looking spots instead of sitting in one.

Much prefer nights when they proper go on the feed and feel safe.
They will find you.
 
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