Modern barbel fishing

[Clive Kenyon]

I agree with much of your sentiments Neil. However carp are no different to other fish and being difficult to catch is often a symptom of being subject to too much pressure. I have found two shoals of carp in a local river that will never have seen bait or a hook. Some of the fish are over 30lb and one looks like a forty. These naive fish, like the ones at Redmire in the fifties present different problems to be overcome but once they start accepting bait as another form of food in their diet they should in theory be easy to hook.

Angling is as simple as you want to make it. You don't have to follow the herd and there are plenty of places where you can find wild, un-pressured fish. Before moving to France I spent over five years fishing nothing but small rivers, canals and lakes where there were no regulations, no other anglers and often, nobody else about. On a small stream running through our shoot I caught trout to over 2lbs on a Poundshop whip. Same tackle lured perch and small pike from the neck end of an estate lake. There are miles and miles of the River Dearne that never see an angler. In Cleckuddrsfax I used to catch grayling over 1lb and trout double that alongside derelict textile mills and the rivers runing through the heart of Sheffield are full of fish. The places are there if you put yourself about and find them.

As for Walker not using a bite alarm or bivvy; well that is a myth.

 

[Alex Dalton]

And dont tell every tom dick and harry where you caught them.

 

[Simon Kitcher]

That's a piece of advice advocated by the late great Peter Stone also. As mentioned in several posts in this thread, people have to organise their angling around work, cashflow, geography and family - no order of importance suggested or implied in the ordering of the latter. There never has been or ever will be a 'one size fits all' approach to targeting a certain species, be it barbel or snakeheads.
What is also alluded to in one post is the usefulness of cross - referencing a repotoire of methods & approaches used for targeting a range of individual species in order to solve a particular set of problems posed by a situation. This does produce innovation whether it is exploited commercially or simply for the reward brought by successful problem solving. Many of the historically 'great' anglers of the 19th and 20th century were what today are described as 'all - rounders' - think Walker, Stone, Wheat, Seaman, Guttfield, Barnes, Gammon, Plummer, Wilson, Carl Forbes, Hooper, Gibbinson, Buller, Falkus etc.
The suggestion of Walton to, 'study to be quiet' may not be beloved by all anglers today. However we all seek something from the waterside, be it moving or still, to make us complete. Personally I prefer the quieter side of the spectrum, but understand that others do not - it is a more social environment. Just enjoy your fishing when you have the time, funds and permission to go.

 

[Terry Harman]

I’ve said before each to their own there isn’t a right or wrong way unless it’s detrimental to the fish you are fishing for ..popular waters or stretches of river will always be busy just don’t fish there ....there are miles of river that don’t get fished go and do a bit of pioneering Get a rucksack untie the runner beans from your rod in the garden and go and have a wonder..... as for going back in time have you read izaak Walton’s the complete angler there is a chapter in that book that describes carp swimming along with frogs on their heads...... I didn’t know hallucinatory drugs were available in those days

 

[David Craine]

I’ve said before each to their own there isn’t a right or wrong way unless it’s detrimental to the fish you are fishing for ..popular waters or stretches of river will always be busy just don’t fish there ....there are miles of river that don’t get fished go and do a bit of pioneering Get a rucksack untie the runner beans from your rod in the garden and go and have a wonder..... as for going back in time have you read izaak Walton’s the complete angler there is a chapter in that book that describes carp swimming along with frogs on their heads...... I didn’t know hallucinatory drugs were available in those days

I dont know if Carp knew about drugs then, they certainly must do these days , some waters with bivvies positively reek .

David

 

[Deleted member 2708]

I dont know if Carp knew about drugs then, they certainly must do these days , some waters with bivvies positively reek .

David

I was with a pike club for a couple of years. The young lads in their bivvies must have been hallucinating to judge their 12lb pike was "a good 20!" So much weed in their camps that I reeled in hooked pike on their lines a couple of times, they did not even hear their bite alarms! Sad!!!!

Me? I stuck with my little hip flask and single malt - just to keep the cold out!

Fortunately I had a small boat and left all of that as far behind as I could.

Even further away now, could not have made a better move....

 

[Gerry Giles]

I got slated by saying I feel that employing Carp tactics on Rivers ie lines of Bivvys and fishing lines is detrimental to Barbel stocks

thats because your talking rubbish again ? your imagination is not what really happens !

I have a close friend that has given up angling and his passion is now boating up and down the Trent spends most of the summer doing it his boat is equipped with a top of the range sounder and he was telling me Gerry its truly amazing Im poodling along and the fish arebeeping like mad on the sounder and not a brolly or angler to be seen suddenly like flicking a light switch the sounder falls silent ? I look around and see anglers and brollys !! then 10 mins later the sounder is going crazy and not an angler to be seen so you see the fish once a bit of angling pressure they just bugger off otter seals and sadly miss handling are to blame and not just people that choose to use a bivvy either