• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

Tackling a new swim

H

Howard Cooke

Senior Member
I would be interested to hear about the general tactics people use when tackling a new swim (but, say on a known river and assuming that there are no indications that other anglers have fished that spot). By looking at the flow, glides, creases etc you get a fair picture and sense of things but what then? Do you fully explore the swim with just a lead attached to the line? And if so, how do you go about it?

Many thanks.
 
put just a lead on and have a chuck around various distances for a rough idea of the depth, then same down the swim before dragging the lead around looking for snags, gravel and weed etc.

but then have a chuck around with a rig attached ;) no bait of course.

leaded around a few times in swims that i thought were clear only to snag up first cast with a rig attached
 
Hi Howard, totally depends on its depth mate, below the waist get yer chesties on and grab a good stout wading staff and get in and poke around,
if its deeper then a heavyish lead with a good dollop of plasticine moulded round the lead, swing it out, th plasticine will pick up sand or gravel, if none shows sticking to the plasticine then a nice lead bullet of appropriate size and weigh to enable you to drag back without getting stuck in a flinty bottom
will tell you about rocks, mud or a flinty bottom, dont cut any vegetation back or trample on it until your ready to fish it so others cant spot the disturbance on the bank thus revealing the swim mate:)
 
Last edited:
Hi Howard,
One important factor for me on the kind of rivers I fish is the amount of features downstream of a proposed new swim which would offer cover for barbel and from where I can hope to draw them up from.
If I can't see through the water I will sometimes use a loafer float to look for drop-offs, and a small baitdropper will tell you if you are on weed by not opening. As previous posts have mentioned, casting a lead around, with braid will sometimes give you a fair impression of whats in front of you.
I remember reading an article in a mag. a few years back about guys using floating depth/feature finders on the Severn with some success.
Hope this helps,..but you knew all that did'nt you!;):D
Cheers
Dave T
 
Well its the not knowing for me that's the hook. However a float will give a very good reading of everything you might need, but surely to God you will have an intuition as to what lies beneath without resorting to sonar!!
 
Neil Smart said:
Well its the not knowing for me that's the hook. However a float will give a very good reading of everything you might need, but surely to God you will have an intuition as to what lies beneath without resorting to sonar!!
Click to expand...

I did witness a guy fishing the royalty for an hour and a half trying to tempt a black bin liner to take his carefully freelined bait,..served him right for not wearing polaroids!:D
Worse case was a trip to a new, very deep,clear pit many moons ago. My mate stood on a very high bank to suss the surroundings and decided he would fish a nice looking channel between the bank and a nearbye island which looked to have a nice weedbed serving as an extra feature halfway along the channel. When the sun rose and the light changed the 'weedbed' turned out to be a mini with the boot and bonnet open.
I'm still awaiting his first publication of 'wrecking for carp'!!:D
 
Last edited:
Dave Taylor said:
I did witness a guy fishing the royalty for an hour and a half trying to tempt a black bin liner to take his carefully freelined bait,..served him right for not wearing polaroids!:D
Worse case was a trip to a new, very deep,clear pit many moons ago. My mate stood on a very high bank to suss the surroundings and decided he would fish a nice looking channel between the bank and a nearbye island which looked to have a nice weedbed serving as an extra feature halfway along the channel. When the sun rose and the light changed the 'weedbed' turned out to be a mini with the boot and bonnet open.
I'm still awaiting his first publication of 'wrecking for carp'!!:D
Click to expand...

:p
 
I agree with Dave T and Neil, I look for cover where fish can be drawn from and just experiment and learn. As Tref W said, a barbel swim is anywhere he puts his bait.
 
I now use a smart cast, it has saved me hours of time when looking at a new stretch of the Thames. Thought i new a certain stretch well after spending hours in the closed season with a plumbing outfit, then trotted a smart cast through the same stretch and found loads of very interesting features. Once found you can cast a lead into these areas and feel the bottom etc. As i said this is on the Thames were you cannot see the bottom and fish are not visible. Never used the fish finder on the smart cast only use it for depth finding.
 
I have the version with a large screen not the wrist version. As i said they are great for covering a lot of water. Use it as if you are trotting a float down river it will show water depth, river bed ie weed and contours such as drop off's. You can find the shelves where river bed shallows up after a deep hole etc. Always a good place to start. I have found small holes in river bed that i did not find with plumbing. Always try and use it in low water flows as the slower it moves the better much more accurate.
 
Paul Cooper said:
I have the version with a large screen not the wrist version. As i said they are great for covering a lot of water. Use it as if you are trotting a float down river it will show water depth, river bed ie weed and contours such as drop off's. You can find the shelves where river bed shallows up after a deep hole etc. Always a good place to start. I have found small holes in river bed that i did not find with plumbing. Always try and use it in low water flows as the slower it moves the better much more accurate.
Click to expand...

Very interesting. How big is the sensor thing, and how far does it cast?
 
smartcast_zps773b8f0a.png
[/URL][/IMG]
Screen is 3.9" diag and the yellow float can be cast across the thames with no problem. I use braid with a carp rod.
Paul
 
As i said i only use it to save time. I walk miles of the upper and middle Thames with my dog and to be honest it can all look the same. if you use a float to test the depth it takes hours and i mean hours. With this you can walk along casting into likely looking spots as you would do if you were lure fishing. Still no substitute for water craft but every little edge helps getting a barbel on the bank. There is even an easier way get an EA river chart with river depths on it. I have several, as Mr. Morgan says every little edge helps.
 
I go fishing to spend time not save it. I can see how it is an advantage to catch fish to have such a thing but that's not the only reason to go fishing surely.
 
Paul

I fish the middle Thames around where i live, Wallingford, and as you say it takes an age to find the likely spots and so need all the help i can get - otherwise it is chuck and chance it. May have to try this. :)
 
Many thanks for the responses chaps. One of the areas I know I am weak on, is spending more time really exploring swims etc. before I start fishing. I rely heavily on what the surface tells me and what I actually experience through fishing a swim and this is all OK, but I do feel that I could do a bit better by investing a bit more time in working out what the river bed is like.

Nick/Paul-I think this is a case of each to their own with no right or wrong answer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top