Tiny rivers, will barbel be found?

[Mark Evans]

Well i'll give my local stretch a go once this rain stops and the river calms down a bit.

But i've sold my Yamaha R1 and i'm buying another 50cc scooter for now till ive passed my car test. I should be able to get my rod sling on the scooter EASY to get to better parts of the river

 

[Andy Taylor]

Hi Mark

if you are referring to the Arrow there are Barbel in there, but in my experience of fishing this gem of a river for a long time, they are rarer than hens teeth around Redditch I am afraid. They tend to be further downstream, however that shouldn't dissuade you.

As you suggest, there are some clonking roach, chub and perch lurking between the submerged shopping trolleys.

 

[Mark Swaby]

Back in November, fishing a tiny stream i had a 13lb 13oz barbel.The stream has no barbel river record, some swims are 6 inches deep,the deepest spots are about 3 feet deep,the end of your rod top is on the far bank.Most importantly everyone walks past it,few care to fish it. In december i had a 21lb 1 oz common from the ditch, as i call it. Massive fish can come from the smallest of waters.Floods can relocate fish and if there are no weirs in the area they can move into the stretch.Feed and they should come,good luck.You never know what you will find until you try and you might be very surprised.

 

[Neil Smart]

Back in November, fishing a tiny stream i had a 13lb 13oz barbel.The stream has no barbel river record, some swims are 6 inches deep,the deepest spots are about 3 feet deep,the end of your rod top is on the far bank.Most importantly everyone walks past it,few care to fish it. In december i had a 21lb 1 oz common from the ditch, as i call it. Massive fish can come from the smallest of waters.Floods can relocate fish and if there are no weirs in the area they can move into the stretch.Feed and they should come,good luck.You never know what you will find until you try and you might be very surprised.

How true, I have had a similar experience from the tiny River Frome in Gloucestershire, where there a few trout, but never had a coarse fish,until I spotted a large dark shape in a mill basin whilst looking from the road bridge, A trundled piece of flake with the the Avon Rod soon had it bending it into what I estimated to be a 18lb common, returning it I noticed it's 'mate' equally as big.
These were I told escapee's from the home of 'B' the Otter's home of Ring Of Bright Water fame up the hill.
I love small stream fishing, and as said you just never know what might turn up.

 

[Steve Stratton]

I have seen a couple of 'very big' chub and some decent Barbel on my local River, This Barbel caught in November 2013 was 8lb 6oz from a section which as you can see from the picture you could nearly jump over with a good run up!!

 

[Graham Shaw]

sorry, see next post

 

[Graham Shaw]

How true, I have had a similar experience from the tiny River Frome in Gloucestershire, where there a few trout, but never had a coarse fish,until I spotted a large dark shape in a mill basin whilst looking from the road bridge, A trundled piece of flake with the the Avon Rod soon had it bending it into what I estimated to be a 18lb common, returning it I noticed it's 'mate' equally as big.
These were I told escapee's from the home of 'B' the Otter's home of Ring Of Bright Water fame up the hill.
I love small stream fishing, and as said you just never know what might turn up.

Spent the weekend just gone at a wedding on the banks of the Frome so you can bet that last week I was googling about the river and found a few tasty snippets of useful info like this one of yours ... every so often during the weekend I'd sneak away to pursue my noble art, with telescopic rod and net in a little bag ... (well the doctor did tell me to keep away from booze for the odd few hours of the occasional day)...but although I saw a heron fishing on a stretch I couldn't access, I never even saw so much as any fry on the bits that I could get to. Tried to really bait up a couple of gorgeously chubby looking swims (it's amazing how much potential bait can be gleaned from repeated visits to a wedding buffet) and then kept coming back to those swims, but never saw any signs of fish.

Meanwhile the adjacent canals were teeming with fish activity and fry.

 

[Steve Lewis]

The Somerset Frome is a small river with confirmed double figure barbel, and they are caught fairly regularly. Unfortunately most of the river is controlled by a very expensive club which is mainly game.

The Marden around Calne was also a noted small river with big barbel in it, but I don't know if that is still the case. Been a long time since I've heard or read anything about it, so I suspect not.

The River Chew has been stocked annually with barbel since 2009 and they come out quite regularly, but given that they were not previously native to the river and that they are still quite young, it'll be several years before we get any idea of their success or how big they'll go. I don't think anything bigger than a couple of pounds has come out, despite the river being very rich (it's home to just about every species of freshwater fish with the exception of burbot, pike, zander and salmon), and that being the case no one specifically targets it for barbel (actually I think most people who fish it go for the excellent grayling and the chance of a brownie or two for the plate).

 

[Neil Smart]

Spent the weekend just gone at a wedding on the banks of the Frome so you can bet that last week I was googling about the river and found a few tasty snippets of useful info like this one of yours ... every so often during the weekend I'd sneak away with telescopic rod and net in a little bag ... but although I saw a heron fishing on a stretch I couldn't access, I never even saw so much as any fry on the bits that I could get to. Tried to really bait up a couple of gorgeously chubby looking swims, and then kept coming back, but never saw any signs of fish.

Meanwhile the adjacent canals were teeming with fish and fry of all kinds.

You might want to spend a little more time, if you can, exploring this fascinating river. As you know it winds it's way through our industrial past, mills and the like. One particular stretch I used to take the boys trotting for trout, and it was prolific, right next to the main road at Stroud. Of course it could be the Otter and Mink might have had there way, also pollution of course, but these rivers do bounce back.
Another 'river' well actually a brook, Brinkworth Brook, that enters the Avon at Somerford, a chalk stream that you wouldn't give a second look, and yet is/was teaming with coarse fish and trout. Of course there were probably restrictions as to access, but we were never told to scarper
All my angling life I have been drawn to small rivers, and still am, but don't tell anyone the secrets they hold

 

[Neil Smart]

The Somerset Frome is a small river with confirmed double figure barbel, and they are caught fairly regularly. Unfortunately most of the river is controlled by a very expensive club which is mainly game.

The Marden around Calne was also a noted small river with big barbel in it, but I don't know if that is still the case. Been a long time since I've heard or read anything about it, so I suspect not.

The River Chew has been stocked annually with barbel since 2009 and they come out quite regularly, but given that they were not previously native to the river and that they are still quite young, it'll be several years before we get any idea of their success or how big they'll go. I don't think anything bigger than a couple of pounds has come out, despite the river being very rich (it's home to just about every species of freshwater fish with the exception of burbot, pike, zander and salmon), and that being the case no one specifically targets it for barbel (actually I think most people who fish it go for the excellent grayling and the chance of a brownie or two for the plate).

This is bizarre, you mention the Chew, and the Marden, both were part of my youth in different ways. I used to fish the Chew Nr Keynsham as a kid, the odd Trout Dace etc, and also Pensford where I had a few trout that made for a nice meal or two. I met a guy the other year who is a member of a Keynsham Angling Club who confirmed that Barbel had been stocked in the Chew, not that I think that was a brilliant idea, as any recruitment into the Chew would have happened via the Bris Avon.
The Marden...well a sad demise to date, it used to have a fair head of Barbel, and as a 16 year old I used to work for the Min of Ag at the Bacon factory (Harris's) in Calne, standing over the walkway over the river in the factory we used to feed the huge Chub bacon bits..
Well at least I have the Arrow here, but alas the Barbel numbers have been hit by Mr 'O' .

 

[Steve Lewis]

Heh, yes - you've mentioned feeding bacon to the chub before!

Sadly, despite most of it being free fishing back then, I never hit the Marden, instead attacking the upper and lower Avon. More fool me - 20/20 hindsight and all that.

I personally think stocking the Chew with barbel is a great idea - the river is more than rich enough and it's got everything from shallow streamy gravel runs to very deep holes and everything in between for the course of its 12-odd miles. It doesn't seem to have had an adverse affect (effect?) on the other native (and non native) species - I think we would have seen something by now in the 7 years since stocking began - and the club have been doing it very sensibly, with controlled numbers of fry and young going in annually at various different points along the river. Happily there are, as yet, no otters as far as I know, so the only unknown is whether or not the barbel themselves will take and grow on. They've got much much bigger in smaller less rich rivers, but on the other hand they've had less competition in those other rivers. We shall see.

More recently, roach have also been re-introduced having gone into a very steep decline there in the late 90s/early 00s following consecutive problems (a couple of major toxic spills that threatened to wipe everything out, and several major floods), but for the last 5+ years the water quality has been so good that it's been long overdue. Bream have also been introduced as another non-native species, and they've taken VERY well considering they've only been in there for a few years.

Unlike the Bristol Avon, with the Chew I find myself re-joining a club with a river in a MUCH better place than when I last fished it 20-odd years ago. Outside of the high profile rivers around the country which are still managed carefully and properly (rather than largely ignored, like the B A is and has been for a long time), that's got to be a real rarity.

 

[David Gauntlett]

The much missed Keith Speer used to fish a tiny river in Hertfordshire that we both new. He had several double figure barbel out of that over the years. Of course he caught them using his favourite method of trotting with maggots or casters. But then, Keith could catch barbel out of a damp wellie boot, bless him.

Cheers, Dave.

 

[Dave Quinn]

The much missed Keith Speer used to fish a tiny river in Hertfordshire that we both new. He had several double figure barbel out of that over the years. Of course he caught them using his favourite method of trotting with maggots or casters. But then, Keith could catch barbel out of a damp wellie boot, bless him.

Cheers, Dave.

I fish there regularly, last week I caught a fish of 7 or 8 pounds in a stretch that was no more than 3 feet wide. As a novice it's taken me a while to get my head around how you can catch in such tight shallow swims

It's true though, feed, drop in a bait for 15 minutes and then move on to an equally unlikely looking spot

 

[Alex Dalton]

some great little rivers up north as well.

The Tiny River Dove that only flows for a few miles before joining the Dearne used to be a Cracking little Gem , Chub to Over 6lb , Trout and the odd Rogue Barbel, alas the level is now most of the time painfully low and Gin clear .