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Weir fishing

N

Noel Tyrrell

Member
Hi,
I would like some advice on fishing for Barbel on weir pools please. I recently fished my local weir pool and I decided to fish the swim nearest the apron of the weir. I was trying to fish as near as possible to the apron as I had read that it would be a typical holding area for the big fish. I was fishing with a 4 oz lead and a large PVA stick of maggots. My lead wasn't holding bottom and was being taken about 3 metres from where I wanted to be. I think obviously I need more weight but my question is, is fishing with a big stick of maggots a waste of time with so much turbulence and do I need to try and plan my hook length down. I ask this I foul hooked a fish which got off but I had a scale on my hook and I wondered if it was because of my hook length flailing around.
I would really appreciate some advice on this
Noel
 
No doubt that your hooklength will be moving around, have you thought of using a single large bait with a relatively short hooklength. I'd probably go with a paste wrapped boilie or garlic spam on a 9" hooklength.
 
Noel, depends on what river and weir your on but surprisingly enough you can lay on with a heavy quill float or something if its fairly deep in the sill area but the faster it is the more over depth you need to be, just use a big heavy bait dropper and put at least a couple of pint of maggots down but before you do make sure you can make the float lay on, i use anything up to 6 swanshot most of which are bunched about 12" from the hook, put the rod on the rests (so the rod tops steady for the float to cock but keep your hand next to the rod butt, leave for a couple of seconds after the float sails away efore winding down on the fish, good luck:)
 
Hi Noel,

It would help to know what sort/size of river/weirpool you are fishing , because they vary hugely.
My personal experience on bigger rivers is that the water in a swim directly below the sill
will move in many different directions and will often back up ( move back towards the weir ), this will depend on a lot of conditions , mainly depth and speed of flow.
For this reason using a pva bag is a good idea , at least you will have some bait near your hookbait. However , again from personal experience , although Barbel will feed in these areas they wouldn't necessarily be my first choice ,they tend to be snaggy and usually too many Bream and Carp inhabit these areas , I would have a look at an area a little bit down stream where the flow is steadier , but I would guess that you are fishing a smaller , shallower , faster River where these can be the best swims . If you are struggling to hold bottom with your selected weight try paying out a few feet of line to create a bow that will help keep your terminal tackle in place. With this set up the bites will usually be drop backs , the rod top usually nods once and then springs back and bounces up and down .

Good Luck

Richard
 
Some great advice given, I especially like the laying on method approach John,,but I would not choose the weir sill as my first choice of swims, but in theory they are there.
As a kid I used to with other lads stand on the top of a Bristol Avon weir and trot silt weed that was baited on the hook by dragging the hook on the weed off the sill. If you handled the weed it failed to catch, the roach and Chub were after the crustaceans that were in the weed.
So I assume such places offer a good supply of food, certainly I have heard that Kings Weir in it's heyday was a bit special.
 
what i wrote should suit you especially if you can get in the corner on other side of the weir noel fish close in mate
 
i think it still is neil, the weir and run off changed no doubt but i never had trouble putting em on the bank 50 odd years ago, mind you i spent over half my spare time on there, even had 8lb+ bream in there all those years ago:)
 
a bloke named fred down in youngs tackle shop in essex road helped me figure it out,
dont go down there wthout at least 1/2 gallon of maggots he used to say, anglers use to look at me as though i was crazy using 12ft tench built cane rod stepped up for barbel but i could hold bottom where others couldnt and it doubled up fine for trotting too
 
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