what water temps will barbel still feed

[Jonathan Jones]

F@@@ me! its like the jerry springers show listening to you lot

 

[Jonathan Jones]

Is there a chance of barbel feeding in cold water temps if river is few feet up and nice colour?

And how long would you guys spend in 1 swim if you had no fish or knocks?

 

[David Tainton]

Temps

Hi Jonathan,
Only from my experience and thoughts-barbel will feed throughout, its just that in temps above say 6/7 degrees and above they will feed throughout and move greater distances to feed, the colder it gets-the more prolonged the cold, then they will travel shorter distances and feed for shorter windows. if you have time and perseverance you can work these times out-might be 2am in some cases (so you need a lot of time on the bank which most people don't have). A mate of mine had a decent Kipper from the Teme with outside air temps of -6, on breadflake, probably because it was placed on the fishes nose, but it took the bait. As the temps fall, so do your chances, so fish with a bait which will catch anything-maggots, worms, breadflake, catch other species, you'd be surprised how many Barbel get caught in Winter on smaller all coarse fish baits

Keep smiling

 

[Graham Elliott]

And Mark. Is it DC.

 

[Ray Walton]

Personally speaking...i have never experienced catching a quantity of barbel in the very cold conditions, only the odd 1 or 2. Worst conditions are very cold water temp and air temp, high pressure, gin clear, combined with low flows and low river height. Best conditions in cold winter are just after a 'long' cold snap breaks, followed by heavy westerly or southern rainfall, and warmer winds. This causing the river water temp to rise, warm and colour up. However, you have to be out on the bank when the barbel switch on point occurs and stay there until it ends. This can be for a few hours or days until the river level starts dropping and clearing again. As said, if the water temp rises too high in what still seem favourable conditions, then the barbel can/will switch off until they have acclimatised back and adjust to the 'higher' water temp.
Pic show the 35F water temp barbel (9lb ish) caught in a 3ft deep swim close in whilst rolling meat. The other pic shows a barbel caught the day after at 36F water temp in snow/ice melt around 3lb + in another shallow swim about 3-4ft deep close in.. whilst rolling.
In my experience, I don't believe barbel feed every day in cold conditions or move a round looking for food as they can become semi-dormant tucked up somewhere and just live off their body fat, otherwise they would no doubt be caught every day of the week in winter, just like in summer. Night fishing, although seemingly more favourable, makes little difference to whether you catch one or not in the very cold unfavourable conditions mentioned. You cannot guarantee on catching although you just might... and of course most anglers blank.

 

[Mark Swaby]

Graham its not DC,Richard the angler concerned has written no books,he rarely seems to blank in winter and fishes almost every day early morning and evening,before and after work,he sometimes fishes 3 different stretches in one session and targets the best swims.He does tend to fish off the grid,areas most anglers are unable to fish, get to or feed. Some of the anglers on here know where i am talking about,if i was able to fish one of two swims on a river close to me then i would probably never barbel blank, any winter day ever.The river is tiny, 3 feet deep,10 meters wide and 100 plus barbel live in the two swims every day in the winter.Its unique in the barbel world and simply amazes me,there are always fish prepared to feed with ice locking up the rod rings they still feed well.

 

[Neil Smart]

Graham its not DC,Richard the angler concerned has written no books,he rarely seems to blank in winter and fishes almost every day early morning and evening,before and after work,he sometimes fishes 3 different stretches in one session and targets the best swims.He does tend to fish off the grid,areas most anglers are unable to fish, get to or feed. Some of the anglers on here know where i am talking about,if i was able to fish one of two swims on a river close to me then i would probably never barbel blank, any winter day ever.The river is tiny, 3 feet deep,10 meters wide and 100 plus barbel live in the two swims every day in the winter.Its unique in the barbel world and simply amazes me,there are always fish prepared to feed with ice locking up the rod rings they still feed well.

There is a good head of fish, more critical than anything else.

 

[Jonathan Jones]

Most winter barbel fishing is hit and miss then! Thinking its a lot harder to fish bigger rivers like the severn/trent in low temps because the barbel have a lot more water and places to hold up and lay dormant!

 

[Richard Longmuir]

Loving it Jeff

 

[Richard Parsons]

Mark - it sounds like a wonderful place. Your friend obviously knows his stuff - fair play to him.

 

[Ray Walton]

Mid 1990's...A seemingly dismal freezing winter day and a very cold demoralising water temp of 35.1F and dropping, gin clear with ice formed in the Bristol Avon margins when out on the bank with Trefor West...but there again.

 

[David Maddison]

1.7c Wow that's cold .

 

[Ray Walton]

I think it's more a question on whether the angler can stick it out on the bank in such cold conditions...or whether you wait till it gets milder to where you will then catch the same fish much easier in more favourable conditions. I did the very cold bits as an experiment, but found it hard going, so i would rarely do it again.

 

[Dave Taylor]

Blimey Ray that was cold!
Just a thought,.. do you,.. or anyone else think that the bigger barbel are more likely to feel the need to feed in cold temps than their smaller brethren?

As an aside, this is one of my favourite winter barbel pics from a sadly departed and much missed friend of this site.

https://barbel.co.uk/site/vbulletin/forum/members/picture.php?albumid=490&pictureid=5823

 

[Ray Walton]

Thought about that question back in the 80's when there were said to be huge sized barbel spotted on popular venues on the Lower Hampshire Avon in summer at the time...but seemingly uncaught. As you know, even Dick Walker and Peter Wheat referred to it their old books and also Chris Yates. That was part of my experimental bit in the 1980's to see if i could catch them in cold conditions, when most of the barbel population don't seem to feed + to see how low a water temp i could catch barbel. Initially, i set out at 44F but gradually reduced that water temp to 41F right down to 35F over time in all types of conditions. The answer was No, as my captures were all different sizes and there was no noticeable difference big or small, except the normal fluctuations in weight on some fish i caught earlier in the seasons. Even at Adams Mill in cold winter conditions, very few barbel were caught in cold icy conditions despite anglers being on the bank frequently and the feed going in on a regular basis. Pretty sure that most of those monsters just layed up for long periods just living off their body fat. Interesting that the weights on a few noted barbel here actually reduced in weight over the longer cold water temp periods in the winter, which seems to back up the theory that they don't always feed, even though the bait/feed is always present in the river and they don't go looking for it. However, in my experience and a few others, if you can put a bait smack on their nose or in close vicinity without spooking them, you can 'stimulate' a barbel out of its semi-dormant state and coax the odd one into feeding in those 35-36F water temps. Classic picture of Keith with his 17+ and proves a point that it is not impossible.

 

[David Maddison]

However, in my experience and a few others, if you can put a bait smack on their nose or in close vicinity, you can 'stimulate' a barbel out of it's semi-dormant state and coax the odd one into feeding in those 35-36F water temps.[/QUOTE]

I have often thought that Ray in winter, and more so when I am casting a big lobworm or two on the hook. They must sense the movement and instinctively grab the worm.

 

[David Maddison]

Blimey Ray that was cold!
Just a thought,.. do you,.. or anyone else think that the bigger barbel are more likely to feel the need to feed in cold temps than their smaller brethren?

As an aside, this is one of my favourite winter barbel pics from a sadly departed and much missed friend of this site.

https://barbel.co.uk/site/vbulletin/forum/members/picture.php?albumid=490&pictureid=5823

Great picture Dave, What a legend! I think he inspired many anglers to float fish for barbel.

Dave

 

[John McGough]

Interesting read and some very inspiring photos there.
Certainly those anglers fishing the Severn, Wye, and Trent to name a few are more likely to catch during colder conditions than someone fishing lesser prolific rivers.....
More fish... more chance of putting a bait on their nose.
Rays comments are absolutely spot on regarding having the will to fish in such conditions. These days I can no longer tolerate air temperatures below 2 or 3 degrees C no matter what the water temperature is. I have no doubt that any brave soul willing to put the time in when the water falls towards the low forties Fahrenheit will have a chance of catching but as Ray suggests it may take a good few blanks in between.
Obviously float fishing maggots with fine tackle will also increase one's chances in such conditions as Keith showed on numerous occasions.
The lowest known temperature I have caught in that I measured was 41F from the Kennet at Aldermaston many years ago, a day that I caught 2 on and missed another.

I believe when the temperature is between 42-46 Fahrenheit water clarity is far more important than the temperature. I will always be more confident fishing a nicely coloured water at 44F rather than a crystal clear water of 46F.

Lastly and I am sure obvious to most a rising temperature of 44F is much more preferable than a falling temperature of 46F

I fished on Monday evening after a relatively mild day but did not arrive at the river until 6.30pm. The car clock had dropped to 5C when I parked up. I nearly went home but because of the lack of time on the bank lately I thought I would give it a couple of hours. At 8.15 the rod went over and I had a barbel on, after wrestling with the landing net frozen to the ground I managed to net a pristine fish of 13.9. I packed up immediately and the temperature had dropped on my car clock to zero....
You have to be in it to win it as they say.

 

[Ray Walton]

David...When i was with Trefor (as above), it was undoubtedly 'Smell' of the bait that stimulated the barbel which was a paste fished static and a few trickled freebies. We could see the fish in the swim of which there were around 6 tucked under a tree and roots close in. The bait was placed upstream under the tree and the trail of the released bait scent travelled downstream into the path of where the fish were laying, totally dormant and still. Took a couple of changes of bait and more freebies before the fish started to nudge each other about and become agitated. No way did they want to leave the cover of the tree. One noticeable observation that happened in this episode was that as soon as the bait had been in the water for a few minutes, it seemed to lose its smell/scent and the barbel went back to being in the dormant state, even though the bait was still in the swim. A new bait on the hook and a few more tricked freebies would stimulate them again for a short period only. Eventually, only one barbel nervously left the pack and came upstream to investigate the bait and took it. The others didn't want to know and cleared off pronto as Tref's barbel was hooked.

 

[David Maddison]

I fished on Monday evening after a relatively mild day but did not arrive at the river until 6.30pm. The car clock had dropped to 5C when I parked up. I nearly went home but because of the lack of time on the bank lately I thought I would give it a couple of hours. At 8.15 the rod went over and I had a barbel on, after wrestling with the landing net frozen to the ground I managed to net a pristine fish of 13.9. I packed up immediately and the temperature had dropped on my car clock to zero....
You have to be in it to win it as they say.

You've just inspired me there John, although I would say river temps in your part of the country are probably higher than up here!
I fish evenings more than any other time and have yet to catch a winter barbel in the evening!