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Who,s been barbel fishing in France ?

Hi men ,

I quiet fancy it now . There seems to be a drought of info , but also seems a bit of an untapped fishing is over there . Mainly because they apparantly taste **** , so **** even the French wont eat them :D:D:D:D:D.

hatter
 
Mark, there has been an article on French barbel fishing in each of the last 3 Barbel Fisher's.
 
Mark Anderson said:
Hi men ,

I quiet fancy it now . There seems to be a drought of info , but also seems a bit of an untapped fishing is over there . Mainly because they apparantly taste **** , so **** even the French wont eat them :D:D:D:D:D.

hatter
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I've seen Frenchies fish for them on the Loire. Tried to discuss it with one geezer in my broken French as I was just taking a look at a bit of water whilst doing other stuff and assumed they were after Carp. But no, he was after Barbel and told me that the locals round there, can't quite remember where exactly it was as this was about ten years ago, but the Loire, just down from Orleans. like the barbel. It was catch and release as the Barbel tastes rubbish even too a Frenchman as you quite rightly point out and the tactics looked pretty much the same as back home, a trotted float or a swimfeeder and maggots for bait. The Loire is a pretty warm river, am I assumed it wouldn't be ideal for Barbel...but it just proved that my assumptions were wrong. It also flows the wrong way...so they may have been stocked at some time, unless somebody knows better or the rules of which way the river flows for a natural head of Barbel differ once you go across the channel.
I drove all down there the year before last on my way down to the SW and kept think I wish I had brought some coarse fishing tackle with me...I only had a fly rod (I can hide this easy from the missus, so she doesn't start saying "we are only going there because of the fishing" when I have told we are going somewhere because of the beautiful scenery, art galleries and restaurants), when I remembered this conversation.
I don't know if it is the same now, but fishing tackle is more expensive over there than it is here, although I have never looked in the big towns and it may just be that the little shops I have looked in are expensive any way.
 
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The Loire is one heck of a valley.

Back in the early to mid 1980s I visited Angers and spent a few days with France's biggest tackle-retailer (doing full-colour catalogues THEN that the upmarket flyboys only got around to producing at least a decade later), a larger-than-life Rugby- as well as fishing-loving giant who introduced me to some of his insanely keen local fisher-clients (think 20-pound zander on sink-and-draw "rubber" lures THEN), who also owned a vineyard to which, I suspect, he retired as he's not trading now.
 
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Paul Boote said:
The Loire is one heck of a valley.
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Certainly is. I have only been along the bit from Orleans to Nantes and that's quite a long way. It is a very big canal in parts! And never cast a line into it or any of the hundreds of rivers that seem to flow into it.
I can recommend the Tarn, although I don't think there are any barbel in it but there might be. Great bridge over it at Millau, wonderful trout fishing above Millau, avoiding the canoeists and rafters. I am told big Carp below. Long drive but worth it.
 
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Mark,I shall be fishing the River Lot at Puy L'Eveque in October,i'll let you know if it has any barbel.
The 3 reports were on the rivers Vienne(Limouges), then Marne/Seine/Oise(Paris ish) and finally the Meuse(Ardennes)
 
Pete

The idea that you need a west - east river on the continent does not .. er, hold water :eek:

It applies to the natural stocks in the UK because those were the rivers that were connected to the continent before the old land mass became two but on mainland Europe all rivers can potentially hold barbel.

As for John Baileys' article, I would treat much of its content with a pinch of salt. I don't think that John spent too long in the north but having found a stack of easily caught barbel in the Lot, began doing his guiding trips down there.

The barbel in the Lot are plentiful but small, they may even be the Iberian strain which tend not to grow over 5 or 6 pounds but the vast majority are well below that.

I know someone who has seen double figure barbel in the Dordogne but it is a massive river and has stacks of carp to compete with the bait:)

There was a Utube clip of some guys catching decent barbel on the French/Spain boarder on fly gear but I can't find it now. But I can vouch that Spain is full of barbel of several different varieties and having just returned from a trip there I can also vouch for the fact that they can be very difficult to tempt:rolleyes:
 
France only has barbus barbus Dave as far as I am aware. I have heard too that they are mostly small, cant think why really, Holland does some good uns.

The Iberian barbel goes 20+ by the way.
 
The one's I caught didn't:eek:

I thought there was a strain of smaller fish that inhabited the French rivers as there are very few big 'uns over there despite the perfect conditions.

I don't know, it's bad enough in England not catching one species of barbel never mind not catching loads of different sorts abroad. :D
 
Fred Bonney said:
Mark,I shall be fishing the River Lot at Puy L'Eveque in October,i'll let you know if it has any barbel.
The 3 reports were on the rivers Vienne(Limouges), then Marne/Seine/Oise(Paris ish) and finally the Meuse(Ardennes)
Click to expand...

Hi Fred,

I am going to be fishing the Vienne this summer, please can you post the link to your River Vienne report you mention?

Kind regards
Ben
 
Sorry Ben, there is no link, the article is in the Barbel Society's members magazine Barbel Fisher, Issue number 27.
It is available for £3 including postage to non-members.
If you want a copy PM me.

Fred
 
Yep I been.

I stayed at Montrichard in the Loire Valley couple of years ago and fished the River Cher, a tributary of the Loire.
Caught fish nearly every where I tried ,,barbel ,bream and a chub like species.
Just used simple tactics,but only managed to get bites/fish on sweetcorn.
All barbel were 1 to 3 lb.

Many locals fishing for "silou" the local delacacy...catfish!!
The French definantly DO eat barbel...and bream:eek:

I have a girley 4x4 and it was very useful as virtually all the stretches I fished you could drive along the bankside.
It was refreshing to find the rivers so accessable yet still very peacefull.
The Cher is similar in size to the Middle Severn.

The Loire is absolutly huge and was too daunting for me .Unless you have good info,you would be better off enjoying a smaller river.
A really beautiful part of the world ,I will be going back.
 
I have a week on the Loire every year to fish for carp and catfish but have also caught barbel as well as chub, roach, bream and crucian carp. Haven't seen any barbel over 5lbs yet though.

If you take a walk across the bridge at Beaugency you can normally see loads of barbel.
 
Charente/ Charente maritime

Hi Guys,
I've been doing a bit of dangling around Cognac as far up as Amberac and have seen barbel but as yet haven't caught one. Not seen anything over 10lb but believe they exist. I've had small cats (wels) and chub and seen some carp, tench and bream.
The french anglers around Cognac seem to be fishing(?) for zander and hate the catfish as they keep getting smashed up. They say the Silure, carpe and barbeau are all "grande" but difficult to pin down exact weights.
Last year i had lunch (at a restaurant)i'm cheap but not that cheap) with the missus and her parents on a small tributary near Aigre and ended up feeding most of my lunch (and theirs):D to a group of chub and barbel that were obviously resident. I reckon some of the chub went 7lb but the barbs were mainly 4-5lb. Needless to say, the owner of the restaurant wouldn't let me have a dangle! Ho hum.

Regards,
Jeff
 
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