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Winter Barbel fishing

thanks Mark, I've been tempted all afternoon, you saved me !!

Paul, pick your moment, don't fish for the sake of it. When we get a westerly low come in with rain and the river starts to rise get on the river. Fish a bait with plenty of pong, something like garlic spam....enjoy yourself.
regards
Bill
 
Do not fill it in, if you want to feed, grind your boilies up,use pellet ground bait or base mix in a pva bag ,give them the smell without the feed.If the rivers clear and warm use naturals like maggots or a lobworm.
 
Depends where you're fishing but I find the water temperature info & levels worth keeping an eye on. You should be able to find your part of the UK from this link
 
Interesting how we all use small amounts of bait in winter when other creatures such as garden birds and humans gorge themselves over the colder months! That being said though I'd feel very uneasy in using more than 3 or 4 bits of paste as loosefeed in a swim.
Only advice I have is make sure you have decent boots..... cold feet when fishing is miserable.
 
Paste wrap, and few bits on a stringer, is what I intend to do, or balls out and half a tin of Spam on the hook. :)
 
I think you can catch any time, clearly warm wet rising river is best but if you don't try other times you won't find out. Feeding times change and are often short but a nice cold winters day is still worth a go and take a chub rod too.
 
Look for trends in the weather, settled periods of weather will sometimes bring the fish onto feed, that said it can be a very brief feeding spell.

But all rivers are different, what works for me may well not work on your river :(
 
Maggot feeder takes some beating when the water temps are low but you have to make sure that your terminal tackle is still capable of landing the 'Bign';)
 
So could today & tomorrow be decent mild days for barbel fishing where I am in W. Yorks, I wonder?

It's been dry for a couple of weeks and nights have been quite wintery, down to foggy 5, 6, 7 degrees at night including this morning,and rivers fairly unproductive ...but with this weather front that's come across now it's not going to go below about 15 degrees for the next 48 hours, fair bit of rain to give the river a bit of colour... might be worth giving it a bash this evening & tomorrow then?
 
Spot on Graham, my local river has been very low for weeks and the fish either switch off or feed very late.With the increased overnight temp and rain, they should, Hopefully, start to feed again properly.I am going to give it a go tomorrow evening,the fish in my pond are feeding today, but not avidly.
 
Extremes apart, it appears that the temperature per se is not the most important thing....it's whether that temperature is rising or falling. A cold river in which the water temperature is on the rise is a better bet than a river which is several degrees warmer...but that temperature is on the way down.

I have no idea why that should be.

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Extremes apart, it appears that the temperature per se is not the most important thing....it's whether that temperature is rising or falling. A cold river in which the water temperature is on the rise is a better bet than a river which is several degrees warmer...but that temperature is on the way down.

I have no idea why that should be.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the feeding response is set so that any temperature rise indicates Spring (Breeding) and a drop indicates Winter (Hibernation) Or the fact that fish are cold blooded then temperatures control every aspect of their activities. I say fish, but only some fish, as Chub, and Pike disprove this theory.
Good talking point Dave.
 
When I regularly fished for carp, November was often a good month. I always assumed that this was down to the fish realising that Winter was almost on them, and them making the most of what was available before the cold weather killed most of their food items off. However, that may not be true, it was only a theory.

What also gave me food for thought was the fact that on a lake the fish (in general) fed better in a mild spell, however short that may be. What I found odd about that was that there was no way the rise in air temperature could affect the water temperature in any meaningful way in a day or two. Depending on lake size, it can take weeks for the water temperature to change significantly. In that instance, I assume that the low air pressure often associated with mild winter weather was more the deciding factor.

Either that or the fact that I was more likely to be there in milder spells :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Spot on Graham, my local river has been very low for weeks and the fish either switch off or feed very late.With the increased overnight temp and rain, they should, Hopefully, start to feed again properly.I am going to give it a go tomorrow evening,the fish in my pond are feeding today, but not avidly.
Click to expand...

They were certainly feeding today... unfortunately, or fortunately when you put my kind of spin on it, I was watching anglers just above and below me catching (and even netting for one of them), I now know where they were feeding and it wasn't quite where I've been targeting them...

temperature looks good tomorrow ...

I've never caught an Aire barbel but I'm not far off ... and right in the heart of the city too.
 
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