Barbel bites - alarms Vs rod tops | Quest Baits Blog

Barbel bites – alarms Vs rod tops

February 25, 2010 david 8 comments

Pat Gillett explains why you’ll catch more Barbel if you listen to the information your rod tops are giving you;

A nice Upper Trent double caught after making a change

With more and more carp anglers trying their hand at barbel fishing, I see lots of anglers fishing behind 2 rods with bite alarms, as they would do in carp fishing, and paying more or less no attention at all to watching the rods.

This is all well and good but by doing this you really are missing out on a lot of vital information that your rod tops are telling you. The alarms will only really tell you when a fish has taken line off the spool, i.e. when they have hooked themselves. Now by carefully watching the rod tops you can tell so many more things;

1. Slow bend rounds…. maybe lots of weed gathering on line…do I need to increase my hook length?

2. Continuous rod tip movements for small period of time… feeder / lead moving… do I need to use heavier weight to hold bottom?

3. Sharp jabbing type knocks on rod top… fish obviously in swim but either not feeding properly or scared of hook bait being used… do I need to change my rig/bait?

4. Slow little knocks every few minutes… on rivers like the Lower Severn, this usually means you are being ‘breamed out’ … do I need to try bigger baits, change feed from pellet to hemp? Or if it continues move swim?

Enterprise adaptors & isotopes

Above are just a few examples of the sort of thing the “alarm only” angler misses.

If you use the Enterprise Tackle rod tip adaptors with a high powered isotope and you can continue to watch the rods closely in the dark.

I can think of many, many occasions where watching the rods has caused me to change what I am doing and that change has resulted in the capture of a good fish.

Give it a go… I’ll bet you’ll be surprised!

Cheers, Pat Gillett.

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Pat Gillett, Specialist Barbel

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Written by Ron about 2 years ago.

Hi Pat, another vote for watching the rod tip here. When I returned to the rivers targeting barbel and chub it was as an alternative to sitting behind the rods. I wanted to do something completely different and I’ve never taken an alarm barbel fishing with me. I noticed very quickly that my catch rate exceeded that of the guys who bait up heavily, set up two or three rods on their buzzers and disappear into their bivvy, techniques developed for fishing stillwaters. I generally fish evenings where I can maintain full concentration and sit by my rods for the whole session. The river can give you give you a lot of clues

Cheers Ron
Written by Pat Gillett about 2 years ago.

Hi Ron,
“When I returned to the rivers targeting barbel and chub it was as an alternative to sitting behind the rods “. Totally agree with you on that point. It does seem that some anglers only have one method of fishing.

Most of my sessions are afternoon / evening and by concentrating on the rods you get so much more ‘of a feel’ for what is happening in your swim. Thus helping you to decide when and if you need to make changes. Very often these changes are only very small, but will result in the capture of a fish which would not have been caught if the change hadn’t been made.

Cheers,
Pat
Written by Shaun Harrison about 2 years ago.

I rod top watch but must hold my hand up and say I use the Delkims as well (turned down so they are barely audible). Delkims will register a tap on the rod without line leaving the spool (roller type alarms wont).
I find I am happier with this secondary warning whilst re-baiting or changing rigs etc.
I have recently had Jamie Simpson make me a superb angle bracket to allow the Delkims to function properly with the rod tips up – this is something to be aware of as the line catches on a Delkim if you raise the rods high and use a counterbalance bobbin to show slack line lead movement.
I always swore I would never use two rods, boilies and alarms for barbel much preferring the one rod touch legering scenario. This as you both say was to get right away from the carp fishing scenario I have always done so much of.
However, it’s a long story which I won’t go into now but I ended up fishing two rods on the Derbyshire River Derwent on boilies and the first evening had five fish – four of which were larger than I had caught on my touch ledgering bait trundling methods on that stretch. I had to eat my words and continue to fish semi carp style but I do sit staring at the rods.
As you so rightly say Pat they tell you so much more than an alarm ever could but I do like that extra warning whilst my attention may be elsewhere or indeed if I am playing a fish on one of the rods I want to know straight away if another bait has been picked up without having to keep looking over my shoulder whilst playing a fish.
Shaun
Written by Pat Gillett about 2 years ago.

Hi Shaun,
I tend to use two rods as well most of the time. During the season i will very often fish a lot of different stretches on a few different rivers. Because of this i find the use of two rods invaluable as it enables me build up a quicker picture of what is going on (if i was fishing the same couple of swims all the time, then i would only use one rod). Whilst doing this i find the use of the baitrunner is a good audible alarm if playing a fish.

An interesting point you make about catching the larger fish on boilies whilst fishing the Wensum. This is something that the findings of myself and friends would concur with. The average size of the barbel i have caught on places like the Lower Severn and Warwickshire Avon is definately bigger on the boilie / paste combination that i prefer, than it is on pellet or meat for example.

Cheers,
Pat
Written by Ron about 2 years ago.

Until two or three years ago halibut pellets outfished everything I used on the Trent and the Wye. Then I noticed a change and slowly over a year or so boilie started to take over, and the boilie/paste combination eventually outfished everything. The effect was more pronounced when the extra water and colour entered the river. Most successful baits for me have been Surf n Turf and Rahja Spice, and last year on the Wye Barbel Chops although strangely this produced the biggest chub, and the biggest barbel came to Chubby Chops

Cheers Ron
Written by Elie G about 2 years ago.

Some really interesting points from everyone here.

So much comes down to preferences. For me, I spend so much time sitting behind buzzers while carp fishing I really don’t want to do this when I’m barbel fishing if I can help it. These days my barbel fishing is divided between bigger rivers, mostly on the Trent, and much smaller rivers; the Dove, Soar and when I can get down, the Dorset Stour or Hampshire Avon. On the bigger rivers I will fish two rods, one level with me or just upstream, the other downstream. Like you Shaun, I prefer buzzers (turned off, sounder box on!) with two rods. Whatever species, it’s just as exciting when that alarm roars off! and yes, definitely keep an eye on the rod tips. However, by far my favourite method is to touch ledger on smaller rivers with just one rod in hand. It may not be as productive but I enjoy this so much more. Baiting up a few swims as I head upstream, then fishing them as I work my way downstream. I have found that the Quest Maximum Response pellets are brilliant for baiting up close like this, with hemp and chopped boilies. You don’t miss a thing touch ledgering and I prefer no visual rod tip indication at night either. This is so much more active a way of fishing, I guess it’s like the difference between floater fishing and waiting for an alarm to go off.

Elie G
Written by Ben about 2 years ago.

I learnt how to fish by carp fishing a local water in Shropshire. I then decided to tackle the fantastic river severn around the Shrewsbury area, I was told to use pellets and watch my rod tops. On the basis of this I decided to try the opposite and I decided to use rigs with an aggresive hooking style and use tryed and tested boilies I had used all my life for Carp. The results were that while those around me had lots of barbel to 5lb every run for me resulted in 7lb plus barbel with every other barbel going into double figures. I have learnt since to watch my rods but this is a real art and anyone starting barbel fishing from Carp fishing I would advise looking for irregular looking movements on your rod tip and really trusting your rigs and bait. Carp and Barbel are not disimilar. Fantastic Article and I completely agree that by watching your rod top you can learn to understand your environement. Think the key is Carp Anglers have the skill to catch Barbel with their ability to present a bait effectively but as they take on their Barbel fishing apprenticeship a knowledge of what your rod tip can tell you can be invaluable.

Ben Sheppard
Written by Ben about 2 years ago.

I learnt how to fish by carp fishing a local water in Shropshire. I then decided to tackle the fantastic river severn around the Shrewsbury area, I was told to use pellets and watch my rod tops. On the basis of this I decided to try the opposite and I decided to use rigs with an aggresive hooking pattern and use tryed and tested boilies I had used all my life for Carp. The results were that while those around me had lots of barbel to 5lb every run for me resulted in 7lb plus barbel with every other barbel going into double figures. I have learnt since to watch my rods but this is a real art and anyone starting barbel fishing from Carp fishing I would advise looking for irregular looking movements on your rod tip and really trusting your rigs and bait. Carp and Barbel are not disimilar. Fantastic Article and I completely agree that by watching your rod top you can learn to understand your environment. Think the key is Carp Anglers have the skill to catch Barbel with their ability to present a bait effectively but as they take on their Barbel fishing apprenticeship a knowledge of what your rod tip can tell you can be invaluable.

Ben Sheppard

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