Quest Baits Blog

One of the interesting things about barbel fishing through the Autumn and winter is the amount of different baits that can be used to catch them, and how on some days they will favour one particular bait and ignore anything else.

With this in mind it pays to take a small variety of baits with you so that you can in fact change or experiment to find the bait the barbel want whilst you are there. Just because you have a good catch on say pellet one day, don’t become stereotyped into thinking that this method will always catch you fish as the barbel can be contrary creatures at times.

In fact I can think of many occasions over the last few winters where a change of bait has brought instant results. Also when fishing two rods less than 10 yards apart on different baits, i have had as many as six good fish on one bait whilst the other rod has remained motionless. continue reading…

It is at this time of year when I start to dust off my barbel gear and think about getting out on the rivers.

After 6 months on the Stillwaters it is nice to be getting back onto some moving water, fishing for some truly wild fish.

Hopefully from now onwards (as the weather generally worsens) the banks will be less crowded and as always at this time of year the barbel and chub will be in their peak of condition.

From now until the end of the season you can expect to encounter some of the most challenging river conditions and the worse that the English weather can throw at you. With this in mind I have listed a few things, which although simple have helped me put more fish safely on the bank through many previous winters. continue reading…

Nick wrote;

Hi Pat,
Hope you don’t mind me mailing you, have picked up your mail address from the Quest baits website. I have posted a blog along the same lines as this but I was wondering if you could recommend one of Shaun’s baits for barbel along with a pellet. I am fishing the Ouse around Bedford this year for the big girls and wanted something they have not seen before and could start putting in to get them used to it. Any recommendations?
Many thanks,
Nick

Hi Nick

Living in Wolverhampton I am central to a number of rivers and the ones that I have fished for the last two winters (whilst using Quest) were the Lower Severn, the Upper Trent, the Warwickshire Avon and the River Dove. None of the stretches are particularly prolific but in general the average size of the fish is pretty good, although nowhere near as good as yours will be on the Ouse at Bedford. continue reading…

By Pat Gillett
 

I suppose one of the main things that differentiates river fishing for barbel from say Stillwater carp fishing is the fact that in many cases fish stock wise no two seasons are the same. Now don’t get me wrong I do like my carp fishing and up until ten or twelve years ago I used to fish for them throughout the year. The thing with most carp waters is that after a season or two it soon becomes apparent what the fish stocks are and unless fish get stolen or you get the odd new fish coming through these stocks are not going to change. Obviously this is not the case with the barbel on the rivers as they are free to wander wherever they want to.

My barbel fishing last year really brought home to me the way certain stretches can vary from year to year. Now I usually start my barbel fishing around about October onwards, preferring to fish for other species for the rest of the year (which I believe keeps your fishing from getting ‘stale’ – variety is the spice of life and all that!). Last Autumn / Winter I fished the Lower Severn, the Upper Trent, the Warwickshire Avon and the river Dove and on all of these rivers the barbel stocks were significantly different to previous seasons. continue reading…

By Pat Gillett;

It is surprising how many anglers that give up and sit in the house just because the river is flooded or even in some cases just carrying a bit of extra water. For years it was a commonly accepted theory that it was always best to fish a river just as it was ‘fining’ down after a flood. Over the last few years though (especially on rivers such as the lower Severn) it has been recognised that for barbel the opposite is in fact true. The fish will very often feed the hardest at the ‘top of the flood’ in fact on a couple of occasions using two rods I have had a brace of double figure fish hooked at the same time.

If you wait till the river is fining down there is a good chance that you will struggle as the barbel will have probably gorged themselves during the high water levels and will no longer be feeding for a while. Obviously here I am talking about extra water that is in the river due to rain and which will generally cause the river temperature to be on the rise. If the extra water is cold (such as snow melt) it can be the kiss of death. The same can be said if you suddenly get a few frosts when the river is in flood. High coloured cold water and you are going to be ‘scratching’ for a bite.

So as long as you can fish safely get out there and give it a go. Some of the biggest barbel have been caught when the rivers are in flood, probably the most famous for the Midlands area was Howard Maddocks’ record fish caught from the Lower Severn when the level was so high there were only one or two areas that were fishable. continue reading…