The first was in January, when I was able to fish for two days

In this final article, I will be discussing the fishing techniques I employ in those well prepared swims and I would like to talk about two specific trips from the last couple of seasons to illustrate the important points. One will deal with the fishing in high summer, with the river very low, and the other the complete reverse, a winter session in high coloured water.The first was in January, when I was able to fish for two days. I had arrived about mid morning on the first day to find the river well up and coloured, and a quick check with the thermometer had confirmed a temperature of 8 deg C. Under those conditions, I knew barbel would feed well, if they could be found. Such winter conditions are ones in which barbel will respond to a bait in daylight, but with two days to spare I knew that my chances of success would be so much greater by sticking to the baiting schedule already discussed.Consequently, I spent a very relaxing day, continually walking the banks, prebaiting four swims in rotation, depositing six droppers of hemp into each one every two hours. At the onset of dusk, each of the swims had received four baiting visits, the final one in each case having been much heavier, in anticipation of increased feeding activity by the barbel after dark.As the intended hookbait was large bunches of maggots, for which those particular barbel have shown a great preference over meat, the prebait had also included a total of about six pints of maggots. As the light faded, I carefully positioned myself in the first swim. As I was using maggots, the terminal tackle included a large blockend feeder. The rest of the gear was slightly less orthodox.As I was after fish of a known high average weight in a very snaggy river, the main line was 101b Maxima fished in conjunction with a hooklink of nine inches of Kryston Silkworm braid, a very soft material. This was also 101b breaking strain, and carried a size 6 Au Lion D~or hook, on which were crammed 15 lively maggots.That gear, coupled with a Tricast barbel rod and an ABU Cardinal 54 reel, with the clutch quite firmly set, meant that the barbel would have to battle for every foot of line.As the prebaiting had been purposely accurate, with the eleven foot rod at full stretch and the dropper then lowered straight down, it was simplicity itself to lower the terminal tackle in the same way and be absolutely certain that it settled in the correct spot.That done, I sat on my chair in silent expectation, the line looped over the index finger of my right hand and the rod top betalight glowing progressively ever brighter in the rapidly deepening darkness.No more than three minutes after that first introduction of a hookbait, I felt a pluck on my finger, to be followed seconds later by a full blooded wrench. As I struck, the tightly set clutch screamed as a big barbel powered downstream. I did not have the luxury of yards of open water in which to play the fish, and so finger pressure on the spool was increased.The full power of the rod was brought into play, and with it bending to the butt, the barbel was foiled in its attempt to make some tree roots and turned back upstream towards me. It was never again allowed to get so close to that well known hazard, and after a few more minutes of hard pulling from both sides, it slid over the rim of my landing net. I estimated it at around 8lbs, and the scales confirmed that I was two ounces light.After the disturbance created by landing that barbel, I decided to fish the second of my prebaited areas, but before leaving I lowered two more droppers of hemp and one of maggots into the hotspot. In about an hour or so, I would be back.A simple tip here. My lead, or swimfeeder in this case, is always attached to a snap swivel, so it is the matter of an instant to unclip it and replace it with a bait dropper.A quarter of an hour in the second swim failed to yield the instant bite I felt I should have had in the conditions prevailing, had the barbel been in residence, and so, after again rebaiting, I moved into the third area. Ê No more than 30 seconds after the first bait had settled on the gravel, the rod had been whipped round and I was soon landing my second eight pounder of the evening, a chunky specimen of 8lb loz. For the remainder of my fishing time, I commuted between the four swims, fishing each for about 15 minutes at a time, perhaps visiting each area five or six times before I packed up at about midnight, completely shattered. The only other fish had been a 61b 14oz specimen, taken on the third visit to the fourth of my swims. I had gone through a further three pints of hemp and two of maggots in the process.Heavy rain beating on the van roof woke me at dawn, and I looked out upon a very bleak landscape. There was no need for any rushing around, as I had no intention of fishing again until late afternoon, and so I enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast before preparing another gallon of hemp. At about l0am, the rain now having stopped, it was time to recommence the prebaiting activities. By mid afternoon, with each of the four swims having been baited four times, it was becoming very dark indeed, thick rain clouds hurrying in ahead of the gale force wind. I made the decision to start fishing earlier than usual, as the low light value might have convinced the barbel it was already dusk.Whether it was inspired reasoning on my part or just a lucky accident I shall never know, but in any event I do not think the feeder had even settled when the rod made an almighty lunge towards the surface of the river. Were I in the habit of fishing off a rest, as I have seen many barbel anglers doing, I have no doubt that bite would have seen the rod fly into the river.There followed one of the most exciting battles I have ever had with a barbel, with a dozen or more really powerful surges downstream, despite the heavy tackle and the unforgiving clutch setting. Exactly 15 minutes after I had first hooked it, a lovely fish with an immense tail folded into the net, and I prematurely congratulated myself on another double.In fact I was quite a bit out, the fish weighing 91b 6ozs, but what a beautiful muscular specimen it was. I do not think that it had ever been caught before, and after 10 minutes patient nursing in some steady, streamy water away from the full force of the current, I was glad to see it shoot way strongly.After returning the fish, the swim had been rested quite a while, and I did try a further 10 minutes or so in it without response before moving on to swim number two. 0nce again, the bait was topped up before I moved out.For the rest of that afternoon and night the now familiar pattern was continued. The fish swim, bait swim, rest swim discipline is undoubtedly tiring, as you are always moving, but its efficiency was dramatically demonstrated that evening.At dusk I had a second barbel of 8lb 4ozs, and the darkness produced a further four fish of 71bs, 51b 8ozs, 81b 8oz and 91b 9oz. My last fish came at about 8pm, and had I stayed on longer, I would have caught more barbel. I am certain of that.However, the rain that had begun at about 4pm, and was now torrential, was starting to detract from the enjoyment, and as I go fishing to enjoy myself, I packed up earlier than I would normally have done.In the two days on the river, I had actually fished only about 13 hours, but had been rewarded with a total of nine barbel. There is no doubt at all that the periodic baiting of each swim and the frequent rest periods each one was allowed during the actual fishing hours contributed in no small way to the catch. When I tell you that the river in question very rarely produces even a solitary barbel in the winter it is not meant to be bragging. It is simply to demonstrate how ruthlessly efficient intelligent baiting and thoughtful angling can be.The second session I want to tell you about occurred on the second week of the new season, in high summer. I had only one day and night available, and before going fishing had decided to bait all day and fish all night, as previously described.The river was very much different from how I had last seen it in March. It was now very low, although quite opaque because of an early algal bloom. It soon became evident that this opacity would make visual location a headache, as spotting of individual fish was extremely difficult. The best I could manage was an occasional glimpse of an orange pectoral fin or flash of silver as a barbel rolled under the surface.In the now familiar way, I spent the entire daylight hours baiting four good summer swims, using two gallons of hemp and one gallon of maggots, and only as darkness was closing around me was the first hookbait lowered into position.That night, I was made to work extremely hard for the fish I was to catch. Because of the impossibility of seeing the barbel’s reactions to the bait during the day, on account of the suspended algae, I had no way of knowing the head of barbel that were visiting each area, or if indeed all areas were being visited. Nor had I been able to establish a feeding pattern, by observing how long the fish spent in each area before moving away from the bait for a while, as all barbel do periodically.Any sensible angler obviously gears his approach to the observed behaviour patterns of the fish he seeks to catch, but without the benefit of such information is obliged to fish more blind, as I was forced to do that night.After two and a half fruitless hours, which had seen me visit each swim four times apiece, I had a break from the fishing for ten minutes for a cup of tea and to take stock of the situation. On a summer night, there would be no doubt whatever that the barbel would be feeding, it was just a matter of where. Having made four visits to each of my baited areas, the law of averages said that my visit to each swim should have coincided at least once with a feeding barbel being in residence. The fact that not a single bite had so far materialised suggested that possibly the bulk of the barbel present might be concentrating their feeding activity in just one swim.My observations in previous seasons had proved that summer barbel rarely abandon a baited swim for more than 30 minutes, usually a good deal less, and so I decided to pick one of my prepared swims and sit in it for at least an hour. If a bite did not materialise after that time, I would assume that no barbel were visiting the swim that night and give the second swim the next hour, and so on. In this way, my hookbait and a barbel had to coincide during the night. I could not believe that the fish were avoiding all my prepared swims. Ê The obvious swim to start with was the one I felt the best, and so I settled into position where I could present my bait in a clear gravel hole between two clumps of cabbages and fringed under the near bank with streamer weed. Twenty minutes elapsed, and then suddenly I was brought to attention by a sharp rap on the rod top, as something brushed the line.I was instantly alert and, sure enough, less than 30 seconds later, a strong pull on the rod top heralded the arrival of my first barbel of the new season. And what a fish it turned out to be. I knew straight away that it was something a little special, it seemed tireless. About ten minutes after I had hooked it, everything went ominously solid, and I realised that it was fast in the downstream cabbages. After exerting all the pressure I could muster, which was substantial with the tackle I was using, the barbel was still immovable, and I had to go in after it.If I could achieve a low enough angle of pull downstream, I may be able to extricate the fish. I did not want to lose it, I knew it was extra big. After much precarious crashing down the high bank through the marginal rushes and nettles, I eventually stood gingerly in the margins, the water lapping perilously close to the tops of my waders. The manoeuvre was successful, However, since by putting the rod top under water and pulling as hard as I dare, I felt the barbel come free. After that, the battle was relatively straightforward, and I was soon heaving both myself and the fish back up the bank. Once I had myself sorted out, and was examining my prize, I realised that I had rarely seen such a well conditioned barbel. It was quite short but immensely stocky, with great thick shoulders. And it weighed llb 3ozs, quite a way to start a new barbel campaign.After carefully sacking the fish to allow it to recover after its great exertions, I turned it all over in my mind.There were two ways in which I could now fish what remained of the dark hours. I could either revert to my usual commuting tactics, roving from swim to swim every 15 minutes or so, or I could assume that the swim in which I had caught the fish periodically contained the bulk of the feeding barbel.In the event, I decided to test the latter theory, and sit in the swim for the rest of the night. My knowledge of barbel behaviour suggested that, now I had caught one fish, others should follow, but would probably be spaced out at fairly regular intervals, as the fish made their normal patrols in and out of the area.I was to prove remarkably accurate in my assessment. About an hour after I had landed the eleven pounder, I had another tremendous heave on the rod, the striking at which met with fresh air. I assumed that it had been a strong line bite, and had probably resulted in the fish being spooked out again. It was then a further hour before anything else happened, when another determined pull met with solid resistance. This time the playing of the fish was incident free and I was soon releasing a sprightly barbel of 71b I0ozs, none the worse for its experience. Almost exactly another hour later, the third and last barbel put in an appearance, this time another cracking fish. an ounce under nine and a half pounds.Looking back on that catch, I have no way of telling whether I would have caught more fish by using the regular commuting approach after catching the eleven pounder or not. Certainly, after missing the line bite and taking the seven pounder, both after intervals of almost exactly an hour, I had predicted the bite that produced the nine pounder almost to the minute. Sitting in the one swim for a few hours had told me something of the feeding behaviour of the barbel even though I had not been able to observe them.There you have it then, two examples of the fishing technique I use for the bulk of my small river barbel angling. Without a doubt, it usually pays to utilise the constantly mobile approach, as I have found it more normal for groups of feeding barbel to colonise more than one swim on any night. By moving around, you are not wasting fishing time in swims which the barbel have departed for a half hour patrol. However, by sitting in a good swim all night, you are virtually guaranteed bites on and off throughout the dark hours, although there may be long intervals between each one.Which approach you adopt depends entirely on you. I tend to vary my approach to suit what I think are the behaviour patterns of the fish on the day, but there could be other factors that determine the course of action. There may be other anglers about, which makes it much more difficult to move around at night, or you may simply prefer the more static approach. Certainly, on very wet nights, I have compromised on my planned mobile approach in favour of sitting in one good swim under the comfort of an umbrella. Fishing is for fun, it is not an endurance test.

I have always said that the most important part of barbel angling is those hours when you are not fishing, but preparing the swims and watching. Get that right, learn from your observations, and success is guaranteed.