Snagging the Impossible? Barbel on the Fly
When men are bored, we invent a new sport. When fishermen are bored, we invent new ways to catch familiar fish, or new fish to catch with familiar methods. And so began the quest to catch a barbel on the fly.I hate being told I can’t do something. And we all know I hate it more when Jon one ups me. So when, over a post-fluff flicking pint, he began to muse about whether it would be possible to get a barbel to take a fly, I knew my summer had just gotten interesting.
 |
 |
One sunny evening Jon and I set out with his mate Tom to test the waters. The trout had been going mad all evening on a rise, so it stood to reason… Fishing heavy Czech nymphs with my Helios nine foot eight weight, I started wading below a promising shoal of barbel. The nymphs were necessitated by the barbel’s physiology as bottom feeders. The difficulty is that the nymph has to be presented so it comes down to them where they are sitting in deeper, fast-flowing water…and look natural. As Jon spectated from the bank, I worked my way upstream without success. Tom, sensibly forsaking barbel for pike, was into a fish on his second cast. Perhaps our approach needs a rethink…
This entry was written by
Howard, posted on
August 5, 2008 at 1:04 pm, filed under
Driven Shooting,
Fishing and tagged
barbel,
bottom feeders,
fishermen,
Fishing,
fly,
Helios,
nymph,
nymphs,
pike,
shoal,
trout. Bookmark the
permalink. Follow any comments here with the
RSS feed for this post.
Trackbacks are closed, but you can .
7 Comments
Fishing the yorkshire don at beeley wood my fishing partner was fishing with his #4 zero gravity using 14 ptn on 4lb tippet for grayling when he thought he had struck bottom, pulling for a break the bottom begain to move away, after a dogged fight and no net a barbel was beached. Not having scales with us we photographed the fish and measured it up against the wading staff, making a mark to read off at home. The barbel was 24 inches long, we estimated it at around 5 1/2lb but when looking at weight charts 7lb was probably more accurate. When telling other club members we were informed that others had also caught barbel whilst using heavy nymphs.
John
Thanks for your comments, I have to admit that since writing this piece I have actually managed to bag a few barbel but definitely none as good as friends!
In Spain is possible to fish barbel with dry fly. We can’t say what this place is, a big paradise still not explored. To fish more than 30 big barbels in one days is normal, always sight-fished and with dry fly. The barbel flyfishing is similar to bonefish flyfishing but dry fly only.
Barbel Fisher
Sounds not only amazing but intriguing as well, I’ll drop you a private mail to get some more details and perhaps look at bringing a team over to give it a go.
Well I’ve spoken to my new best friend in Spain and I’m going to visit and give barbel on the dry fly a go! If any of you are as intrigued as I am drop me an email and come along or watch this space for more news
Well for those who read this blog or come across this page, I’ve done it. Three of us are off to Spain this May to give these foreign barbel a go, can’t work out why they take the dry fly but happy to give it a try. Watch the blog for more updates.
Well we made it to Spain and have been compltley blown away by the quality of the fishing and the fact barbel do take a dry fly!! Take a look at the blog and if you have any sense you’ll be signing up to go! http://outsidedays.com/2011/05.....-in-spain/