Barbel on the fly !!

[birdsnest]

Has anybody ever caught a barbel on the fly ? On purpose or otherwise ? I have a crazy German friend who works in spain and regularly fishes for them with fly tackle with great success. I suspect that the spanish Barbel are a different species to ours but I just wondered. I can only assume that you get one helluva fight.

[Dom]

I have never caught any coarse fish on the fly (but that is about to change )
I think I will leave Barbel until I get a bit more experienced but I did find the following
www.finandfly.com/articles/ViewArticle.php?aid=56
Cheers
dom

[birdsnest]

Thanks for the article Dom. Very, very interesting. Must give it a go. Poor mans Salmon fishing eh ?

Tight lines

Birdsnest

[Sewinbasher]

I have fly fished for barbel in the Aragon province of Spain and they do take the fly quite well. I used a cased caddis to good effect but the barbel were more picky than the trout.

They do appear to be a slightly different species with shorter heads however they fight like tigers and are good sport.

[sandfly2]

I intend to try for Barbel with the fly rod this season as my local river has them in some areas .

Davy .

[maharg]

Sure I saw an article somewhere of a guy catching them on an annomite nymph. think he prebaited heavily with hemp first to get them feeding well.

[moustique]

The main points to remember if you are trying to catch barbel on the fly are;

- most of it is done where you can see and target fish,

- the water / swim needs to be conducive to fishing with nymphs

- if you are fishing for barbel near snags then you had better use pretty meaty gear

- and only use one bug or PTN.

The following may help ;

www.flap-holidays.com/The_Fishing/Fly-Fishing/barbel_on_the_fly.htm

www.fishing.co.uk/article.php3?id=184

[chub1]

moustique said:

The main points to remember if you are trying to catch barbel on the fly are;

- most of it is done where you can see and target fish,

- the water / swim needs to be conducive to fishing with nymphs

- if you are fishing for barbel near snags then you had better use pretty meaty gear

- and only use one bug or PTN.

The following may help ;

www.flap-holidays.com/The_Fishing/Fly-Fishing/barbel_on_the_fly.htm

www.fishing.co.uk/article.php3?id=184

Seconded.Barbel will test your tackle to the limit.Better go well beefed up

[FlyBri]

In andalucia there is a guiding operation which for 300 euros a day will take you out to catch barbel on the dry on a river. I'm going to try it with a bug or ptn on the avon next year.

[chub1]

I would think that a hallibut pellet-look alike fly would work a treat,or a luncheon meat lookalike ;D,cast down and accross in fast water
or is that cheating ;D

[tigermoth]

There are apparently now, sections of the Wye on which Barbel can be caught by fly. Maybe we should put up a trphy to anyone who catches one on this summers social that Ben Wynde is organising

I used to trot for Barbel on a small cheshire river and even the small ones would go off like torpedos - they would make some serious scrapping on fly tackle.

[pmd]

I often target Barbel in the summer months using a large heavily weighted nymph slowly inched along the bottom, fry imitations also work

[moustique]

Don't forget that barbel can be caught on minnows!

So if you remember they are preditory, a minnow like fly / bug should / could also produce fish.

300 euro's (can't find a sign key?) thats pretty pricey! If you find the fish they you'll catch anyway! Better take an 8# - 10# and plenty of backing ;D

[chiro]

I already posted that link on another thread, but here some great pictures of monstrous barbels caught on heavy nymphs in France (river Rhin).

barbe-rousse.gobages.net/index.php?op=ViewAlbum&albumId=151&blogId=32

Some anglers released specimens up to 1 meter long !

[moustique]

Hi Chiro,

From what I have heard, the majority are caught using carp tactics of 2 or 3 rods and large beds of bait.

A few may be caught on a fly rod and nymphs, but if you look at the pictures, you will also see a carp rod.

It is disappointing to see someone using a "boga grip" to pick up and hold a barbel? It's not like they have a mouth full of teeth and a grip of this kind will cause damage to the barbel around its nose and mouth area It's a great concern if this is the start of a new trend

Nice pictures apart from the offending one