Angler, which will locate in the river barbel, can count on a successful catch. Tony will help you find these fish.
In early June, I am starting to feel anxious. After all, there are only a dozen or so days left to the beginning of the season. Barbells are long after spawning, The fishing equipment has been on the wardrobe for a week. Already for many, many years in the morning 20 I always go to the water in June. First, I arrange the places, in which the fish accumulate.
Immediately after mating, barbel remains near the spawning grounds for some time, in well-oxygenated places with a gravel bottom. Fish, exhausted by the love game, quickly regain their strength and after some time they start catching the rod very well. Later they will scatter all over the fishery.
So the barbells returned to their favorite positions. From then on, we should look for them in places, that stand out with something. The most promising fisheries are the areas overhanging branches and thick shrubs on the shore, underwater carpets of vegetation and washed pits below waterfalls. Barbells are also eager to accumulate in some of the deeper pits and gutters in the middle of the river bed.
Each barbell flock has its own, mostly a 100-meter long section of the river. Individual fish are "scattered" along the entire length of the occupied territory, a little here. a little there and they are looking for food almost all the time.
Resting place
Barbells can get used to a particular "feeding pattern."”. We bait no more than the distance of "one fishing rod."” from the shore, preferably somewhere with gravel at the bottom, because then it will be easier for us to observe the feeding fish. Thanks to this, we will quickly find out, which of the bait spots are most frequently visited by barbel and how these fish react to groundbait. All sections of the river occupied by barbel usually have so-called "resting places."”, that is places, in which non-foraging fish gather. This could be, for example, a deeper gutter in the bottom at a shallower point in the gutter, or washing the shore under the branches or bushes hanging over the water. We lure the barbells at a distance of not more than 15-20 meters from their resting place.
If the river bed is overgrown with aquatic vegetation, the only way to effectively bait the barbel, and then catch them without the constant threat of snags, there is a rake among the vegetation. Such a corridor, enabling us to observe, baiting and fishing, it doesn't have to be big. The more exposed the place is, where we fish, the more cautious the feeding barbel.
In commas
Some parts of the river bottom covered with water are cut by "tunnels", natural routes, on which barbells move in search of food. If such a tunnel is located near the "resting place", nothing stands in the way, to make it a little wider, and then start alluring there. This is the surest way, to always fish in place, in which the barbel naturally feeds, a way to "feel", from which side the fish come to the fishery.
Barbells feeding in or out of the baited place, they will almost always be interested in the lure lying on the vegetation right next to the "tunnel". Bites are then just as sure, like bites in the immediate vicinity of the "resting place" of the fish. However, we should never lure and fish by chance. Sometimes it pays to probe a fishery very carefully, for example. Suppose, that we decided to lure along a thick carpet of aquatic vegetation stretching in the very center of the river bed. When wading in water it turns out, that at some point the bottom begins to fall a little more steeply, it gets a little deeper. And that's where we should entice, because it is precisely all unevenness in the bottom that attracts fish with magical power. Barbells also like to pile up near all kinds of obstacles. For example, the largest barbel, they are very eager to stay near fallen trees and large stones lying on the bottom. These fish sometimes also feed in places with deep and very calm water, however, we can only count for good bites at night or when it is cloudy, rainy weather. Such sections can be found below shallower places with a slightly faster current and several dozen meters below any waterfalls. In small rivers, good barbel fishing grounds are also found between reed islets and in calm waters below any obstacles in the river.
Intensive foraging
Barbells take best in summer when the water level in the river is high. The turbidity of the water always provokes them to forage intensively and if we fish in the right place, the catch can exceed our wildest expectations. When the water is cloudy, the fishery does not have to be deep. The barbells can then feed even in 40-centimeter shallows. Thanks to the high water condition in the river, new fisheries are also being created. Some sections of the river bed become attractive to fish and suddenly it turns out, that near washed-out banks or behind large stones in the riverbed, in places, in which it has never taken anything before, now takes one barbell for another. We cast the bait a little above the alleged fish position, to sink to the bottom just in front of the site, in which barbel are feeding (on the bait carried in the fast current of water, the fish usually do not pay attention). This is also characteristic of the behavior of the barbel, that during periods of heightened state in the river, when the water current is much faster than normal, the fish leave their current positions and look for places with calmer water. Of course, we can only count on success in all these places, when we properly prepare the fishery and do not make school mistakes while fishing.
For this reason, just finding fish is only half the "distance."” on the way to successful barbel fishing. Willing to be successful, we must first “prepare” the future fishery very carefully.