Martin wrote:They fish with lures for barbel on the continent think I might have a magazine article somewhere on it
Taken on a 2" plastic shad, it's still in the mouth. It's not the only barbel I've taken on a lure.
I've got a theory that coarse fish are more predatory over here. A sweeping generalisation now, everything seems to spawns a lot more successfully over here, perhaps it's the slightly warmer temps, and there as a lot more fry knocking about. I couldn't count the number of perch I've taken on maggots in the UK, I've not caught a perch on maggots in 4 years in France!