Baby Barbel!

[Kev D]

I had never caught a barbel until last December,and then l caught two in the same afternoon from the public stretch of the Itchen. They were only small but oh soooooo cute.

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I actually hung the first one in the net in the water and rushed round the corner to where my friend was fishing so he could share my excitement. l was a bit deflated by his lack of admiration , and by what he called me when l produced the little thing for inspection.
But it was still my first barbel!

[Coral Maestro]

This fish was caught from the River Vienne in France. I've seen bigger gudgeon!

Did you ever fish the River Glane near to St. Junien? The river near to the bridge leading to the Corot site is full of young barbel of that size and the stretch down towards the confluence has shoals of them from around 9" up to this size.



The shoal of small ones is there every day, probably between 50 and 60 fish all feeding in about 6" of fast water over pebbles. I presume that this is the nursery area and as newly hatched ones arrive in late summer the older ones drop down the river alongside the allotments. The shoals come upstream hoovering up the sand bed and then turn and drift downstream about 30 yards before repeating the process over and over again.

I call it 'Fishing in Lilliput'.

Have you been to Beaulieu Sur Dordogne? You can cross the river by a footbridge over a weir. If you look into the water upstream of the bridge you can often see very small barbel browsing the algae. There are also some very nice trout!

[Snape]

I love baby barbel.
Perfection in miniature.

[BoltonBullfinch]

I'm hoping to catch my first river barbel next season, Im not counting the muddy pool barbel of 8 inches, a river barbel of the same size would feel much more exciting to hold, I would guess....

Thanks
BB

[Mole-Patrol]

This fish was caught from the River Vienne in France. I've seen bigger gudgeon!

Did you ever fish the River Glane near to St. Junien? The river near to the bridge leading to the Corot site is full of young barbel of that size and the stretch down towards the confluence has shoals of them from around 9" up to this size.



The shoal of small ones is there every day, probably between 50 and 60 fish all feeding in about 6" of fast water over pebbles. I presume that this is the nursery area and as newly hatched ones arrive in late summer the older ones drop down the river alongside the allotments. The shoals come upstream hoovering up the sand bed and then turn and drift downstream about 30 yards before repeating the process over and over again.

I call it 'Fishing in Lilliput'.

Have you been to Beaulieu Sur Dordogne? You can cross the river by a footbridge over a weir. If you look into the water upstream of the bridge you can often see very small barbel browsing the algae. There are also some very nice trout!

I didn't see any small barbel when we were there last spring, but in that area there were loads of salmon parr. I watched this guy casting to the same spot over and over again and eventually he rose and immediately lost a good trout.

[Coral Maestro]

This fish was caught from the River Vienne in France. I've seen bigger gudgeon!

Did you ever fish the River Glane near to St. Junien? The river near to the bridge leading to the Corot site is full of young barbel of that size and the stretch down towards the confluence has shoals of them from around 9" up to this size.



The shoal of small ones is there every day, probably between 50 and 60 fish all feeding in about 6" of fast water over pebbles. I presume that this is the nursery area and as newly hatched ones arrive in late summer the older ones drop down the river alongside the allotments. The shoals come upstream hoovering up the sand bed and then turn and drift downstream about 30 yards before repeating the process over and over again.

I call it 'Fishing in Lilliput'.

Have you been to Beaulieu Sur Dordogne? You can cross the river by a footbridge over a weir. If you look into the water upstream of the bridge you can often see very small barbel browsing the algae. There are also some very nice trout!

I didn't see any small barbel when we were there last spring, but in that area there were loads of salmon parr. I watched this guy casting to the same spot over and over again and eventually he rose and immediately lost a good trout.

This is the footbridge I mentioned. There was a large shoal of gudgeon in the shallows on the far bank so it was possible to compare the 2 species in the water.

[Mole-Patrol]

We passed over that bridge several times during our stay. All I saw were the salmon parr, but to be fair, I wasn't looking very hard as the dog was fearful of the bridge and had to be carried across. Normally I dawdle over each and every bridge.

[Lea Dweller]

I remember in the late 1950's when I first started fishing the Lea in the 'Fisher's Green' area, I often caught baby Barbel. They varied from gudgeon size up to around a pound. I have not fished that area for many years, but I believe those tiny barbel are no longer caught, although some big one's are still present!

[Mole-Patrol]

Looks like I'll get chance to compare Coral-Maestro's baby barbel with his gudgeon shoal sooner than I thought. With all this coronavirus stuff it isn't worth the risk of travelling down to Spain as we had planned later this month. Don't want to be shut out wrong side of the border.

Plan B is a trip down the Dronne and Dordogne valleys. Fly rod and gudgeon rod is on the packing list.

[Coral Maestro]

Looks like I'll get chance to compare Coral-Maestro's baby barbel with his gudgeon shoal sooner than I thought. With all this coronavirus stuff it isn't worth the risk of travelling down to Spain as we had planned later this month. Don't want to be shut out wrong side of the border.

Plan B is a trip down the Dronne and Dordogne valleys. Fly rod and gudgeon rod is on the packing list.

The Dordogne around Beaulieu is supposed to be a good spot for Grayling so perhaps you should pack a few Czech nymphs. Best of luck with the gudgeon!