Specimen Secrets

Short evening sessions over a bed of bait can bring you the fish of your dreams

Want to catch barbel after dark? Dai Gribble is your guide

AS THE summer nights begin to draw in, my thoughts turn to fishing for big barbel during short evening sessions.

By ‘big’ I mean anything over 10lb – we have all read reports of catches of multiple doubles from the Lower Trent, but don’t let that fool you into thinking every river in the country is like that.

In most rivers a 10lb barbel is still a fabulous fish, and well worth a summer evening spent on the bank after work.

A few weeks ago I described my tactics for catching barbel in daylight from rivers with a good head of barbel.

These tactics will still work, but I prefer a different approach when fishing into dark for large barbel.

Big barbel are generally more wary than smaller ones, and in most places far less common.

This means that different tactics are more appropriate when trying to catch them.

Rather than regularly casting a swimfeeder to introduce a stream of bait, I like to introduce a bed of bait at the start of the session and then fish over the top of it, only recasting when necessary.

In general I like to cast out and leave the bait in place until I either get a bite or drifting weed drags the rig out of position.

Here’s my simple, but effective, rig for catching barbel after dark…

“Big barbel are more wary than smaller ones, and usually far less common”