How to feed for hungry barbel – Dr Paul Garner’s top tips

Recent rains have seen river flows increase, says Dr Paul Garner... and this week he reveals the best bait and feed for barbel that are on the munch right now

LEADING the recent surge in river sport has been the Trent, with big hits of specimen barbel from the tidal and non-tidal reaches alike.

With these bigger fish now a target, tactics and baits have changed to suit. Now, it’s not unusual to find anglers ‘carbelling’ on our big rivers, rods pointing skyward and baited with boilies or outsize pellets.

These tactics do work, but you have to think carefully about how to concentrate fish in your swim and attract them to your hookbait.

Get this right and you will really see your catches soar…

SPOD MIX

I tend to feed along one line when fishing big rivers, with one rod at the top of the swim and the other cast about 10m downstream.

I look for the deepest channel across the river, which is normally also where the flow is fastest, as this will be the main patrol route for the barbel. Often, this line will be too far out for me to use a bait dropper, so one way to feed is to use a Dot Spod.

This deposits the bait on the surface, so the currrent can wash it downstream, but I use this to my benefit by creating a trail of feed. Instead of piling in loads of bait in one hit, it’s better to top up with the spod every 15 minutes to keep a trail of bait rolling downriver.

If you use baits of various sizes and densities the current will take them downstream at different speeds. To combat this I keep my feed boilies separate from my particle mix. The boilies go in just upstream of where I am fishing, the particle mix goes in around 10m upstream of this.

I tend to avoid adding pellets when fishing big rivers, as this is a clear invitation to every bream in the river to join in the party. It’s much better to stick with a mix of hemp and sweetcorn that is less attractive to the slabs.