Definitely the most stupid fish that swims.

I lost a barbel a few weeks ago on a boilie. About an hour later the other, pellet, rod was away. When I came to unhook it I couldn't work out why the fish had a boilie in it's gob. Yup. It was the one that I'd lost.

I only landed nine that night.  But I probably used less than a pint and a half of bait...

Yep, pretty simple to catch, just made complicated by experts.

The key is, IMO conditions, but that goes for most fish.

Steve

I expected the rest of the question to be....any good as live baits . In all seriousness I was always under the impression they were hard to catch...is it just the barbel purists leading us on (never fished for em)

I reckon this thread would go slightly differently if it was on BFW 

davelumb wrote on Sep 6^th, 2009 at 9:18am:


Another classic Mr.Lumb 

I agree, Barbel aren't the brightest fish in the world but to coin a phrase - "Don't they 'ang on".

They are stunning creatures too, like solid bars of gold.  I just wish I could catch one in daylight so I could enjoy the fight a bit more.

If we're discussing fish intelligence then I hate to say it but surely C*rp have to be right up there, after all they were considered uncatchable not that long ago, until the birth of the hair-rig.

Jonnyboy PAC wrote on Sep 7^th, 2009 at 10:30pm:


I see what your saying but I'm going have to disagree to some extent mate.  The Cockney Weapons underwater footage proves that carp are easily spooked and are very aware of every aspect of a rig, they become adept at sussing out hook baits.

So with Carp, once you have located the fish then presentation is the key, in my opinion that's not the case with Pike or Barbel, if you can locate the fish then they'll pretty much take whatever bait you throw at them.

Anyway, what the hell am I saying here!! I'm a Piker come Barbel hunter not a Carper!!

I retract all of the above, Carp are dumb mud pigs 

Cookiesdaughtersdad wrote on Sep 11^th, 2009 at 2:28pm:


What you need to do is use a very long fine hair and bury your end tackle in gravel....

davelumb wrote on Sep 12^th, 2009 at 8:46am:



I sense a bit of a piss take there Mr Lumb... naughty

Yes indeed Mr lumb, I believe you are extracting the golden syrup, its just a shame Decky is not here.
Would be interesting to get some of his views on pike rigs over here eh!
As for the cocktail stick, LMBO!
As far as fish intelligence goes, none of them have it!
When people say that fish are clever what they should say is that fish can be very cautious.
Some fish are naturally more cautious than others and with 20 or 30 years under their belts, some have learned to be very cautious.
Feeding some tiny perch just the other day it was fascinating to see them cautiously take all the freebies  and yet refuse the single maggot on fine line and a tiny hook.
I remember years ago fishing for barbel on the Great ouse, the fish were starting to get their heads down on hemp that was being catapulted just upstream of them but still showed some caution when the hemp landed, after a while they showed no reaction to the hemp other than eating all they could.
The fish were totally preoccupied on the stuff so it was time to introduce a hook bait sample.
In the catapult with the hemp went 2-3 grain of corn, as the corn entered the swim the fish, all of them turned away down stream and left.
With more time and a lot more hemp they were back feeding again and again left when corn went in, only retuned a bit quicker, this went on until they were feeding on the hemp and corn confidently.
It was a small shoal containing possibly 7-8 fish, and as barbel often do, every now and then the lead fish will drop down and join the group at the back, I’m sure they do this when their mouth is full after studying barbel in a tank.
Every now and then the lead fish will peel away and drop down stream followed by all the rest and move out of the swim, usually disappearing into weed.
This I think is not because they are spooked but because they are eating bait quicker than the can process it as they lack stomachs to store food.

In the Trent, often with a bit of colour and a lot of competition between greedy fish they loose all their caution but for me in my experience, pike are the real dummys!
I caught the same fish three times in less than 1 hour.
Trotting live baits for perch the thing would not go away, about 9 or 10lbs if I recall.

Cookie

Very true Dave, they may well be able to see it but at times do not care through a lack of caution and  greed.
Stoooopid is as stoooopid does!

In the Upper Ouse maybe not, in other rivers probably!

suckers for a gill net......