"The big advantage about fish in weed beds is that they feel completely safe in their concealment. Many times I have searched the open patches and watched nearly every fish hooked actually suck in the bait. These fish, barbel, chub, roach and dace, don't scare if the wading angler moves slowly and keeps casting movement to a bare minimum"

So wrote that eminent Angler and Author Peter Wheat in "Wader Fishing" published in The Anglers Year No. 2 in 1971.

My parents bought this book as a present for Christmas 1971 and I have read it two or three times every year since. I am lucky enough to have fished and had dinner with Peter on a few occasions recently and the book has been very kindly inscribed by him.

When I was very young, I had the pleasure of watching Peter trotting for barbel on the Royalty Fishery and I learned more about how to bait and trot a float in a couple of hours than I ever thought possible. I was too shy to actually talk to the man and made my exit when he started to wade back towards the bank. It was a very long time ago but I do remember him catching quite a few barbel and chub. I also remember that I wanted an opportunity to do likewise.

I headed off to Davis Tackle to stock up on some suitable floats and decided to get up early and try to get close to the front of the queue for a day ticket. In those days the Royalty was always busy and there were actual fights on the bank over some of the more popular swims. I also witnessed two anglers carrying a dustbin full of maggots between them down to the river!

I was about fifth in the queue that day and hoped that the anglers in front of me would not chose to fish "Watersmeet". I was in luck that day and managed to get into the swim that was so expertly fished by my hero the day before.

I started by putting some bait (maggots) in the swim in roughly the same place that Peter had the day before. I then assembled my tackle (an old Avocet and an Avon Royal Supreme reel) and waded out to the limit of my thigh waders.

I must admit that it took me a very long time to get the hang of trotting the float through on the right line and at the right pace. I didn't even notice the first bite I had, the rod was nearly ripped out of my hands and after a hard battle in the very fast water, a barbel of about 6lbs was duly landed. After that I raised my level of concentration and had a real red letter day with barbel to over 8lbs, chub to over 4lbs, and roach to just under 2lbs. From that day on I was hooked on wader fishing.

These days, my barbel fishing takes place on quieter stretches of the Great Ouse near Bedford and I am able to wade or not as I wish, depending on the chosen swim. Because wader fishing is one of my favourite pastimes I find more and more that I fish 'between' swims just so that I can don the waders. I have also found that by fishing away from the established swims, my catches improved as well so there is a double benefit.

On the stretch that I fish most, the average depth is such, that under normal conditions, spotting barbel is usually not too difficult. When this is not possible then with knowledge of the stretch it is usually not hard to work out where a few barbel might be. By baiting three or four such 'swims' and fishing each one for an hour or until I catch, it is possible to cover any 'errors of judgement' and still catch. As I tend to concentrate on one stretch I am able to build up a knowledge base of what swims produce under varying water conditions.

By entering the water I am able to locate barbel that are not visible from the bank. I am also able to bait very accurately and watch the fishes reactions to bait immediately. By staying still in the river after baiting I am still mesmerised watching feeding barbel close up and get as much enjoyment watching as I do catching.

I usually start a session by wading out with a bait bag and accurately bait a suitable gravel patch which has plenty of surrounding streamer weed. I then back away for about 10 minutes and then return to see if there are any feeding barbel. If there are then I might watch for a bit before collecting the rod and net from the bank, if not then I put some more bait in and repeat the process. I often bait three or four swims in this way before starting fishing and I only start fishing if I see barbel feeding. This is also my approach when fishing from the bank where barbel can be observed.

Once the barbel are seen to be feeding it is then a question of wading as close as possible (usually a rod length) without spooking them. This is quite an easy thing to do when the barbel have their heads down and are feeding hard.

Being able to lower the bait to them causes far less disturbance than casting a lead over them and it also enables some degree of selection as to which barbel the bait is lowered to.

On a recent session, I had arranged to fish with Glenn Smith on a free stretch just below a road bridge. After a few hours I grabbed the bait bucket and wandered upstream to my syndicated stretch. There were a few barbel in the first swim I came across so I threw in some pellets and watched them until they started hoovering them up.

I went back below the bridge with Glenn and told him of my find. He offered to take a few pics while I fished so we quickly moved into position and put a few more pellets in.

I started by fishing from the bank and had a barbel straight away, quickly followed by another. I then waded out and baited a specific gravel run that had produced barbel to 12.2 for me in the past. I did not have long to wait as a couple of large barbel moved in, heads down and tails up waving in the current.

A careful retreat back to the bank with tales of big barbel to relay to Glenn. Anticipation levels at fever pitch, I picked up the rod and Glenn picked up the camera.

Wading slowly into position I was relieved to see that two barbel were still feeding on the pellets. Glenn was ready with the camera as I lowered the bait just in front of the feeding barbel. Bait was three 10mm banded pellets on a looped hair rig.

I didn't have long to wait as the line pulled tight and the new purpose built cane barbel rod took on a nice curve. I already knew that the barbel was likely to be a double and the fight was typical of such a fish, slow and ponderous. Glenn managed to get some very good shots before picking up the net and expertly landing a fin and scale perfect barbel.

The scales indicated a weight of 10.12 and after a couple of pics it was returned to the river to hopefully give similar pleasure for another angler.

I waded back out and fed another couple of handfuls of pellets and retreated to watch. The second barbel soon showed me her waving tail and I went to fetch the rod again.

It was almost a repeat performance but this time the scales pulled down to 9.4 and this bought to and end another delightful and productive wader fishing session.

If you have the opportunity to fish for visible barbel by wading out and fishing under the rod top, give it a go, I have yet to come across anything in fishing that raises the heartbeat more …


All the best

Dave Smith

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