How many 'stalkers' have spent hours in vain trying to separate the biggest fish in a group before making the first cast?� After all, we mustn�t spook the big one by catching a smaller fish must we?� On one occasion I had around 20 moderate barbel and two better ones on my feed.� As I was fishing between school runs, my time was limited and with no time for messing about, I decided to fish and hope but an interesting thing happened.� Over the first three hours, I caught five barbel between 4 and 61bs.� Then the group of moderate fish dispersed leaving only the two bigger fish between which I then caught in two casts ‑ 7.1 and 7.15.� If we accept that barbel do not shoal in the true sense of the word, as say roach and bream do but merely congregate in favourable areas, then I believe that I had two separate groups of fish in one swim.� Catching a few moderate fish caused the 'moderate group' to disperse leaving the seemingly undisturbed 'bigger group' behind.� This observation was very soon to be a key one, even if my theory was wrong.
A couple of weeks later, a bloke I had bumped into told me of a group of fish in an area I had never fished that were 'uncatchable'.� During a short daytime session, I decided to put some hemp in the swim and leave it while I fished elsewhere.� The swim did not allow me to do this because within seconds of putting a pint of hemp in a foot of water ten feet from the bank, I saw barbel emerging from the downstream willow.� There were six fish and two at least looked as if they might be doubles.� I watched in disbelief that two such fish were feeding avidly in front of me on a stretch where the club record had just gone to 9.11.� They fed for about five minutes so I topped up the feed and they re-emerged but unfortunately so did a couple of dozen smaller fish.� Bugger!� Then I recalled that earlier session and decided to go for it.� Loose feeding hemp and corn, fishing corn on a size 10 Super Specialist to 81b Maxima and a four foot tail, I soon caught a couple of barbel of around 5‑61bs.� Still the six big ones fed but my next three fish were all around the six pound mark.�� After about three hours and these five captures the moderate fish dispersed completely but only four of the six big ones remained, hanging a little further downstream than before.� One of the two biggest was feeding in a very specific area between the edge of the willow and a large rock.� This channel was barely 18" wide and being a little further out than the first area I had fed.� I immediately started to have problems with dead blanket weed fouling my line.� This problem was solved by means of a back lead eight feet up the line and since my mainline would be pinned to the riverbed, I reduced the hook length to 12", the long tail no longer being required.� I cast out two grains of corn into the channel once the fish had gone and fired out some more hemp.� The big one soon returned and started to feed hard.� After what seemed like an eternity the barbel had still not taken my hookbait and I felt sure she was avoiding it.� Then, with 15 minutes to packing up time the rod flew round and I was in the rarest of Yorkshire barbel angling predicaments, knowing for certain that I was attached to a double.� The fish weighed 101bs 7oz, the result of thirteen years of effort and more than 1100 Wharfe barbel.
