Barbel

Quick facts

How to identify it

A long, muscular, almost round-bodied fish with a flat belly, a pointed snout and a protrusible, downward-facing mouth surrounded by four fleshy barbels — two at the tip of the snout and two at the corners of the mouth. The back is olive-brown to bronze, the flanks golden, the belly cream, and the lower fins carry an orange-red tint; the dorsal fin has a strong, serrated third ray. Scales are small and firm. Anglers may confuse small barbel with gudgeon or nase, but the gudgeon has only two barbels and the nase a hard-edged, straight lower lip and no barbels. Mediterranean barbel species are smaller and more spotted.

Where it lives

Barbel are river fish of the middle reaches — the "barbel zone" — where the current is strong, the water well oxygenated and the bottom clean gravel, stones and sand. They hold in deep, fast runs, the tails of pools, the crease below weirs and rapids, under undercut banks and in front of and behind boulders and bridge piers, always close to the bottom. In big lowland rivers they use the main channel, groyne fields and the fast outsides of bends; they also live in canals and gravel-pit lakes connected to rivers. In summer they move onto shallow, fast gravel to feed; in winter and during floods they retreat to deeper, steadier water and slack edges.

Season and behaviour

Barbel spawn in May and June on shallow gravel riffles at 14–20 °C, often migrating upstream in large shoals, and are protected by a closed season in many countries. The weeks after spawning, from June into July, are the start of the main season, which runs through summer and autumn: barbel feed hardest in warm water, at dusk, through the night and at dawn, and on overcast days with a rising, coloured river. Autumn floods bring the heaviest, best-conditioned fish onto the feed. In winter they become lethargic but still take a bait on mild days after a rise in water temperature, especially in the afternoon. They are largely nocturnal bottom feeders and use their barbels to find food by touch and taste.

Fishing methods

Ledgering with a feeder is the standard method: a heavy cage or blockend feeder of 40–100 g, enough to hold bottom in the current, a 40–90 cm hooklength of 0.25–0.30 mm line and a strong, wide-gape hook in sizes 8–12. Fish a 3.3–3.9 m rod with a through action and a 1.5–2 lb test curve, a reel loaded with 0.28–0.35 mm monofilament or braid, and set the rod high to keep line out of the flow. Bites are unmistakable wrap-rounds, so fish a free-running rig and a loosened clutch. Rolling a lead or bait through a run, trotting a heavy float with a big bait and simple free-lining of a lump of meat in shallow water are deadly on smaller rivers. A landing net and a long rest in the current before release are essential for this fish.

Baits and lures

Barbel are not fussy but respond to scent and to a steady supply of feed. Halibut and fishmeal pellets and boilies, luncheon meat, large worms and bunches of maggots or casters are the modern staples; cheese paste, sweetcorn and bread work well in summer. Introduce hemp and pellets in the feeder or by bait dropper to hold a shoal, and keep the hookbait close to the feed. In coloured water, a big, smelly bait like a chunk of meat or a paste-wrapped pellet is the first choice; in clear, low water scale down to a single pellet or two grains of corn.

Tips from the bank

1. 01Find the gravel: barbel hold over clean, hard bottom in the fastest water that still lets your feeder hold, not in silt.
2. 02Fish the last two hours of daylight and into the dark — most big barbel are caught after sunset.
3. 03A rising, coloured river after rain is the best barbel condition of all; fish the slower edges and creases next to the main flow.
4. 04Bait heavily with hemp and pellets on arrival, then rest the swim before fishing it.
5. 05Always use a free-running rig and back off the clutch; a barbel's take can drag an unattended rod into the river.
6. 06Hold every fish upright in the current until it kicks away strongly — barbel exhaust themselves and need time to recover.
7. 07In winter, pick a mild afternoon after a rise in water temperature and fish a small, scented bait in the steady deeper runs.

Where to catch Barbel

Waters where Shoalmap's fishing reports list Barbel.

• Tisa
• Grauklingenbach
• Banjska reka
• Veliki bački kanal
• Tisa
• Begej
• Čik
• Kuka
• Lim
• Ločka Provala
• Majdan
• Rokov potok
• Akumulacija Panonija
• Kanal Zlatica
• Šodroš
• Dunav
• Kapitanski rit
• Čik
• Malokamenički potok
• Ludaško jezero
• Liqeni i Gramës
• Krivaja
• Čukarički zaliv
• Topčiderska reka
• Grbovica
• Mali potok
• Srebrni potok
• Glibovac
• Matyér–Subasai-főcsatorna
• Lake ATAR

Related species

• Nase
  Chondrostoma nasus

  The stone-grazing shoal fish of clean, fast-flowing rivers.

• Chub
  Squalius cephalus

  The big-mouthed, all-year opportunist of rivers and streams — it eats almost anything.

• Common carp
  Cyprinus carpio

  The heavyweight of still and slow water that built a whole branch of angling.

• Grayling
  Thymallus thymallus

  The sail-finned lady of clean, fast-flowing rivers.

Frequently asked questions