Barbel

[neil r 1,795]

Woodcutters isnt a stretch ive fished a lot but ive seen plenty of starlights down towards the bridge when ive been driving over  . My mate fished it a few times last year and had them to 11.15 on code red boilies

[DIDO.1 20,810]

Very rocky and weedy. 

Last attempt before waiting for the rains to come. 

[blackmaggie 3,375]

Anything doing dido when I have fished it one in the shadow of the tree and one to the left and 20 yards of the bank  both in that pool what bait you on 

[DIDO.1 20,810]

Using Robin reds. 

Had a chub and lost two more. Nothing big

[DIDO.1 20,810]

[DIDO.1 20,810]

Iv never seen so many bat's as the other night. It was sending us dizzy trying to watch the rods with bat's flitting between them. One looked nearly as big as a woodcock. They were constantly hitting the lines. 

[bell 3,503]

You got a new phone mate 

[CRAZYHORSE 2,647]

Managed to catch this small barbel out of the River Kennet the other night, I haven’t fished it for a few years. Apparently it’s not the river it used to be, I have heard that otters are one of the reasons for its demise. I was touch ledgering under some trees and as I got the bite an otter swam in front of me, it spotted me there was a big swell then it was gone. I thought it was going to steal my fish for a while .

[DIDO.1 20,810]

Surely I must get a barbel soon. 

[gnipper 5,945]

Tickled trout?

[DIDO.1 20,810]

Yeah. Not a sniff so far 

[DIDO.1 20,810]

4th attempt, still no barbel. Didn't feel confident tonight. Constantly stuck on bottom and lots of weed

Edited August 24, 2018 by DIDO.1

[neil r 1,795]

8 hours ago, DIDO.1 said:

4th attempt, still no barbel. Didn't feel confident tonight. Constantly stuck on bottom and lots of weed

It’s pretty shallow where you are fishing there and it’s mainly the game lads you see on that side of the bridge . The free section behind the golf course is a better bet and you can tell when it’s fishing because there will be cars parked on halfpenny bridge . Have you tried the day ticket stretch on ribchester front . You can get day tickets from the spar . If you do go there , don’t go on the grass bank below the tush pool on the front , it’s about a million foot deep with boulders the size of cars and you’ll struggle to hold bottom and when you do it will probably be because it’s snagged . Go down to the right to were the bushes start and fish the pegs from there down . I’ve waded across there from the other bank and there’s a good depth and flow only a couple of rod lengths out from that bank and it’s relatively snag free for the ribble . What rigs and bait are you using . I’ve found when first starting out on the ribble many years ago that the tactics you see in magazines like putting a bed hemp down didn’t seem to work for barbel on there but did for chub . My rigs and baiting are as simple as it gets , just a running rig and a plain grip lead , a 12-18 inch combi link hook length to a 6-8 hook with either a 15mm sonubaits code red , mainline hybrid or dynamite robin red boilie on the hair and 2 full and 2 crushed in some pva mesh or sometimes I swap the lead and pva for a korum river feeder with dampened sticky pellets . I recast every 30-45 minutes to give them chance to follow the bits of crushed boilie or the 4mm pellets upstream without being disturbed too much with continuous casting every couple of minutes like you would do when carp fishing on a commercial . For £30 I’d join Wigan Angler’s and fish the elston stretch , it’s surprisingly one of the better stretches round there , but does get a few muppets going down . I’ve had plenty of doubles off there and chub to 6.10 when I used to fish it . If you do join it don’t do what a lot of people do on the bottom farm and just fish the slow water where you park up , go a few fields up and there’s faster oxygenated water with deeper water in the channels in the bedrock close or go down towards redscar woods , at the bottom of the shallow rapids it drops off in to about 15 ft , you’ll see a small bush downstream on the opposite bank and if you were on the shingle bank and cast down on that line towards it and 1/2-3/4 way across , it’s a banker area ,  I’ve had a lot of barbel from there . 

[DIDO.1 20,810]

I'm using a running ledger like you say. Size 10 hook, hair rigged Robin red. First few casts iv been attaching a pva bag to the lead with a handful of small halibut pellets and a few crush Robin reds. After that I don't use any more bags but might catapult a few pellets out or attach a few to a pva string on the hook as the bags make quite a splash. 

Not fished the ribchester village front but have fished the stretch above the bridge just below the farm. 

[neil r 1,795]

You’re pretty much doing it right but I wouldn’t catapult them out because you won’t know where they are ending up and you could be taking the fish away from you . The woodcutters stretch you fished above the bridge is not one I’ve fished much but the bailiff goes in my mates shop so I’ll ask him to find out any info on it . I regularly fish the stretch between the woodcutters and ribchester stretch though and also magdell bank opposite the ribchester stretch and catch on the methods I mentioned . If the robin reds are not working have a go with the code reds or hybrid depending on whether you want a shelf life or freezer bait . Hybrid has been the best for me over the last 4 or 5 seasons and hardly anyone uses it . If you you’re on Facebook there’s a page called river ribble catch reports that might be worth a look for some info . Incidentally they’ve put the swim near redscar woods I mentioned as their page picture and it shows you everything I was talking about apart from the shallow rapids behind them .