I expect this subject has come up before so apologies in advance but do these fish take artificial flies and what patterns are best?

Thanks in advance.

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[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

Yes they do, very heavy nymphs (nymphs have to roll on the bottom), they like bugs ( green, cream, brown colour, gold head), rhyac., czech nymphs. I don't know how it is work in UK but I caught barbel in Slovakia when I used short nymph in deep running water, when I was fishing for grayling. (I don't have pictures it's shame .)
Barbel is very good fighter - on fly fishing rod it is more exciting.

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New barbless hooks are here

Yes they take flies.

Flies and barbels from Serbia cought by Serbian best flyfisherman - MIXMASTER

Looks like they eat them in Serbia as well

I've caught them in Spain and they took a peeping caddis pattern quite well but were much harder to catch than trout. On many occasions you could see the fish just moving aside to let the fly go past. I have to say that a 5lb barbel on a fly rod gives a pretty good account of itself.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

The 3rd fish in the photo is either a chub or maybe an ide and they're welcome to eat that!

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

Interesting prospect but at the moment you'd need half a pound of lead to hold bottom when ledgering - maybe in lower flows in the summer.

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[I]"I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel."[/I] Roderick L Haig-Brown

[url]www.wildfly.net[/url]

[url]http://www.gameanglinginstructors.co.uk/[/url]

I was out fishing on the Ribble last Summer when a fly fisherman caught a barbel by 'accident'. As we have a very good head of big barbel up here he got into something around the 6-8 lb mark. When he'd netted and released it he came into the bank and couldn't stop shaking; said it scared the living daylights out of him. He'd never caught anything so powerful. I didn't think to ask what he caught it on. I fish for barbel with feeder and a 12 lb line and heavy rod are definitely required.

3rd fish is chub and they it all of them down there. You already experienced that here in UK with immigrants these days...It is hard to change these habits but flyfishermen in those countries are the only one who are trying hard to be as considerate as possible. Sadly, they are minority...

Luckily for you guys, I do not eat fish at all which means I am 100% C&R ))

Hi Loopy,

Have a look at the link to the old forum, there's lots of good info on therehttp://flyforums.proboards53.com/ind...9398333&page=1