River Fishing Tips | How to catch more barbel in the day - Phil Smith

There are a few things you can do to boost your daytime catch rate, starting with targeting waters that don’t allow night fishing.

A fantastic conditioned double caught in daylight hours

It may seem strange, but on venues where night fishing is allowed, it appears to encourage the fish to feed better in darkness, and less during the day. 

I’d also recommend smaller baits, the obvious ones being maggots or casters. Bait droppering with hemp and caster, say, 10 droppers of each, then leaving it without casting in for an hour will get results.

Casters are a deadly bait in the daytime

For hookbaits, I favour hair-rigged casters or maggots mounted directly on to a size 12 hook. Some of my best specimens have fallen to these tactics.

Fake casters are a good hook bait to avoid small fish