With the leaves almost all gone from the trees it's time to change tactics to keep catching barbel.

As the water cools I like to reduce the amount of freebies the fish get. Being a big fan of PVA mesh for introducing my pellet mix, Sonubaits Tuna Spod Mix plus an assortment of 4mm and 6mm halibut and feed pellets, I do this in two ways. Firstly I make the bags much smaller than I do during summer. No bigger than a golf ball, and smaller still when the river is really cold. The second thing I do is leave my rigs out for a lot longer. During the warm months I'll happily recast every ten or fifteen minutes to get plenty of bait out. The barbel are active and will soon find it and hoover it up. Now the water is cooling I'm leaving baits in place for up to two hours if I can. Pick your swims carefully and fish confidently.

Floodwater is another thing to contend with at this time of year, and the rubbish it brings with it. I don't hold with theories that say pellets will get washed away from the hookbait quickly in flood conditions. They will if you cast into the main flow, but by looking for water of a similar pace to where you would fish in high summer the free offerings will behave just the same and stay put. It certainly works for me. If I can get to the river as it starts to rise, before it's picked up too much rubbish I am really confident. I think that's when the barbel feed most avidly. The height of a flood can be troublesome with leaves, weed and other debris constantly fouling the lines. The barbel will be on the chew, but the practicalities can make keeping a bait in the right place for long enough all but impossible. As a flood subsides the fishing becomes technically easier, but the barbel are full and feeding less. They can still be caught if you leave baits out long enough though.

If you fancy increasing flavour leakage from boilies like Sonu's Crab and Crayfish, without resorting to flavoured dips, simply cut them in half and either fish the two bits back-to-back, or put one-and-a-half on the hair, or use four halves for a bigger bait. Crumble a few in with the pellet mix too. When the water temps get cooler fishing single 8mm pellets or 10mm boilies rather than 15s might be a better bet, but if there's a nice warm flood two 15mm baits aren't too big a mouthful