Barbel are made to live in fast flowing waters, their powerful bodies enable them to master this difficult terrain with ease. They are thus regarded as the hardest to catch coarse fish in the river. This of course only makes them an even more desirable trophy fish. Once on the hook, these fish will put up a grim fight and if you are not carrying the right equipment you are very likely to loose this battle. Barbel will fight until they are spent, therefore you should try to land and unhook your fish quickly to not have them exhaust themselves to death. Once you have caught, landed and unhooked the Barbel, hold it into flowing water upstream until it has recovered and is ready to swim away. This recovery period can take up to fifteen minutes.