Biggest barbel of the season landed by schoolboy
The biggest barbel of the season so far has been banked – by a 12-year-old school boy.
Jimi Loten proved he’s a potential star of the future when he landed the fish weighing in at 16lb 4oz during his latest session on the River Lodden.
The Aldershot-based rod has raised a number of eyebrows by landing eight double figure specimens to in his short career, but the 12-year-old managed to send further shockwaves through the angling community after upping his personal best again with this specimen caught on a Farnham AS stretch of the waterway.
With weed choking most pegs on the venue, Jimi wasn’t overly confident of catching when he arrived for his memorable session, but decided to persevere and introduced a handful of boilies at 5pm.
His belief was soon rewarded though, when just over an hour after his first cast he received a violent take on his carefully presented Berkley 12mm Tuna Spice boilie he’d won as a weekly winner in the Angling Times Kingfisher Club competition.
“It shot off, really testing my tackle to the limit and it almost got the better of me by getting into several weedbeds. Thankfully I was able to pull it out on each occasion and eventually slipped the net under it,” explained Jimi, who was legering with 12lb Berkley Big Game line and a size 12 Gardner Mugga hook
“I’ve only been fishing the rivers for two seasons and to land a barbel like this goes well beyond anything I could have expected,” he added.
Jimi’s school holidays have now begun and he has already pencilled in a number of days on the bank and has set his sights on making the headlines again.
“I’m not so sure I’ll land a bigger barbel than that and my next target is a 20lb plus pike. I’ve had them to 17lb in the past so I’ll be going all out to better it.”
Barbel net takes top honours in closely-fought match
A short pole approach helped Curtis Greenwood amass a winning 60lb of barbel during the latest event at Lancashire’s High Heyes.
With big hauls of silverfish winning most of the events in recent weeks, the Mack’s Tackle ace decided to use a balanaced set-up with maggots and was rewarded with fish to 4lb from peg 12 on Lake Two.
Just one fish behind was Les Del Pinto who came agonisingly close to being crowned champion with his 59lb 8oz netful.
Patient feeding the key to big barbel capture
After spotting a group of barbel hiding in streamer weed in the margins of a Midlands river, Ian Lowe set about building their confidence by introducing a steady trickle of loosefeed, and it proved time well spent when his rod lurched round shortly afterwards, resulting in this mint-conditioned 12lb 12oz specimen.
The West Midlands rod used a Teme Severn Mini Mix pellets and crushed Spiced Liver and Lamprey boilies from the same company, with a whittled down boilie on the hook, all presented on a rig comprising a running 1oz lead with a 6in braided hooklink and a size 10 Pallatrax hook.
He said: “Soon after I dropped the rig in, the rod sprang into life and I was attached to an angry barbel that didn’t want to be attached to rod and line! But she soon started to make her way back up to the waiting net, and once landed, she made my drive home so much more enjoyable!” said the 39-year-old.
Lid lifted on top silverfish stillwater
Angling Times this week lifts the lid on the greatest ‘silverfish only’ stillwater in the land.
The lake is located within the walls of one of the country’s best carp bagging complexes but the management have left one pool free of mirrors and commons and it has turned into a popular haven with match and pleasure rods alike.
Huge hauls of barbel, chub, tench and bream have been recorded in recent weeks, with countless triple figure nets being taken.
What’s even more impressive is that virtually any tactic is capable of scoring heavily, with long pole, margin fishing and feeder approaches all in deadly form.
To find out more about this top silverfish haven, pick up a copy of this week’s Angling Times, on the shelves from Tuesday August 9.
Big barbel so close to new river record
The barbel record for the river Rother in West Sussex has come within just an ounce of being broken following the capture of this 15lb 2oz specimen.
Caught by Hampshire angler Dave Chambers, the fish fell to a groundbait feeder rig and hair-rigged pellet combination.
Dave, a 49-year-old landscape gardener has been trying to beat his old personal best of 13lb 13oz for 12 years, and backed up the catch with another fish of 8lb 8oz.
For more details of the catch read next week's Angling Times, on sale August 2.
Pestered by crayfish....then by big barbel!
Mark Erdwin had to endure having his baits pestered by crayfish for several hours at the start of his session, but the aggravation was worth putting up with after this 11lb 15oz River Loddon barbel put in an appearance.
A boilie glugged in flavouring and presented over 10 free offerings did the trick for Mark, who used a low resistance ledger rig, with large bore run ring and 2oz lead.
'As the night wore on the crayfish activity reduced and eventually I had a very powerful lunging take,” said Mark.
“It put up a powerful fight, which saw it bolt for some heavy reeds upstream, but everything went well after that and I soon slipped the net under the well-conditioned fish,”
A 12in hooklength of 15lb Drennan Sinkbraid and a size 8 Gardner Talon Tip hook completed his set up.
Big Stour barbel on tiny bait!
Adam Smith only received one bite during a recent overnight session on the Dorset Stour, but wasn’t complaining after it resulted in this 13lb 15oz barbel – the biggest of the season so far off the southern river.
The 18-year-old took the impressive fish on a trimmed down 10mm boilie, and had to plunge his rod under the water to stop the fish making a reedbed on his near bank.
A simple 2.5oz inline lead set-up with a combi-rig hooklink and a backlead helped fool the specimen.
For full details of the capture, see next week’s Angling Times, on sale Tuesday 26th July.
'Bait and wait' pays off for Andy
The famous Aldermaston Mill stretch of the River Kennet provided Andy Webber with a real red letter day in the form of an eight-fish haul, topped by a fine brace of barbel weighing 10lb 1oz and 11lb 1oz.
After catching just two small barbel and in his first three visits to the fishery, Andy arrived for his fourth crack armed with four pints of hemp and six pints of red maggots.
He began his session by baiting up the swim, before resting it for a couple of hours. The strategy worked the oracle, with bites coming thick and fast straight from the off.
“The more bait I threw at them, the better it was!” said a delighted Andy, who also lost two fish.
His winning set-up included a Drennan 12lb Sinkbraid hooklink and a size 12 Pallatrax hook.
Big barbel haul wins Maver Match This heat
Carp didn’t get a look in during the latest Maver Match This qualifier held at Staffordshire’s Heronbrook Fisheries as winner Keith Emlyn managed to haul 121lb of barbel to secure his spot in the prestigious final.
The Oakengate Angling ace felt confident of extracting a big weight after he picked peg 27 on Meadow Pool out of the draw bag and seized the opportunity by catching barbel to 4lb at regular intervals on maggot fished towards the far bank.
Keith – who took the only triple figure haul of the day – will now get a shot at a minimum cash prize of £50,000 in the final which is set to be staged at Larford Lakes on Saturday August 20th.
Quick session for big barbel
It took just a few hours for big fish angler Stewart Moss to get amongst the specimens when the Oxfordshire rod landed this new personal best barbel of 14lb 14oz.
Stewart, sales and customer service manager for Drennan International, was targeting the species on a tributary of the river Thames when he caught the fish during a quick after work session.
“I started fishing around 7pm and got the bite at 10 past 10,” Stewart told Angling Times. “It nearly pulled the rod in when it hit and fought exceptionally hard for a big fish. At one point it locked me up solid under a willow tree so I left the rod on the rest and about 3 minutes later it worked itself free and then I managed to get it to the net.”
Stewart tempted his new pb using two legered CC Moore Meteor boilies hairrigged to a size 11 Drennan Super Specialist barbel hook complete with a PVA bag of pellets and boilies.
Natural baits the key to barbel success for Danny
A decision to use natural baits helped Danny Spring bag this 14lb 6oz barbel during his latest outing on the River Ivel.
Rather than pile in mounds of pellets and boilies, the Biggleswade, Beds-based rod opted to fire maggots in on a little and often basis and was rewarded when the beast fell for a bunch of grubs presented in a pacey area of the waterway.
A tense battle occurred, before the fish eventually slid over the net after it succumbed to the pressure of a float rig that consisted of 7lb mainline and a 6lb hooklink to a size 14 Drennan Wide Gape Super Specialist hook.
Storming 14lb Trent barbel
Setting up in the pouring rain while lightening streaked across the sky, barbel angler Jason McAdam spent the first three hours of a recent trip to the river Trent stuck in his car.
But when the weather finally subsided the wait had been well worth it, resulting in the capture of this new personal best 14lb 4oz barbel.
Fishing the Collingham stretch of the waterway, the 38-year-old fished two rods, landing eight small barbel on his downstream rod before the tip on his upstream rod started to nod in the darkness.
“It looked like a bream bite and when I hit it, it felt like a bream too,” Jason told Angling Times. “As soon as it got into the margins though, the fish just exploded away. When I finally netted it I could tell it was a good fish and was over joyed when I weighed it at a new pb weight.”
Jason fish fell to three hemp and cheesy garlic pellets fished on a long hair using feeder tactics with fishmeal groundbait.
Dove produces hat-trick of huge barbel
The River Dove has produced a stunning catch of big barbel, www.gofishing.co.uk can reveal.
Although details of the capture remain sketchy, we understand that three fish weighing 11lb, 13lb and 15lb-plus were banked in just one session.
The Dove, which runs through Staffs, has history for producing big barbel, with the venue record standing at 17lb 11oz.
*More details as we get them.
Big Kennet barbel landed
The River Kennet has produced its biggest barbel of the season to date in the shape of this streamlined 14lb specimen caught by Harvey Taylor.
The Shinfield, Reading based angler used a large halibut pellet to tempt the specimen from an undisclosed stretch of the Berkshire river during a simple day session.
He used simple legering tactics, with a small PVA bag of freebies nicked onto the hook prior to casting out.
Monster roach taken on barbel gear
A short barbel fishing session on the Bristol Avon has produced the largest river roach of the season.....and one of the biggest to ever come out of the waterway!
The huge fish, which not surprisingly smashed the angler's previous personal best for the species, fell to a legered 10mm halibut pellet.
He said: "It's not the first time I've caught big roach while barbelling. Last season from the same stretch I pulled out 13 Roach over the 1lb mark to 1lb 9oz....but this fish was something else!"
Full details and more pictures in next week's Angling Times, on sale 19th June.
Old school tactics work best for barbel
“Forget pellets on the River Trent if you want to catch big nets of barbel.”
That’s the advice from a group of match anglers who have been getting stunning results after breaking out the worms and casters.
Fishing on the tidal stretches of the waterway around North Clifton and Laughterton, Lincoln lads Dean Smith and Alan Henry have caught 50lb-plus bags of species with individual fish into double figures, by using an approach normally reserved for the bream of the famous river.
Dean in particular has enjoyed a great start to the season with several match wins thanks to reverting back to the old school approach.
“In a way we stumbled on using worms because as a match angler you’re always after catching everything rather than picking out a single species,” SPRO and Dynamite Baits-backed Alan said. “We noticed that fishing worm and caster still caught barbel whereas the lads fishing pellet weren’t getting them. I think the fish have become very wary of pellet, they see so much of it as there are lots of barbel anglers on the river putting in lots of bait.”
See tomorrow’s Angling Times for a full lowdown on the tips, tactics and tricks that the lads have been using to get the very best out of their forward-thinking approach.
88lb haul wins River Severn match
The great start to the river season continued when the winner of the latest event on the Severn landed 88lb 12oz of barbel and chub.
Over 40 anglers lined the banks of the waterway at Linley Bank to take part in the Nick Gretton Memorial and it was Basildon’s Tony Peploe that managed to steal the show after he bagged the impressive net on pellet feeder tactics with a 6mm banded offering as hookbait from peg 47.
The backing weights also included healthy numbers of specimen sized fish, with Paul King taking the runners up spot with 52lb 6oz and third placed Brian Rigby hauling out 47lb 2oz.
Rumours of record-breaking barbel dismissed
Rumours of a record-busting 24lb 1oz barbel from the River Trent have been dismissed as 'preposterous'.
Last week word reached Angling Times of a huge fish, allegedly banked from the Winthorpe stretch near Newark.
But with the angler refusing to come forward with details or images, some within the sport believe it to be nonsense.
"The biggest verified fish from the Trent so far is just over 19lb, so where did this fish of nearly 5lb heavier come from?," said venue expert Bob Roberts.
*To read the full story, see today's Angling Times.
Shock record barbel claimed from Trent!
Rumours are circulating that the River Trent has produced a shock record barbel.
The fish, which is thought to be in excess 22lb, is supposed to have come from a stretch near Newark.
Angling Times understands the captor is the same angler who claimed to catch a 21lb barbel from the river last season – but stayed quite about that one, too.
If you’ve got any details on the story, contact the Angling Times newsdesk on 01733 395103.
*The current barbel record stands at 21lb 1oz and came from the Great Ouse.
94lb barbel catch taken at Highfield Fisheries
A popular commercial fishery has produced one of the biggest all barbel catches of the year.
Lancashire’s Highfield Fisheries is home to a variety of species but it was the barbel stocks in Oak Pool that dominated proceedings during the latest event with Ronnie Lister hauling out 94lb 4oz to take victory.
After drawing fancied peg 35, the local rod decided to fish pole and caster and was rewarded with chunky fish from the off, with the biggest of the bunch going over the 5lb mark.
His total was more than second and third place put together between them!
Venue backed Les Grimes landed the runners up spot after he registered 47lb, while Oldham’s Keith Hyde took 45lb 6oz.
