Another amazing week for monster barbel!

Rivers across the UK continue to produce some of the best barbel of 2015, with a host of specimens hitting the bank.
The first, setting a new personal best for the species, fell to Nottingham’s Richard Easom who targeted the middle reaches of the River Trent and got what he was looking for – a 16lb 14oz specimen.
After a biteless four hours, a cast under a tree sent his rig, baited with an 18mm 3 Foot Twitch Dubby boilie, into a deeper hole than any of his previous casts had found.
This proved crucial, as the huge fish took his bait three hours later.
“I set up the camera ready for the pictures and I wasn’t overly excited as I thought it was around 10lb.
“But as I struggled up the bank I was gobsmacked by the sheer width of the fish. I could have put a saddle on her,” Richard said.
“There are rare moments that define you as a specialist angler, and this capture is certainly one of those for me.”
Shaun Harrison also targeted the river and topped a prolific spell with a 14lb 11oz barbel.
He returned to a stretch that hadn’t produced a single bite in two years, but proved why his Quest Baits Questrami boilies are the business when he topped a list of recently-caught doubles to 13lb with the fine specimen.
Moving up to the Severn, Dale Thomas had a session to remember when he set a new river pb.
The dairy herdsman from Hereford arrived at the river at midnight and, after introducing two handfuls of boilies around a snag, didn’t even get the chance to set up his tripod before a 5lb 2oz fish made its way to the net.
He landed a steady stream of fish, including chub, until he struck gold with a 13lb 7oz barbel on a 3 Foot Twitch 18mm boilie.
“I reached down to get the net and wasn’t prepared for this beauty that beat my previous best from the river that stood at 11lb 13oz,” said Dale.
Surrey’s Mike Lyddon had an old stick of Peperami to thank for the capture of his biggest-ever barbel from the Severn at 13lb 6oz.
He travelled to the river in search of zander, but after landing small fish he turned his attentions to barbel and used the popular supermarket offering to great effect with the help of 15lb braid, a braided 15lb hooklink and a size 8 hook.
“I chucked out a couple of single hookbaits and my first fish went 11lb 4oz. This was followed by the big one, and I finished off with a little scamp of 10lb 8oz,” said Mike.
The Hampshire Avon, long a favourite among barbel enthusiasts, saw Lee Chatfield get among the big fish and land a new personal best for the species.
He used a bait dropper to deposit a bed of Sonubaits pellets and broken boilies into a gravel hole between two weedbeds and netted the 13lb 6oz fish after it took a Code Red dumbell boilie.
Leicestershire’s Rob Thompson needed only four hours on a Midlands river to fool barbel weighing 13lb 4oz and 10lb 15oz.
The Korum-backed angler hair-rigged a crushed boilie and used pva bags full of pellets and crushed boilies. This is his fifth different fish over 13lb in a couple of months.