WYE BARBEL RECORD goes!

The long-standing River Wye barbel record has been broken following the capture of a giant fish weighing 14lb 12oz.

Eclipsing the previous record by just 3oz, the impressive specimen was caught by Kevin Clark, who weighed it in the company of two witnesses.

The fish in question is one that Kevin has caught before and is rumoured to have been landed at a larger weight in recent seasons without a claim being submitted.

Cwmbram-based Kevin, who has been fishing the Wye for over 20 years, told Angling Times: “It put up an epic battle and I really struggled to get its head up – even on a 2lb test curve rod.

“Once it was in the net, I recognised it straight away, but when the scales revealed the weight, I needed to sit down for five minutes to get my head round it – I had Wye history in my hands!”

The record fish was caught on a halibut pellet fished alongside a 3oz feeder filled with dampened pellets. This same tactic has accounted for 42 barbel for Kevin in just four sessions on one of the more challenging stretches of the popular river.

The capture pushes the Wye one step closer to competing with the likes of the Trent, which this week continued its fine form after multiple large fish were reported from the Midlands river. Heading the list was the 16lb 4oz barbel caught from the middle stretches by Lincoln-based rod Christopher Mendelsohn.

Fishing a deep gravel run behind a weedbed that he’d been prebaiting, Christopher braced the fish with another of 14lb as well as a five chub over 5lb and a 27lb 14oz carp. All his fish fell to double Liver and Krill boilies presented on a 6in Silkworm hooklink. fished over a mix of hemp, tigers, maize and 3 Foot Twitch SG1 boilies.