Long drive worth it for big barbel
A two-hour drive from Middlesbrough to Collingham Weir on the River Trent resulted in this immense 17lb barbel for James Butler.
The fish came on just his second barbel trip.
“The bite came soon after dark and it nearly pulled the rod in!” he tells us.
“I battled the fish for 15 minutes but eventually managed to slip it into the net. My friend, an experienced barbel angler, couldn’t believe its size!”
James used maggots on a clip alongside a large PVA mesh bag filled with the same to fool the new personal best.
James Butler – 17lb Trent barbel
Big storm for a huge barbel
DARREN Wilson’s decision to fish through 60mph winds and torrential rain paid off with the capture of this 17lb 10oz barbel.
The 55-year-old from Norfolk had pinned his hopes on a 48-hour trip to the tidal River Trent for a few bites and enjoyed a fantastic first day – catching 19 barbel to 11lb 4oz alongside a host of bream on double 14mm pellets.
When Storm Francis arrived on the second day, though, Darren’s bites dried up – at least until 5.30am on the third morning…
“My Delkim bleeped twice and I had a rattle on the rod-tip so I struck,” he tells us.
“All hell broke loose and this fish took off! I had to walk 80 yards to keep up. I was in shock when my scales read 17lb 10oz, which is a lower tidal Trent PB for me!”
Darren Wilson and his 17lb 10oz Tidal Trent barbel
Mum helps land my PB barbel - Edmund Clark
“I was out barbel fishing on the River Nene with my mum and the very person who taught me how to fish, Mick Beeby.
“After baiting my swim with birdseed, I cast out a 14mm marine halibut boilie with a PVA bag of mixed halibut pellets attached. Two hours later my rod went from straight to bent double!
“I battled it in the flow for 10 minutes and knew straight away it was the fish of a lifetime.
“With a bit of help from Mick and mum with the netting and weighing, I was very happy to see the barbel returned to the river looking healthy.”
Edmund Clark – 15lb 2oz barbel
Deeper Fish Finder key to big barbel capture
A CASTABLE fish finder was the key component in the capture of this chunky 17lb barbel for Terence Rowley.
The Wolverhampton rod used his Deeper Pro-Plus to map out the riverbed and find fish-holding depressions during his trip to the Trent at Gunthorpe.
He tells us:
“Once I found a spot that looked like it held fish, I cast out my OP31 boilie. A few hours into darkness I struck into the most powerful barbel I’ve ever hooked!”
Terence’s 17lb new pb was just one of six double-figure barbel caught during his session.
Terence Rowley’s 17lb barbel came from a spot he found using a wireless fish finder
Dream barbel session with PB broke four times! - Freddy Singh
“My mates Mark, Micky, Adam, Cracker, Kevin and I had the first 10 pegs booked at Collingham Weir and we drove from our homes in Liverpool and London very excited.
“To cut a long story short it turned out to be the barbel session of our dreams because we all broke our PBs!
“I broke mine four times with fish of 12lb 8oz, 12lb 15oz, 13lb 9oz and 15lb 10oz! My largest fish came from the weir after I’d cast out a feeder rig with two Hinders Elips pellets glued to the back of a hair.”
Freddy Singh and his new PB 15lb 10oz Trent barbel
Best barbel goes like a steam train on pre-work overnighter - Stuart Hickling
“This year I decided I’d try to up my barbel best and pinned my hopes on the Trent at Winthorpe. On this occasion I fished an overnighter and before it got dark I cast out an inline PVA bag rig with a hookbait comprising an 18mm OP-31 boilie topped with a Sticky Baits Krill dumbell.
“I hadn’t fed anything and relied on the stinky Krill pellets and OP-31 glug that I’d put in the PVA bag to draw them in.
“All was quiet until 4.30am when my alarm signalled an odd, subtle take – but as soon as I set the hook this barbel ran off like a steam train!
“For 15 minutes it hugged the bottom and kept powering away when I got it near the net, but eventually she was mine.
“At 15lb 2oz it was a new PB and I arrived at work for 9am with the biggest smile on my face!”
Stuart Hickling and his new PB 15lb 2oz barbel
Cormorant doesn't spook large Yorkshire barbel - Patrick Olding
“It was early morning and I was out targeting barbel on a small South Yorkshire river. After baiting an area close to the bank with loosefeed and fishing a single hair-rigged 12mm pellet over the top, I sat back feeling confident – at least until a large cormorant turned up!
“Thinking it would have ruined my chances I was contemplating moving swims when my rod-tip started tapping.
“I struck into a very heavy fish and after a slow but powerful fight I managed to land this beautiful 15lb 10oz barbel.”
Patrick Olding – 15lb 10oz barbel
The longest barbel I've ever seen! - Matt Starling
“At the start of the season I’d pinned my hopes on Beeston Weir for a big barbel, but after a few sessions all I could catch were chub and bream.
“A change of location was in order so I moved my attentions to the East Stoke/Farndon area of the River Trent.
“Just a day before my planned session there was a storm surge which brought loads of wind and rain so I felt confident, as I thought this could have added a bit of colour and flow to the low river.
“So I rocked up to my swim for an overnighter and baited the main river flow with a few big feeders full of groundbait and Sonubaits pellets.
“Just before it got dark I cast my rigs to the spots – one with a running cage feeder, the other with a paste-wrapped gripper lead with a PVA bag of pellets attached.
“Both had double Krill and Crab boilie hookbaits. At 9.30pm my lead rod ripped off and after a fairly dull fight I netted an 11lb 10oz barbel.
“I was already happy with the result but then, in the early hours, my feeder rod was away and unlike the other fish, this one charged all over the river for five minutes before surfacing.
“I knew it was a big fish but only realised it was a PB when I got it in the net – it was the longest barbel I’d ever seen!”
Matt Starling’s Trent barbel went 14lb 11oz
Fish snagged solid is new PB barbel - Dean Lowe
“The light was just fading on the first night of a 48-hour session on the River Trent at Gunthorpe Lock when I had a screaming take on my boilie rod.
“I knew it was a big fish right from the off because it ran me straight into a snag. I managed to coax it out, but then it took me into yet another snag and everything went solid.
“I was determined not to lose it so I put the rod back on the pod and five minutes later it shot off again, taking me all over the river!
“The island can be a difficult place to land barbel from, as it’s a good 10ft above the waterline, but luckily I had two mates with me who helped out.
“At 16lb 4oz, it smashed my previous best barbel by over 1lb.”
Dean Lowe and his 16lb 4oz Trent barbel
Tougher baits helped me smash my barbel PB - Adam Bassimeh
“Signal crayfish are a pain on the River Kennet, and love whittling down your hookbait to a crumb before a barbel has the chance to find it.
“During my latest session, though, a slight rig tweak and a change of hookbait helped me catch the greatest fish of my life. After a successful season of chub fishing on the Wasing Estate’s stretch of the Kennet last year, I decided to renew my ticket and have a proper go for the barbel.
“My first few trips were mostly short evening sessions, and although I managed three small barbel on running rigs and 16mm Sticky Krill boilies, I felt like I was only scratching the surface. Unless I had a bite, most of the time I’d be watching my rod-tips dance about as the crayfish dragged my rigs away from my baited areas.
Crayfish can be a nightmare on the River Kennet
“They were damaging my chances, and after a couple of blank sessions I decided to do something about it. I’d discovered Sticky made harder hookbaits called Tuff Ones, so I bought a pot of the 20mm versions and planned another evening trip to put them to use. I also swapped my free-running rigs for 2oz bolt rigs with long braided hooklinks, figuring this would make it harder for the crays to move them.
“That night I got down to the river for 8pm and fed a handful of boilies to a spot in my right-hand margin, and another to a far-bank tree. I cast my rigs over the top and sat back, watching the tips.
“The tell-tale taps revealed the crayfish had returned, although my rigs stayed put and I knew it would take them a while to chew through those 20mm baits! I don’t think five minutes passed before my near margin rod took off and I battled what turned out to be a 7lb barbel.
“My previous PB was only 6lb 7oz so I was happy with this one, but I’d no time to enjoy the moment because my other rod screamed off just seconds after slipping this fish back!
“I struck into what felt like a snag before this fish peeled off 30 yards of line as it headed downstream. Luckily there were no obstacles on my bank so I could follow it downriver and stay in touch with it. After a strong 30-minute scrap in the dark, she was mine.
“I kept staring at it and couldn’t believe what I’d just caught from this tiny, shallow stretch of river.
“On the scales she read 16lb 4oz, meaning I’d smashed my PB twice in an evening – what a session! My new rigs and hookbaits didn’t exactly keep the crays away, but they certainly thwarted them long enough for the barbel to arrive.”
Adam Bassimeh and his PB 16lb 4oz barbel from the River Kennet
Annual Trent trip ends with a lump - Clive Bonnett
“Fishing the River Trent is something of a tradition for me and my friends and we make the three-hour journey to the waterway twice a year, spending three nights on the bank each time.
“There was lots of drizzle and rain throughout the session, but that didn’t put the fish off.
“During the first day I managed three barbel of 9lb, 10lb 2oz and 11lb 4oz, but the best of the lot came at 10.45am on the second morning when my rod bent over and I struck into a very good fish.
“After a strong fight I eased the net under the fish and the scales showed a weight of 16lb 2oz, a new personal best by 2lb.”
Clive Bonnett with his 16lb 2oz Trent barbel
Perseverance pays off for Thames giant
IAN WYNTER’S quest for a giant summer barbel finally came to fruition during his latest trip, with the capture of this 17lb giant.
The London angler had been fishing his local stretch of the Thames every week since June 16 without a lot to show for his efforts.
But a free-running boilie rig cast towards showing fish halfway through an evening session changed all that.
Ian Wynter and his 17lb Thames barbel
Maggots fool beast Trent barbel - Dariusz Prech
“I headed to the tidal River Trent at Collingham recently in search of barbel and ended up catching this beauty at 16lb 8oz!
“I’d planned an overnight session and baited my swim with maggots and Shrimp & Krill groundbait before fishing a free-running cage feeder over the spot with a bunch of maggots on the hook.
“The night was quiet at least until 3:40am when my screaming bite alarm woke me up and I hit into a barbel that I just couldn’t stop!
“After a tense and hard 10-minute battle though I managed to slip my net under this beast. It was a moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
Dariusz Presch and his 16lb 8oz maggot munching Trent barbel
Ouse barbel is too big for the net! - Derek Olsen
“I’d heard that barbel were being caught from the Yorkshire Ouse at Linton so I took my brother Richard there to see if we could catch one.
“We got into our pegs for 8am and I fed a few cubes of meat around three rodlengths out, before casting in my free-running lead carrying a hair-rigged chunk of Spam.
”At 1pm my rod tip smashed round and this barbel ran 40 yards downstream towards a willow tree!
“I managed to turn the battle into open water, and 10 minutes later the biggest barbel we’d ever seen surfaced.
“I started to shake! Richard had the net ready and it went in first time, although it was too big for our net really!
“The beautiful fish weighed 14lb 7oz.”
Derek Olsen and his 14lb 7oz Yorkshire Ouse barbel
Big barbel with a taste for chicken!
JAMES Helder’s homemade chicken breast hookbait proved too appetising for this 16lb 1oz barbel to resist!
The self-confessed barbel fanatic flicked the enticing morsel under a low bridge on a southern river before it was picked up by the huge fish two hours later.
“My rod arched round and the reel screamed into life!” James tells us.
“After a tense 25-minute fight the barbel surfaced and my mate Ben kept jumping up and down shouting ‘it’s massive!’”
James Helder’s 16lb 1oz barbel took a chicken breast hookbait
10kg of bait gets new barbel best feeding - Stuart Coulson
“I arrived at the River Trent near Burton at 4pm and baited my swim with around 10kg of boilies, pellets, corn and groundbait.
“The weather was really hot and I thought that I wouldn’t get a bite until the early hours of the next morning, so I wanted enough bait to be left in the swim until the barbel moved in.
“At around 6am I had a ‘twitchy’ take on the left-hand rod and lifted into what felt like a snag – a bit like a tree stump. Then the stump started to move into the main flow and I realised that it was a fish!
“I held on to my rod for dear life as this fish began to strip line off my reel at an immense pace.
“After a long fight, I finally slipped the net under my new PB and fish of a lifetime weighing 14lb 12oz.”
Stuart Coulson and his new PB barbel of 14lb 12oz
Family fishing trip ends with immense Trent barbel - Mark Brooks
“The wife asked me to pick her up from work at 3pm, which meant I had a bit of time to treat my six-year-old son Alfie to his first-ever trip on the tidal River Trent.
“After settling into a peg near a bend in the river at around 10am, I cast out our rigs a couple of rodlengths from the bank.We were using Hinders River Rami dumbells and PVA bags filled with Meat Furter pellets – which absolutely stink!
“I don’t think half-an-hour had passed before the rod hooped over. After a strong battle, a 15lb 4oz brute of a barbel was landed, followed soon after by Alfie’s first-ever barbel weighing 2lb 3oz.
“Just before packing up I had another powerful take from a fish which took me several minutes to get under control. After battling it to the surface I knew straight away it was a new PB and the relief when it went into the net was immense.
“We weighed it at 15lb 12oz, took a few snaps, slipped it back, then headed off to tell Alfie’s mum what we’d caught.”
Mark Brooks and son Alfie share the moment of catching a 15lb 12oz barbel
Staying put pays off for big tidal barbel
BRETT Longthorne’s decision to stay in the swim he’d been struggling to catch from paid off with the capture of a new personal-best barbel weighing 17lb 6oz.
The Manchester specialist was fishing a tidal reach of the River Trent, although the first day of his trip passed with only a bream to show for his efforts.
“I was contemplating a change of swim but stuck to my guns in the end, which proved to be the right choice,”
said Brett, who used double River Plus boilies wrapped in matching paste.
Brett Longthorne and his new PB barbel of 17lb 6oz from the River Trent
The barbel records of the 1960s - Keith Arthur
While not quite ten-a-penny, it is fair to say that 16lb barbel turn very few heads these days. Sixty years ago it was very different.
The record – or, rather, records as there were three matching fish – was 14lb 6oz, and hadn’t been beaten since the first of this trio was captured from Molesey Weir on the Thames in Victorian times, only equalled.
When the late Colonel Crow announced in 1960 that a salmon angler, a Mr Cassell, had taken a 16lb 1oz barbel from The Bridge Pool at Ibsley, on the Hampshire Avon, the news turned a lot of heads.
16lb 1oz Hampshire Avon barbel
Remember that back in the 1960s the Avon was still largely a salmon river with some beats exclusively reserved for salmon anglers until their season ended in, I think, October.
The most famous stretch, the Royalty, could be fished for coarse fish alongside salmon anglers but the best pools, such as the Parlour, were priced in a way that deterred maggot-drowners. Maggots were even banned there for quite a time.
The Royalty was the haunt of the great specimen anglers of their day. FWK Wallis was one of those barbel record-holders who caught his 14-pounder from the Royalty in 1937. He invented the ‘Wallis Cast’ for the centrepin, where the line between reel and butt ring was pulled as the float was cast to make the reel spin.
Using that technique, and suitably large floats, he was able to cast to the far bank of the Avon, probably using the Wallis Wizard rod.
I recall my fishing buddy at the time bought one. It was 11ft long, with a whole cane butt section and split-cane middle and tip. The cork handle was short, making it easier to use the eponymous cast.
I fished the Royalty a few times in the 1960s...when maggots were allowed...and what a stretch of river it was then, and still is now.
What a stretch of river the Royalty still is
18lb-plus barbel shows true power
JOSH Carroll’s decision to travel from his Norfolk home to fish the River Trent paid off in spades when he struck into this immense barbel weighing 18lb 12oz.
It was a new PB for the 21-year-old, who tells us the giant sent his clutch into overdrive after it picked up his boilie hookbait.
“I managed six other fish during my overnighter at Bob’s Island in Newark, but the fight from this barbel was the best,” he says.
“I knew it was a monster because after it hooked itself I could hear the clutch melting over the sound of the bite alarm!”
Despite using 3lb test curve barbel rods, Josh had his work cut out trying to play the powerful fish in the fast current.
He added:
“Straight away it went for a downstream snag and even with that rod and holding the spool, I couldn’t stop it.
“I turned its head at the last minute and was able to net my biggest-ever fish, which smashed my previous PB of 11lb 5oz.”
Josh Carroll and his new PB barbel of 18lb 12oz from the River Trent