Is this the biggest ever barbel to be caught on the pole?
MATCH angler Brent Wilkes landed possibly the largest barbel ever taken on a pole when he netted this 14lb 14oz brute during a five-hour contest.
Brent’s 14lb 4oz barbel – best ever on a pole?
The 32-year-old told us his hollow elastic was ‘stretched to breaking point’ throughout the tense 15-minute battle on a flooded Bidford AC stretch of the Warwickshire Avon – which ultimately forced him to get off his box and travel downriver to keep himself in the fight!
He said:
“It was so powerful I had no choice but to head downstream with my pole and net in hand. I’d been snapped off by a barbel early on in the match so I was determined not to lose this one!”
The battle dragged on for 15 minutes…
With just a couple of minutes to go until the final whistle, Brent finally shuffled his prize into his 20ins net where he realised just how big it was.
“During the fight it only looked to be about 8lb, but when I saw its head and tail sticking out either side of the net I knew I had a true barbel of a lifetime,” he added.
“I’ve had carp and pike over 20lb on the pole before although this barbel gave me the best scrap – my arms were aching for hours afterwards!
“I’d have thought 5lb-6lb would’ve won the match judging by the conditions, but a boulder in my peg created an area of slack water where I reckoned I could have banked a big bream or barbel.
“Luckily the tactic paid off and the barbel added to a few roach I’d caught for me to take the win with 15lb 14oz.”
Brent’s new barbel best fell to a whole lobworm fished via a pole feeder rig over a bed of casters, chopped worm and groundbait.
40lb-plus carp taken...on the POLE!
YOU don’t always need beefy rods and big hooks to land massive carp, as Dean Rowden proved this week when he banked a 44lb giant while targeting silverfish on the pole.
The keen match angler, from Southampton, was on holiday in France and knew the day-ticket lake he visited at Etang De La Chauffie, Pressignac, held some big mirrors and commons.
His trip got off to a flying start when he ticked off a new 34lb personal best specimen using Method feeder tactics, but little did he know that switching target species would lead to an even bigger surprise.
After deciding to have a go for the lake’s resident tench and roach using pole tactics, he rigged up with a 5lb hooklength and size 14 hook baited with worm.
Dean says:
“I got a bite, struck, and thought I’d finally hooked a tench, but it didn’t take long to realise that a fish of a lifetime was attached to the other end!
“It fought for more than 40 minutes and the moment I saw it I called for my dad to borrow a much bigger landing net!”
Dean Rowden and his 44lb mirror carp caught on the pole
The river where 30lb of roach is easy!
For most of us a 30lb bag of river roach would be the catch of a lifetime, but on a certain eastern river, local anglers won’t even raise their eyebrows at a catch of this magnitude.
The River Welland running through Spalding is the venue in question, and in recent matches bags over 50lb have been required to claim the top spot, with 40lb nets coming nowhere.
Essex-based Pemb Wrighting had the biggest weight over the last few weeks with a staggering 53lb 8z of quality roach on his very first visit to the venue.
“It was an unbelievable match,” Pemb said
“one of a like I’ve not been part of before and doubt I will again.
“I didn’t know much about the venue so just fished down the middle all day catching quality roach on bread.
“You have to spare a thought for the chaps who caught 40lb and didn’t even make the frame!”
The following weekend, Frenzee-backed Tom Edwards also got amongst the fish and had ‘one of the best day’s fishing of his life’, after catching 50lb 11oz of roach with bonus skimmers.
“Its absolutely black with fish at the moment!
“I caught everything on bread and simply alternated between fishing four metres to hand and at nine metres to keep fish coming.”
Approximately 2,255lb of roach were caught across these two matches, and there are several reasons for this staggering form, as England legend and venue regular Joe Roberts explained:
“I’ve fished at Spalding for years and I’ve never seen it as good as it is now.
“The most obvious reason for the big catches is the amount of colour in the river after the weeks of heavy rain before Christmas.
“Secondly, the fish at Spalding spend summer in the main River Welland that is choked with weed.
“I’ve been told that this makes it difficult for cormorants to hunt, so the fish are thriving.”
Joe also told us that due to the mild weather and coloured water the fish are right the way through the stretch, and anglers are catching 50lb from areas that are rarely fished.
He joked:
“Before Christmas we were all praying for the rain to stop, but now I want it to come back! The fishing has been that good.”