Welsh Dee

[Neil Gallimore]

I'm new to the forum and Barbel fishing but I just thought I would like to put a view across
I've basically lived in Chester and now Wrexham all my life so I've been fishing the river Dee for around 40yrs and I remember stories of fellas fishing the river Severn and putting them in the Dee when I was a nipper (obviously wrong and I never seen it for myself) but I would say around 20 odd years ago the Dee was stocked with small Barbel but they have allegedly disappeared....... what I'm trying to say is there is no records on here of a record river Dee Barbel and I'm just wondering why as I've definitely seen a photo of a 12lb Barbel that came out of the Dee..... is it the case that Dee Barbel are being caught by a select few who are fishing for them and not sharing and are as secretive as the carp world which is a shame as I haven't been on here long and I've already had a few people pm me offering advice etc which I find refreshing when everything seems so secretive

 

[Neil Gallimore]

I probably should of said I used to match fish or pleasure fish the Dee on stick float or feeder usually with a 1lb hook length as we used to target Dace and the occasional roach which is why I never seen a Barbel but now I'm targeting Barbel I'm going to fish the upper and middle stretches of the Severn but I am tempted to give the Dee ago now I'm geared up for Boris

 

[Joe Winstanley]

I'm new to the forum and Barbel fishing but I just thought I would like to put a view across
I've basically lived in Chester and now Wrexham all my life so I've been fishing the river Dee for around 40yrs and I remember stories of fellas fishing the river Severn and putting them in the Dee when I was a nipper (obviously wrong and I never seen it for myself) but I would say around 20 odd years ago the Dee was stocked with small Barbel but they have allegedly disappeared....... what I'm trying to say is there is no records on here of a record river Dee Barbel and I'm just wondering why as I've definitely seen a photo of a 12lb Barbel that came out of the Dee..... is it the case that Dee Barbel are being caught by a select few who are fishing for them and not sharing and are as secretive as the carp world which is a shame as I haven't been on here long and I've already had a few people pm me offering advice etc which I find refreshing when everything seems so secretive

There are barbel in the Dee, just so few and far between that seriously targeting them isn't a realistic proposition unless you have an awful lot of spare time.

Any angler that did invest so much time and effort into finding a pocket of Barbel in the Dee would be unwise to publicise it in this day and age unfortunately.

 

[Richard Bennett]

I'm new to the forum and Barbel fishing but I just thought I would like to put a view across
I've basically lived in Chester and now Wrexham all my life so I've been fishing the river Dee for around 40yrs and I remember stories of fellas fishing the river Severn and putting them in the Dee when I was a nipper (obviously wrong and I never seen it for myself) but I would say around 20 odd years ago the Dee was stocked with small Barbel but they have allegedly disappeared....... what I'm trying to say is there is no records on here of a record river Dee Barbel and I'm just wondering why as I've definitely seen a photo of a 12lb Barbel that came out of the Dee..... is it the case that Dee Barbel are being caught by a select few who are fishing for them and not sharing and are as secretive as the carp world which is a shame as I haven't been on here long and I've already had a few people pm me offering advice etc which I find refreshing when everything seems so secretive

Yes, there are barbel to very decent sizes in the Dee and there are under the radar specialist anglers fishing for them. However, as Joe has said, finding them can be like looking for a needle in a haystack and require hundreds of hours on the bank watching motionless rod tips. That's why those who are catching wisely keep things to themselves.