Recent content by Tim Penn

I had an impromptu evening session on Saturday on the float as neighbours had a loud party. All on waggler and corn, crayfish were a pain though (bonus decent roach too, apologies for poor photos)

That may have been me if it was maggot drowning, I had a great day trotting for barbel on it at 12ft, ended the day with 11. I don’t think I’ll use mine at 14 very often, the river Lea is very narrow so it won’t be needed that often. Can confirm mine has zero of the issues detailed here. My...

I’ll add my thoughts to this (no science behind it) but with acolyte specimen rods being available now I’m not sure if the waters are muddied a bit more?? I’m not sure where the specimen fits in the ranking? Personally the avenger feels more powerful than my acolyte plus. My 15ft plus feels far...

Had 11 barbel (albeit small - up to around 5lb) on the upper lea today on my avenger, not a true test of the rods limits in terms of size but in such a shallow and narrow river as very close quarters, and with a good 4-5ft of under the far bank dash space that they all go for immediately on...

I’m thinking of recording my sessions on a go pro, not because I’m going to YouTube anything, absolutely no chance I could do that, but I wonder if it would show me what I do wrong if I watch it back.

I pick up my avenger from benwick on saturday. Cant wait

I don’t think it will go as far as carp fishing has, just because barbel are much more difficult to catch due to being pretty thin on the ground in many rivers. The biggest thing with carping is how accessible it is to the masses, for a big chunk of the year rivers are too much effort for the...

The river looks very low in the double figure barbel vid you posted Ian, hopefully your area isnt in danger of closing like others have?

I know what you mean, but birds nest around stillwaters and canals too, so in some respects the fact the close season was abolished for those makes it sort of irrelevant to the river closed season question maybe? (such a tricky one to consider… and I agree with you). My own opinion is just...

Good advice which I’ll definitely keep in mind as I’m relatively new to targeting barbel specifically. I flat out won’t fish for them in this heat, I prefer evening tench sessions but even then I’m not daft if it’s too hot. I’m not a fan of the heat myself anyway, I’m an autumn/winter person...

Cheers, Ian. I’ll go and have a look.

Awesome, Ian. I need some kind of long sleeve top like that, don’t suppose you can remember where it’s from?

I liked the video Ian, good work (I personally dont mind long ones but I do watch live match videos too so thats probably why). How you swap hands to bat the line back is eye opening, I think id put myself in a tangle. 😂 I do need to practice that cast too. I also need to learn how to play fish...

I use these, seems pretty bomb proof so far!

I didnt go, due to work I wont be able to go for a couple of weeks or so, however I did drive past the carpark and wow was it rammed, so me not going is probably a blessing, I hate fully pegged out rivers.