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12 foot Trefor West Century Pulse

It's true enough Rhys that there's more to angling than catching fish. But I find it far more rewarding if I blank when I know there are fish present. This may sound a bit odd as it implies incompetence on the part of the angler, but it gives you something to work on. Change of rigs, baits...

Barbel became difficult on my local rivers quite a few years back, the Thames and it's tributaries in particular. What was unsettling was wondering if you were even within 500 yards of a fish if you didn't see any movement. In the end I had the chance to get a permit for Horseshoe Lake, very...

I spent many happy hours on that river too Mark, fishing for barbel and trout. Caught a few barbel on free lined worm when trout fishing as well, you could see them dash out from under the bank to intercept the worm in the fast flow.

The Cherwell at Somerton. A deep right angled bend in the river over gravel, with a gravel bank formed by the flow and a scoured, clean river bed. I caught my first 4 pound chub and my first barbel in the swim and it was always a banker for chub. Never had another barbel from it but I did hear...

Had a few biteless hours on the Cherwell on Friday. Most frustrating was baiting up a swim and settling down to give it an hour or so, as it's a pretty long stretch. Just cast in and sat back when up pops a damn otter right in front of me. It then swims out to mid river and hangs in the current...

Somewhere in my family, who hail from Abingdon, is a picture of a catch of barbel caught from a punt. The picture is taken at Abingdon Bridge and there must be 25 barbel, looking to be up to about 8 pounds, all dead. I think they used to give them to the local hunt to feed the hounds.

My first trip to the Wasing estate on the Kennet, I forgot the spreader block for the landing net. Managed to make one from a forked branch with a penknife. I never got to find out if it did the job as that was the first of many blanks on that river.

Yes that's true Keith, but on some fisheries you definitely have more chance after dark. Irrespective of how successful day or night fishing are, my favourite type of barbel fishing is in the dark on a warm summers night. The atmosphere simply cannot be replicated during daylight hours.

Interesting post Graham. I love night fishing, more so than daylight fishing, but not necessarily round the clock fishing. By night fishing I mean maybe till 1.00 a.m. in summer and 10.00p.m. in winter. I guess it should be called "fishing in the dark" rather than night fishing. Even in my...

I don't think we are all competitive at all really Paul. I have never been where angling is concerned and as long as I can remember I enjoyed watching a big fish get caught as much as catching it myself. I found it inspirational and a confidence booster if a friend had a big fish on a session...

That's the main thing Joe, we have our own "special" fish, or special venues, for various reasons. As time goes on some fish become more special for different reasons. All my Cherwell barbel are now pretty special to me as I'm unlikely to get any more. My first 4, 5, and 6 pound chub (PB) also...

How special a fish is would be very subjective and a matter of personal opinion. My favourite barbel was my first double that came from the Cherwell as opposed to my PB of 11.10 that came from the Warks Avon. But I still most vividly remember my first ever barbel, again from the Cherwell that...

Avon Angling and Mark Erdwin. What I really dislike is cheesy music soundtracks, not necessary and sometimes drown out what the angler is trying to say. Music isn't necessary, we had all that on Passion for Angling because that was meant to appeal to a wider audience. You Tube is for those of us...

It's very hard to put down Richard

Is that the one by the Kennet?

I think while Elite Barbel has been out a few years it may be the book most relevant to modern barbel fishing, simply because a lot of it is about searching for a small head of fish in a long stretch of river. The main difference being that whereas Tony Miles was searching hard for 14 pounders...

I think any barbel book now would need to reflect the huge reduction in barbel numbers since the best sellers were written. The chapter in Quest, Barbel River Round Up, would be considerably shorter these days. It also seems apparent that most of the smaller rivers where site location was...

Maybe a case can be made for it occurring more frequently if we attribute it to the older fish. But you have to also consider that this type of bite/phenomenon is only likely when a fish has actually felt the hook to provoke this reaction in the first place. Also, I'm sure fish, as with all...

Yes it is Joe, probably why I remember the bite so clearly.