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Barbel and the old 69

Hants Avon, Longford Estate, Charlton Dairy Shallows, April-May 1971, I was showing a new salmon rod to the Estate the well-known lies (asked to do so by keeper, Tom Williams, who had shown me them as a kid a few years earlier), inviting the man to have a chuck now and again- to have a test fish in a particular spot - then suggesting he add more lead, hold the rod out more or higher, fish the spinning lure or plug slower etc...

Then we came across four or five big barbel laying into spawning minnow shoals on the shallows. Out went a # 3 Mepp from the new rod - WHACK! - instant take, barbel on. The fish tore off downriver into deeper water, and the angler, not up to much as a fisher, pulled too hard on it and straightened the spinner's treble hook. BIG barbel (double)

So, it happens.
 
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Interesting clip Chris.

I fished a Reading & District match as a young lad in the early 70's and an experienced angler in the next peg was bagging up with roach & dace.
'Bloody pike' I heard him shout as a 'pike' grabbed a hooked fish - turned out to be a barbel that had taken the dace fairly & squarely.

Out with the lures then aye ;)
 
I believe that it was on the old BFW that I posted about the 9-pound barb I watched a pike angler take on floatfished dace livebait in dead of winter from a Thames weirpool in the mid to late 1990s.
 
I've had one take a gudgeon. I thought it was fairly well known?..... and minnows (and bleak) were, in the distant past, a "killing" bait for barbs?
 
I've had two on minnows in early season some time back. Also have watched barbel actively crashing through minnow shoals and taking them on a few occasions.
Cheers
Bob
 
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