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Congratulations Keith....

It’s a fantastic capture, fantastic fish in great looking condition caught by a fantastic angler; I wish I had the finesse or the experience to capture such a large barbel.
For the majority of anglers this would be irresponsible to use hook links in the lower breaking strains, obviously in Keith’s hands it works.
Great catch, jealous......no, admiration ........yes!
 
A doff of my cap to an outstanding capture... Ignore the idiots, for they will drink shandy in Hell.
 
For God's sake don't catch another Keith.......Look at the trouble it's caused.

It's a bit like the 2oz Gudgeon I caught on 25lb line back in 2006. I'm still getting 'unbalanced grief' over that!
 
Neil Powney said:
For God's sake don't catch another Keith.......Look at the trouble it's caused.

It's a bit like the 2oz Gudgeon I caught on 25lb line back in 2006. I'm still getting 'unbalanced grief' over that!
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:D:D...I am feeling a little unballanced and full of grief myself at the moment, but by all accounts Keith is out there now, doing what he does best...so don't be too surprised if he does catch another :D:D

Incidentally Neil, I suppose you do know that Keith has had three more on the float, including a 13+, since THAT fish? Just thought I would mention it, in case you missed it in all the fuss....

Cheers, Dave.
 
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I did see it Dave, thanks. What I meant was another 17lb + fish, as opposed to the 13lb tiddler. I bet it nearly slipped through the mesh in his landing net!

'Fish', 'line' and 'Keith' are all very touchy words at the minute.....

Well done AGAIN Keith :D:D:D
 
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Keith - sorry I have come to this thread very late courtesy of the flu.

Your description of its capture and the photos are simply outstanding, my congratulations to you to add to the very many you have already had.

Cracking simply cracking!

ATB

Les
 
Going back in time, (circa 81/85) my main weapon for barbs on the B. Avon was a fairly lightweight Diawa Lightning Quiver. At rough estimate, I guess it would be no more than 1lb test. This was my 'feeder' rod, that I would also catch tench, bream, chub, roach and what ever took a fancy to my bait.

I would never, ever go heavier than 6lb main line, (Maxima) my hook length would normally be approx 4-5lb. But where conditions permitted, with open water in front of me, and in daylight hours, my hook length would be 3.2 Bayer.

I lost very few fish on this set-up, it was a well balanced combination and back-winding on my trusty old 301/11 was the order of the day.

In the 1982/3 season I decided not to fish for any other species, bar barbel, just to see what I could achieve, no's wise. I stopped counting come the middle of December at 200. I got bored of just the one species. The B. Avon in those days was just full of fish, of many species, I caught them all.

So in the right conditions and circumstances, 3lb line is a goer.

Great fish Keith, by the way.
 
Alot of anglers on here myself included are saying that back in the day we only used quiver tip rods and 6lb line etc so why on earth did most of us change to heavier tackle?..;)
 
I think you will find it may have started with HNV carp baits, Boilies/pastes being marketed/hyped into barbel fishing which was becoming more popular. Then the hair rigs, rods, buzzers, bivvies etc followed...together with carp anglers changing species.
 
Craig Wood said:
Alot of anglers on here myself included are saying that back in the day we only used quiver tip rods and 6lb line etc so why on earth did most of us change to heavier tackle?..;)
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i expect its because the barbel have grown alot bigger since back in the day and not all of us are skilled enough to land a barbel on light balanced tackle so therefore we dont, we stick with the methods that are right for us.
cheers
jerry
 
I don't think its so much a matter of sticking with the methods that are right for us as using methods that are viable in the circumstances. I don't personally know Kieth but I'd be very surprised if he would use light line tactics in a swim full of snags, as to do so would obviously have fatal consequences. I dare say that he weighed up the pros and cons of using a fine line in the swim he was fishing and considered it feasible that he could land a barbel should he hook one? Upon reading his story it seems he did so with some trepidation. Hopefully no one following this thread is going to run away with the idea that fine line fishing for barbel is suddenly the way to go, as they will face many disappointments!
 
Chris Turnbull said:
I don't think its so much a matter of sticking with the methods that are right for us as using methods that are viable in the circumstances. I don't personally know Kieth but I'd be very surprised if he would use light line tactics in a swim full of snags, as to do so would obviously have fatal consequences. I dare say that he weighed up the pros and cons of using a fine line in the swim he was fishing and considered it feasible that he could land a barbel should he hook one? Upon reading his story it seems he did so with some trepidation. Hopefully no one following this thread is going to run away with the idea that fine line fishing for barbel is suddenly the way to go, as they will face many disappointments!
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we,re singing from the same hymn sheet chris, you just worded it better :)
cheers
jerry
 
Craig Wood said:
Alot of anglers on here myself included are saying that back in the day we only used quiver tip rods and 6lb line etc so why on earth did most of us change to heavier tackle?..;)
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Good question Craig, but I certainly don't know the answer, because I was out of the barbel, or rather river fishing scene when it occurred. I left to go carping for many years, caught a shedload of big fat carp and got bored...hence here I am again :D

I do remember that when I left, the last two barbel I caught were from my local small river, using a short, very light 'winkle picker' type quiver rod, which was a dream to use...so much so that I admit to using it far more often than was really right and proper :D The line was about 5/6 lb, with a bottom around the high 2's or low 3's. The hook I recall was an eighteen Drennan 'Carbon Chub' (great hooks) with a tiny Drennan feeder, and double caster on the hook. The smaller of the two fish was in the 6/7 lb range I think, and the larger either 9.14 or 9.15...I remember distinctly cussing my luck that my last barbel missed the magical 'double' mark by one or two ounces. In truth, neither of them was ever in any great danger of escaping, despite two lanes of fairly dense, heavey weed in the swim...getting downstream of the fish to land them sorted that problem!

When I returned last year, the regular 10/12lb line thing was already in place, was the norm...and actually, untill you asked the question, it never crossed my mind. It didn't seem at all odd to me, having been carping for so long...in fact, it saved me a bit of money :D I still use the pair of 'heavier' rods I had back then, no idea what B.S they are, they were custom built for me on a pair of tricast feeder blanks by the late, great Jonesy, of Colne Valley fame. If I had to guess, I would say 1.25 to 1.5 TC, for what that's worth.

So...after all that...no idea mate. But I DO have a beautifully ballanced little Shimano quiver rod/small reel/light line set-up I bought for chub last year, which I have yet to use...Hmmmmmm........:D:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Chris Turnbull said:
Hopefully no one following this thread is going to run away with the idea that fine line fishing for barbel is suddenly the way to go, as they will face many disappointments!
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It's also not necessary "just to get bites", regardless.

I know the bailiff on this stretch, like Keith, float-fishes deliberately for the barbel throughout the season, has landed just about every one of them plus chub to near 8lbs, and uses 8lb double-strength hook-link.

Not what you use, but how you use it, perhaps.
 
I have to say after reading a lot of nonsense about a fantastic fish caught in difficult conditions; I now know why I left the barbel clubs and scene behind and moved on.

I have caught many winter barbel in clear low water and high coloured water, frost, snow, you name it and personally do not see the need to fish for them with a float or light tackle, however if this is the way Keith wishes to fish, in a swim where he knows he can land the fish, then he is using his knowledge to achieve his goal, which is what all anglers should do.

I personally do not like using light lines and do not like to play fish for a long time, especially in the smaller rivers I tend to fish these days and sadly the fish do not grow so big! Also the swims change radically as you walk the river, so a different approach is needed.

Like one other contributor said light lines can lead to disaster for the fish, especially if being used by anglers who do not know how to handle such big fish on a float rod, also the length of time played can be the death of some fish, even if they go back OK. In Keith’s case with the high oxygen levels this should have been OK (saying that I do not know how long the fish was played for?)

Due to the increase in pressure on the barbel there are a lot of anglers who still do not know how to treat them and in a lot of club matches you still see poorly treated fish and anglers fishing for them with far to light tackle.

To conclude there is neither a right or wrong way to fish for barbel, it is down to your personnel preference or ability, but unfortunately to many anglers use to light a tackle and boast about being smashed, if I ever loose a fish due to the line braking, I am gutted, so I think if barbel anglers spent more time encouraging the clubs to use the correct tackle for them instead of bitching amongst themselves about other barbel catches, then we would be moving forward.
 
Very well put Richard.
When I used to fish maggots on the float/feeder on the Avon back in the late 70's early 80's, I used to fish straight through with 6-8lb mono to a 14-16 hook with no problem regarding bites or landing the majority of barbel hooked.
When I was a less knowledgable barbel angler at the start, I used flimsy float rods, 3lb mono but still landed a lot of barbel. However, I lost just as many to line breaks with the fish going into weed/snags and also the overall inadequate line strength. To try and up the hook and land ratio it was common sense to change the line strength and go higher. So through the future years I tried mono 4lb - 6lb - 8lb - until I was confident of landing the majority of barbel hooked. Even then, I did not land every barbel hooked due to line breakage when the fish snagged in weed or other, especially the larger specimens of 9-11lb+ at the time. I still felt I must do better. My hook and land ratio was around 7 out of 10, usually losing the bigger fish due to unconfidence regarding all mono line to where and legs turning to jelly when you knew you had a big fish on.
As said, I still see expert float anglers trotting with light lines for barbel and they only land a proportion of fish hooked due to line breakage, fish running into weed and snags, hook pulls and hooks bending out.
 
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Wow, what's the big deal it'd just s fish ,blimey!
Ps Keith would you consider selling your underpants that you caught the fish in ? Thankyou :)
 
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