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Rumours?

Darren Hawen

Darren Hawen

Senior Member & Supporter
No, not the Fleetwood Mac album. Strong rumours abound regarding a 22lb Thames fish this week - could they be true?
 
Entirely possible - salmon anglers have had them out that size out of season before, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if fish that size and bigger have been caught but never reported to avoid the inevitable...
 
I think I saw the same thing on FB but its all gone a little quiet. I did then see a report of a 17lb fish which may have found its way into one of the weeklies. Made me wonder if the 22lb fish was actually this 17lber. Would agree that there is certainly no reason why the Thames couldn't produce such a fish though.

If this is true, for the Thames regulars, you just hope the capture has endured about a million blanks before that one important bite.
 
Steve Lewis said:
Entirely possible - salmon anglers have had them out that size out of season before, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if fish that size and bigger have been caught but never reported to avoid the inevitable...
Click to expand...

And that goes for pretty much every river, Steve. The last bit. :)
 
:D
I think you're probably right, don't think there's a river in the country that hasn't had it's barbel record smashed by an out of season salmon angler!
 
I used to have a BAA handbook from 1971...in there, the page for Buildwas said, "a salmon angler caught a 12.5lb barbel out of season". So the out of season story has been going on for years, which makes me think it's twaddle!!
 
They fish in the spring when some Barbel are predatory. Perhaps big barbel have predatory tendencies.
A friend of mine caught quite a few Barbel on Devon minnows one spring. After the coarse season started a few got caught on bait from the location, then they disappeared.
 
The record many years ago was held by a Hants Avon fish circa 14lb.

There were two other 14lb fish recorded both caught by salmon anglers on jardine style flying trace deadbaits.

After spawning the barbel need a quick protein lift and are also protective. Have caught many on minnows in kennet weirpools in the past.
 
In the past 1930's onwards, there were many others caught by Salmon Anglers on the Hampshire Avon in the Close season that were recorded at 16+, some foul hooked on spinners etc. They were probably the same fish of 14lb+ caught earlier in the Coarse season. The reason for the increase in weight is that they are full of spawn. Once they drop it, they return to a much lower weight.
 
Graham Elliott said:
The record many years ago was held by a Hants Avon fish circa 14lb.

There were two other 14lb fish recorded both caught by salmon anglers on jardine style flying trace deadbaits.

After spawning the barbel need a quick protein lift and are also protective. Have caught many on minnows in kennet weirpools in the past.
Click to expand...

I've not caught barbel on Minnow Graham, but had plenty of Kennet barbel cough them up after capture in the early part of the season.

The big barbel talk seems to have quitened as mentioned earlier in the thread. It would have been a super fish for a supersize supermoon though if true.
 
Darren. Have pictures of barbel and chub caught on rolled minnow at LB weir.
Also you used to see a few years ago barbel...usually big, right on the weir sill in a foot of water attacking them.
Had many by fishing on the sill and immediately walking downstream tight lining to get away from snags.
Sometimes in the white water in the right hand fish pass again in a foot of water.

There has been quite a few claims to beat GR thames fish.
None yet stood up to investigation. Indeed one claim was a fish caught at 13lb the week before.

Saying that....Goring, Staines, Marlow, Cookham and Abingdon all to my knowledge have done barbel with potential to beat the record.
 
Never seen a salmon angler on the Thames even though there are salmon ladders ( total waste of time) have herd a rumor of an 18 this week, not the one that was in the mags. Time will tell.
 
Graham, have just seen your post above. Think there is one venue that is missing from your list and it is not where the 17 came from.
 
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