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Stupid weights

Believe it or not this fish was 16lb 1oz it was weighed on two sets of scales one of which had been recently calibrated at a chub study group meeting and witnessed by four very experienced anglers .. let me tell you it looked a lot bigger on the bank than in the pics ... very hard to judge weights from photos
 

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Graham Young said:
Personally I don't care if anglers want to fool themselves, there are anglers that I would believe without photographic evidence there are others that I would struggle to believe if they told me day followed night.
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I totally agree Graham, I mean whether a landed barbel is 9lb or 12lb is mostly luck. Unless you're able to see a specifically targeted fish then luck plays a large part in what has given us that '3ft twitch'.
For example, fishing the Lower Severn. You catch 12lb+ fish down there by one of two methods : hours and hours of grim commitment and determination ... or luck. Ok sometimes inside knowledge and careful pre-baiting campaigns can pay great dividends, but (esp big) barbel tend to be nomadic and DO move :oops:
What DOES pee me off though is guys who report catching loads of fish a/. every time they fish, and b/. catch several good fish regularly when other anglers are struggling. This reporting (IMO) can be demotivating to less experienced (and more gullible) anglers, who begin to serious doubt their own ability ... and may come to believe that their trying is futile. This is how many golfers are born. :p
With confidence playing such a large part in our beloved pastime, any behaviour that makes other anglers feel lacking or inadequate is unforgivable ... in my opinion.
 
Agreed. I often have to go and catch a few fish to prove I can catch them. That said, I find the consistent angler far more impressive than the record breakers, of corse these can be one in the same but we all know the one or two Angler’s that could catch in a puddle.
 
I am not one of those puddle anglers , the blanks and the odd nightmare session keep things in perspective, the last session I had looked like a blank, having caught buger all apart from someones old cruddy baitdropper, the a spirited 8lb 2oz barbel had a chomp .
 
There's no doubt elements of skill and knowledge in catching fish, particularly catching the right fish you are targeting. What size you catch is more, but not exclusively, luck. Luck which can be greatly improved by time spent on the bank.
The so called top angler's don't just fish a few hours on a Sunday.
 
Terry Harman said:
Believe it or not this fish was 16lb 1oz it was weighed on two sets of scales one of which had been recently calibrated at a chub study group meeting and witnessed by four very experienced anglers .. let me tell you it looked a lot bigger on the bank than in the pics ... very hard to judge weights from photos
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This does look a very big fish though Terry, the photo wouldn't give me cause to doubt it's weight.
 
Nick Duffy said:
the river wye 13.5 in the anglers times this week is the best ...from the the guy who catches huge fish every time he goes fishing .
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So many dream of a Wye double let alone a 13+ I would dearly love him to replace his fisher price scales but I honestly don’t think he weighs them, just takes the pic at arms length and dreams up the highest figure he can get away with!!!!
 
I'm sure many just weight them in the net and don't bother to take it off. Maybe leave the pole on as well for a couple of extra pounds!
 
when you have a good look at the pictures of the 16 and 11 you can see the difference in what the girth would be. The measurement off the 16 I would think would be much greater
 
Yeah I think the wrist of the tail is the giveaway but still say weights are hard to judge by pics.... saying that the claimed weight in the first pic of this thread is questionable
 
Jason Bean said:
I'm on a 9.15 tench and a 7.15 chub and a 14.12 bream.....wish my barbel pb was a good a percentage of the record
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7.15 chub! Impressive Jason, that is well beyond a usual specimen target. I think I would rather get a huge chub than a huge barbel. My PB chub is 6.1 from the Cherwell and my PB barbel a now modest 11.10. I say now modest because when I caught it an 11.10 fish was still newsworthy. It's obviously still an impressive fish but barbel weights have gone up and my current targets are a 12 plus and a double from the Thames. Be good to do both with the same fish and of course that is entirely possible on that river. I had a run of big barbel back in the early 90s from the Cherwell when doubles were still pretty big news and in hindsight I realise I was very fortunate to drop on a group of then unknown fish in a difficult river. Despite a lot of barbel since from the Warks Avon, Ouse, Thames, Windrush, Severn, Teme etc. I can't beat that 11.10 fish!
 
I have to agree that weights of Barbel are difficult to tell from a photograph although some claims are obviously exaggerated.

I have found that Barbel from different rivers and sometimes the same river can be deceptive in their size to weight ratio.
 
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