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The next barbel river record

Next UK barbel record river?

  • Total voters
    139
Paul Cooper said:
Graham, I have caught Barbel from an Oxfordshire gravel pit, it was around 7lbs. The pit is next to the river Windrush, which floods into it. The Barbel was in tip top condition and fought like any other Barbel i have caught. These pits also hold some big chub. PS i put the Barbel back into the Windrush.
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That's the first I have heard of Paul but it does show that river escapees are in these pits and who knows how big they could get?
 
Just mentioned it because one pig pen i know of has quite a few 12+ ers, that are doing ok, the pool is brook fed and they congregate by the flow, by the by,at present biggest fish in the dove are around 15lb, and there appears to be less and less these last few seasons thanks to our furry friends, also herd of a huge fish from a good friend(no reason not to believe him) close to 20 from a river not on the list, and personnaly i think the trent has record breakers in now,
Regards
 
Graham Young said:
That's the first I have heard of Paul but it does show that river escapees are in these pits and who knows how big they could get?
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There were, I believe, a couple of barbel in the Dollar Lake at Gunthorpe Pits about 8 years ago, now an Ashfield water. They were thought to have got in when the Trent has overtopped as it's only 50 yards away. I'm told the bigger fish (a near double I gather) went well on bream gear.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
There were, I believe, a couple of barbel in the Dollar Lake at Gunthorpe Pits about 8 years ago, now an Ashfield water. They were thought to have got in when the Trent has overtopped as it's only 50 yards away. I'm told the bigger fish (a near double I gather) went well on bream gear.[/QUOTE]

You mean people fish for Bream on purpose :eek:
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Graham Young said:
Joe Winstanley said:
There were, I believe, a couple of barbel in the Dollar Lake at Gunthorpe Pits about 8 years ago, now an Ashfield water. They were thought to have got in when the Trent has overtopped as it's only 50 yards away. I'm told the bigger fish (a near double I gather) went well on bream gear.[/QUOTE]

You mean people fish for Bream on purpose :eek:
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Big Bream angling is the new rock and roll...apparently
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Heart says a Loddon fish, and Steve Double will catch it, and will then need to change his name by deed poll to Steve Twenty Two :) - Head says the Thames.
 
Ha! If only, Darren. I'm closer to racking up 22 blanks on the Loddon than a 22lb-er. It's rock hard at the moment (or most moments, come to that). As far as I'm aware, it's five years since a fish over 18lb came out of the Loddon, and I'm sure that one is now inhabiting some heavenly riffle where old barbel go once they die.

Agree re the Thames. The record-breaker is probably lurking under some weirpool sill right now, well away from any hook baits.
 
Stillwaters could well throw up a surprise. My club has a fishery with a small river fed stillwater and it holds quite a head of Barbel that have found their way in there naturally and stayed put.
The Barbel in the stillwater are roughly twice the size, on average, of the fish in the river.
 
Graham, your a satch fan? I,m impressed, the usual answer is who,s he, and you obviously know he IS the best rock guitarist on the planet,
Regards:eek:
 
Paul Cooper said:
Mark, i have never fished that far down, Maidenhead is the lowest. There are all manner of things swimming in the Thames, terrapins, exotic fish ( pet shop went bust and all the fish went into the river) and wels catfish, some are pretty big. I have no idea how crabs and crays would co habit but more food for otters and wel catfish i would imagine.
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Otters in the Thames!,So what I saw on the opposite bank on the middle a few months ago I wasn't imagining it!,It was too big to be a weasel or stoat but could of been a mink,it didn't have a white chest but a more brown colour.
Makes me think why I haven't had a barbel under ten pounds in the last two seasons.
 
Dave Brooksbank said:
Otters in the Thames!,So what I saw on the opposite bank on the middle a few months ago I wasn't imagining it!,It was too big to be a weasel or stoat but could of been a mink,it didn't have a white chest but a more brown colour.
Makes me think why I haven't had a barbel under ten pounds in the last two seasons.
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In fairness I'd be surprised if they weren't there, they are literally everywhere now. I wouldn't hold to much weight on thier impact on Barbel though, not to start that topic off.
 
There have been otters on the Thames for a long time. They have been seen in the centre of Oxford and are both upstream and downstream of Oxford.
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
In fairness I'd be surprised if they weren't there, they are literally everywhere now. I wouldn't hold to much weight on thier impact on Barbel though, not to start that topic off.
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Do start that topic Stephen, on a new thread if you like. Please clarify why you think the Otter have had little impact on Barbel? And what do you class as impact, fish kills or ruined fishing by their presence? Have you knowledge of rivers around the country other than the Wessex region where you think Otters have/have not had an impact on them? Interested to know your thought process on this.

Cheers, Darren.
 
Interesting thread - skipped last few pages as anxious to post! I think chances of a massive Barbel from a small river are largely gone due to predation by our furry friends, and any hidden or lightly fished stretches that are likely to hold an undiscovered big fish are even more susceptible to Otter attention with little human activity to keep them away (not that that seems to have much effect anyway).

My bet would be on a big river - Trent, severn or Thames, or tributaries close to their mouth, where big, slower fish could survive Otter attention.

The days of outsize fish in little rivers are gone - easiest prey for an agile apex predator like an Otter. We didn't realise it, but we had a slightly artificial halycon age for the last decade where we could feed up big fish in focussed areas with no real natural check on their upper weight limit. Fish could still grow huge on big rivers but maybe through age and not by feeding on HNV baits.

Shame - I loved catching doubles galore under my feet on the Kennet ten years ago, but it was all probably a bit false. Next Barbel record (as with Tench, Chub, Bream etc. etc.) will fall to a Carp angler fishing a river.
 
Darren Hawen said:
Do start that topic Stephen, on a new thread if you like. Please clarify why you think the Otter have had little impact on Barbel? And what do you class as impact, fish kills or ruined fishing by their presence? Have you knowledge of rivers around the country other than the Wessex region where you think Otters have/have not had an impact on them? Interested to know your thought process on this.

Cheers, Darren.
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There's really no point it's a dead dog. It's not that I'm convinced they have had little impact, more that thier impact is over stated by some. My observations almost exclusively on the Dorset Stour admittedly, is that they seem to work very hard to catch very little, taking mostly silvers. Thier presence is longer standing than many realise and I've only seen one fish I'd suspect was killed by an otter. The way some wang on you'd expect to see the banks littered with half eaten carcasses.

The way I see it there's not much in the facts camp;
The number of individuals is unknown. The methods used to measure population such as spraint samples appears to have poor record.
The diet of them is debatable. The historical diet is unlikely what they are eating, certainly one study suggested they were eating minnows.
Frequent sightings of what is a crepuscular animal in full daylight to me suggests poor food availability driving them to hunt longer and take bigger risks.

I honestly think that the dwindling numbers of many corse fish are a reflection of environmental pressures at large and whilst a wet cat won't help I do not think they are the driving force. It's a long winded emotional and subjective topic with few solid answers and really that's all there is to say. I can't really be bothered to expand beyond this and don't wish to drag things off topic.
 
Lloyd Mcinally said:
Interesting thread - skipped last few pages as anxious to post! I think chances of a massive Barbel from a small river are largely gone due to predation by our furry friends, and any hidden or lightly fished stretches that are likely to hold an undiscovered big fish are even more susceptible to Otter attention with little human activity to keep them away (not that that seems to have much effect anyway).

My bet would be on a big river - Trent, severn or Thames, or tributaries close to their mouth, where big, slower fish could survive Otter attention.

The days of outsize fish in little rivers are gone - easiest prey for an agile apex predator like an Otter. We didn't realise it, but we had a slightly artificial halycon age for the last decade where we could feed up big fish in focussed areas with no real natural check on their upper weight limit. Fish could still grow huge on big rivers but maybe through age and not by feeding on HNV baits.

Shame - I loved catching doubles galore under my feet on the Kennet ten years ago, but it was all probably a bit false. Next Barbel record (as with Tench, Chub, Bream etc. etc.) will fall to a Carp angler fishing a river.
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Spot on Lloyd..best post on this thread so far.
 
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