When I was a kid the record stood at 14lb 6oz, (equalled on several rivers) this was a fish so huge that to even see one approaching that size was beyond my wildest dreams, there were also stories about a 16lb Barbel taken by a Salmon angler on the Hampshire Avon, at the time this was a fish so vast as it was hardly believable!
My father worked at the Aldermaston nuclear facility and had some sort of connection with Lady Benyon, a name synonymous with the very famous section of the Kennet now run by Reading and District A S, it was Lady Benyon who allowed Dad (and I) to fish on her estate water
Dad fished this quite a lot as he stayed near to Aldermaston in a local pub, rather than drive 70 miles home every day, so for four evenings a week he would fish for the Barbel, one season he caught 502 Barbel, one fish, and one fish only, was a double of 10lb 2oz, in those days that was a very big fish indeed!
I mention this story only to illustrate just how very fortunate we are in this golden age of very big Barbel; it seems the expectation that every other fish will be a “double†is now “the norm†yet there was a time (and it was not that long ago) when a “double†was the fish of the season and on some rivers the fish of a lifetime.
For myself I am just happy to catch any fish, it is not all about size at all, it is more about how I catch them, and for me that is enough!!
Tight Lines
