What is a big barbel..

[Darryl Davis]

... must agree that the size of a "big" barbel is all about perspective the 0.75 of a river record at first seems like a good benchmark but my personal best from a couple of yorkshire rivers is well below half the river record so big for me from those rivers would be anything that beats my current p.b on those particular rivers, meanwhile i love to catch barbel of any size from any river, and if i'm not catching; well, the being there is enough..

Leon, thats why I put the rider in my original post about beating your own river pb. and yes Keith is right its about enjoying the fishing.

I will openly admit I enjoy the pursuit of larger fish (and that is fine). But any fish from the Ribble (never fished yet) or the Dove (only caught Chub) will be PBs. As for Yorkshire - well its http://dr-barbus.barbelfishingworld.yuku.com/ (and that is five river doubles plus two very close) and I still enjoy catching any Barbel from the Derwent/Wharfe/Ouse/Nidd/Ure/Hull/Swale. Its just at times I set my stall out for the larger fish (and I enjoy that pursuit) and I would be a hypocrite to say otherwise.

Enjoy!

 

[Jon Frisby]

hi all,
must agree that the size of a "big" barbel is all about perspective the0.75 of a river record at first seems like a good benchmark but my personal best from a couple of yorkshire rivers is well below half the river record so big for me from those rivers would be anything that beats my current p.b on those particular rivers, meanwhile i love to catch barbel of any size from any river, and if i'm not catching; well, the being there is enough,
cheers, leon

Thats a very good quote Leon, a big Barbel being 0.75 of a River Record. Sums that question up and answered.

 

[Leon Dodd]

hi all,
that's an impressive list of big fish there Darryl.
while i think that most anglers would like to better there personal bests, (me included), i think that sometimes it comes across as though nothing else matters other than how big a fish can i catch next, when i start thinking like that rather than just enjoying my fishing, being out with nature and if i beat a personal best then that's great and if i don't well that's great too. these are just my opinions and i'm sure many people will see things differently, and that is up to them, as long as we all enjoy it and it does no harm.
this is not aimed at any particular person, it's just me rambling on a bit, i'm off now,
cheers, leon

 

[Mike Hodgkiss]

Keep on rambling Leon , you talk a lot of sense

 

[Andy Bebbington]

For me a Big Barbel is anything over 8lb but always trying to improve my personal best which is getting harder as the bigger you catch em the harder it is to find the next one.

Andy

 

[Ramon San Juan]

Good to see the replys that we all enjoy catching barbel whatever size.....
I mean after all, we are not carp fishing on this forum are we

 

[Barry Garwood]

I myself fish for whatever sized barbel comes along, i am happy to catch 2lbers or 12lbers, i can remember catching my first double at the royalty about 15 years ago at 10.1 and that fish seemed huge at the time, many people came to look at it but now it would barely get a second glance, that seems sad to me although most angling now seems to be big fish or bust! what is a big barbel? to me regardless of the river record any barbel of over 8lbs will always be big to me!