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Will the Barbel record ever be threatened....?

A

Andrew Firth

Senior Member
Over the last few years there seems to be growing talk of a real decline of barbel stocks due in part to the reintroduction of Otters, or our European cousins or Pollution / Global warming.....

Whatever it is,the general opinion seems to be that it's a struggle now,that the heydays are long gone...

However is this really the case or is it much like other walks of life / hobbies / interests, where it always used to be amazing,but now it's not so good....

Can anyone see or does anyone think we might see a new record in the coming year(s).......?

Fish in excess of 15lb+ must surely now be consider impossible catches...

I used to fish the Severn,massive big river,but never caught a double,lots of 6-9lbers but never a double...

I moved to work in the South West and fish the BA, lots of double figure fish, but nothing close to the record or even 15lb...

When I go home (North East) I fish the Tidal Trent, now for me if anywhere could break the record here's the place, it just seems to get better and better (well for specimen hunting Barbel catchers it does, maybe not the matchmen from the big Div 1 matches)...

That said fish getting close to the current record are still unheard of...

I also appreciate many Barbel anglers keep their golden swims and stretches very quiet, fair enough, I do the same, but even then surely you'd hear rumours of some amazing catches if they occurred...

Can anyone see a record coming in the next year or so, or should the days of +20lb fish be consigned to the history books.....
 
Perhaps, as the trout boys did some time back, barbel fishers should consider having different types of record - for (let's call them) semi-domesticated fish and for true, "What the F.....!" wild fish. Sheer size, you see, for trout fishers became meaningless once instant records were there for the taking, if you had an "in" on a particular fishery, and then, once in, could turn up regularly, fish well and do the time. But with size everything nowadays and fame for the ambitious easily bought.............
 
Mark Anderson said:
Hi men ,

Here we go again , ok Paul , whats a semi-domesticated fish :rolleyes:.

Hatter
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NOT here we go again, merely challenging what fishers are spoon-fed as "This is how it is. Challenge it at your peril."

Mark, as someone who has fished hard, quietly and very successfully for a lot of fish in a lot of places and met some very considerable anglers (famous and not famous) along the way, I'm someone who feels it necessary to challenge the increasingly commercially and media directed "Norm", for such so-called norms stifle Anglers and Angling and probably threaten their very future. Some, now, should just be thankful that Richard Walker isn't alive and kicking these days: he'd make me look like some mealy-mouthed me-too conformist and be fairly toasting the Big Name In-Crowd Few who purport to be the Great and Good of British Angling........
 
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Hi men ,

Good point Paul , wonder what he would have been doing in these times . May have suprised us all , because standing still was not one of his traits .

Hatter
 
Perhaps, but YOU wouldn't even be here, posting, fishing and guiding, if HE hadn't done what he did when he did it.
 
Paul. I never knew he was my secret Father.:eek:

I often like your posts. But that was an assumption and absolute nonsense.

Get back to trying to bait CT please.

Graham
 
Hmm, Trent sounds a good bet, Thames probably holds a couple of biggies that are close at times. I'm only really saying that as they're big rivers so maybe.

Got to dream haven't you?
 
Simple answer is yes, and on a few stretches of a few rivers fish are creeping ever closer, the record WILL fall within the next 3 years, maybe even this season if certain fish on certain stretches of certain rivers have a milder winter and grow on a bit........nuff said!!
 
For the record, on some rivers, 16 pounders are becoming a VERY real chance to any angler who fishes for them, the possibility of breaking the 15lb barrier is more realistic than ever for most anglers, it is bags of 6 pounders which are more of a rarety on some southern rivers to be honest........
 
Ian Crook said:
Simple answer is yes, and on a few stretches of a few rivers fish are creeping ever closer, the record WILL fall within the next 3 years, maybe even this season if certain fish on certain stretches of certain rivers have a milder winter and grow on a bit........nuff said!!
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Seems very feasible. If the current record fish could pack on over 4lbs in a bit over two years, albeit not just through natural food, who knows what maybe obtainable??!!


Personally I'd love the next record fish to fall too a 12 year old kid, fishing a river with no previous form, weighing a genuine and undeniable 25lbs.....
And for the farmer to not allow anyone to fish the stretch forthwith, to leave the noble beast free from 'fish chasers'.:p:p

(can but dream)
 
And what of yourself, your fishing and your life if your scales aren't "amazing" but actually real? Catapulted into a nanosecond celebrity, then eternal envy and sniping internet hatred.

Just go fishing, for yourself, and f- the rest.
 
the fun of the hunt is always more satisfying than the kill(or capture and release)modern times.
 
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