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Your first barbel

Ironbridge, just downstream, sometime in `81.

Bodywarmer, Frankenstein hairdo and disgorger on a piece of string but I still had the edge on Deano for fashion sense even back then:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Note the Shakespeare Match International and Cardinal 40a, proper barbel gear eh!!!!!


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I keep meaning to go and try to find the swim and have a few hours of nostalgia.
 
My first Barbel was on the River Mole and at 14lb is still my PB to date (profile pic). Caught it on 8lb line, a rubbish ledger rod, a match reel with no drag and the worst smelling luncheon meat I've ever sniffed. Playing it was a nightmare which involved n obscene amount of give 'n' take and it's only with hindsight that I realise how well I played it that night (even if I do say so myself :)).

From that day onwards I was hooked on Barbel and have since spent a small fortune on tackling up and making sure I'm better prepared.
 
;)

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My first caught in 2002 28th Aug Broken scar River Tees...6lb 4oz caught with match gear then note the seat box...wasnt geared up for them but what a scrap..
Once hooked never forgotten...
 
About 3 years ago, having not been fishing (apart from a couple of visits to carp puddles) for probably the best part of 30 years, my mate ( who had been a serious angler all of his life) took me to The Wye ...to try to catch a Barbel (I'd never seen one before!)
To try to set the scene, you have to realise that prior to this, most of my fishing had been done on North Herefordshire streams, with a small fibreglass rod and a pocket full of mepps spinners and an eye out for the Bailiff !!!!

Watching him set up a rod for me was like a whole new experience...
First came all sorts of strange swivel things....never seen them before!
The a feeder....what the hell is THAT?
The on the hook was a “hairâ€....YEAH RIGHT !!!
Then to top it off...he drilled an odd looking pellet and cunningly attached it to the hair with a “crochet†hook and a little bit of plastic....NOW YOU'RE TAKING THE PI$$ !!!!!

However...damned if it didn't work....
After an hour or so...I got a massive bite, followed by the amazing fight, and after what seemed an age I had my first Barbel on the bank....Chris was godsmacked and went for the scales.....
My first Barbel weighed in at 11.04....
My personal Best !!!.....STILL !!!!!
A baptism of fire...and guaranteed, to have me addicted to these beautiful creatures!!!!!

Barbel.jpg
 
June 2009: near Evesham. I had caught small stillwater barbel but I wanted to get back to the rivers and catch a barbel from running water. Arriving at dawn, with only two other anglers asleep and bivvied up, I walked the bank and chose a swim. For three hours I had not a knock and was about to have a walk to chat to the now awake anglers for any tips. Then the rod hooped over and I was playing a big fish. Only when it had run several times the length of my swim and then smashed my net on capture did I see how big. 13lb on the nose! When that is you're first river whiskers, then barbel addiction sets in quickly.
 
Martyn Lloyd said:
Ironbridge, just downstream, sometime in `81.

Bodywarmer, Frankenstein hairdo and disgorger on a piece of string but I still had the edge on Deano for fashion sense even back then:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Note the Shakespeare Match International and Cardinal 40a, proper barbel gear eh!!!!!


3e8d1d45.jpg



I keep meaning to go and try to find the swim and have a few hours of nostalgia.
Click to expand...

Saved that pic.......:eek::D

Quality.

Steve
 
Fishing diary 1968 age 11 ,River Ouse - Cherryfields ' a few tommys bleak and a massive gudgeon on worms ' Diary entry later in same week [clearly after some reflection and a look in the Observers book of freshwater fishes ]' I think the big gudgeon was a barbel !' Bleak on worms eh!
Fishing diary 1973 River Ouse ,Church farm , ' five bream biggest 5lb 10oz and a 4lb 9oz barbel '' bait ' special bread paste ', hmmm.Reading the whole entry for this all night session I seemed more chuffed with the bream ! Size mattered in those innocent days

Happy days :)
 
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Mine weighed 4lb 11oz caught on the humble maggot from the Lower Benyons in October 2001, I was 13. Strangely I didn't fish for barbel for a good few years afterwards, only getting back into it in the last 2 seasons, but it was a memorable capture. Coincidentally I had my first Kennet barbel session since then last week and managed a double out, but the first barbel was still a more memorable catch.
 
i caught mine 3 yrs ago from a stretch of the goyt after fishing the river for near on 20yrs after the perch and bream i decided to turn myself into a dedicated barbel angler over night and after 4months of trying and fishing in all the wrong places and in the wrong weather conditions i finally managed my first barbel on the 1st march weighing 10lb 6oz, thanks to my good friend BBH for all his advice and tips. (red line is still the best :) )
tight lines all
jerry
 
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My first barbel came in 1983 when aged 12, I had the most memorable season ever. Fishing a tributary of the Kennet near Aldermaston with a big lump of luncheon meat I caught my first ever barbel at just under 8lbs which beat my dads personal best. I was chuffed.
The following weekend, my and my dad were fishing the lake at Aldermaston Mill and I landed my PB carp at 28lb.
Both fish were caught on the same glassfibre rod and Mitchel match reel.
Happy days.
 
Good stories. My first was taken fishing the great ouse with my dad when i was 12 or 13, 20 odd years ago. I remember trotting hemp and tares all day catching dace and roach when the float buried and i was attached to something that would not come up. After a good battle she was mine-a lovely 7lber. I remember that day well, middle of autumn, overcast, best fishing day ever at that point.

richie
 
had mine at holt fleet on severn about 25years ago whilst fishing with my dad..had him on float fished meat using shakespear match rod and mitchel match reel..my dad had one 6lb which looked like a monster to me at that time..fantastic memorys..:)
 
Took up fishing again (after a 25yr hiatus) after I'd moved to Manchester. I fished the Bristol Avon way back in the late 70s and had never even heard of barbel.
Caught my first on a quivertip rod in July 2007 from the River Goyt. It weighed in at 8lb 8oz. It was caught by design, so really very chuffed at the time.
 
I can't in all honesty remember although it's likely to have been twenty years or so ago:eek:. I can just about remember the four doubles I've had, but as the first only arrived within the last year that's no mean feat.:D
 
Late 70s at Ironbridge. Meat on the hook and maggot feeder. Lots of them about 2 lb. I didn't catch another till I returned to fishing after a very long layoff - then it was a 3 3/4 lb fish on the Dane on worm/corn cocktail because I didn't trust these newfangled pellet things.
 
first barbel

1974 Thames opposite monkey island float fishing for anything on my winfield rod and black prince reel. Thought id caught a monster gudgeon until my late uncle identified it as a baby barbel of around 12oz. 13 years later i caught my first by design when I gave up matches and decided to fish for real fish:D

Alan
 
Can't remeber a specific fish but was definately on the Kennet at Burghfield Mill and around the 4lb mark. In those days (30 years ago) we use to fish for them with 9' glass leger rods, mitchell 300 and 6lb maxima, size 6 hook, running leger with an arseley bomb. Only ever used meat and cheese. I remember cheese was often the better bait and it was just a piece of cheddar moulded round the hook. Often think why I haven't tried cheese once in the last 5 years since I got back into it again ??? Also very sad now that Burghfield Mill is a bloody housing estate, I really can't uderstand how that ever was allowed to happen.
 
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