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Andy Frances - Site Owner

 

Claire Frances

 

Andy has fished for barbel for well over 10 years and has a personal best of 14lb 3oz caught in January 2008. Andy's passion for barbel fishing inspired him to create Barbel Fishing World as a hobby in 1996. Since then, the site has grown massively and is now the most popular barbel site on the web.

info@barbel.co.uk

Claire has been barbel fishing for 6 years and has a personal best of 8lb 9oz. Claire is currently on maternity looking after the next generation of barbel fisherman...



Bob Gill - BFW Rod Builder & Moderator

Dr Andy Davies - BFW Site Moderator

Bob's a diamond!

He is one of Barbel Fishing World's very first and most loyal members. Bob is our very own 'bfw rods' rod builder and when he is not flex coating rods, he is one of our site moderators.

Bob has enjoyed barbel fishing for over 25 years and his knowledge and experience of barbel fishing is second to none.



Andy is one of BFW's original and loyal site members and a highly skilled barbel angler with a reputation of catching doubles! Andy's personal best is 14lb 9oz caught in November 2004.

Andy is a site moderator and plays a valuable part in the plans for future expansion of bfw.

Andy Thatcher - BFW Site Moderator

Paul Whiteing - BFW Technical Support and site Administrator.

 

Yes another Andy!

Andy has 30 years of successful barbel fishing experience so knows his stuff! Andy has supported BFW from the very beginning and was BFW's very first member.

Andy moderates the site all the way from the USA!

 

 

 

Paul has been fishing for barbel for 40 years so it comes as no suprise that he is the master of the Centrepin, and has a personal best of 13 lb 8oz! (not the one pictured)

Paul has been with BFW since 2001, does a superb job of managing BFW tech support, maintaining the BFW Archives plus managing the original reviews and articles sections of the site.

Mike Welsh - BFW Site Moderator
Steve Williams - BFW Site Moderator

Mike has fished for barbel for over 10 years but only "seriously" for the past two seasons. His PB of 11lb 6oz was caught from the Middle Severn in October 2006.
Mike is one of the most recent additions to the BFW team joining as a moderator in May 2007.

 


Jon Berry

Steve is an all rounder who happy targeting anything from Barbel to Bass.
After moving to Shropshire in 1994, Steve started to regularly fish the River Severn for Barbel, taking a number of Barbel well into double figures, along with large Chub and Roach also.
Although he still spends a fair amount of time Barbel fishing, his focus is currently more directed towards predators, and he can often be found aboard his boat on the Lower Severn/Warwickshire Avon targeting Pike or Zander.

Steve is married to Joanne, has two children, Ben and Jessica and is Secretary of Kinver Freeliners Angling Club ( http://www.kinverfreelinersac.com).

His other interests are football, where he supports Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and also helps out coaching at junior level, and Scuba Diving, which he admits has taken a back seat due to fishing, over recent years. 

Paul Matty - BFW Site Moderator
Paul Hiom - BFW Site Moderator

Paul Matty

Paul is a life-long all round angler. He caught his 1st Barbel from the Bristol Avon on his 17th birthday and has fished for them on and off ever since, though more seriously for the last 15 years. His greatest achievement was catching the 11-1 from the Marden after 12 years of fishing it. In recent seasons he's made more effort to expand his list of rivers and has now caught barbel from the following:- Trent, Severn, Taff, Teme, Kennet, Loddon, Warks Avon, Bristol Avon, Hants Avon, Marden, Wye.

Paul also enjoys trotting on chalkstreams for Grayling and Roach, a 3lber of both being his next ambition.

 

Paul Hiom

Paul fishes almost exclusively for barbel in the river season and likes the variety that small stream, medium and large river barbelling has to offer. Paul's interest in barbel was inspired by the first barbel catchers book back in the 1980's and he has fished for them ever since, becoming a member of the catchers himself in December 1999. Paul caught his first double in 1998 from the Bristol Avon and has caught a number of good fish from various rivers since then, his best fish being a 13lb 14oz River Severn lump.

 

BFW Team Photos

 

 

BS Conference - May 2005

In the bar!

 

 

 

Barbel Fishing World, c/o The Village Stores, Yatton Keynell, nr Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 7BA

By telephone: 01249 783196

info@barbel.co.uk

 

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