Remember your first barbel or double?

[Graham Elliott 1]

15 years old. Trotting the kennet for roach with hemp and tares.

Some super roach between 1 and just short of 2lb.

Cane rod. Mitchel reel. Small quill float. Float went down quickly a la redfin but this fish raced off with pace and power. 5 lb. Hooked for life.


First double 10.2 and first out of the Loddon for the twyford club with 750 members over the magic weight.. 2 lobworms on size 8 longshank hook. 20 mins earlier I had caught a minnow larger than I have ever seen on the same bait.

When was your "first" ( we are not talking bycycle shed stuff here )

 

[aebitim]

St Patricks stream aged 14 about 1.5LB very pleased but didnt really fish for them until a couple of years later. First double from Padworth dont know the exact weight as scales only went to 14lb and banged down hard, that got me interested.

 

[barbelboi]

First barbel double was 10.4 - Marlow Weir, 1972, on minnow live bait.
Jerry

 

[Derek Gibson]

My first barbel, and one I remember vividly, was from the river Swale back in 1962. Bait was a lump of cheese, rod was a MK 4 Avon, reel a Mitchell. The fish weighed 7-12, and put an awfull set in the rod. But it was my own fault, bullying it through streamer weed.

 

[S-Kippy]

First barbel I ever caught was from the Pipe swim on the Royalty. 12lb exactly and I was amazed that it wasn't green like the Brooke Bond card. First cast I ever made in the Kennet produced a barbel too but considerably smaller.

Times change. I've not had a barbel for 5 years or so.

 

[chub_on_the_block]

4Ib. R.Thames Romney Island. Far bank feeder with Meatimix groundbait, hemp and casters. I was 16 and it was 1980.

 

[binka]

I was just thinking about this before looking in as i'm visiting the stretch where I had my very first some thirty years ago, later today with a mate.

Around 3lb on legered cheese on the Trent, I wondered what the heck i'd hooked after seeing my first ever three foot twitch lol, I couldn't believe my eyes when i'd got it in the net

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Blooming heck.....great info.

Seeing those reports already reminds me that I have had barbel from specifically....


The Pipe swim - Royalty
Marlow Weir
Romney Island
St Patricks Stream.

Kennet
Trent

And just a chub from the Swale (had one from the Wharfe on my 2 days 'up north)

Must be gettin on a bit!

 

[barbelboi]

I was never a great fan of St Pats Graham, could get too crowded for my liking - preferred what used to be the RMC/CEMEX stretch of the Loddon just down the road behind the Wagon and Horses, used to have it virtually to ourselves (including the weir pool) even on a Saturday.
Jerry

 

[Judas Priest]

If memory serves it was in a Twyford club match where the Loddon meets the Pats. Would have been about 14 yrs old, so over 40 yrs ago. 2 lb 12 oz and got me a second place. Two weeks later on Sindlesham in a flood had my second also in a TDFC club match, 2.12 again and it won me the match. Remember being lightly accused of bringing it in a bucket by Don Metcalfe the bailiff.

 

[sam vimes]

I don't recall my first barbel at all, it had no particular significance at the time.
I do recall my first double. It was before the occassional foray to the Trent became an option. I do recall my first Swale double at 11lb 4oz, I seriously doubted that I'd ever get one, plenty don't. I've been lucky enough to get another since.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Know it well Jerry. Had a few from there too. Often used to get a good 'un from the small stream run off from the weir under the willow on the left before you got to the pool,pretty much behind the pub.. Also the bit above the main bridge where the rivers joined.

Judas. Bless him old Don. hope there's some fishing up there for him, mind you never remember him actually fishing?


Later became membership sec of course.

Keep them stories coming.

Graham

 

[S-Kippy]

The barbel that gave me most satisfaction was my first from the Middx Colne before the population exploded through the river. This is way back when any Colne barbel was a special beast indeed....they were very localised & I didn't have access to where they lived. Not a big fish but it was like the Holy Grail at the time.

Funniest [daftest] thing I ever did was trying to cast the old Marvel tin swimfeeder on a rod seriously incapable of the job. First attempt and the rod basically vapourised. I think the explosion was heard 5 miles away and it was probably 20 minutues before we stopped laughing !

Shining times.

 

[Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)]

My first barbel was from a private stretch of the river Teme (owned at the time by my best mate's parents) at Kingswood in Martley in 1990...

Can't recall the exact weight... bout 5lb and I was hooked...

I think it's a syndicate now.

My first double came from the same river a decade later and weighed a smidge under 11lb...

Since then I've had two 11lb plus but never broken my self-imposed target of 12lb. Similarly with chub, my Teme target is a 6lber and my best so far, amongst many 5lbers is 5lb 15oz...

The Teme is a very special river for me and from June 16th I always spend the first month of the season reaccquainting myself with her beauty...

Unfortunately opening day this year was interrupted by Keith the Seal!!!

But a session last week produced a 5lb chub and 8lb 15oz barbel Love it... what a river

 

[Paul Boote]

The barbel that gave me most satisfaction was my first from the Middx Colne before the population exploded through the river. This is way back when any Colne barbel was a special beast indeed....they were very localised & I didn't have access to where they lived. Not a big fish but it was like the Holy Grail at the time.

Funniest [daftest] thing I ever did was trying to cast the old Marvel tin swimfeeder on a rod seriously incapable of the job. First attempt and the rod basically vapourised. I think the explosion was heard 5 miles away and it was probably 20 minutues before we stopped laughing !

Shining times.

Not my first (that, 1.25lbs on legered sausage, came from Kennet at the Old Mill at Aldermaston thirteen years earlier when I was a very small boy), but a 1976 Colne fish will long remain in my memory. It was early autumn, as the great heat of that summer finally broke in storms and downpours, when I was floatfishing for a few very large roach that were present in one stretch back then, when my flake below a stickfloat got snaffled by "the bottom" - a 9lb 1oz. barbel, a prize from a river that had lost most of its barbel to pollution from the late 1950s to well into the 1960s, a real prize, one I still treasure.

 

[mark brailsford 2]

my first double I remember it well...(Well it was only last summer) a day ticket stretch of the mighty Ribble. I have never had a fish pull my rod round like that, I thought my arm was going to explode! one of lifes real experiences...All 13lb of her

 

[richiekelly]

I can remember the first Barbel I caught, it weighed around 3/4 of a pound and came from the Severn at Ironbridge, strangely I cant remember the last one I caught, I know it was last season but really cant remember it, perhaps senility is catching me up.

 

[Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)]

I can remember the first Barbel I caught, it weighed around 3/4 of a pound and came from the Severn at Ironbridge, strangely I cant remember the last one I caught, I know it was last season but really cant remember it, perhaps senility is catching me up.

Have you fished LAA's water... that lovely bit of Avon?

Never had a whiskers from there in a couple of trips but it looks like monster country?

 

[Judas Priest]

****y, you were lucky. He/ she was with us on the lower Severn at tea time Saturday night and back with us by tea time Monday. Still plenty of fish showing though, just didn't realise how big he/ she is/ was, bloody huge great thing.

My first double came off the Royalty big weir many years ago (27) whilst I was on honeymoon, thank god for an understanding wife.

 

[richiekelly]

Have you fished LAA's water... that lovely bit of Avon?

Never had a whiskers from there in a couple of trips but it looks like monster country?

I haven't ****y but what a good ticket to have at that price, i am sure if they are in there you will contact one sooner or later, have to be very selective about the rivers I fish now due to decreasing mobility, been using my mobility scooter to get to swims on the Derbyshire Derwent looks a bit daft but I wont give up.