west sussex rother barbel

[brian hooper]

i am considering joining the hants and sussex anglers alliance next season. i hope to fish for barbel on their stretches of the rother. does anyone have any info on hotspots, maximum sizes, baits etc.

 

[John Pleasance]

It's taken me a while to find it but I knew I had read an article in a mag somewhere about Rother barbel.
They were stocked at Shopham Bridge in the eighties .
There were also fish introduced above Fittleworth ten and fifteen years ago.
According to the author of the article,Mark Howard,the fish are quite shy, he likens them to fish on the Teme rather than the Hants Avon in that they don't like to feed in the open but much prefer tree snags etc.
He and his brother Kevin caught fish to 8lb.12.

 

[brihooper]

I posted this some 12 years ago now. Only just rediscovered it as I am about to join the Petworth and Bognor club and get back on the Rother. Can't remember the e-mail I signed up with then, hence the new account. Just replying to this to offer my thanks for that post to John Pleasance; no idea if you're still a member, but that is still one of the very few pieces of information on the Rother barbel stocking anywhere on the internet. So, thank you!