A bit of groundbait and a hair rigged pellet on a size 10 hook... result?

[laguna]

= British Record Barbel Caught in Sussex River... 21lb 2oz!

It just goes to show, you don't always need big baits to catch big fish!



Well done Colin Smithson.
“I want to dedicate this catch to my brother Roy, who died a couple months ago aged 63. He lived for fishing and was a National disabled fishing champion. When I got the fish in the net I looked up at the sky and said: ‘I don’t know if that was you, but thanks Roy’. He would have loved to see this fish. It’s an incredible creature and I’m a very happy man – my Mount Everest has been climbed.”

Piece in Angling Times: British record barbel - the full story... — Angling Times

 

[no-one in particular]

Wonderful fish and just about the most perfect fishing story and picture.

 

[theartist]

= British Record Barbel Caught in Suffolk River... 21lb 2oz!

It just goes to show, you don't always need big baits to catch big fish!

Despite being easy going when it comes to line diameter I still see a hair rigged pellet on a size 10 as a big bait, how times have changed with boilies and donkey chokers the norm nowadays

Fairplay to him for dedicating it to his brother nice touch

 

[steve2]

Isn't this the fish that was reported being caught in Sussex it's now moved to Suffolk. it's getting around a bit.

 

[no-one in particular]

I have caught them on maggot with a swim-feeder, common enough method on the Avon once. Some barbel anglers used to have big 5 gallon buckets full of maggot and hemp back then. I just missed the change to pellets and boilies which I think started to take over, that was in the 80's/90s. I got fed up with all that bait and wielding a swim-feeder and started fishing for them with a cube of cheddar about an inch square free-lined, I found I caught just as many more or less and chub but a far nicer way to fish for them.
I watched that John Bailey program "mr crabtree" once and he was showing two young girls how to fish for barbel, he had whole sausages wrapped around the hook but he kept telling them to strike too early and they missed every fish but it shows they take a big bait as well. I suppose it depends what works on the day as with most fishing but if ever I get back down the Avon I will use free lined cheese again; just found it more enjoyable and I have never got round to pellets yet, by the time I do I expect they will be yesterdays bait.

 

[no-one in particular]

Isn't this the fish that was reported being caught in Sussex it's now moved to Suffolk. it's getting around a bit.

Give it time and it will end up in Canada.

 

[laguna]

Isn't this the fish that was reported being caught in Sussex it's now moved to Suffolk. it's getting around a bit.

Yeah I hope it come up my way!