Apart from the usual sticklebacks, minnows millers thumbs and stone loach all caught either on a length of garden cane with cotton as my line or with a net; the only things that stick in my memory using a proper rod and line was the first time I beat my neighbours son with over a hundred small Bleak and stunted Roach on the great Ouse somewhere up the A1 back in 1962 when I was 12 years old.
The only other thing that really sticks in my mind was the day I caught my first ever Barbel from the river Kennet in 1975 and which I still remember very clearly as if it were yesterday right down to the smallest detail.
It was a warm summers evening and a friend of mine (Budgie) was going to introduce me to Barbel fishing on the river Kennet at Newbury.
My own rod and reel was totally unsuitable for catching Barbel so Budgie lent me a Richard Walker B.James & son MkIV Carp rod which he had spare in his car (and which I later bought from him for £10), together with a Mitchell 300 reel loaded with 8lb Sylcast line.
My end tackle was a link leger consisting of a string of SSG shot on a loop of line that was stopped on the mainline by a short section of Biro tube with a short section of cocktail stick pushed inside, and my hook was a size 4 Specimen hook, and my hooklength was around 6 to 8 inches in length.
I put a cube of Luncheonmeat on my hook with a piece of grass pushed into the hook bend to hold it firm and my mate Budgie told me to cast just past the centre of the river and then close my balearm and tighten up any slack, then place my finger over my line and feel for my end tackle through my finger as it trundled along the gravel and came to a stop.
My mate Budgie said that if I gently lifted my rod tip slightly every couple of minutes it would allow the bait to trundle a little bit further and to do this every couple of minutes.
”You should be able to feel the gravel through your finger and feel any streamer weed rubbing against your line” said Budgie, and I could.
”You will soon feel the difference between a proper bite and some streamer weed rubbing against your line” said Budgie; and a couple of minutes later I had a rod bender of a bite which almost took the rod out of my hands and I had my very first Barbel on the end of my line.
It fought like a tank and when I eventually managed to see it I thought It was huge, but Budgie said “it’s only about 5lb-ish and hopefully you’ll get one a bit bigger later” and I did catch one later that evening of a little over 8lb; but I can’t remember much about catching that one, as it was my first Barbel of 5lb 8oz that stuck in my memory ever since that evening.
Here’s a picture of my first ever Barbel caught that evening:
Keith