Many years ago back in late 70`s ,me and a very good fishing buddy fished the River Kennet on a day ticket at "The mill " ,at least i think thats what it was called ,we fished the main pool for barbel ,our first attempt at barbel fishing .
We did`nt know what to expect so we were hitting every little twitch of the rod tip and of course with no success so we moved on to the side streams off the pool ,i think that i caught a very small barbel and a small chub ,my mate was fishing another small stream about 10 ft wide ,i can`t remember what the baits were ,i think it would have been a very strong soft cheese paste ,freelined ,well he had this "bite" and the barble just shot off ,never to be seen again and in the very swift fight smashed my mates rod , what power ,ive never forgot that day .