Lee, let me cheer you up.
Last year, toward the end of this season, a friend informed me he had never caught a barbel, so I dutifully took him off for an evening on the middle Trent. I had two chub and he promptly knocked out four barbs, two small ones, one at 7-08 and then, at around half eleven, one at 11-04.
I have been giving him some stick for the last twelve months about it.
This year, he phoned me on the second to last weekend of the season asking for a return vist before the season ended. Again, I dutifully took him back to the scene of the crime. Once there, I had two small barbel, whereupon he caught six, from small ones up to one at 10-08.
Twotrips, two doubles. I very nearly left him there and let him walk home! Am now very dubious about next year!