I just spent the afternoon fishing a very swolen river Kennet , after Mondays deluge the river was in full flood a good 3 feet up and pushing hard, ideal barbel conditions, nice

In these conditions there is no need for messing around with hair rigs and pellets, big smelly lumps of garlic flavoured meat mounted diretly onto a big size 2 hook, 12lb line and 3oz leads were my tactics today.

The session started well with a 10lb 2oz borris in the net on first cast of the day, she was taken in slacker water out of the main current right in the margins directly behind a big over hanging tree and took the bait less than a minute after it went in, I must of dropped it right on her nose.

I spent the afternoon fishing well into darkness roving about and trying all the likely looking spots but dissapointingly only had 2 more fish out both around 6lb, in conditions like that they should be crawling up the rod. I aint too bothered though as a double is always a good result in my book.

I am off out again tomorrow and hopefully they will have their heads down feeding hard like they should be in those conditions.



10lb 2oz of hard fighting Kennet barbel

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And here is the swim she was caught from. That is looking upstream and she was right behind the tree on the left

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I been busy with my camera today so gonne post up a load of my piccies, enjoy

Cheers matey

I went out on charter boat once in force 5 winds, I was sick as fook, never again

Aye, its a lovely part of the world, I had the river to myself today, didn't see another soul all day, bliss

This is normally a tiny little side stream, today it was a raging torrent

Some more bare winter trees

I love being on the river at dusk, its the witching hour

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I had one of the small fish out of here

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I hope you enjoyed the pictures

Cracking Fish

and some nice shots of the stretch too.

hope you find a few hot spots on your next vistit.

ATB

CT

nice pics jakk and well done on the double.
cant wait to on the river again now-more rain please.

ukbl

looks lovely Jakk

i've not been fishing for years.....used to be right into it. Used to love going barbelling in chippenham with just the bare minimum kit and a head lamp.....had some nice whiskers out and some lovely chubb to boot!!!

ahhhh...makes me want to dust off the reels

And the British barbel record has just been broken from the river wensum on BLACK PUDDING

http://barbelfishingworld.yuku.com/topic/16107

Owd

wow....what a lump.

Cheers guys, I am glad you enjoyed the photos.

I saw that potential record barbel on BFW the other day, what a fish and hats off to the angler who caught it, that is what you call a fish of a life time.

I do feel a bit sorry for the locals who fish the Wensum though, everyman and his dog is going to be after that fish now and it will I am afraid it will become a circus., just like Adams Mill on the Ouse did a few years back.

I was talking to my mate about it and we reckon there must have been record barbel captures over the years that have been kept quiet for that very reason.

Good luck if you come over Friday UKBL, I think I may be off to fish a different venue with my mate Friday evening so I may not bump into you.

Nice pics Jakk, especially the rusty barb on the fence Did you use a bank stick as a tripod?

No tripod mate, just a steady hand and a big memory card

hi
your right jakk
there have been some real big barbel caught and kept quiet for the reasons you gave
i was lucky enough to see what could be the largest barbel out of the teme i took the pics for a friend.It was miles over the record for the river.But i cant say how much or where because of those reasons again!Don't really want the barbel society migrating to the stretch like bloody cormarants.sorry ,i also don't think hes the only guy to catch that on either.
ive had some amazing nights on my chosen stretch too 150 lb + of fish in one night has happened for a few of us.and i dont doubt many others too

the fish in the pics is a beauty

how could you keep it quiet

but you have to

philyyz

not quite a floodwater barbel but the kennet was pushing through a bit.
12 07 taken by my mate last night on a halibut pellet wrapped in paste fished without feed in the middle of the river.

Well done MV's mate, she is real Kennet beauty, a proper big old girl, top stuff