Stewart Bloor, ‘Sedge’, author of FM’s ‘Pilgrims Progress’ fished the lower Severn for barbel recently and netted a personal best chub in the shape of a 5lb 4oz fish.


PB No. 1 – chub 5lb 4oz

But not content with that he returned just last Sunday evening and went one better with a personal best barbel of 13lb 11oz.

He fed the swim with 31 baitdroppers of particles before settling down to fish his own home-made boilies on 10lb line. At 10.15pm he was rewarded with his first fish, a barbel of 9lb 3oz. This was soon followed by another barbel of 7lb 3oz.

It was much later, at 1.50am, before the rod arced over yet again to the big pull of a barbel and this time he could tell it was something very special.

“Even though I got it to the net several times, on each occasion it decided it didn’t want to play the game and proceeded to power back into the deeps of the river.” Stewart said.


PB No. 2 – barbel 13lb 11oz
“The first time I saw the fish was when it finally yielded and surrendered itself to the landing net. Gazing down, I could see that a good fish was about to make my day. An easy double, I set it at a good twelve, in my usual conservative approach to fish weights. However, when the readout settled at 13 lb 11 oz, I wasn’t surprised in any way.” He added.

You can read the full story of the capture of these fish in the 1st August edition of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’.

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