Rode Heath, Stoke on Trent angler Dave Colclough fished Lancashire’s river Ribble above Preston yesterday evening and landed his first Ribble barbel, and what a fish at 9lb 7oz.
Dave fished the same snaggy swim several times last season and in spite of hooking several barbel, which at the time he thought were big fish, never managed to land one.
But using the same strength tackle yesterday, a 12lb main line to a 10lb fluorocarbon hooklength to a 14’s hook, with caster as hookbait, feeding hemp, trout pellet and caster with a blockend swimfeeder, he took about 10 minutes to land the immaculate fish.
Dave said, ‘I couldn’t give the fish much stick on a 14’s because the hook would have pulled, so I was quite gentle with it, at least compared to how I usually play a barbel on heavy gear. But I think it’s the comparatively gentle playing of the fish that made the difference, because it didn’t try to barge it’s way into the snags as happened before when I’ve hooked them from this swim on bigger hooks and tried to bully them.’
‘I was using a new rod too,’ Dave continued, ‘which I was anxious to christen with a decent fish. It performed really well, so I’ll get another one now.’
Over on a different stretch of the Ribble, Warrington angler Gary Knowles landed five barbel to 9lb.
