It was mentioned to me on a forum thread a few weeks ago that I ought to place an article on FISHINGmagic. We were a bit disgruntled with the angling press anyway, so sod ’em!
Anyway, I thought you might find this of interest.
I decided this year to switch my summer attention from catfish back to barbel on the Wye, and who better to drag along than my dad, who was catching doubles from the Thames and Hants Avon back in the 60’s – what a way to start!
A few of you may have heard of last week’s escapade when I landed fish of 9lb 12oz, 10lb 10oz, 9lb 14oz and 10lb 2oz all in the space of four hours from the same swim! This weekend we tried some likely swims that screamed barbel that lay further upstream on the opposite bank. However, all these swims could yield were chub, chub and, you’ve guessed it … up to 4lb.
I was concentrating on one final swim when I heard my dad yelling something. I reeled in and went to investigate. When I arrived at his swim his rod was arced over with a serious fish stripping his clutch. Might be a good fish you know, I said sarcastically. I won’t print his reply, but he finished with ‘this won’t be far off the record’!
The fish had gone a good 70 – 80 yards down the river using the heavy flow to it’s advantage. After one hell of a scrap for 30 minutes the fish came level with us on the far bank to the exact spot where it was hooked. The water was crystal clear and we clearly saw the flash of it’s flank, at which point the old man became incredibly excited because that flank equated to a 20lb barbel.
Now the fish had lost the advantage of the current he doggedly began to come across the river under the tremendous pressure being exerted on him. About two rod’s length out the fish came to within four feet of the surface at which point the old man yelled, “that’s a 20 son, now please, no mistakes with the landing net!”
I agreed with the statement about it being a 20 but pointed out he had a funny looking dorsal fin for a barbel. Big mistake, talk about ‘if looks could kill’! Soon after, up popped the fish and I swear he looked disappointed, and I was proved to be right. For there lying in the landing net was a cracking, pristine common carp.
We weighed the fish at 29lb 8oz minus the weighmat, and gave a final weight of exactly 28lb. He then began to get over his initial shock that he hadn’t got the barbel record, but ecstatic that he had landed his biggest river carp.
We’ll keep you posted on our big barbel quest and who knows, the Wye may well yield the first 20-pounder to a legitimate method. I say this because I know of a 20 that came out to a salmon angler! A person I know very well but that’s another story.
