Record barbel from the Thames!
The UK’s third-biggest ever falls to garlic-flavoured meat
ATHAMES record barbel of 20lb 9oz has provided a memorable climax to the river season.
It’s also the third-biggest UK barbel ever taken, and was landed by Rob Phillips.
The catch was rich reward for the countless hours Rob has spent in pursuit of the species. He said:“I was a young man when I started barbel fishing the Thames around 20 years ago! I must have done 40 or 50 nights a season ever since, and finally it’s all come good!”
Rob legered a lump of garlicflavoured meat in a high and coloured Thames to make the catch, adding another big barbel of 14lb 11oz in the same session. Despite his memorable brace, Rob believes there are even bigger fish to come from the famous river.
“That’s the beauty of the Thames – you just don’t know what to expect!” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before the Thames produces a British record!”
Another angler to enjoy late success was Kaayli Williams, who caught a whacking 17lb 6oz barbel from the River Trent. Having set himself the goal of catching a 13lbplus fish before the rivers closed, Kaayli smashed that out of sight with his first bite of the session.
“As I was playing it, panic started to set in as I didn’t want to lose what felt like the fish of a lifetime. Thankfully everything went to plan. I don’t think I’ll be beating this for a very long time,” he said.
The fish fell to a CC Moore Pacific Tuna boilie presented on a running lead set-up.
Further south, Hampshire Avon barbel may be few and far between, but time spent tracking them down proved worthwhile for Simon Daley, who landed a cracker of 16lb 1oz.
Simon lowered a small PVA bag of crushed boilies and a 10mm hookbait into a deep gulley just a rodlength out to win the allimportant bite.
He explained: “I’d forgotten my brolly and I was packing up because of the rain when the rod arched right over. I instantly knew it was a big fish... it was proper heart-in-the-mouth stuff!”