Pete's PB Barbel

Tuesday 9th March, 14:00 - 19:00. Stratford Town Waters. Cold NE.

Danny, Jeff, Pete and I met up to fish Stratford on Tuesday just gone. The forecast looked promising and Danny and I shared high hopes for Bream on the day. As usual Jeff feigned interest in anything apart from decent Roach and Pete headed straight for the weirs where he set out his stall for Barbel.

Danny turned up in an eight wheel rig pulling a 40ft curtain sided trailor of of liquidised bread and hemp.

I was on the bank first and toiled with waggler and maggot for almost three hours with only one chublet to show for it. The same time last year I had fished an identical method and had no end of Roach to the float.

Danny had fashioned a feeder from an oil drum and was casting a regular line upstream of me straight from the back of his wagon. I joined in with two feeder rods about an hour before dusk hoping the bream would switch on.

Jeff, Danny and I fished three in a row, however Jeff's comparatively lighter frame was being blast frozen by the cold wind so he moved off downstream to try the more feature-filled water of the small weir.

At dusk Danny's rod made a shape that resulted in a good Roach.

Guess who didn't get to finish their cup of tea?

I had a second chublet on the feeder and a third which was on the end when I reeled in to call it a day.

Pete had had a Bream when I rang him for our hourly check-in and whilst on the phone said he'd just hooked another. We hung up and I asked him to let me know how big it was once he'd dealt with the fish.

About ten minutes later he rang back saying the bream had turned into a barbel during the fight and that it could be a double. I wound in and left my station to go and see the fish.

Turns out it was a new pb barbel for Pete of 13lbs 3oz.

Mishapen

Crooked

The fish had a kink in it's back which when viewed from above made it distinctive.

Safely returned and with nothing else significant gracing the banks we four retired to the pub and talked.......fishing.

Cheers.