Team Barbel Diary Page

11th October 2008: Ade attends the last Barbel Society Junior day for this season, held on a section of the lower Warks Avon. The river being low and clear it was never going to be easy to catch a Barbel. Joined on the day by a very keen and able young angler Sam Foster Ade had to work all of his Team Barbel magic to produce the goods, but produce the goods he did. With Sam ever keen to learn and giving 100% attention he was ready to react when the rod hoped over and a hooked Barbel gave young Sam the run-around before Ade slid the net under a lovely 7lb Avon Barbel. Well done Sam and dad Gary and thanks for a great day.

1st October 2008: On holiday in the Severn valley Ade decided to make the 40 mile journey over to fish the River Wye, a phone call to Woody's Tackle and Ade was armed with the info and day ticket to fish a prolific stretch of this lovely river. Finding the river up and running hard it took Ade a while to find the Barbel but once he did the session turned into a memorable one with a total of 18 being landed in the session.

24th September 2008: Ade fished the river Thames for the first time ever and managed to land a bar of gold Thames Barbel, at just short of 8lb and in superb condition it was a most memorable catch.

 

30th August to 8th September 2008: Ade spends a few days at Team Barbel Worcestershire HQ, with the river Severn carrying a few feet of extra flood water the fishing was fast and furious with Ade managing over 70 Barbel during the week, taking his total for the season to over 200 Barbel. Team Barbel Superhero, Chas Kellet and his good lady Denise joined Ade for a few days fishing, and Chas was introduced to the 'Team Barbel Method' resulting in Chas also catching well over 50 Barbel, topped by his first Warks Avon Barbel a cracking double at 10lb 8oz.

16th to 24th August 2008: Tommy and his girlfriend Angela take a trip down to Team Barbel's Worcestershire HQ for a week and bit of fishing in the fantastic August sunshine!, however the weather was not as kind as it could have been with rain most days. With a few trips out and about arranged during the day Tommy and the Mrs didn't fish until around 4pm each evening, however between them they managed 81 fish in eight trips, only small Barbel up to the 6lb mark, but with up to 23 a night there were no complaints at all. Ade joined the team on Friday before the bank holiday and enjoyed similar success plus he found the better fish with another middle Severn double to wind up the boy. Will Tom ever get that elusive Severn double... He is convinced his chances are better with his new hat.

2nd and 3rd August 2008: Tommy and Ade headed down to the Kennet for the Barbel Society junior weekend. Unfortunately the fishing was dire on the Saturday with the whole fish-in producing not one Barbel from the Upper Benyons stretch. The Sunday was not much better, however Tommy and Ade managed to break the weekend duck, Ade managing one Barbel around the 5lb mark, and Tommy sneaking out three, including his first ever Kennet Barbel. Big thanks to Chas for the overnight accommodation, and for finding us a few fish on what was a hard weekend, truly a top man.

22nd and 23rd July 2008: The Team Barbel trio head down to the prolific Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire Avon, for a weekend of posh fishing on the Top Weir Compound. This fishing was steady over the two days with the lads managing 19 Barbel up to double figures. The fishing was only disrupted for afternoon tea and cucumber sandwich with the crust cut off in the fisherman’s lodge. Ade and Tommy watched Ginger fishing from the other side of the weir pool, and reminisced about an old John Wilson Go Fishing episode where he caught fish on seven methods in one program – Ginger tried this in 30 minutes and failed on all counts.

20th to 22nd June 2008: Opening weekend and off we go at last. Ade and Tommy head down to the TB Worcs HQ for a short stint on the middle Severn to get the season underway (and to catch up with Richy who had already winkled one out of the Wensum on the 16th). Friday evening and Saturday were slow with Tom managing a couple and Ade four. Sunday saw a move down river and a few more fish in the evening with nine fish gracing the net in just a few hours. Not a fantastic start, but about what you would expect for the first week. Maybe Ade and Gingers trip next weekend might do the business...

Close season update: June 15th with only a few hours to go before the season starts it’s been a very busy close season for Team Barbel. Having taken the Team Barbel road show to Yorkshire, Cheshire and Hinckley for slide show presentations.

With no firm plans for the start of the season who knows where we will end up next, but rest assured we will be on the river bank near you in the next few months

8th to 14th March 2008: Ade and Tommy spend the last week of the season at Team Barbel River Severn HQ, with the river in poor form and the water temperature low, it was always going to be hard fishing.

Over 40 Barbel were landed during the week, with the best going just over 7lb.

A trip to the NEC for go fishing 2008 rounded of the week, the show was disappointing to say the least with a £16 entry fee and a further £8 to park the car it was best considered a RIP OFF

28th January 2008: With Tommy busy moving into his new house and under strict house rule from the lovely Angie and the Ginger one still dreaming of 20lb Wensum Barbel it was left to Ade to run the gauntlet of the A17 speed cams to fish the Trent.

Accompanied by Team Barbel associate Paul, 40 Barbel were landed by the duo with Ade having a real red letter day with 3 doubles with a best of 11lb 2oz. Plenty of other Barbel over 9lb were caught, Paul just missing the magic 10 with a superb 9lb 14oz.

5th December 2007: For the first time this season the three Team Barbel boys got together for a day trip to the Trent, fishing an undisclosed venue, the wild, wet and windy weather meant the action was sure to be fast and furious with over 40 Barbel landed in the 10 hour session.

An early start from Norwich had us on the venue before first light, via McDonalds for breakfast and dodging the dreaded A17 speed cameras.

Ade managed his season 100 but is still along way behind last seasons totals but has still achieved a Barbel every month of the season so far.

8th to 11th November 2007: With the fine weather continuing into November Ade and Tom decided on a trip to the Severn, although the river was unusually low and clear for the time of year they managed to get amongst the Severn Barbel.

With 36 Barbel landed over the 3 days it was well worth the trip, maggot being the main bait, all fish caught were in first class condition as the photos below show.

 

16th June to October 2007: Tom and Ade start the season on the Severn at team HQ, early action had several Barbel caught. Tom then managed a first when he caught a Barbel on his newly acquired centre pin.

Disaster struck on the evening of the 19th of June when torrential rain in the Severn valley area flooded and consequently badly damaged the Team headquarters.

With the record flooding of July and August fishing for the team has been very slow with only a few Barbel to report.

Ginger has had a tough time and has not so far managed to get the Wensum Barbel to feed, with the first frosts of the season due we can only hope for some wild and windy weather to get the Barbel back on the feed before the winter sets in.

2nd to 3rd June 2007: Tommy and Ade made the trip down to Sutton for the annual work party on the Barbel Society stretch of the Trent. A number of Barbel Society members meet on the Saturday for a wander along the river and a bit of maintenance work, followed by a few pints and a slap up meal at the Lord Nelson in the evening. Sunday saw a litter pick take place followed by a venue and tattics guide presented by Ade to a good 20+ anglers who made it for the work party. The weather was fantastic and the company even better, with a number of like minded anglers getting together for an enjoyable day. Roll on the 16th!

7th to 14th March 2007: Tom and Ade finish the season on the Severn in the normal style, fishing for a few hours each afternoon we banked over 100 Barbel between us with Ade passing a couple of mile stones on the way, his first Barbel of the trip was his 2000th to date and he managed to pass the 400 for the season total on the last afternoon of the season, ending with a superb season total of 403.

Tommy managed 59 Barbel over 7 great sessions and to top it all netted a new Severn P.B. at 9lb 9oz. All the Barbel caught came to the same method of Pelzer chunk fished in conjunction with a feeder full of Team Barbel winter mixture groundbait, the only addition being a few drops of Teme Severn lamprey flavour on the Pelzer chunks.

Ginger finished the season on the Wensum and to top off what has been a bad end to the season he managed to blank and I expect he now wishes he had joined Ade and Tom on their Severn adventure.

    

26th/27th February 2007: Ade explains all: To be honest I was going to give the Trent a miss this week and save my energy for the last week of the season on the Severn, but I ended last week on the Trent with 149 Trent Barbel for the season and felt 150 was a far better total for a seasons effort.

Speaking to Bernard he still reckoned the field at Sutton was best avoided, so a visit to the middle Trent at Muskham would see my final Trent trip of the season

After getting up at 4 am and driving over a 100 miles I was well happy to see that my chosen swim was unoccupied, to make the things even better the river was well up and full of colour and a barmy 48f.

The banks were pretty tricky and the wind a chilly north west but when the first rod produced a 6 pounder before I could even cast the 2nd rod out and the 2nd rod produced an 8 pounder before I had time to recast the first I knew a few fish were feeding.

So the 150th Trent Barbel of the season was done and dusted but after only being fishing for 5 minutes I wasn’t packing in for a while and reckoned it was fill your boots time.

That’s how it turned out when Bernard turned up about 2pm I had had 14 and as always he brought me some luck with the best fish of the session so far a 9lb 06oz disturbing our afternoon tea. I have said this before but will repeat it what a cracking gentleman Bernard is I always look forward to his arrival and some great chats about anything and everything. He had with him some pictures of his 16lb 08oz carp he had from Sutton last week, what a corker that was, a common without a scale missing looking like it had just been made, I know how proud he is of that and rightly so.

With darkness fast approaching I was anticipating some hectic action which just didn’t happen from 5pm when Bernard left until 4 am the next morning I only managed 2 more to total 18, but between 4 am and 8 am I managed another 6 with the session best now 9lb 10oz and a total of 24 Barbel for 24 hours fishing.

Bernard arrived around 9am with the intention of fishing for a few hours, but the weather was awful with strong wind and heavy rain, the banks were now lethal and I was glad of Bernard’s help to net 8 Barbel before he left at noon deciding not to risk the weather and awful banks. He might as well of fished as he spent plenty of time getting wet and muddy helping me to weigh and return fish, I know he enjoys watching others catch nearly as much as catching himself.

I had to pack in at 4 pm so had 4 hours left to finish off what was turning out to be a session of sessions, between Bernard leaving and just after 2pm I managed another 4 bringing the session total to 36 and the last fish the first double of the session at 10.12. Much as I tried from 2 until 4.30 pm I just could not add to the total and had to call it a day.

Totals for one hell of a session were 36 Barbel best 10lb 12oz several other 9 and 8 lb fish all fish apart from one came to drilled 14mm halibut’s glugged up in Masons Magic (Teme-Severn Lamprey flavour) over 50 Barbel in 8 days for me on the same bait!!!!

Once I got home and copied my catches into my fishing log and sorted my running totals it was a case of how close but how far as I realised my total Barbel count is now 1999. Roll on next week and some wet and windy weather and here’s to the next thousand.

2nd/3rd February 2007: Ade managed his February barbel, two in fact, after a session down the Sutton on Trent at the weekend. He has now had a barb every month of this season, leaving only one fished needed in March to complete the set. The fish came to a 15mm pellet soaked in Teme Severn Lamprey and given weather conditions it must be bloody good !! The best of the two fish went 9lb+. Richy and Tommy decided on a spot of Piking on a local still water, but despite a whole load of runs they came home with nothing more than a handful of Jacks.

Sutton on Trent - In Ade's word "Man's fishing"

26th/27th January 2007: With Team Barbel based at their River Severn HQ for the previous nights Barbel Society talk; a spot of fishing at upper Arley was inevitable. Despite the teams hardest efforts the cold nights and clear, but flooded river, was enough to see off any Barbel. Ginger desperate for a January Barb fished for them all day Friday and Saturday, whilst Ade and Tommy decided to dust off the Pike gear and managed a few Jacks on a variety of wobbled dead baits. All in all a good weekend was had, however we have decided never to go back to the pub at the end of the road as Richy had a pint of San Miguel which we were fairly sure was a 50% washing up liquid (he did however pull a couple of birds).

Richy with a couple of birds

25th January 2007: Team Barbel deliver their first ever presentation to The Shropshire & Mid Wales Region of The Barbel Society. Read all about here. Many thanks to Adrian Williams and Mike Osborne for the fantastic meal (and pint) before then evenings events kicked off.

18th November 2006: A busy week for the team but a couple more doubles to report. Firstly Ade and Tom fished the Wensum on Monday in near perfect conditions but could only manage a Les Dawson (Blankety Blank). On Wednesday Ade travelled to the tidal Trent and managed a trio with the best an impressive 11lb 8oz. on Thursday Ginger managed to sneak out a lucky Wensum double of 11lb 14oz. It was Tommys turn again on Friday but with the river temperature dropping 2 degrees it was never going to be easy and another blank was the unfortunate result.

We are back ! 11th November 2006: For various reasons the latest Team Barbel news views and scandal has not been available on our website, this is about to change as Tommy is at last allowed out to play by his girlfriend Angie.

Over the next weeks Tommy has promised to get all this seasons news and pictures uploaded and available to all. Already you can see the latest article from Ade as well as some recent captures from this season so far.

The doubles list now includes this seasons doubles and as you can see Ginger has been sorting out the Wensum doubles whilst Ade has managed big fish from the Trent and Severn as well as the Wensum. With Tommy not even wetting a line since our early season Severn trip he has some serious catching up to do.

Keep visiting the site over the next few weeks and we promise you will not be disappointed.

15th February 2006: As Ginger and Robert leave the Trent Ade arrives to find the wind had dropped but the river was already rising after the heavy rain. A great start saw a 5lb 13oz Barbel in the net before the second rod was even cast out. Unfortunately the great start was not a sign of things to come with over 24 hours before Barbel number 2 graced Ades net but it was well worth the wait with a clonker of 12lb 7oz the result. The fish sets a new river Trent best for Ade and the team.

 

14th February 2006: Ginger and Team Barbel associate Robert Watts (Carp Alley, www.carpalley.com) spend an overnight session on the Trent. The weather forecast was not wrong when they predicted heavy rain and strong winds. With overnight conditions as they were it was almost impossible to fish, with the Barbel and Bream not wanting to play it was a blank night in very wet and windy conditions. Any way that was their story myself and Tommy being more concerned about 2 anglers wanting to spend valentines night together in a bivvy!

Ginger managed 1 Barbel of 6lb 13oz and a few Bream before packing in early on Wednesday morning. Robert only managed the a few Bream, but with Ginger picking the best swim as always that was to be expected.

February 7th/8th 2006: The intrepid duo of Ginger and Ade decide to brave the A17 speed cameras for a trip to Sutton in search of a February Barbel. With the weather forecast looking good for the two days, and the river temperature at a steady 43f, the chance of a fish or two looked promising.

With the first cast Ade hooked into what felt like a very good fish, and when finally landed and weighed after a determined battle it turned out to be a new PB for Ade, unfortunately it had big sharp teeth and not the required barbules. A rather nice looking Pike of 15lb 7oz was the result.

Ginger also hooked into a good fish on his first cast, this one again was not the desired Barbel, but a plump Common Carp of just over 10lb.

With several chub and around 40 bream between them by daybreak the next day the chance of a Barbel was looking slim, when yet again the master pulled out all the stops with a nice Barbel brace of 9lb 3oz and 10lb 13oz (picture on recent capture page). As always Ginger done the business with the camera taking some cracking pictures.
 

First February Barbel - Superb fish at 9lb 3oz

January 22nd - 24th 2006: Ade took advantage of a few days off work with a trip to Willowbrook, Team Barbel's River Severn headquarters, with the river running low and clear it was always going to be tough. But with his very first cast Ade hit another milestone for what is turning out to be a great season, his 250th Barbel of the season.
 
The trip resulted in a total of 10 Barbel all fish coming to the normal Pelzer bait,  With the river being so low and clear minimum baiting was required and Ade adopted a mobile approach, giving swims no more than a couple of hours to produce before moving on. The method worked well with the 10 fish coming from a total of 6 different swims.
 
With only around 6 weeks left of this season we can only hope for a milder spell and some much needed rain. Watch this space as the action hots up over the next few weeks.