lesliefisherman

hi all,i live in wooton bassett,nr swindon only been here for 9months,only fish for barbel now and have done for 23years the two rivers i fish are the hampshire avon and dorset stour,catching fish in that area is almost a bonus.regards derek.

hi all,did the same thing once hooked a swan when floating crust for some big carp that where on the top,at arlesy lake,back in the sixties,the worst part was that the bailiff saw what happened,and came round to see me and said,that was a stupid thing to do wasnt it,so i said well i wasnt fishing for them,not my fault it took a liking to my bait,this swan then had started to take off like they do,and was lucky the hook came out,i then said to the bailiff it wouldnt have gone in the keepnet anyway{not that i had one}derek.

hi dan,9lbs.13ozs.derek.

hi danny,sounds very much like a swim i fish on the hampshire avon,what river are you fishing,the only thing i would suggest to try is shortning the hooklengh to a few inches,especially if your leads are camoflaged. all the best derek.

hi dan,taverham mill,is supposed to be good big barbel and chub,think its near norwich,and cotessey,same species,have a nephew who lives at helsdon and fishes for barbel there.hope this helps derek.

hi all,just one thing you can do is have your rods back from the water,and slightly pointing upwards,then position your torch from the side with the beam of light from the torch shining on the tips of the rod only,this is what i used to do years ago when night fishing for chub.hope that sounds clear,may have to put something under the torch to make it higher.all the best derek.

hi all,long time since i went carp fishing,but ill have a shot and say 10lbs.6ozs.cheers derek.

hi all,7lbs.6ozs chub on small piece of cooked chipolata,from the dorset stour{not throop}last season.cheers derek.

hi all,one day last season while fishing for barbel on the stour{not throop}i was in a swim known to contain at least one very big fish,however no barbel appeared,but what did appear was a shoal of huge chub that where over the far bank,the length of some of them where huge,so being there was no barbel showing i thought that i might as well have a go for them,so catapulted out some partiblend upstream of where the chub where,with a few bait samples,after a little while they where dashing about all over the place picking the loose feed up,as it was a very hot day i could see them very clearly,and thought i may be in with a chance here,so on went a very small piece of chipolata sausage,i brought two cooked sausages with me,which my other halve was cutting up for the dog,bless him.i then cast out to the far bank and waited to see what would happen,not much for the the next hour or so and then the center pin burst into life and a fish was hooked and i knew by the fight that it was a decent chub,however this was taking longer to get in than i thought,meanwhile my mate who was fishing 100yds upstream of me came down to net the fish for me,as by now it was in the net,as my mate started to lift the net he seemed to be struggling to lift it up,so i said come on paul its only a chub,to which he replied yes i know but its a big one,i thought perhaps with luck it may be a six,but when we got it onto the weigh sling i thought for a couple of seconds that it was a small carp,but then i saw those big white rubbery lips,no doubt about it big big chub,and on the scales it regestered 7lbs.6ozs,and i was estatic to say the least a new personal best.all i wanted to do now was put this magnificent chub back into the water,which i did because it was such a hot day.i sat back down in my chair,and didnt cast back in for another hour,thinking will i ever catch another chub like that again,maybe not,but the saddest part to this is that due to the very hot weather that day i done something i have never done before in 50 years of fishing mainly for big fish,i didnt take a photo of the chub,but at least the fish went straight back into the water,and as a final thought about that shoal,im convinced that the one i caught was not the biggest in the shoal,and sorry this turned out as more of an article than a reply.cheers derek.

hi all,can anybody give me a telephone no for alan brown,who used to own a fishing tackle shop in hitchin herts,i believe that he is something to do with a company called lennox rods nr hitchin.thank you in advance.derek lewis.

hi all,i had a very good friend and barbel angler keith robertson{sadly passed away now}who ran a bed and breakfast accomadation in salsbury road ringwood,300yds from the hampshire avons lifelands fisheries,and he told me that barbel where taking feathers off the top of the water at ashley bends,i said to him are you sure they where barbel keith,and he was adament that they where,so the following week i was on the stretch he saw them.during the day while fishing and about 500yds upstream was two swans exorcising there wings and flapping about in the shallow water,and as the feathers drifted downstream and passed my swim,the very tiny feathers from the swans where indeed taken by the barbel,and i could see quite clearly that they where barbel,and i can only think that they mistook them for flies.barbel also do cloop at the under side of the weed as well.derek.

hi graham,welcome to the site,ime also new to the site as well,have made some good contacts since ive been on here,hope you will like it,cheers derek.

hi gary,dont know many places regarding the lakes but the two clubs that are worth joining are christchurch ac,and ringwood and district ac they control the hampshire avon,the dorset stour,throop,somerly lakes,all those waters hold very big fish of all species.hope this helps you,regards derek.

thanks to steve and john for reply. john,sent you email,not sure if you recieved it. regards derek.

hi everyone,anybody still using sweetcorn for barbel fishing,the two rivers i fish{hampshire avon/dorset stour}dont seem to take it any more,havnt used it since i was watching a good barbel pick up the hookbait in its lips and drop it within a fraction of a second,this was two seasons ago.may be the boilies and pellets score now,or would disguising the hooklink in a reed make a difference.the reed idea came to me yesterday when i saw the next door neighbour cutting a plant that looked like a bullrush but a lot smaller with a hole through the middle of it,food for thought i think.regards derek.