Paulg

The swim looks lovely, and what a splendid little barbel !! Well done !!

Thanks for helping to carry my stuff, and also the loan of the hat Chris, think without the latter I would have passed out on the walk back!! This bloddy cancer is slowly eating me up, just hope all the drugs keep me going for at least one more winter of fishing with you on the Kennet, Itchen and Frome!!

At least one fin, and it looks to be a very pale fish compared to others, but I guess that might just be lighting conditions when you took the photograph?

Yes, now that I am on the treatment, it will continue as long as the 3-monthly scans show it is working. At this current time there are no suitable drug trials that I could join if a scan showed negative results, so no plan C....yet.

In the last few days I have started taking a different chemo drug, Everolimus, which hopefully is going to slow or stop the growth of the cancer that has appeared where my right kidney used to be. For those that haven't read my blogs, I had this kidney removed in March last year as it was found to have a 10cm cancerous tumour in it. If my consultant had waited just another 8 weeks before making the decision to switch me from my previous treatment, I would not have been able to have this different drug. From 4th November it is being removed for the UK Cancer Drugs Fund list and will no longer be offered to kidney cancer patients as a 2nd line treatment option. At this current time, there are no other options available, so I would have been stuffed, probably literally! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34153136

I bet he was very pleased to see you catching though

Cracking grayling from a lower section of the Kennet - well done!

Where are the pics of the other perch? Top angling you two!!

That's two huge fish - well done indeed!!

Otters have decimated the Kennet barbel IMHO. The only possible positive on all this is any new barbel stock are going to grow up (hopefully!) with otters present from the off, so they may not be as easy to be a food item. I was thinking about this a while ago along the lines of existing barbel maybe didn't know what an otter actually was, as it was however many years ago that they were present in the Kennet. This might make them less suspicious...until it was too late....I dunno, maybe just me trying to keep my hopes up that the Kennet hasn't been totally screwed over! Back on Tiggers fish....more wonderful specimens....do you see any signs of repeat captures in your outings at all?

It's all a big media ploy to stop everyone talking about their cricket team

I reckon it is down to having the confidence in your gear, and the knowledge of how to deal with a powerful fish in the swims you are fishing. It does help that a hook hold in the lips of a barbel are usually pretty secure Out of interest though, and sorry if you've been asked this before, what model hooks do you use? I've just bought some Drennan Super Specialist Barbel in size 14 as I've been using the size 8's for legering for a few seasons and have been impressed at the length of time they stay sharp despite a battering on the river bed!

More beautiful fish Tigger.....so envious, as I suspect most are that read your session posts! The fish are in wonderful condition, fin and scale perfect, I think the last one of this catch is the first one I've seen with any sign of damage of some kind. Great fishing again!

New one on me......how do you do this then

Gorgeous fish as usual Tigger - well done!!