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Viewing 1 to (7 Total) Fab Friday |
Total Posts: 20
Joined: June 22, 2015
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Made the long drive down from north of Manchester on Friday 22nd Feb for a short afternoon on my favourite stretch of the Severn at Coomby's farm (Stanley water).
When I arrived there was a chap fishing on the float, packing up after 2 hours with no bites. Not very encouraging, but it was 13 degrees, a bit of cloud cover and 30 cm extra water on, pushing through with just a a bit of colour.
First put in on pellet, I got a pull round and landed a 2.4 kg barbel, the first of ten in the next 3.5 hours.
Cutting a long story short, the total weight was 33.0 kgs, 72.6 lbs, including two clunkers of 4.9 and 4.7 kgs (10-13) an 4.7 kgs (10-5).
Astonishing for mid-February.
I fished the 5th peg above the footbridge between trees. Straight in front is a difficult snag, maybe a sunken tree trunk or something, so you have to fish slightly downstream. There is also some streamer weed, so you have to fish with an anchor lead, if you let it pull across the bottom, it's a recipe for snagging up. Also if you feel a clunk when it hits bottom, that's great. If it lands softly you're in the weed. I had a 4 oz gripper, fishing down the middle, and still lost 5 or 6 leads, you have to use a weak link. I use 5 lbs link, 10 lbs main line and an 8 lbs hook length to a 12's with a banded 8 mm pellet rig. I loose fed 6mm pellets, 3-4 a time, only about 1/4 pint all afternoon.
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Posted on February 24, 2019 at 11:19 AM
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Total Posts: 161
Joined: June 20, 2015
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Re: Fab Friday
i doff my cap to you sir.
fantastic catch there. and for a February too 
Posted on February 25, 2019 at 9:10 PM
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Total Posts: 663
Joined: May 30, 2015
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Re: Fab Friday
Nice catch....but brace yourself for all the negative comments about Barbel in a keepnet.Nothing wrong with it in my opinion by the way.
Posted on February 25, 2019 at 9:14 PM
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Total Posts: 20
Joined: June 22, 2015
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Re: Fab Friday
Thank you atlast and stew83mul.
About keep nets, viewers will note the use of an extra-long free flow river net which was positioned in line with the flow. These are designed to be fin-friendly and none of the fish had snagged dorsal fins.
The vast majority of the fish were in the net for fewer than 2 hours, as the last two fish I caught were after the first 8 were returned to the water.
I can report that on returning, each fish had fully recovered from being caught and made a vigorous return to the river.
I recall catching a winter barbel at Eardington Brook around three years ago. This was a fish of around 5 lbs. I returned it to the water straight away. It lay around 10 feet from the bank in 18 inches of water for at least 3 hours before slowly making off once recovered. It may be that keeping a hard-fighting fish safely in a well-designed net is more fish friendly than immediately returning, allowing time for recovery.
I understand that there are some with strong views on either side of the debate about keeping barbel in keepnets, but I am happy that each fish I caught was returned healthy and fit, and will be there for other BAA members to catch on another day.
After all, thats why I always post where and how I catch something, rather than keeping details of location and methods secret as some others do, depriving others from benefitting from their knowledge and enjoying our sport to the full.
Posted on February 26, 2019 at 9:18 AM
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Total Posts: 110
Joined: December 31, 2018
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Re: Fab Friday
Great catch for a winters day. And I agree 100%..... nothing wrong with keeping barbell in a well staked out net at all. In fact a well known and highly respected angler wrote an article advising doing so in the angling press last year.
Posted on February 26, 2019 at 9:56 AM
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Total Posts: 663
Joined: May 30, 2015
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Re: Fab Friday
Totally agree with all you’ve said Pete.I think some of these criticising the use of keepnets forget how far they have come technology wise with regards to being more fish friendly.As with the majority of equipment it’s only usually a problem when used incorrectly
Posted on February 26, 2019 at 12:56 PM
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Total Posts: 270
Joined: August 1, 2018
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Re: Fab Friday
Take no notice of the negative comments...a good bag of fish there.....you would have to keep them in a net if you was on a match so what’s the difference...
Posted on December 20, 2019 at 9:14 PM
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