Fishing with Malcolm on the H.Avon and a huge barbel

I have fished with Malcolm a few times now perching, and chub. The last day of the coarse season in March this year Malcolm had a 6lb plus chub.

So he asked me whether it was possible to have a days fishing with me on the H.Avon for barbel. Now the stretch I fish has some good barbel in it however catching them is a difference kettle of fish.

So we arranged to meet at 9am with mutual friend Hugh Miles on the bridge on the stretch we were fishing. Hugh wanted to tag along for a catch up with Malcolm and to see my method of fishing.

Our first swim had 4 barbel feeding on the pellets some were double figure fish. We fished there for 3hrs without any sign of the barbel being caught. They were very cagey.

Fellow barbel angler John McGough came along and said that the fish had been fished for hard and that they might not play ball.

Malcolm was satisfied to be looking at the barbel all day without catching one. I’m a bit more determined and off we went to another stretch. We said our goodbye to Hugh and John and went on our way.

Arriving at another swim I spotted 3 barbel on some gravel and hiding under the raft of weed. I put a few pellets and soon enough they were feeding. So we waited until they vacated the swim and Malcolm lowered his bait into the swim. I wasn’t entirely happy with the position and watched barbel come and feed in another area of the swim. I could give Malcolm a running commentary of the barbel coming up to the bait, however they didn’t take it.

One of the fish was certainly over 13lbs and one of the others was a double.

Whilst the fish were out of the swim Malcolm re-positioned the pellet bait to the right area. Soon enough the barbel came out to feed. They went up and down the right line where the bait waited. After a few visits the larger barbel came up and I was saying he’s coming he’s coming and with that the rod whipped around and Malcolm was playing a good barbel. He did an excellent job of keeping it out of the weed and under control.

The rod and pin was expertly used by Malcolm to subdue the barbel and in no time the barbel was netted. It looked to a huge fish and on the scales it went 13lbs 12oz which was a pb for Malcolm.

13lbs 12oz

After a few photo’s with Malcolm smiling like beacon the fish was returned. The remaining barbel scattered and we moved onto a different stretch. The day passed into evening and what a sunset.

The end of a perfect day.

Malcolm had a huge grin on his face for the remainder of the day and probably the next few too.

Soon the day came to an end where we made our journey home stopping for a swift pint to celebrate his huge fish.