Here's one of the articles that was written a couple of seasons ago, but, with the technical problems we had on the old site, was never published.

Four members of the group have been testing their skills against the barbel at Fishers Green.. and with information being shared between them the results have been quite impressive! Here's each member's veiwpoint on some of the catches...

Bob's story

Friday the 13th of August was a bad day.

It was early afternoon and the phone rang, it was Stud, have you heard? Keith is dead.

Keith had been a DT bait user for a long time and when Jerry Hammond, took over Carthagena, Keith became one of the bailiffs. I liked Keith and knew he had had a bad time with diabetes, but this was unexpected. I rang Jerry to offer my condolences. Blow it, I thought, I would go down to the Green for a few hours and try to think this news through.

I had last fished the Green on the 21st of November 2003, when my back had given out, and since then I had been fighting the NHS for a back operation. So without really checking on the fishing tackle I headed for the Green and a swim I knew held some decent barbel.

About an hour later the rod lurched round and I was into a good fish, playing it carefully in a fast current I finally got the fish to the waters edge.

The swim was about 6 ft above the water, I lowered my landing net down to the water edge in anticipation of bringing the barbel upstream, and dropping the fish back into the net. What happened next was surprising, suddenly wasps surrounded me, the landing-net handle had disturbed a nest, and they were none to happy about it! With what seemed like hundreds of the things trying to sting me I put the rod back on the rest and ran.

Unbelievably I only got stung once, and soon went back to the rod, but the barbel had found sanctuary in a willow tree down stream. The hook link soon gave way and I sat back to think about the last few minutes.

Was this Keith, who had always joked about my barbel fishing, having a good laugh at the wasp attack? I like to think so and, mate, you will be sadly missed.

I returned home and thought about the barbel I had lost, I'm sure it was a fish Gary had had about four years earlier at around the 11lb mark, with a nick out of the fin, stupid, but we called it 'Nikfin'.

Anyway the following Wednesday, I rang Simon King and asked him where he was fishing today, 'the Green' he said, I asked if I could scrounge a lift. We arrived about 1 pm, and I asked Simon if he minded if I could fish the swim where I had lost that big barbel, he agreed.

About 4 pm James Hathaway arrived, and after a chat, he wandered off to talk to Simon. I sat back and the tip of the M-tech baited rod took a turn to the left, the culprit turned out to be a barbel about 6lbs.

Good start I thought, I have absolute faith in M-tech but had mistakenly put some of the DT Spicy spaghetti in the Bag as well. I played about with a long hooklink and longish hair, threading on a Spicy piece of DTs Spaghetti, the bait I had worked on the year before, when my mate Stud owned DTs, I cast the baited rig mid river, feeling for a clear spot.

What followed was almost a tropical storm and I have some great pictures of the Fishers Green in hurricane condition. But I got wet and as you all know I don't like the rain. Looking at my watch it was 9pm, good, I thought, only half an hour, and we can go home.

As soon as I had thought this the spicy-baited rod went round, the rest is history.. James netted the barbel.. Simon weighed it and released it. I just looked on.

13lbs 13ozs.

One for Keith I think.

Simon's story

Occasionally, you see a photo of a fish capture and think to yourself, I wish I'd witnessed that. More rarely, you witness such an event, look at the photos afterwards and think, I can't believe I saw that. This was one of the latter.

Between the three of us, after I'd set the ball rolling, we'd done a fair bit of work on this stretch of the Lea; Bob, James and myself. Caught some great barbel up to 12+lbs, a few Chub and managed to keep it quiet.

'Where are you fishing today?' enquires Bob. 'Fishers, I reply, rain, flow, colour, perfect'. 'Good', he says, 'I'm carless, you can give me a ride'. Thundery showers are forecast. Excellent. 'You have my swim', I gallantly offer, I want to try something new, further down.

The rods are in, the phone rings, James arrives. We hide. He finds us. I'm trying different spots in the swim, an hour a cast. Bob fusses over different presentations, he's getting wiped out too often. James settles upstream of him. The heavens open with a crashing downpour, thunder, lightning, the works. A half-hour passes before it disappears to bright sunshine and the tone of the session is set.

One of us is gonna catch today, Bob keeps saying, I can feel it in my bones. Sure enough, towards sunset, Bob gets a take, the fish goes all over the place and a 7lb barbel enters the net. Bob's not satisfied. As I slip the fish back for him he still wants that big bugger he lost last time. Something to do with a wasps nest and a dropped rod, as I recall.

Another storm passes through, Bobs changed his end rig again, darkness has almost settled and James lands a chub. A short time later, James bobbing head-torch tells me that Bob's into a second fish. I stand and watch the ripples from the fight from downstream. Looks like maybe a double to me. One of my earlier fish re-captured?

Takes a while to tire, but then I'm summoned to help James bring the fish up the steep bank. Wet, slippery and treacherous. (The bank, that is). I've got a clearing in my swim, so we take it down there while Bob gets his camera.

James opens the glistening bundle of net on the unhooking mat. I direct my head-torch beam on its contents. '*?@!*~$@' I exclaim.

What? says James. '*?@!*~$@' I repeat. I can't produce anything except gibberish and swearing. I've never imagined, let alone seen, a barbel of these dimensions.

The head, belly, girth, tail-fin, length, awe-inspiring. We look at each other and agree it must be 15lb. It makes my recent 12lber look like a Gudgeon. Two sets of scales confirm the weight. 13lbs and 13ozs. A new Personal Best.

Holding the fish in the flow after the photos, it's so thick I can't join my hands around it. I gently press into the belly while it gets its breath back and feel how empty it is. We all agree it would easily top 15lb in the Winter.

Already our unspoken, collective thoughts are as one.. leafless trees, grey skies, coloured water, thermal suits... a new venue record... and hope.

Always hope.

James's story

The rain was absolutely lashing it down, it was pitch black and I'm grinning like a Cheshire cat. The reason? I had just banked my first summer double.

This Summer I've been fishing for barbel on the river Lea at Fishers Green. Ever since the Specimen Group fish-in of Christmas 2001 I have spent the winter dangling for chub and barbel on the venue. This year, with a drastic cut in the amount of time I could spend on the bank, I decided it was about time I had a go for them in the warmer months, and the shorter evening sessions would fit in nicely with my schedule.

After reading everything barbel related I could get my hands on I head out to the Green. Initially, after selecting the swim and where I was going to place a hook bait I was introducing some bait, letting the swim settle, then casting in. It was during one of these settling periods that I witnessed fellow group member Simon King extract a 12 pounder out of a swim in broad daylight just 5 minutes after he arrived, and lowered a small PVA bag onto a clear gravel patch just feet from the near bank.

Simon was also on his first Summer after barbel on the back of a successful seasons chubbing. I'm not sure of the number of barbel he had caught up to that point but with most, if not all, falling to the small PVA bag approach, the bait dropper was consigned to the bottom of the tackle bag.

By the end of August I had managed 8 or so evening sessions and although I felt I had got the bait in the right place I was yet to catch more than a single 4lber. The small PVA bag approach was still working for Simon with a number of his fish having come from a small stretch I had caught my first barbel from and one Bob had often mentioned held fish. So with the rest of the week off work I headed to the river on the Tuesday evening and I managed a small chub of around 3lbs. On leaving, as I had been doing for the past few weeks, I put some bait in 3 or 4 areas on the short stretch. Wednesday afternoon, and after arriving at the stretch I spot Simon on the furthest swim, I then realise that some heathen was fishing with bite alarms in the middle swim. Just as I was figuring out how best to clamber over the rods I realised it was Bob out on only his second trip of the season, I should of known.

After a chat, I set up in the first swim after Bob kindly insisted I cast to a spot more or less under his feet (although he was sat well back as he was fishing further down) to a spot Simon had caught from previously. (The 12 pounder I think).

Now here beginith the lesson. Any one watching would have seen Simon and myself carefully lower a PVA bag onto a clear gravel patch feet from the edge of the bank, very similar to spots Simon had caught from recently. Bob on the other hand seemed to just casually lob a bag into the river, dump the rod on the rest and settle back down in the chair and carry on chatting. What's going on here then?

All of a sudden the friendly(?) banter was pierced by a bite alarm. Bob had lifted into a lively fish which I eventually netted at 6.06lbs. Not a bad start!! On the recast I paid close attention to what Bob was doing. Rather than just the chuck it and chance it approach noted by the casual onlooker there was far more to it. Although one rod was cast close in the other was cast into water that is marginally slower moving than the water in the near margin. The major difference is that this water has little or no debris coming down, this being pushed over to the near margin by the bend. The lead is also given a little tweak. If it's snagged it was recast, if it wasn't it was left in place. Oh yes, Did I mention 50 odd years of fishing the river as well just for good measure!

Lesson learnt.

To sum up the lesson, Bob hooks into a fish that tears line off a tight clutch, for a while its allowed to plod around before Bob decides playtime is over and I finally net the fish.

Now at this point I spot how deep the flank is and vaguely mumble something about being over 15lbs. On the bank its bloody mahooosive. After weighing 3 times on two sets of scales it wont go over 13.13 lbs much to our disbelief. The depth from dorsal to belly was huge compared to the 12 lbs fish caught recently. Well done mate. I know where I will find you in the winter!

After a disaster with a wasps nest on Thursday, (don't ask!) I set up in Wednesdays successful swim. I had learnt the lessen: 2 rods, 1 cast to the slightly slower cleaner water and 1 just off the edge, both landing with a nice thud. Coming up to Sunset I get a take from the mid river rod and net a lovely 6lber. Well pleased. With 20 minutes left it starts to hammer it down and low and behold I get a take on the margin rod. I have never had a fish go from plodding around to just slamming the rod down and stripping line off a tight clutch the way this one did. Awesome power. This fish had a similar deep flank, and at first I thought I had caught the 13lber but on lifting the net realised it was lighter but at 11lb 10oz I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, soaked, but over the moon. My first Summer double.

To round off the day I lost one to a hook pull on the second rod after it charged out of the weed it was hiding in into the overhanging tree. I suppose you cant land them all. On leaving I put some bait in.

Returning Saturday I took a further 8.0, 11.14 and 6.15 lbs barbel from the same spot. It was almost comical having to walk past the guy blanking on the opposite bank 3 times to return fish just down stream especially as he kept asking how big and had seen me with the 6lber the day before!

Fishing with fellow members has, and I'm sure Simon will agree, improved our fishing a huge amount not to mention the good time usually had. Sometimes all it takes is to see a method produce results to give you confidence to try something new or grasp a point not easily explained in a book.

I wouldn't have started using the single PVA bag approach had I not seen the 12lber Si caught. Nor would I have fished the sort of area Bob caught the 13lb'er from had I not seen it done. The discussions and the conclusions drawn from these experiences are a huge benefit to my angling, I now know that although a gravel bottom is important, barbel also like a constant, undisturbed flow and don't particularly like debris piling past at a rate of knots. They will seek a more suitable line to hold up in.

I have since used the knowledge gained to take 2 further barbel from another swim and hopefully use it to good effect in the future.

Clive's story

I joined this quorum of barbel fishers after most of the hard work had been done.. so I'll take this opportunity to thank all the lads for passing on a lot of the info they had originally gained, it just shows how the group can really work.

I, like a lot of members, probably became aware of things happening down the 'Green' when posts from Simon K and his catches appeared on the site. He was having great success with boilie hookbaits and small PVA bags, allowing him to snare some cracking barbel. Sounded great, wouldn't mind having a go myself, I thought.

Then, a few weeks later, I speak to Bob. He'd been out with Simon and James and hooked a couple himself, one being big.. very big.. actually just under 14lbs!

That was it, I had to get down there and see if I could land one of these monsters myself. I live about 10 minutes away from Fishers, and have fished it for years, and had not been able to catch a 'double'. I've always managed 8's and 9's, but the bigger barbel have always eluded me. So, it was time to change that!

The following Tuesday, I get the chance to get out, the night before I re-read all the posts on the site about bait and general technique, then quiz Bob as to where these fish were coming out... lo and behold it was from an area I'd fished a few seasons ago, landing quite a few, but only in the 9's.

I arrive, park, and walk up to the swim, it's around 5pm, and there's no one else about. I ring Bob and check I'm in the right spot.. of course I am, but Bob runs through the best places to put in the bait.. right, now it's down to me.

I set up my first rod, remembering Bob said he used a long leader, I put together a modified 'swinger rig' that he mentioned in our first newsletter, about 2 to 3 foot in length, with a DT 'hot-dog' flavoured boilie hair-rigged on the end. I make up a PVA bag full of bits, pop it on the hook, then walk along the bank and literally lower the rig right onto the spot I want to fish, a few feet from the bank. I walk back to my swim set the rod in the rest, then start putting together my second rod.

Now how many of you believe that you only get takes when you're not looking? You know, when you have a p*ss, or start pouring your coffee, etc.. well, I pick up my other reel from my bag, turn back round, and there's my rod bent right over and parallel to the river.. I grab it, and find I'm connected to an underwater missile, that takes me downstream, then back up, into weed and out, and still pulling line off the clutch in the strong current! But after a few minutes, I have it in the net, onto the bank.. and.. it's only a 5lb'er!

Well blow me, anyway I set up both rods again, one mid river, the other back in the original spot, and settle down with a cup of coffee as the sun starts sinking below the horizon. At least I haven't blanked I thought, and it was still a while till darkness settled properly. The next couple of hours were quiet, one rod was re-cast as it was pulled out of position by weed, but no responce from anything big and bronze.

I think it got to about a quarter to nine, and dusk was settling fast, I'd already laid out my landing net down the bank at a convenient place to land fish, the camera was on its pod, and the unhooking mat was nearby.. all I needed was old barbus!

Soon there's a pluck on the line, the rod tip twitches.. I'm on the edge of my seat, a second later and with 2 or 3 mighty tugs, my rod is arched through ninety degrees.. I grab the rod, and immediately feel the powerful, determined pull of something very, very heavy.

I move down the bank, until I'm almost playing the fish beneath me, I check and re-check my clutch.. it's fine, I get some line back, only for the fish to make another lunge and get it straight back, I let the rod take all the strain and we're locked together for the next few minutes.

At this point, even with my heart pounding, I try to take a step back and enjoy what's happening.. I'm on a beautiful stretch of water, light fading fast, and with the night taking its grip.. and I'm attached to a serious fish.. it really is one of those moments I'll never forget

As the fish tires I gradually get it to the surface, and finally into the net, we all know when you pick up the landing net and it buckles there's something special hanging there.. onto the mat, hook out, weigh sling...... shit! 12lb 2ozs.. not only a double at last, but nearly 3lb over my last PB.

As Mr Wilson would say.. magic.. absolute MAGIC!