Im admit im an idiot! i have little money or tackle but still went down the wandle today and like 5pm and fished hair rigged spam on 6lbs line straight thru, 1 hour in my rod went bang and straight into the weed, i managed to haul it out and get it to the surface, i saw it it was at least 70 cms long! then it rolled and my rod snapped!!!! it was still on but in the weeds and 10 seconds later it snapped the hook out....devastated my absolutely gutted my first barbel of the season and i lose it, my rod was a quiver tip im guessing thats a bad choice of rod for big barbel, i have a carp rod so will go back tomorrow with that, is 6lbs to light could i get away with 8lbs line? good luck guys...tight lines

6lb is far to light even 8lb is if your fishing up against weed or snags, i would go for at least 10lb main line ghetto fisherman

on the flip side be careful your not over gunned with a carp rod,ideally you want a rod that's firm but forgiving in the fight,if the weed and snags are excessive go to even 12lb with a decent hook-length material,if you get run into a snag let the tension off the line slightly and wait the fish should come out itself you can then carry on playing it,and hopefully land it,70 cms is a really substantial fish that's almost 2 & a half foot in old money,the hook "snapping out of the fish" sounds rather damaging but hopefully it just threw the hook and no mouth damage occurred,i dont fish for barbel with main less than 15lb mono and my other reel has 20lb smoke grey braid its as thin as 6lb mono though.good luck with your monster fish,look forward to seeing the pics in the gallery soon

cheers

kev.

unlucky ive been snapped on the severn a few times on 10lb line starght thru this years (i cant even snapp it with my hands) gutted aint the word keep at it though

Originally Posted by ghetto fisherman

Im admit im an idiot! i have little money or tackle but still went down the wandle today and like 5pm and fished hair rigged spam on 6lbs line straight thru, 1 hour in my rod went bang and straight into the weed, i managed to haul it out and get it to the surface, i saw it it was at least 70 cms long! then it rolled and my rod snapped!!!! it was still on but in the weeds and 10 seconds later it snapped the hook out....devastated my absolutely gutted my first barbel of the season and i lose it, my rod was a quiver tip im guessing thats a bad choice of rod for big barbel, i have a carp rod so will go back tomorrow with that, is 6lbs to light could i get away with 8lbs line? good luck guys...tight lines

Nice fish. I was walking the bottom end last weekend (near the greyhound track), and only saw a few chub.
The carp rod may be a little heavy considering the size of the river, but i would up it to 10lb line as they are obviously quite big in that area.

yeah i dont know why i said the hook snapped out, it just kinda pinged out my rod was broken at the time though!lol