Nice one Jam, each to their own and all that.

6 doubles - possibly more, i agree no one can say for sure, but what we do know is that of the 50 odd pictures of doubles caught in the past 2 seasons from this stretch - only 6 individuals were responsible. The fish population on any river is constantly changing, as the bigger older fish die off, younger ones come through, so there is always something to look forward to.

As for Angry, Peter, Walnut et al - you'll have to ask the guys who were catching these fish 30 - 40 years ago why they chose those names. My guess is that a name shows more affection for the fish, nothing to do with a fish social science project, just a genuine love of the fish themselves.

Indeed each to their own!! Ah this is why I like fishing the Severn, and most of the Upper Severn in my experience is very lightly fished anyway, people only seem interested from Montford Bridge down, although I could be wrong?? Even when I was fishing the lower Severn in Gloucestershire never saw many people on it apart from at Severn Stoke where one would quite often bump into a top name angler. I used to fish the Warwickshire Avon at Pershore a bit too but between me and 2 of my buddy’s started catching the same fish so we moved off it (although stories of 13lb to 15lb fish existed but unfortunately I never saw them, only 9lbs and 10lbs oh and a 15lb Carp and several Chub)!! Surely if those 6 individuals are responsible for 50 odd pictures haven’t you got bored of that stretch, why don’t you go to a new stretch and try your skill their?? I’ve loved all the fish I’ve had, doesn’t mean I want to name them!!

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50 odd pictures - 30 odd anglers! not my own pics mate. I fish all over the place, not confined to one stretch of the swale!! Oh - and none of the 6 have names, just recognised and known to regulars.

Yeah realised that, glad to hear none of them have names!! Have you fished the Severn??

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i think this is a personal sort of thing,,some people want to fish,get a bite and catch something,,pounds and ounces arent that important and they care not if its a recapture or not.. i personally think identifying individual fish is a good idea as you will build yourself a picture of the ammount of fish present at your venue and identifying can cause a laugh when you catch one that someone else has claimed as being far bigger,,naming them is a bit weird i suppose but if you have a fish that has a big scar its likely to get called the scarfish ,one with a bit of tail missing is half tail etc--each to their own really but when you photograph your fish and end up realising everythings a recapture then you have a reasonable idea of how many barbs are present in your stretch,,i bet there are many anglers blissfully unaware that there arent as many fish in their stretch of river as they thought there were.

I can understand your points probably good ground somewhere in between Barbel Seeker and my own view and we are all aloud an opinion and who is to say who is right or wrong, I agree it is a personal sort of thing. To some degree I do care about lb’s & oz’s and will always seek to beat my PB but not to the extent that some anglers will go and not to the point where I would get annoyed if I’m not hitting a target although again I do have a target for this season. I don’t think you can ever get to a point where you know how many Barbel are present in a certain stretch as although you may be catching several out of it who is to say there are not several in there that have never been caught again this depends on the river as certain rivers are defiantly fished more than others in this country I believe!!

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Great reply.Thats one of the points i was trying to make.The reason i stopped fishing Throop was because i caught the same fish 5 times over a period of about 12 years ranging between 9-11 lbs.i,ve caught over 40 doubles there.whats the point of catching the same fish time and time again.I,m gonna try and attatch a photo of this fish to this post. if it don,t happen it,s back to the manual.......................I AM **** AT THIS>SORRY

hi jam, on a relative sparsely populated(barbel wise)small stretch of a small river which is gin clear for much of the time,it doesnt take too long to get a good indication of how many fish are in front of you,the same fish move from holding area to holding area at different times of the season,but they are the same fish. i agree on rivers that are more heavily populated ,working out how many are in a stretch would be far more difficult,that goes without saying,but on my results from one stretch i fished ,i could play snap with my photos.. i agree daveroach entirely with you.

Hi Iain,

I take your point and I can see how that would be somewhat possible, I suppose from my point of view I don’t fish smaller gin clear rivers so haven’t experienced that side of Barbel fishing. I tend to fish the Severn and many of its tributaries which in the areas I tend to fish are very rarely gin clear if ever so knowing what’s in the river Barbel or anything else is pretty much impossible as far as I’m concerned other people may disagree?

Maybe I’ll try and fish a smaller gin clear river one day but will probably be dead before that happens, as I have too much to try and a lot of water to cover on the Severn!

Ps Could I have copies of the photo’s you can play snap with my 3 year old daughter loves looking and my pictures and loves playing snap could be on to a new thing here??

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Originally Posted by iain

hi jam, on a relative sparsely populated(barbel wise)small stretch of a small river which is gin clear for much of the time,it doesnt take too long to get a good indication of how many fish are in front of you,the same fish move from holding area to holding area at different times of the season,but they are the same fish. i agree on rivers that are more heavily populated ,working out how many are in a stretch would be far more difficult,that goes without saying,but on my results from one stretch i fished ,i could play snap with my photos.. i agree daveroach entirely with you.

Spot on - on bigger rivers it just takes a little longer - but not much.