Phil White’s river campaign had, in his own words, been a poor one, until his tip pulled around one evening session at the end of the season and he landed this barbel of 21lb 5oz.
It’s the second biggest ever reported and would have been a new British Record if caught a few months ago, before James Crosby landed the current best of 22lb 1oz from the Lea. It was caught from the Hampshire Avon and is the river’s known ‘bigun’, with the fish landed numerous times over recent years, perhaps most notably by Pete Reading in 2019 at 19lb 11oz, when it set a record for the river. Whilst Phil’s capture of the fish is at its largest reported weight, he’s not looking to claim a ‘new’ river record, as he knows the specimen has been landed at larger weights but kept quiet.“I’ve been hoping for that fish since Pete caught it, but never really felt like I was close,” Phil told us. “However, I’d heard rumours that it’d been landed a few times over winter at 21lb 8oz but not been reported, and I’m certain one of those is true. “So, whilst I’m not claiming a new river record, to catch it is simply unreal. “I’d had a funny season, in which I’d caught little else to report, but the scale of this fish just blew me away,” Phil added. “I didn’t get to sleep until 4am that night, such was the thrill of catching it! I’m a fairly wide bloke, and the pictures don’t do the fish justice.” Two homemade 12mm boilies presented below a size 12 hook on a 2ft hooklink, alongside a PVA mesh bag of Hinders pellets, tempted the barbel.
“I’d been fishing for an hour when I had two knocks on the tip before it gently pulled over,” Phil revealed. “I wound into what I was pretty sure was a carp, with the fish making two long and powerful runs. My rod had never bent so much! “But when the barbel surfaced, I was in shock. The moment I looked into the net, I knew it was the fish I was after.”
Well done Phil!