Angling times barbel.

[Rob1980]

Just seen this picture and article on AT website,to me that fish looks in a bad way?Any of you lads with more experience of barbel than me think the same?

Screenshot_20210915-222449_Samsung Internet.jpg

[Mike J]

Seen a lot of Wessex barbel but never one like that.

I would guess its its got an infection.
Consuming to many pellets or being caught to often perhaps, its certainly got a bit of a belly. Still its eating so is clearly not suffrering.

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[Sam]

They do get the odd red patch, we have a couple in my river that have red tails and red bellies. If that had not been reported from the river, I would have thought it was a stillwater barbel.

[Pikerd74]

They do get the odd red patch, we have a couple in my river that have red tails and red bellies. If that had not been reported from the river, I would have thought it was a stillwater barbel.

I thought that too about it being a still water stocked fish that pastie colour makes it look like it been in with the mud pigs and feed on s***e bait. Stressed to bits it’s beyond me why people stock them in Stillwater.

[davelumb]

Thames fish. https://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/news/sto ... -to-worms/

[Lukemilnes]

Apparently it's targeted and caught a lot, could be stress

[Pikerd74]

Apparently it's targeted and caught a lot, could be stress

You could be right, the picture leaves me cold, pristine barbel are amazing to see but this one???
Not sure if I would send a pic of it to angling times which could increase the pressure on the beast.

[Lukemilnes]

Apparently it's targeted and caught a lot, could be stress

You could be right, the picture leaves me cold, pristine barbel are amazing to see but this one???
Not sure if I would send a pic of it to angling times which could increase the pressure on the beast.

Yeah its really not nice is it! There were a few angry words on the Facebook post

[Mike J]

Apparently it's targeted and caught a lot, could be stress

You could be right, the picture leaves me cold, pristine barbel are amazing to see but this one???
Not sure if I would send a pic of it to angling times which could increase the pressure on the beast.

Agreed.
However pike anglers have been doing it for forty odd years atleast.

If its stress someone should relocate it above or below a weir to allow it time to recover and hopefully live long enough to breed a new generation.

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[Pinkie]

An 18lb Thames barbel! They don't get much bigger than that on the Thames. Looks more or less dead to me! Surely this must be a very old fish and age alone might explain the bad state its in!

[martin(rockape)]

Not the sort of fish I'd want to share publicly looking like that regardless of its size.

Regards

Martin