2009 has been a bumper year on the rivers for many of our customers with the Team Barbel boilies and our range of pellets producing a number of new personal bests on the Severn, Avon and Wye.

One angler who's had an amazing year on the Severn is local angler Tim Maslen. Tim featured in our news pages a few months ago with a run of consistent catches and is back again, this time with superb 12lb 8oz specimen caught from his favourite swim on the middle reaches of the river. As usual Tim put his faith in the Team Barbel frozen nuggets and fished these over a bed of mixed Bankside pellets.

Chris Clargo is another local angler who's been catching wherever he fishes and a recent session on the river Wye on Bob James' private stretch produced an 18 fish catch, including these two caught as a brace when both rods went off at the same time. Chris returned to a different stretch of the Wye shortly after for another 15 fish catch, with all the barbel falling to the ever dependable XL Grubber Pellets. Not finished yet, Chris has also been out to the Warwickshire Avon where he bagged a brace of barbel weighing in at 12lb 8oz and 8lb, again on the XL Grubbers.

It's that time of year when the really big barbel start to show and one angler who's getting amongst them is Jamie Cartwright. Jamie has just sent us an email through telling us about his latest success on the pressured Adams Mill stretch of the Great Ouse. We'll let Jamie take it on from here in his own words.

"Here is a picture of my new personal best barbel weighing 14lb 13oz, caught from the Great Ouse at Adams Mill. It's my third barbel of the season from the stretch all of which fell to a 14mm Team Barbel boilie. On this occasion I had struggled all day but managed to find a small group of big fish late in the afternoon. Due to the lack of time I had remaining I decided to just present my hookbait along with 3 crumbed boilies in a PVA stocking and 3 more crumbed baits fed by hand. My rig consisted of a size 9 ESP D7 hook to 12" of 15lb Drennan Micro Braid, pinned down with rig putty to a small Stonze weight with 2 more back Stonze above it to keep the main line pinned down. This was lowered into the swim a rod length from the near bank rushes."

"It took about 15 minutes for the fish to show an interest but when they did I could watch them through the rushes ripping the bottom apart - heart stopping stuff! Eventually, with only 10 minutes left before I had to pack up, one made a mistake. All hell broke loose as it bolted through the rest of the shoal, sending them all off in blind panic! After a right old barny it finally slipped over the drawcord, at which point I was convinced it was a scraper double. It wasn't until I went to lift it out, that it struck me how heavy it was. Then when I laid it on the mat its true size was revealed. Even then I wasn't prepared for the weight the scales registered after hoisting them aloft. I was overjoyed! An absolutely stunning young barbel in mint condition. I couldn't of asked for more. I just look forward to getting back down there with some more Team Barbel, to see how big the other shoal members were!"