The River Angler

You’ve no doubt heard of the beast of Exemoor, or the Surrey Puma, the Aldermaston Beast or the Beast of the Medway (no, not Bob Morris :-))?  Well this beast is far more terrible than any that have gone before.

It was created by a certain Mr Paul Whiteing in a moment of madness.  Actually it was the brainchild of Paul’s and designed to raise some money for charity in a rather novel way, on behalf of the Association of Barbel Fishers and its members.  It’s not exclusively for ABF members, in fact all are welcome to give it a go.  It’s about raising money after all.

The ‘Beast’ is in fact a Barbus Riverking centrepin reel.  Pretty basic but it does the job.  The challenge? To get as many people as possible to catch a barbel on the reel.  In the process they get to donate £5 each for the privilege.  Once a 100 or so have completed the task, the idea is for the ABF to hopefully auction the reel off and donate the whole lot to the Macmillan Nurses.  A great cause and commendable actions from both the ABF and Paul Whiteing.

The Beast

So, lets cut to the chase.  It was my turn to put the reel through its paces, along with Geoff.  Kevin was suffering, so sadly couldn’t make it.  However, as it turned out he didn’t miss much.  We headed to a section of the Lea to hopefully secure the barbel each that we needed.  Sadly everyone else had the same idea and the stretch was packed out.  So a change of plan was needed and we headed to an alternative venue, still on the Lea.

It was a beautiful stretch.  Very narrow and intimate and a chat with the bailiff proved to be very useful.  Unfortunately today was not to be.  Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t find any barbel.  Geoff  managed to locate some nice roach and I ended up with a couple of small chub.  A couple of local guys were also fishing and they also blanked, so we didn’t feel quite so inept.

So it may not be until next season now before the beast is unleashed once more.