The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

A splendid picture of Bill with a Barbel...........

Probably the most famous picture of him

Here's a lovely picture of Bill, again courtesy of Mike Wilson, thank you Mike.

Lovely....

Hi SK,

A little background info for the first picture shown:

This is Bill's best ever barbel weighing 12lb 1oz 8drms. It was caught from the House Pool, on the Royalty Fishery, Christchurch, on 16th January 1971. There were a few of us fishing the Royalty that day, Bob Buteux, Dave Short and myself, plus Pete Cranstoun together with some of his pals. As far as can be recalled, Bill had the only barbel bite of the day - this fish.

Bill's barbel was one of, if not the biggest reported that year, hence Bob and I went in search of Ken Keynes, the Head Bailiff, to get it accurately weighed on the beam balance in the rod-room; hence the result to the last 1/2oz.

The fact that the river is running downhill, makes me pretty sure I was behind the camera for this shot, (several others had a go, too!)

I was also behind the camera when Bill caught his biggest-ever carp. See below:



Plainly, this is the Redmire mirror we called 'The Thirty-Eight', the same fish that Chris Yates later christened, 'The Bishop'.

It weighed 38lb 2oz when Bill caught it in October 1973.

Coincidentally, these identical fish, both the barbel as well as the carp, are Jack Hilton's PB's too; 11lb 6oz and 40lb 3oz respectively. But I expect you know this.

Wishing you A Happy and Healthy New Year,

Len.

I have seen most of these in various books

Hi Mazza,

Of course, over the past forty-years or so, many of these pictures have been published in books, and/or in magazines, etc, but I do try to post pictures that haven't been previously published. Yes, photographs of Bill Quinlan with his '38' have certainly been published and, indeed, are well known, but I can't recall seeing the one posted above.

As said, this is from memory, which I know is now fallible. In fact, I regard my memory these days as a rough guide to what might, or might-not have happened!

Now have a look at the photo below which, again, I'm pretty certain has never previously been published:



This shows Redmire's 'Split-Lateral Leather', caught by Bill, from the Stile Pitch, in July 1970, when it weighed 24lb 7oz.

(NB. Correction: Now not certain this is indeed the 'Split-Lateral Leather'. Please accept my apologies, Len.)

Besties,

Len.

Some great pictures Len.

Some fantastic pictures here chaps

I've never seen that picture of the Redmire Leather, what a fish!

Superb Len....thank you for the Barbel info, much appreciated.

As an aside, I think that capture of 'The 38' in October was the last capture before the 7 year absence, until Chris caught her at a new record. Incidentaly, Chris also caught her a month before Bill.

As for the Leather, what a cracking shot. Was this fish also known as 'Long Barbules'?