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Hi to all Nene barbel anglers.
Just dropped onto the site and saw that me (or rather my book on the River Nene) was mentioned about six months ago. As it is out of print and so expensive to buy on Amazon, eBay etc, I thought I'd give you the gist of what I said in the book.
First and foremost, the 12 lb barbel from about 1969-71 was taken by an 18-year-old Peterborough sixth former from Orton Staunch (I think it's known as Orton Lock these days). It was weighed, witnessed and photographed by the late Chris Dawn, who back then was a young reporter on Angling Times (whose offices were just off the Oundle Road in Woodston, opposite the old sugar beet factory).
The photograph and story was on the front page of AT, which was hardly surprising... as at that stage the record (if I recall correctly) was less than 13 lb!!

The bloke who said he was surprised because no barbel had been stocked into the Nene in those days was, I'm afraid, talking out of his %*&%. In fact the river was stocked in the 1950s at the same time as the River Severn... and look what happened to the latter!
The full story of the stocking half a century ago is as follows: one of the executives at Angling Times at that time was a memeber of a verye xclusive trout beat on the River Kennet that wanted to get rid of its "nuisance" barbel. Hence the AT team made several trips to Berkshire with proper oxygenating tanks etc and went on to distribute these barbel wherever they felt fit (fishery policy was a bit "relaxed" in those days...).
Waters that got a barbel boost included the Nene, Severn, Welland (yes, Welland!) and Trent, if I recall correctly.

But the odds are that there have always been a small population of barbel in the river, as it flows east and, as you probably know, barbel are indigenous fish in those rivers which, prior to the last Ice Age, flowed into the River Rhine. Well before Britain was cut off from continental Europe, etc.

I expect the canalisation, locks and dredging of the Nene for boat traffic about 200 years ago destroyed most of the best barbel habitat... followed by some pretty catastrophic pollution from cynanide etc when there was still a thriving boot and shoe industry from Northampton downstream.

There is also the fact that anglers of old, despite what you may have heard, didn't really catch very much. Specilialist angling didn't exist until the 1950s, so even if barbel had been present very few would ever have been hooked, let alone landed on the inadequate tackle then in use.

Hope that helps.

Incidentally, the River Nene book was published more than 10 years ago and is long sold out. But I am working on a new, second edition. I'll post the website when it's available. Or you can check out my own website: www.nenevalleymedia.com

Best wishes and catch plenty this season,

Dave Phillips

PS: I also noticed a thread about Nene carp. I used to catch a lot of them before I got a bit bored with it. Best 28 lb. Pix and stories about them are in Neil Waytes' River Carp book, to which I contributed a chapter on the Nene a few years back.
The only real big fish rarity I reckon on the Nene is big pike. I have still only had one 20-plusser. Keep trying, though.