The barbel record on the nation’s most popular river for targeting the species was smashed last week when Neil Wright slipped his net under this enormous fish weighing 20lb 13oz. It surpasses the previous Trent best of 20lb 6oz, landed in 2020 by Sew Kowalski, and is a fish that, if banked again before the season’s end, could easily be pushing the 22lb British Record. Neil was fishing a stretch on the Trent’s middle reaches when he hooked the fish on a 14mm boilie.
“Although I wasn’t targeting that fish specifically, I always had it in the back of my mind,” he told us.
“It’s been caught in the autumn over the last two seasons, last year by Ian Green at 20lb 2oz. Unusually, it doesn’t seem to get caught at any other time of year.”
THE BEST BARBEL RODS ARE REQUIRED TO LAND HUGE FISH LIKE THIS ONE!
Rather than introduce a bed of loosefeed, Neil opts for a measured baiting approach.
“I fish a boilie on a standard hair rig and hook on a PVA bag containing four boilies. I then fill a second PVA bag with little pellets and add this to the lead clip,” he said.
“My previous PB was a 16lb 1oz fish caught nine years ago, and while there are a few very big fish in the stretch, I seem to catch the smaller ones. That all changed on this occasion when, after landing an eight-pounder, I hooked a big fish at midnight,” Neil added.
“I prayed I hadn’t hooked a carp, and while I knew it was big, it wasn’t until it was landed and I lifted the net that I got a true sense of its massive scale. The barbel measured nearly a metre in length. What it could weigh later in the season is a frightening thought!"
NEVER FISHED THE TRENT? HERE IS A COMPLETE GUIDE TO STRETCHES AND TACTICS.
