There are plenty of anglers in the UK who have never caught a barbel, and even those who fish for them regularly are often more than happy with one or two in a session. You can imagine the delight of Barbel Masters organiser Liam Willis, when he went on to bank an incredible 16 barbel during a recent trip to the River Trent.
Of those 16 fish he caught, eight were into double figures, and the session also produced his biggest barbel of the season, a superb specimen weighing 16lb 9oz.
"I had a productive few days down on the River Trent, which resulted in me having the best session of the season so far," Liam told us.
"The barbel seemed really hungry during my stay, and it certainly seemed that the more bait I put in the better it got. I realised by the end of the trip I had fed around 7kg of 12mm and 16mm Krovy boilies " he added.
"The biggest fish came on a new SkerKro pellet I am testing, with the rest of the fish falling to either single or double Krovy Krill & Anchovy Glugged hookers wrapped in the matching paste. With SkerKro pva mesh bags with pellets, boilies and boilie crumb glugged in Krovy glug."
These tactics have been resulting in some great captures for Liam recently. At the beginning of the season he set himself a personal challenge of catching a 12lb barbel every month of the year and so far, he has been smashing it, with this latest fish taking the pressure off for August. In fact on this trip alone, he banked fish of 12lb 12oz, 12lb 3oz, 12lb 1oz.
"Terminal tackle as always it was SkerKro Konceal 21lb mainline, on a running kit to a combi rig with 20lb soft braid and Kro wide gape beaked point hooks or wide gape T’s," he said.
THE BEST BARBEL RODS WILL HELP YOU LAND EVEN THIE BIGGEST OF BARBEL.
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