A run of 20 blank sessions came to an end for Phil Buckingham recently with the capture of an enormous 18lb 8oz barbel from the famed Kings Weir on the River Lea.
A venue regular, Phil admitted the fishing had been 'exceptionally tricky' on his usual maggot feeder tactics, so he needed to change his approach.
“Although I hadn’t caught anything for a while, I’d had indications, so I knew there were fish in the swim," he told us.
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"I’d tried a range of things, including lengthening the hooklink, even shortening it, but wasn’t having any joy. I reckoned the fish were shying off the feeder.
“My first port of call was to head to a swim where nobody else had been fishing. Here, there’s an undercut bank, so I opted for a tactic not seen so often these days – a drilled bullet.
"This allows you to trundle a bait under a snag and, in this swim, one of 1oz would nestle perfectly under the undercut."
Introducing a few droppers of maggots Phil slid a PVA bag up the hooklink and made his first cast. Once darkness fell, he finally hooked into one of Kings Weir's big barbel.
"It didn’t charge around like the small ones do – instead, it used its weight and held bottom," he said.
"Eventually, I eased it up, and had a very large fish on the bank.
"I’ve caught a few big barbel before, but the belly on this one was something else!
“At 18lb 18oz, it’s a new PB and a great end to a run of blanks."
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