Giant barbel caught on float fishing tackle

After a season hunting the River Trent’s roach and barbel in alternate sessions, Mike Lomas recently found himself adopting his favoured methods for the silvers to target the bigger species - catching this 13lb 13oz specimen as a result.

The speci-hunter fished the river at Newark, using a 15ft float rod and a home-made goose quill Avon-style float to present a maggot hookbait in 10ft of water.

“I catapulted a few pouches of maggots out before I started fishing, and then trotted through four maggots on a size 10 hook. It wasn’t long before I hooked into the fish, either,” Mike told AT.

“I’ve caught bigger on legering tactics, but this was by far my favourite fish just due to the tactics I caught it on,” he added.