12lb 1oz River Don barbel taken on boilie and feeder tactics

After turning his attentions to a stretch of the River Don which he hadn’t fished before at the start of the season, Steve Hurst has enjoyed a string of good catches - the most recent this 12lb 1oz barbel.

The 37-year-old, Rotherham-based rod regularly recast his Mainline Baits Activ-8 boilie in conjunction with a feeder filled with groundbait and pellets to a gravel slope on the edge of a deep gulley.

“The fight was excellent and it kept charging up and down the margins,” Steve told Angling Times. “I’ve been smashed up by a few fish which I think were carp, and I’m planning on having a go for them now.”

He beat his prize, which was just over 1lb short of the river record, with a size 10 Korda Choddy hook and a 5ft fluorocarbon hooklink.