Barbel after two season wait

Drew Lawrence had failed to catch a barbel for over two seasons from a low populated southern river he was targeting – but his persistence was finally rewarded with this new personal best of 13lb 15oz.

The West Sussex-based rod’s luck finally changed when he made the switch from boilies to pellets. The long awaited take came within 20 minutes of him casting out a Three Foot Twitch pellet in conjunction with a small PVA bag of freebies.

He said: “The fish managed to get in to a snag but I let my line go slack and a few seconds later she came back out again. After another 15 minutes I finally slid her into the net and on the scales she smashed my old best of 10lb 1oz. It would have been easy to give up on the stretch after two seasons without a fish, but I’m so glad I didn’t.”

Drew used a 15lb G-Force Blackout hooklink and a size 10 G-Force Wide Gape hook.