Secret swim on River Trent produces 14lb barbel

Loughborough Soar Angling Society committee member Rob Thompson enjoyed a bumper autumn day’s fishing on his local River Trent when he landed this hard fighting 14lb 12oz barbel.

The 39-year-old specimen hunter decided to cast into a fairly unknown swim on a popular middle stretch of the river where he used a Nutrabaits Trigga boilie to attract the specimen, beating the two 11lb fish he landed from a nearby spot earlier in the year.

Rob used a 5oz cage feeder to hold bottom, filled with pellets of various types and sizes and topped off with groundbait bungs. Mainline was 15lb mono attached to 3ft of braided hooklength on a Korum running rig kit and a Size 6 Korum Xpert Power hook.