Prebaiting campaign ends with 15lb 7oz river barbel

A two-month prebaiting campaign saw top specialist Adrian Eves beat his barbel personal best with this 15lb 7oz River Thames specimen.
Catching big fish by design can often be about sheer patience and determination, and Adrian has these attributes in abundance – as he showed when he visited his chosen stretch twice a week for two months to introduce a few handfuls of boilies each time.
It was this careful preparation, designed to get the resident barbel feeding in a certain spot without filling them up, that finally paid dividends for the Fox and Dynamite Baits-backed angler.
“Too many anglers just pile a load of bait in the night before and think that there’s a chance the fish are going to be there ready and waiting,” said Adrian.
“But I’ve found that small quantities of bait introduced on a more regular basis is the way forward, especially if the fish in your chosen river are fished for a fair bit.”
Despite semi-flooded conditions, the new personal best provided the Surrey-based specialist with the only bite of his session when it took a Dynamite Baits The Crave boilie that was fished in conjunction with a coated braid hooklink and a size 6 Kuro S2 hook.
It’s a fish that beats his previous best for the species that stood at 15lb and was banked from the River Kennet in Berkshire.
“It was just one of those days when I knew something was going to happen. I said to someone that morning that I knew I was going to catch a big barbel, and I was right,” Adrian continued.
“To make all that effort in visiting the river to introduce the bait might seem a lot of work to some people but, believe me, if you put the time in, you’ll reap the rewards.”