Neil’s 300-hour barbel payoff

After nearly 300 hours without a fish, Neil Wayte struck gold with this 17lb 4oz Thames barbel. 

The big-river specialist fished 14 consecutive weekends on his favourite stretch of the waterway before his perseverance paid off and the specimen took his single 18mm Pandemic boilie hookbait. 

“The take was an absolute flyer,” Neil told Angling Times.

“It ran upstream for 40 yards and under some nearside bushes, but thankfully I pulled it free and into the net. It was the fattest barbel I’ve ever seen!”