17lb 2oz barbel is this year's trent best!
Gareth with his monster barbel
The River Trent’s biggest barbel of the season has been landed at 17lb 2oz. Captor Gareth Hughes was taking time off from his carp fishing campaign to target barbel on the popular A1 pits stretch of the waterway.
The 37-year-old from Lincoln netted the specimen after it took a Key BaitSolution boilie fished in conjunction with a 5oz open-ended feeder filled with hemp, corn and Bait-Tech Meaty Mix groundbait.
The all-important take came at 2am after Gareth had been consistently recasting his feeder close to the far bank to lay down a big carpet of feed in his swim. This was Gareth’s first-ever double-figure barbel and his first session for the species this season.
He reckons the Trent is a lucky river for him. “About 95 per cent of my fishing time is spent on the carp pits behind where I caught this barbel,” he said.
“I turned up at the venue with a friend, and another angler who was leaving offered us his swim. My friend bagged a 14lb fish an hour before I had mine.
“Considering I only fish the river now and again a catch like this is incredible.”
Dave Carter with his stunning capture
Another angler to enjoy a successful weekend on the Trent is Dave Carter from Staffordshire, who netted a new pb barbel of 16lb 1oz – his 30th of the season. Dave targeted a bed of streamer weed close to the marginal shelf using a 4oz gripper lead and a Gold Label Penetrator hook to a short Korda N-trap hooklink.
He enticed the fish into his swim by regularly loosefeeding broken and whole homemade boilies, and presented a boilie hookbait which the barbel found in darkness.
