10kg of bait gets new barbel best feeding - Stuart Coulson

“I arrived at the River Trent near Burton at 4pm and baited my swim with around 10kg of boilies, pellets, corn and groundbait.

“The weather was really hot and I thought that I wouldn’t get a bite until the early hours of the next morning, so I wanted enough bait to be left in the swim until the barbel moved in.

“At around 6am I had a ‘twitchy’ take on the left-hand rod and lifted into what felt like a snag – a bit like a tree stump. Then the stump started to move into the main flow and I realised that it was a fish!

“I held on to my rod for dear life as this fish began to strip line off my reel at an immense pace.

“After a long fight, I finally slipped the net under my new PB and fish of a lifetime weighing 14lb 12oz.”

Stuart Coulson and his new PB barbel of 14lb 12oz