Family fishing trip ends with immense Trent barbel - Mark Brooks

“The wife asked me to pick her up from work at 3pm, which meant I had a bit of time to treat my six-year-old son Alfie to his first-ever trip on the tidal River Trent.
“After settling into a peg near a bend in the river at around 10am, I cast out our rigs a couple of rodlengths from the bank.We were using Hinders River Rami dumbells and PVA bags filled with Meat Furter pellets – which absolutely stink!
“I don’t think half-an-hour had passed before the rod hooped over. After a strong battle, a 15lb 4oz brute of a barbel was landed, followed soon after by Alfie’s first-ever barbel weighing 2lb 3oz.
“Just before packing up I had another powerful take from a fish which took me several minutes to get under control. After battling it to the surface I knew straight away it was a new PB and the relief when it went into the net was immense.
“We weighed it at 15lb 12oz, took a few snaps, slipped it back, then headed off to tell Alfie’s mum what we’d caught.”