135 Barbel Haul from the River Trent

Well we've just returned from an unbelievable barbel trip to the Tidal Trent atCromwell Weir Collingham . Unfortunately our good pal Richie Martin had to bail out at the last minute so it was down to Paul Fuller, George Stone & myself to fly the Hampshire flag. The fishing at this place is very demanding despite there being absolutely hundreds of fish. Despite all the pre trip organisation, making rigs up, pva bags, and all the spare terminal tackle required this place tests you to the limits.

I threw the towel in at 2am on the second morning, I couldn't face tying any more rigs and  re-tackling any more. My fingers were sore to the core, I was exhausted and needed some sleep. We fished up into the weir with one rod each in the daytime trying to steer the fish in between the numerous snags back to us. In the evening we'd drop down spreading out below but still had numerous snags to cope with. Tackle was tested to the limits and personally my line only lasts the one trip having to be replaced as soon as I was home.

Bait choice was to be the frozen C Food Boilies wrapped in paste and fished in bags with Medium Elips Pellets. Between the 3 of us we managed to extract 135 barbel in the 2 days and nights with 47 doubles which is just incredible. Paul took the best fish of 14lb 5oz, I managed one of exactly 14lb and Stoner smashed his personal best by an ounce taking a lovely looking fish of 13lb.9oz. I hear the club will be looking at removing as many of the snags as possible in the coming close season which will make this fishery even better.

I'm back on the weir in 3 weeks and this time Richie will be joining me.I will be even better prepared next trip so as to maximise the best out of this unique fishery.