Ramiz bags a Hampshire Stunner

With just a few days of the season remaining and not having been out at all for 4 weeks I managed to sneak a final trip on the Hampshire Avon in search of a barbel to keep my spirits up for the coming 3 months. I got to the river at 11am and was happy to see no other vehicles on my chosen stretch and the river looking in fine form.

The air temperature was a balmy 12 Celcius with the water temperature just a couple below this so I knew I was in with a good chance should fish be about. I try to keep casting to a minimum at this time of year and try and establish how long the paste takes to dissolve around my chosen boilie, which in current conditions was about 90 minutes.

Today I was using the Ramiz Mini Barrel wrapped in matching paste for only the second time since its release.I had been fishing for 6 hours and the light had just gone at about 6.30pm and chose to have one last cast which would take me to about 8.15pm.  I swung a bait out with a pva bag of broken matching barrels and sat back. Time passed and about 7.45 pm I was messaging on my phone, as you often do when the reel began to scream off.

After about 10 minutes and much giving and taking with the fish going on 2 long runs I finally drew her over the net and could see she was a good fish in the torch light. Hoisting her on the scales I was very happy to read a weight of 14lb 13oz. A great way to end the season as time on the bank has been so limited since October.

Roll on summer and the long warm days of visual fishing once again