I’ve been fishing down at Evesham on the Warwickshire Avon for the past few weeks as I gear up towards the big August Bank Holiday festival there, and among my main weapons will be SonuBaits Hali Pellets and Hemp and Hali Crush groundbait…with barbel in mind.

The river at Evesham can be moody but one species that will feed in the right pegs on the right day is barbel, and I certainly won’t be ruling them out of my game plan. These fish can run big - a match there last weekend was won by an angler who caught two for 18lb - so it stands to reason that gear-wise you need to step it all up a bit.
The rod I use for this sort of fishing is the Preston Dutch Master 13’8” model, teamed with a  reel carrying either 8lb Preston Direct Mono or 8lb Korum reel line. I use a Preston Open end Power Feeder and allow this to run on a  twizzled loop, with a Korum Quick Change bead acting as a buffer between main line and hook-length.
The hook-length is generally 0.21mm Preston Powerline, finished off with a size 14 Korum S4 hook hook, with a 12 or 14mm drilled Hali Pellet hair-rigged.
Sometimes it can pay to drop down to a couple of 8mm Hali pellets on the hair, just to confuse fish that have become a little wiser to the dangers presented by donkey choker-sized hook pellets.
Through the feeder I will put a mix of hemp and 4mm hali pellets, using Hali Crush, mixed using the water from cooking the hemp, to plug the ends of the feeder.
Barbel aren’t subtle when they bite. Just hold on to the rod and get ready for a white knuckle ride when Mr Whiskers comes into your peg.
I just hope that on the festival I draw a peg with some barbel form. If that’s the case then I’ll leave the rest to my SonuBaits Hali Pellets and Hemp and Hali Crush groundbait. You know it makes sense!