With Barbel from 7 different rivers since June, already the season was going well, however river number 8 might prove to be more of a challenge with the Thames my next target.

I contacted a couple of mates who live in the area one gave me no chance and the other was doubtful! What neither of them had reckoned with thou was my determination and the effectiveness of the Sonu Hemp and Hali crush and pellet “O” hook bait combination.

I love fishing weir pools and a big river weir pool just holds so many likely areas for locating fish, I was pretty confident of a Barbel or two as I made my self comfortable in my peg for the day. The roar of the water as it toppled over the weir combined with the overhead noise of jets as they made their final approach to Heathrow just a few miles down the road all added to the atmosphere.

My approach was going to be a 2 rod set up both rigged the same, with a good size open end feeder and longish hook link, one to be cast on the crease of the current that left the weir pool under my feet and the other to an area of almost still water a good 40 yard cast from my peg. I mixed up a bag of Hemp and Hali crush, using the juice from a can of hemp and adding a good dose of Sonu monster crab liquid flavour, and made the mix slightly on the wet side.

A dry mix is no good in running water, if the mix is too dry it will explode from the feeder sometimes before it even hits the bottom, spreading feed all over the place and not where you want it. I prefer my feed to stay in the feeder and slowly release a trail of flavour and food particles downstream both attracting and then frustrating the fish in their search for a meal, hopefully their frustration will lead them to find my hook bait and a hooked fish.
 
On big rivers when conditions allow I will use alarms as bite indicators and today was one of those days, so the Delkims were out of the bag and eagerly waiting for some action. Allowing about 10 minutes between casts I began to build up a good flavour trail in each swim. The rod in the slack produced the first action when a roach just short of a pound took the pellet, quickly followed by a chub.

Having just poured my first mug of tea sods law would dictate my first real action of the day, the Delkim on the rod fished in the near crease played a merry tune as a hooked fished ripped several yards of line from the reel. A solid strike met solid resistance as what was obviously a Barbel made its presence felt, a game of tug of war followed which gradually turned in my favour but not before a few determined runs.

Over the years I have tried and tested lots of different landing nets for Barbel, the Korum Barbel spoon is by far the best, being very strong well made and lightweight, but big enough to hold even the biggest Barbel, it is simply the best available. I was certainly glad I had it this afternoon as a long lean Thames Barbel finally passed over the rim and into its mesh. With a huge frame size the net is great for resting a Barbel after capture, before the unhooking and weighing process.

After giving the fish a chance to get its breath back and setting up the scales and unhooking mat, I went through the process and carefully unhooked the fish before weighing what was a fantastic looking Barbel, I was to be honest over the moon. Often with so many big Barbel in the angling press these days its too easy to forget just how impressive even a small Barbel is, any Barbel to me is a fantastic fish and some just that bit special, and being my first ever Thames Barbel this was special. At 7lb 14oz not a monster but I didn’t care, I had achieved something I had always wanted to do and land a Barbel from old father Thames.