Double-Figure Barbel for Rich - Richard Stewart

Korda’s Richard Stewart recently turned his attentions to quarry of a different kind. Despite being a confirmed carp-man, Rich enjoys catching fish of all species and chose the River Severn near Bewdley in Worcestershire for his recent sortie after barbel.

Fishing a day-ticket stretch downstream of the town centre, Rich found the river high and coloured. This dictated that heavy tackle and smelly baits were used. With this in mind, he tackled up with 10lb Guru Drag Line main line and the same material for his long hook link. Rich used a Guru Micro Lead Clip to attach a 4oz Korda Big Grippa Lead and presented his Baitworks Kingfish hook bait on a simple knotless-knotted hair, whipped to the shank of a size-eight Wide Gape hook.

To increase the pulling power of his bait, Rich wrapped his boilie in Kingfish paste and plugged the hole at the centre of the Grippa lead with paste too. To complete the trap he nicked a Guru Speedmesh PVA bag of mixed pellets and chopped boilies to the setup.

After finding an area of smooth water that was pushing through at walking pace, Rich under-armed his bait into position, just ten yards out. Following several casts over the next hour, Rich began to receive signs that barbel were homing in on his bait. A bite wasn’t long in coming after that and the fish hung determinedly low in the flow. After five arm-aching minutes, Rich was able to coax the fish to the surface and after teasing it out of the main flow, he persuaded it to slip over the net.

Once on the bank, he could see that it was a good fish and, in fact, registered a healthy 10lb 4oz on the scales. After this early encouragement, the rest of the day proved surprisingly fruitless for Rich, although Guru all-rounder Garth Ethelston also managed a ten pounder! You’ll be able to watch Garth’s barbel tips on this very site soon, so keep your eyes peeled!