He told us “Over the last decade, barbel fishing has enjoyed a real surge in popularity, with more and more anglers targeting these hard fighting fish. Whilst they’re not necessarily the smartest fish out there, there’s no denying that on intensely fished stretches they’ve wised up to certain tactics, and by being a little more subtle in your approach, you can fool some of these more educated fish.This is what I’ve done on a busy stretch of the Warwickshire Avon, where this season,
I’ve had two twelve-pounders, a 13lb 3oz fish, and lately I landed one of the biggest in the stretch – a 16lb 13oz specimen. You’ll often have over 40 anglers in this bit of river, and I’ve noticed that lots of them will pile the feed in and simply chuck a rig over the top. Whilst this will sometimes work, my results have come from being quiet, using small hook baits, and introducing tiny amounts of high-attraction feed. Whilst barbel can certainly hoover up plenty of bait, I think they’ve wised up to big beds of bait on these busy stretches, and all I introduce is a mesh PVA bag about the size of a grape, packed with Nutrabaits River Plus boilie crumb, plus a few pellets. This tiny parcel is packed with attraction but is discreet enough to not put off a feeding fish. I also go for something subtle in my hookbait choice – a little 10mm toughened dumbbell. I glug this too, to make sure it’s leaking flavours into the swim. To be honest, I don’t think there’s a ‘magic’ flavour, and a feeding barbel will eat pretty much anything you put in front of it – the key thing is that you have confidence in your bait.

Targeting busy stretches can be frustrating, but there are a few other thigs I do to swing the odds in my favour, a key one being the time I fish. When I can, I’ll get down the river on a weeknight, as the stretch will always be quieter than on a weekend. Work and family life can sometimes make this tricky, but I’ll often only fish for a few hours before heading home, which in the right swim, can certainly be enough time for a fish. On this bit of river, and certainly on other popular stretches, you get also people parking right by their pegs, shining car lights all over the swim and making tonnes of disturbance. I therefore like to keep things as quiet as I can, and generally won’t even recast once my rig is in the right spot.

In addition, I try and fish the same few swims, as I know where the clear gravel spots are. Once I’ve felt that lead crack down, I’ll happily let my rig fish for hours. That’s one reason I use a toughened hookbait, as I know they’ll withstand the attentions of small fish and be there waiting when the one I want comes along. That’s exactly what happened when I landed the sixteen-pounder, with the rod ripped off two hours after I cast out and an epic battle followed. I couldn’t stop the barbel, with it taking me downriver four times. It was so powerful, and I noticed the hook was straightened out a fair bit when I finally the fish! But thankfully it just hung in during the fight and enabled me to land a barbel I’m truly delighted with.

If you’ve got a busy stretch near you, don’t be put off. Try and ignore the crowds, keep yourself to yourself, and do your own thing. You could end up catching something special.”
Well done Craig!