Over the past few weeks, the River Lea has been in superb big barbel form, with Darren Poole being on of latest to get in amongst the fish with this lovely 17lb 1oz specimen.
He was fishing the famous Kings Weir stretch and has already landed numerous other good barbel in the lead up to the catch, with fish of 15lb 2oz, 15lb 10oz and 16lb already falling to his rod.
The key to his success has been pre-baiting two areas with a bait dropper, introducing a mixture of pellets and particles.
On the day he caught the seventeen-pounder, he’d lowered his rig – featuring a size 8 hook, soft hooklink material and an 18mm boilie – into place alongside a PVA bag of pellets. It’d only been in position for 10 minutes when his rod slammed round and he hooked a fish that surged downriver. Instantly, he knew it was something substantial, and was amazed with the new PB from the notoriously hard stretch.
Well done Darren!