Having spent the day fishing hemp and casters, something told Julian Barnes that he should change to a lump of luncheon meat as darkness descended, and an hour after doing so, he banked this colossal 19lb 14oz fish.
It was caught from the River Lea at Kings Weir, a fishery in simply ludicrous form, and is a separate fish from the two twenty-pounders and the other ‘nineteen’ landed late last year. His thinking behind trying hemp and casters was that few other anglers on the popular stretch use the baits, and he reckons they could well have attracted the fish into his swim. Julian braved brutal winds and rain throughout his session, but that was part of his plan, as he knew the cold front that followed would switch the fish off.
Well done Julian!