It’s great fishing by any standard, but on the tricky Avon, his result is all the more impressive. With the river’s barbel heavily pressured, Mark has found them reluctant to pick up a bait on the clear gravel spots, so he positions his hookbait just on the edge of the weed. He does this by using a 3ft hooklink and dropping his lead about 2ft into a weed bed, just upstream of a clear spot. By using a PVA bag next to his hookbait, he can drift this downstream, where it’ll land in the desired place.

An NX Baits crab and cray boilie was his winning bait, and he fills his PVA bag with whole and crumbed boilies.

Well done Mark!