“I could tell it was something big..“

An annual trip to the River Trent’s prolific Collingham Weir paid off in style for Neil Watson after he landed this 17lb 2oz barbel, a new personal best by 18oz!

Neil told us “after a hectic 72 hour session the previous year, where myself and good friend Karl landed no fewer than 182 barbel on boilie tactics. We expected the same approach to score this time round but after a quiet first day, a change was called for.

We scaled down and managed a few fish on pellets and mini boilies, so we decided to feeder smaller particles of hemp and caster along with some smaller boilies. The change certainly got the fish going as shortly after casting towards the weir, my rod hooped over. By the steady fight, I could tell it was something big as it was using its weight in the flow to its advantage Once netted I said ‘this one might be worth weighing’ to Karl, well that was a bit of an understatement!