Sussex angler Simon Buckman got his river season off to a flier with this huge, and majestic 15lb 12oz Barbel from a Southern river swim that he’d taken the trouble to pre-bait for several days beforehand.   Simon rightly won a weekly Drennan award in last week’s issue of Angling Times for the capture.

After several Carp to 25lb and some Bream, Simon received a savage take signaling that his CC Moore Odyssey XXX boilie hookbait had been taken by the big barbel!  The barbel was the first of the species to be taken on a new pair of Drennan Martin Bowler Specialist Barbel 12ft 1.75lb rods which Simon had invested in following a previous Drennan cup weekly win back in November 2011 –  “This was the perfect way to christen them, they were a dream as expected” commented Simon.

End tackle included a 10ins hooklength of ESP Sinklink tied to a size 8 ESP T6 hook.  For full details on the Barbel rod Simon used, click here.

Simon wrote an excellent account of his river fishing exploits last season for the Drennan website, click here if you haven’t read it.