HAVING travelled all the way from Essex for a 24-hour session on the tidal Trent, Gary Adams was rewarded with this thickset 17lb 10oz barbel.
He started the session on traditional tactics, fishing a feeder packed with hemp and maggots, but hadn’t had a nudge after three hours. After seeing a fish roll, he switched to a straight lead and paste-wrapped boilie, then put 10 balls of groundbait in, packed with hemp and corn.
No sooner had the last ball hit the water than Gary’s rod bent double and his Baitrunner burst into life. A 10-minute battle followed, with the fish hugging bottom. Eventually, it tired, and when Gary got a glimpse of it, he realised it was beyond anything he’d dreamed of!
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