As a result of my first visit to the river Kennet this season I felt I had learned some lessons and could not wait to return to put them to the test. On my last visit few of the other anglers I spoke to had caught more than one fish and none as big as the two I caught.

I thought that the larger baits that they were using, such as large pellets and boilies and chunks of luncheon meat did not work as well as the smaller baits I had had such success with. Was the way I was presenting the bait the secret or was it the size of the bait?

I decided to return to the river on Thursday afternoon to try a more traditional method of Barbel fishing but with small baits. I fished one of my favourite swims on the Dalston beat of the Wasing Estate, just upstream of the Rowbarge public house near Midgham station, Woolhampton. Here the river was flowing fast with lots of overhanging trees on the far bank. Definitely not the swim for five and a half pound hook lengths, so I tackled up with my Hexagraph No. 2 with a Purist centrepin and twelve pound line. I chose this rod because it is powerful enough for the twelve pound line, despite it being listed as only one and a quarter pound test curve, and yet soft enough not to pull out the small hooks the bait size would dictate.

The method I chose consisted of a heavy open ended swimfeeder on a sliding paternoster link, a short ten pound flourocarbon hook length with a size twelve heavy forged hook tied with a knotless knot. On the hair I had mounted a small bait band to enable me to fish a banded pellet or a boilie. Perhaps I had better explain this a little further - if you thread your boilie onto a baiting needle (the type with the sharp point and the small barb) and then pull the bait band into the boilie the bait band will reduce in diameter as it stretches and expand again inside the boilie when released, the boilie will stay on the end of the hair. This enables you to fish most small pellets or any size of boilie.

I filled the feeder with small pellets and a few 10mm Dynamite Baits Source boilies with a plug of Halibut Pellet groundbait at each end. After seven or eight casts into a gap in the far bank trees with no bait on the hook I rested the swim for about an hour.

My first cast with an 8mm pellet resulted in a nice roach a few ounces short of a pound and when I rebaited, this time with a 10mm Source boilie, the rod tip started to bounce as the feeder was towed down stream. After a short but vigorous fight I netted this fine barbel of about four pounds.

kennet barbel 4lbs approx

I rested the swim for another half an hour after feeding a little more and then caught two more roach, followed by this barbel, a little bigger than the last.

kennet barbel 5lbs approx

The chap in the next swim who had remained fishless using larger pellets and who had acted as my photographer then went home and shortly before dark I caught this last fish about the same size as the first.

barbel and rod picture

I decided to compose this picture in the John Wilson style but it was too dark to find any flowers.

It would seem that small baits will bear some experimentation. I will report back.

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