James Hook certainly came back with a bang on his first overnighter in 5 months when he landed himself this new personal best 16lb 13oz barbel.

He told us “It was my first overnighter in 5 months due to work and life commitments and with a slight rise in the air temperature, I knew I had to get out for a session which luckily for me, paid off with this beautiful 16lb 13oz specimen.

I had been trickling bait into an area for about 2 weeks leading up to the session via a bait dropper to introduce some boilies and pellet. When it came to the session I had set up just before nightfall and fished 2 rods upstream of me with 6oz leads to hold bottom. The river was raging through so I opted to fish up steam of me as in these conditions, it helps with the presentation and prevents a build-up of leaves clinging to the line.

At around 4am I had a huge spring back bite and by the time I’d set the hook the barbel had already taken up the slack and was heading downstream. I knew it was a good fish but when it surfaced I instantly recognised it as a barbel that was caught by another angler just a couple of weeks prior at 16lb 3oz, the blood was certainly pumping at this point.

After a few more surges under the rod tip in the deep water, I finally managed to coax her into my net. At this point my legs just turned to jelly! The belly on her was huge. At 16lb 13oz it is a new pb and the perfect way to get back into fishing after a long layoff, it felt good to be back!”

** please note this was caught before current covid laws prevented night fishing **