It is March 20th meaning it is still early on in the new Barbel Season, there haven't been many catch reports from the big rivers in Holland yet.

This is my 4th Barbel outing of the season and awoke at dawn on a cold morning which promised sunshine later on. It is the first warm spell we have had this year and the water temperature reached ten degrees which is a good sign as this is around the temperature the fish start to feed again. I decided to use Sonubaits Hemp & Hali Crush in a large Korum feeder with a 120g weight, this is the weight I usually use for 'my' river De Ijssel. For the hookbait I am using a 11m Barbel & Carp pellet on a hair with a Korum S-3 hook size 12.

My first Barbel took less than an hour meaning I had already succeeded! A firm tap on the top of my Preston Innovations Dutch Master River and it feels good, this fish isn't putting up much of a fight but it still took time to land and once netted I realised why. This fish turned out to be a new Personal Best Bream at 12.8 lbs and 68cm in length. The Barbel & Carp Pellets are full of attraction for not only Barbel and Carp but also heavy Bream. All the fish I caught today were on Spicy Sausage Flavour Barbel & Carp Hookbaits. Later on I caught another Barbel which turned out to be the first double of the season weighing 10.1lbs. By the end of the session I had caught two Barbel and 6 Bream including a new PB.

On April 25th I caught another PB, this time a White Bream with a length of 42cm which is close to the 45cm Dutch Record. I caught this fish again on Barbel & Carp Hookbaits but this time the Cheesy Garlic flavour. So far its a very good start to the Season with Sonubaits Barbel & Carp Range.