Back a few weeks ago I wrote a blog entry about how highly I rated the new F1 flavour for barbel, well heres a bit more to back up my claims.

Whilst out in Holland a few days ago the weather was pretty awful both cold and wet with a strong north wind blowing hardly barbel catching conditions and to make matters worse the water  temperature had dropped a couple of degrees over the preceding few days it wasn't going to be easy, but I was only in Holland for 8 days so I was going fishing come rain or shine.

Firstly I mixed together about 3kgs of 4 and 6mm pellets and added to that a couple handfuls of 8mm pellets, I spread these out in a tray, I then mixed together a half bottle of the F1 liquid and about a pint of boiling water, the liquid was then poured over the pellets given a good swish round and covered and left to soak in, with another swish round every couple of minutes or so. Ten minutes later and all the liquid was gone and the pellets had taken on the sweet caramel aroma of the F1 and although still pellet shaped had started to soften nicely.

My plan was simple to use a large open end feeder stuffed full of the mix a long hook-link together with a single or double 8mm pellet-o on the hair. The mix by the time I got to the bank was fairly sticky and ideal for its intended use, basically as an attractor but with minimum feed, for it to work the mix has to stay in the feeder for a length of time certainly twenty minutes but I wouldn't be disappointed if I reeled in half an hour later to find some of the mix still in the feeder.

The idea being that the highly flavoured  mix would attract the interest of the barbel, the F1 in particular seems to work really well in colder temperatures, the mix would stay in the feeder and only every now and then would a free pellet break out of the mix and trundle downstream and past my hook bait, by using a long hook-link (4foot plus) the barbel are fooled into the hook bait being a free offering and hey presto “barbel on”

Did it work??? You bet it did no more than 3 minutes after casting and the rod hooped over and the first fish of the day a fighting fit Dutch barbel of about 5lb graced my net. Good mate Tom Sayer was fishing the same mix and before I had landed my fish he was also into a barbel. In both cases we still had plenty of the F1 mix in the feeder so it was a matter of topping it up and recasting.

Throughout the afternoon session myself and Tom traded fish for fish all coming to the same method, by the time we packed in Tom had just done me with his 9 barbel to my 8 but I had the last laugh with the best fish a nice double at 10.04.

A great afternoons sport on a day when we were up against it a bit with the weather and falling water temperature, saved by the F1.