As wrote in my last blog I had just received some of the new Sonubaits barbel range to try.  All the products look great fish catchers and I know it is a range that I am going to use a lot over the next few months.  The Elliptical pellets look particularly good and it was with this in mind I headed off to my local River Loddon Saturday afternoon.

Keeping my kit to a minimum I headed off in search for chub and soon found a shoal under a far bank bush.  Regularly feeding 6mm Elliptical pellets I soon had the fish feeding confidently competing away from the snag.  First run through with a chubber float and the bait didn’t have time to sink through the surface layers before a chub came up and grabbed the bait.  After a good fight a chub weighing around 2lbs fell to a 12mm Elliptical pellet.  After gaining the fishes confidence next trot through a bigger sample fell to the same tactics and a nice chub weighing around 3lbs was soon being netted. 

After this great sport I made the short drive to the River Blackwater and settled into a swim for the evening with barbel in mind.  Using a bait dropper I deposited a tin of Sonubaits excellent Hemp N Corn mix followed by half a bag of 4mm Elliptical pellets.  For hook baits I decided to try two 12mm Elliptical pellets fished with a small PVA bag containing a few hook bait samples.

I lowered two rods into the far bank run and a short while later I received line bites on both rods which indicated fish had moved up on the feed.  Twenty minutes latter and the downstream rod pulled over and after a great fight in a weedy river a barbel surfaced and was bundled into the waiting net.  Placing her on the mat it looked a good fish and I recorded a weight of 11lb 6oz and only six ounces off the river recorded.

After returning the fish I deposited my left over pellets in the swim and vowed to return in a couple of days.