18 | 9 JULY anglersmail.com
a small pig in the river. Still, the
quarry remains the same.
The sheer sight of his bait was
not the only thing that raised
eyebrows, as his gear looked
as if he had bought it in 1653,
when Walton’s book was fi rst
published.
Now here’s the thing. There
are other anglers on this stretch
who might catch one or two
3-4 lb barbel, commonly known
as 'splashers', but Steve is
targeting the ‘lumps’, and he is
very confi dent of catching one.
He’s so confi dent, he sat with
his hand over his rod, saying:
“Any minute.”
Steve stood on the bank, gave
me his winning face, and then
started to place his massive
bait in the swim.
The cast was not a cast, as
he just carefully lowered the rig
under our feet, his intention was
to fool the wary, big ‘girls’ into
thinking that it is a discarded bit
of bait, with no nasty surprises
inside. Genius!
I went with a more
conventional set-up, or
unconventional, depending on
your view.
My big barbel rigs, baitedwith my confi dence-boosting
bait, the Squid & Octopus, were
deployed with an underarm
chuck. It never fails to work,
fi ngers crossed.I was looking forward to
catching up with Steve, as we
are both avid Wolves fans, only
really getting to chat up on
match days.
Somehow I felt that our
catch-up session would be cut
short by a barbel, as Steve just
knows, and with a real air of
confi dence, he said: “That will go
any minute!”
He was right, or partially
right, as a small chub somehow
managed to munch his way
through a great big piece of
paste and boilie.
No sooner had we sat down,
to talk about football than
Steve’s rod ‘went’. This was no
chub. In fact this was no small
barbel either, and defi nitely not
the usual stamp from the ‘alley’,
as it’s known, where the average
stamp is 4-6 lb.
I could tell it was big by the
way it was behaving. Having
spent many days on here, I have
learned a thing or two, and this
was one of those things.If he feels that the barbel
might be on the shy side, he
will generously cut the tin in
half, and use one half.
How to make mega baits with Steve ‘The Gym’ Williams
A piece of tubing stops line cutting through. Thread the hook and tubing through. And add a bit of grass to hold it all in.
Even my big
mouth couldn’t
get round that.