Ok, so its been 25oc+ for a week. Its very dry, hot and pretty windy today. I'd decided to get out on the banks and try out some new gear sent to me by Pallatrax. I was using their 'Elixer 6 Squabs' superglued to a hair below a size 14 Pallatrax hook. This was on a 4inch hooklink, which is considerably shorter than I'd normally use, but on advice from the manufacturer I thought I'd give it a bash. I was also using their Stonze system as a kind of method feeder, which was surprisingly effective when teamed with Pallatrax's own method mix.

I had been float fishing trying to catch my first Barb on the float all afternoon in the baking sun and having spoken to lots of people was not to hopeful of a fish. As the sun began to get low in the sky I thought I'd get back to what I knew, although with a very different approach.

Almost instantly I had a knock, not form a barbel, but a very nice chub of 5lb 2oz



So a good start. Second cast and another fish, this time a barbel of about 6lb.

I then had a bite on  the third cast and somehow missed it! 4th cast and as darkness had fallen I thought I'd wrap the squabs in a big piece of Elixer paste and see if I could lure out a bigger fish.



That seemed to work pretty well too. I'll certainly be giving this gear a further try out and another report will follow!