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P a g e | 11 finds some kind of underwater hold, until it is then bounced along again by the angler, being terribly effective in my minds’ eye. I am sure it does work well and I dare say a heavy ball of plasticine would slow the bait fairly well and trundle it along the riverbed with practice. However, there is a simpler, older and custom- made solution that is surely far easier to control. The ball lead! I have always used a drilled lead ball threaded onto the line to roll luncheon meat. A foot or so above the lead I have a rubber bead (stopped with a stop-knot) and below it I thread on two small, hard plastic beads and tie to a swivel. From there you can choose your hook length, 9lb barbel on the rolling meat method material, strength, rig and bait. I generally use about 12” (30cm) of 8-15lb braid, hook size barbel in the swim at all! Sometimes I will, varies from an 8 to a 2, and a big lump of meat. initially, gently roll the bait through a likely It could not be much simpler but you will need looking swim in order to get a feel for it, before to experiment a little before you get a feel for switching to a heavier, flat lead to hold bottom the size of ball lead you need in any given area in a deeper spot that has now been discovered. and a few different sizes of these will be useful Then I may use a PVA bag of meat and small to match with the pace of flow. Using this pellets and fish the spot for thirty minutes or so. method, you will immediately know if you have I do not switch to a hair rig, simply cast the bait cast on gravel or sand/ mud and you can literally in the bag with the freebies and it has never cost feel the ball trundling along the riverbed on the me a missed bite yet. Bites remain savage. gravel (quite a satisfying way of fishing if you keep the bale arm open and get used to letting Using this method, you can cover a good length the line run out through your fingers). The bait of river and a great deal of riverbed in an will travel at a steady, even pace. With practice and experimenting on different lines across the afternoon session and then return to fish the early onset of darkness in your preferred, pre- river, the bait should, eventually, literally roll baited and mapped out location. Remember into one of the holes where the fish are lying. That is, of course, provided that there are any that at this time of year, the closer you can present a bait to where the barbel are lying up, the better your chances of hooking one! Some days you will need to bait up before the barbel will feed at all, however you may be surprised how many fighting fit, plump winter barbel will still savagely seize a decent sixed lump of meat that trundles past their nose, even in the coldest of conditions! Another barbel, just under 9lb, caught on the rolling meat method from a small river in January