JOHN ROBERTS BARBEL/RIVER REST
Price: £ 2.35

John Roberts, the tackle innovator with the magic touch, has come up with another little item that most river anglers will want in their tackle box – or at least screwed into their bankstick.

It’s a rod rest head – with a difference. Instead of the usual ‘V’, with equal sides holding the rod, this one has a straight side which the rod butts up against, and a sloping side. Which means that the rod is rested as usual, but has a straight side that will do much to prevent the rod being ripped off the rest when a barbel takes the bait and heads off downstream at a rapid rate of knots.

The sloping opposite side is a great help in that it allows the angler an unimpeded, low angle strike, should he need to set the hook any more than the barbel already has. Or when fishing for species that don’t bite with the same ferocity as barbel.

The rest has a deep line slot to give free movement and it is made from thermo plastic rubber which is non-slip and rod friendly.

Most tackle shops will stock them.

FISHINGmagic VERDICT

I already use deep rod-rest heads to combat those times when you don’t have your hand on the rod and a barbel decides it wants your bait and doesn’t care of it takes your rod along with it.

So these Barbel Rests from John Roberts are ideal, giving me a safer rest, yet one that I can quickly lift the rod out of and bend into the barbel from a low angle.

My only reservation is that I would have willingly paid a little more for a brass thread, for my past experience of plastic threads is that I invariably get the thread crossed sometime or other when I’m in a hurry and eventually ruin it.

That apart, an excellent idea.

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