A naturally moving bait will out fish a still bait 9 times out of 10 especially in winter.
Use the braid as a main line but be careful in heavy flows as the fine braid is designed as a main line not a hook link. Recently, I have been using an unstriped coated braid hooklink as its not only kinder to the fish but help prevent tangles too
Lump of plastercine as wieght but you'll be surprised how little you need even on a flooded Hants Avon. I usual start off with a piece about the size of a
10p and see where that takes me.
Bites are.... well you'll see... more often then not you strike out of sheer instinct and I certainly cannot tell you in writing what is a bite and whats just it moving along the bottom.
Once you get the hang of it you'll wonder why you fished for barbel any other way.
Hi Steve,
I use a fixed spool but I think you may have got trundling and rolling mixed up.
Trundling is a bit like trotting but without a float. Very effective in the right situ but limited to only fishing a rod length out from the bank.
With rolling you cast upstream of yourself at about 10 o'clock. Then you let the current pull the line into a bow without letting anymore line off the reel. With practice the bait will move through the swim in a straight line. It allows you to cover a huge amount of water as you can sometimes "walk" with the bait for some distance.
Keep the rod low and strike HARD as you have to pull the hook through the meat and pick up the big bow in the line. To quote a good friend of mine "Try and put the fish in the field behind you!"
It sounds far more complicated then it actually is.
I'm sure there's a youtube video somewhere on it which will explain it a lot better then I can in words
Might name it trolling meat!