the weed is on the move, altho we do need a good downpoor to sort it out,
i've had a good few barbel from the Elston stretch, but nout massive, this was the biggest at about 7lb,
loads of chub, roach, dace and eels there,
3lb rods are a no go, way to stiff, use the 1 3/4's, theres not many snaggs on that part of the ribble but wait till its up a few feet and got abit of colour in it, otherwise it will be pointless as the barbel will just not feed,
rigwise i like to go with silkworm as the hooklink and korda wide gapes in an 8 with a 16mm halibut pellet on the hook, or a 15mm source boilie, and in the feeder lots of differnt sized pellets in my feeder with a good pellet/fishmeal groundbait
hope this helps mate!
Regards Jamie.