Day 4 on the River Wye

Fortunately the morning mist burnt of early and with the sun shining as it had done all week the temperatures rose to an incredible twenty-nine degrees yet as the day progressed it was obvious things were about to change. Ron filled his boots and proceeded to enjoy a morning of barbel action landing seven to over 8lb from the banker swim whilst Chris, my new customer tried his luck further upstream in the Salmon Hole. The barbel seem to be located in just two areas along the stretch in this low water, the Whirlihole and the Dead Tree in the third field, an area out of bounds for us due to it being booked out all week, yet Chris did manage a chub. A quick visit to Woodies Tackle in Hereford to collect day tickets for the following day as well as getting the low-down on what stretches were producing.

Placing Chris in the banker swim I watched as his jaw hit the floor as I demonstrated where to cast and if placed on the money just how quick a bite comes as within seconds the tip rattled and swung round yet although this swim may come across as easy its what I consider a mans-swim as to find the fish a long accurate cast is needed, then after hooking a fish the power of the current coupled with underwater snags and a difficult land means a hooked fish is far from taken as in the net. Chris finally got his eye in with the casting and come the end of the day had landed seven barbel including the biggest of the week at 9lb 1oz along with the odd chub. Ron was knackered from his earlier session and decided not to stay for the third night as rain had been forecasted, meaning all the camping equipment would be wet. It was a wise decision, one that I also decided against and with everything dry and packed away spent the night in the van but not before seeing what looked like a Peregrine Falcon above.