Last year you may recall I spent five days on the magical river Wye in Herefordshire during the month of September and although the weather was far from ideal the group of anglers that I guided caught an amazing 65 barbel and countless chub.
Well I have just returned from the
first week of my exclusions north and although reports have been that
the river has been fishing poorly can reveal that as long as you can
locate the fish then catching is guaranteed. Let me progress…
Day 1
Having just one angler to look after on
Monday we agreed to leave and meet later than first agreed. In fact
it was around 10.30am that I met Barry feeding chub of the bridge at
Hoarwithy. Having booked the banker swim we were in no hurry to start
and after a trip along the river, revealing possible swims for the
future as well as a tactical briefing on why long hooklinks and
feeders are needed and as Buzzards soared overhead finally cast out
at around midday. The river was lower than I had ever seen it yet an
accurate cast downstream bought an almost instant response from a
barbel of around five pounds. The weather was far from ideal, hot and
sunny, yet although the bites came freely we experienced a few hours
of frustrating fishing as fish after fish was lost due to different
reasons. Last year I used 8lb mono hooklinks, yet with the water so
low these were simply cut off an inch or two above the knotless knot.
The swim also contained a big snag that once located could be either
avoided or if a fish did happen to find it could on most occasions be
released by opening the bail arm, allowing the fish to swim out
backwards then tired before rising in the water and bought over the
top. I think it was seven/three to the barbel, yet once mastered most
fish found the bottom of the net and come the end of the day more
than twenty barbel had been landed to over 8lb along with a few chub.
A hearty chilli and a beer went down easily bankside before hitting
the bivvy at around 10pm to the sound of owls hooting and salmon
jumping. To be honest just experiencing the sheer silence of the
countryside 24/7 is worth its weight in gold, the barbel are just a
bonus!
I was amazed to see the same fish with
a distinguishing scale pattern that was caught last year in the same
swim weighting exactly the same which goes to show these barbel are
resident, its their home and apart from during spawning they aren’t
going anywhere.
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