Barbel from the Wye

Duncan Charman's Weekly Session Report Wednesday August 15th and 16th.

After dropping the girlfriend of at work at 7.30am on Wednesday morning, l headed north for the first of many exploratory sessions on the magical river Wye near Hereford. The sat-nav showed 147miles and a time of 2hrs 48mins, however even during rush hour l made good time and arrived at my first port of call, Woody's Angling Centre in less than 2hrs 30mins. Over a cup of strong tea, Woody drew a map of a swim he knew would hold fish on a stretch controlled by Hereford and District Angling; however this was to be left to the following morning as l wanted to return to a swim l fished last year, also controlled by Hereford DA at Breinton. Arriving at Breinton Church in torrential rain l then realised that l had left my waterproof jacket at home, so parked up and had a three hour afternoon snooze. Finally the rain stopped and after cooking a hearty Spaghetti Bolognaise on the stove in the back of the van l took a leisurely stroll along the river bank. I soon realised that this wasn’t going to be a stretch to take customers, as the banks are extremely steep and even a nimble chap like myself ended up in the water after slipping and dropping my chair that decided to float of downstream. Finally sorted, albeit bruised and battered, l finally cast out, however come 8.30pm it was obvious that the session wasn’t going to be as fruitful as last years morning session, as apart from one small barbel, just the odd swinger chub and dace came to my single 8mm S-Pellet.

Making the most of the remaining light l drove downstream and took a look around the water works, a much deeper and slower section, one that Woody had recommended when the waters up and coloured, yet with no angler fishing l knew that things weren’t happening here either.

A friend of mine was staying at Sink Green Farm B&B, the same place that l have booked into next month, so l headed here but not before finding the location of my morning g session. It was around 9.30pm when we joined up and over a cup of coffee that Sue the owner made and discussed what had been going on. Mark had been catching a few on a stretch revealed to him by the Wye master himself ‘The Pons’, yet as much as l tried to get the details from him he remained silent, fair play, however you wait until ‘The Pons’ gets back from his holidays!

It was around 10pm when l headed back to the van where l spread the sleeping bag across the seats and tried to get my head down, however I’ve been suffering with my ears since returning of holiday and with a bad infection struggled to get much kip. I could have crashed on the sofa in the B&B but in a strange way, l like to rough it now and again as these experiences seemed to remain in my memory longer. The alarm sounded at 4.45am, yet l was already awake and after a quick sort of the gear in the growing light headed a few miles downstream, albeit on the opposite bank.

The walk to the river consisted of a short walk along the road, up some steps, through a gate, along an embankment, through another gate, over a bridge and through a field of sweetcorn. This took a good ten minutes but it was a walk l had to do twice as on meeting the river l realised that the only way of fishing the swim was with chest waders as the deep gulley on the far bank had a thick bed of streamer weed protecting it which was positioned mid river, before this it was shallow gravel.

After sliding down the bank and adding to my bruises l was finally positioned mid river, albeit now nearly 7am. Not quite knowing what to expect l cast a double 8mm Sonubaits Crab Pellet ‘O’ into the gulley, placed the rod in the high rests and watched as the Quiver tip of my Korum Neoteric XS 12ft Multi Quiver Power gently swayed in the morning breeze. My hand hovered as the Korum 60gram Mesh feeder loaded with Sonubaits Hemp & Hali Crush momentarily dislodged, yet a few turns of the CS3000 saw this problem solved. Moments later a pull on the tip eased my worries, Woody was right, barbel were here. After ten minutes l reloaded the feeder and made another cast, only for a repeat performance to occur. Third cast thou there was no mistaking, as the tip bounced back in unfamiliar southern fashion, and on picking the rod and slack up, bent into a good Wye barbel. After a few moments of stalemate were she held her ground in the strong flow l eased across, however this is when the fun started as the bed of streamer weed was thicker than first thought. On surveying the swim, l knew that l had to make sure my end tackle was up to the job, so tackled up with a four foot hooklink made from Reflo 0.19 Power plus one of the new Korum Xpert Specimen size 12 hooks. Obviously this was powerful yet balanced enough to tame the barbel as eventually l managed to drop my Korum 30inch Latex Barbel Spoon underneath a mound of weed and engulf her. It was a great start and the next five casts saw a similar result, however by now l was getting the barbel up on top before the weed which made things so much easier. Although the action was frantic, l still had time to enjoy the wildlife of the Wye which included a barn owl working the morning mist, a grass snake struggling to cross the fast flow and the all too familiar call of a Buzzard as it climbed on the warming thermals.

With six barbel landed by 8.30am l was expecting a red letter day, (hang on, when was the last time l caught six barbel in a session, let alone in an hour and a half!) but the action suddenly stopped. The odd salmon jumped, yet l couldn’t buy another bite for at least an hour, but then two more followed quickly before one headed upstream and done me on a snag.

I could have stayed and caught more, but l had achieved what l had come here for, to find a swim that l could catch a customer a fish, and knowing this l headed back to Sink Green Farm to say my farewells before heading home.

Although anglers reading this may think the Wye is easy, then think again. If you can locate the barbel then catching them isn’t a problem, yet getting to the swims that contain them isn’t exactly simple. There are very few comfortable swims like on the Kennet or Loddon here, this is adventure country, so be prepared!

Useful contacts –

Sink Green Farm – David and Sue 01432 870223

Woody’s Angling Centre – 67 Whitecross Rd, Hereford HR4 0DQ – 01432 344644

Hereford and District Angling Association – Membership available from Woody’s.

Cedar Tree B&B – Alan and Joe 01432 267235

Korum – www.korum.uk

Sonubaits – www.sonubaits.com

Premier Inn Ross – 0871 527 8944

Premier Inn Hereford 0871 527 8518

Broom Farm House – broomfarmhouse.co.uk  

Tackle Review – Monday 13^th August.

Each week lm going to start reviewing items of tackle that l feel have ether revolutionised my fishing or have helped me catch more fish during a session. These products will be ones that l have complete faith in and would highly recommend any angler buying and although these items of kit will cover a wide spectrum of angling and manufacturers, its only fair that l start with something from my sponsors Korum.

KZR MINI PIT 6000 REEL.

Although l have tried numerous sized pit reels in my time, the ones that have lasted longest and l have had faith in, up until now, have been Shimano Biomasters. Not too big and with a silky smooth clutch that could be adjusted in just a couple of clicks of the front drag. These reels accompanied me on all my Thames carp sessions as l needed a reel that would put me in complete control of a fish, once hooked, literally within a split second.

Many models were given to me to test, yet all had front drags that needed so many turns to make a difference in the tension that they were binned. This is what l hated most about this type of reel and why the Biomasters stayed put, however these did have a problem, and that was line getting behind the spools.

When Korum sent me a pair of their new KZR Mini Pit 6000 l have to admit l was expecting yet another reel with excessive clutch control, however how wrong was l, as these were even better than the Biomasters. Not only did they look stunning but they only needed a slight adjustment of the dial on the front drag to alter the clutch’s tension, and with the problem of line behind the spool almost eliminated, a fantastic line lay and a clutch that felt silky smooth, l have to say l was instantly converted.

RRP £120, yet online you will find these for less than £100.

If you want to check out the specification of this reel in more depth then take a look at Korum’s website – www.korum.co.uk   

What's going on...?

Duncan Charman’s Weekly Session Report starting Sat 4^th August.

This blog goes out to all the anglers that are struggling. It’s not you, it’s just a really bad season and this week pretty much sums things up.

Let’s look at my week. On Monday l headed to Woodlands View Fishery near Worcester for the Korum winners day. These lakes are stuffed full of fish and five hour matches are often won with ton plus bags. I was asked to fish and decided to try the pellet waggler, a tactic that l have started to really enjoy. None of the other anglers were fishing this method and it didn’t take long for the F1 to start falling, however after an hour or so things toughened up. All the other anglers were now catching, however you couldn’t call it hectic, yet it was an enjoyable day out only ruined for the few stragglers that stayed behind, as once again the heavens opened making us run for cover.

On Tuesday l met a friend and we headed to the river Kennet at Burghfield. Now this stretch has always been kind to my short session bursts, yet today we fished from noon until 11pm for just one modest chub to show for our efforts. Once again the heavens opened and for the second day in a row l got soaked. It may surprise you but Burghfield is still fining down from the heavy rains back before the start of the season. I classify the Kennet, just like the Loddon as a river that will rise and fall very quickly so for it to still be fining down after rain that fell many weeks ago, leaves not just us anglers, but also the fish in complete disarray.

I managed to get in bed around 12-30am and when the alarm woke me at 5am l was hoping that an early morning with a customer on a stretch of the Loddon that l thought l knew like the back of my hand would produce. Wrong, as after covering all the known hotspots using a method that rarely lets me down, he only managed one positive bite, which luckily he converted into a modest chub. The confusing factor during the morning session was when we arrived; the river was gin clear, however after a couple of hours it coloured up, only to clear again when we called it a day at lunchtime. Thinking that the fish were just off the feed due to the conditions, we were stunned to watch a group of four barbel, in a no fishing area, intercepting free offerings of pellet paste before it could reach the bottom, and where they were was just a couple of feet deep.

That evening l hit the sack around 9pm, however the alarm sounded at 1am as l had agreed to pick some friends up from Gatwick. I finally got back to bed at 3.30am only to awake at 6am as l was meeting Roy Westwood from Anglers Mail to shoot a feature on Stillwater watercraft. After dropping the girlfriend of at work we finally met at 8am at the Badshot Lea complex. There was absolutely no wind and with a hot day forecast we felt that catching a fish for the feature was going to be difficult, especially as we were to shoot all the pictures prior to angling. At around 11am l located some carp and scaled down my approach too a hair-rigged Sonubaits 8mm S-Pellet, plus a tiny piece of buoyant corn next to a size 12 Xpert hook. My hooklink was just four inches of 6lb Xpert Power Mono along with a 1.1oz K-Grip inline lead which was free running for a couple of inches before being stopped by a Rubber Braid Stop. I baited two spots, one in a shaded corner, plus one in open water with three Spomb loads of pellets, the same that l would be moulding around the lead. Dropping the bait into the corner l soon received liners, yet after twenty minutes felt the need to cast to open water. Less than five minutes later the indicator rose and a slow take saw me commencing battle with a deep slow moving fish which turned out to be an immaculate mid-double common. Looking at Roy we both smiled as watercraft is an essential part of catching and if you don’t try and understand what’s going on within and around your fishery, well then, it’s your loss. The feature goes out soon, so keep buying your copy of the Mail as it’s full of valuable information.

It was great to get home around midday, yet although knackered, l continued to sort out fishing related paperwork, finally running out of energy around 10pm.

Most of Friday was spent beginning to organise my guided sessions on the river Wye. I still have a few spaces available which are on Sept 5^th, 6^th and 7^th for one angler and a day available on Wed 10^th October. The cost per angler is £125 and includes the use of my tackle if required plus bait and day ticket.

At 6pm l met up with another angler, Lewis Deeks for another attempt at catching some big rudd from Frensham Great Pond. When l arrived only Lewis’s car was in the lay-by and we’ve both have been around long enough to know this meant one thing, its fishing bad. At around 8-30pm Lewis departed, as a summer cold was making him feel ill and the lack of bites did little to take his mind of this. I stayed on till 10-15pm taking just one small rudd; along with missing a further four bites throughout the course of the session. A few fish were moving after dark, yet these weren’t concentrated in any one spot, just here and there, leading me to assume it wasn’t my location that was wrong, but Frensham just fishing appallingly badly.

A friend of mine, Steve Donut Ansell sent me a picture of a big carp he feel has never been caught before. He took it from a venue he chanced upon, deep in a wooded area on a couple of Sonubaits 8mm pellets and is one of just seven carp that live in the lake. Top angling, now go catch the others.

Ollie's personal best.

It’s been a while since l caught up with Ollie. Back in the winter we had spent frustrating day perch fishing and with nothing to show for our efforts and thought it was only fair to promise him a days crucian fishing come the summer.

August is a great time to catch numbers of fish at the famous Harris Lake on the Marsh Farm Complex so we arranged to meet in the car park at 6pm with the view of fishing till midnight. Luckily the weather stayed dry and setting up on the railway bank using free running inline leads covered in Sonubaits Super Crush Green and tiny pieces of corn hair rigged next to a size 16 hook he didn’t have to wait long for the alarm to sound. In fact it can’t have been more than five minutes before the first tench was landed. These continued to barge in throughout the session and come 11pm more than two dozen had been landed, the best a shade under Ollie’s best of 5lb 5oz.

Dad had also joined us and was experiencing similar action, however when he left as darkness fell he had included three crucians to around 2lb 8oz in his catch. I was amazed that Ollie hadn’t connected to one as they were rolling everywhere and with our groundbait running out he made his final two casts. It was around 11.15pm and l had almost thrown the towel in but a stuttery take saw a crucian hooked, definitely bigger than anything he had seen before and weighing 2lb 10oz we both were relieved as well a very happy anglers.

As we packed up the other rod sprang into life and another smaller sample followed and although our thoughts were that the crucians were just about to get their heads down we both left well contented

Ollie's tackle included -

Korum Neoteric XS 12Fft Multi-feeder rods with the 1.5lb tips added.

Reels – Preston Inception 3000.

Mainline – Gardner 6lb HydroFlo.

Lead – Korum 1.1oz K Grip Inline.

Hooklink – Reflo 5.14oz.

Hook – Size 16 Korum Xpert Specialist.

Bait – Sonubaits Supercrush Green and Sweetcorn.  

Opportunist Angling

The highlight of the week thou was whilst guiding a new member on a stretch of the river Kennet. My task was to introduce a regular of mine Martin Farmer to the river and show him where l had caught barbel and chub from in the past. This would provide him with valuable information that would otherwise take hours to create on his own. The stretch was seriously overgrown, hardly fished and the river itself was coloured and motoring through. No other anglers were on the beat, so obviously l let Martin set up in what l consider the best swim on the stretch, one that had supplied numerous big barbel to myself in the past. Using the Method-Lead Martin religiously cast every hour in the hope that the barbel would switch on, however after eight hours the three-foot twitch failed to materialise. The only bite came from an over enthusiastic roach around the pound mark.

During the afternoon Martin had taken a stroll down the lower end of the stretch and as the river runs along a public footpath l had stayed behind to watch the tackle, refusing his generous offer for me to cast a line in the swim as this would have been tempting fate, however during the course of the day had trickled some bait into a swim just downstream, one that l had never caught from in the past, although tried on numerous occasions.

In hindsight should have sent Martin downstream to try this swim, yet that would have meant vacating the good swim, so with Martin fishing well, doing nothing wrong left him for an hour and wandered downstream myself. Casting an identical rig and bait into the swim l sat back and nodded of resting the rod but against my leg and setting the clutch just in case a bite came. It was literally on the hour and just before l had set the alarm on my mobile that l was awoken to three bites at the same time. Two were from mosquitoes that were tucking into my face, the other from a barbel that was heading downstream. It was on picking up the rod that l realised just how fast flowing the river was, yet the trusted Korum Neoteric XS 12ft Multi-Quiver with the 1.5lb tip added and 10lb Gardner Hydro-Flo main never let me down and after a few minutes another Kennet lump slid over the draw string. I then realised that l had just tied up my first hooklink made from Korum 10lb Xpert Braid along with using a size 8 Xpert Specimen hook, not a bad way to christen new products! Weighing 10lb 13oz it was what l classify as an opportunist capture and proof that big barbel can be caught in daylight.

It was a shame that Martins tip didn’t wrap round, however it was all he needed to see to make him return and reap the rewards of a method that l have spent years perfecting, although l think we may just be about to take the method one step further. As if Martin needed any more convincing that the stretch he was about to fish held plenty of big fish, yet as he packed away, something very large pocked its head out of the water, as if to say, you’re turn will come.

Anglers Mail Action Replay - Coming soon.

Eels on Prawns.

This week has been absolutely manic as l have been out on the bank every day, sometimes burning the candle at both ends. In brief my week was as follows – Monday guiding, Tuesday to Wednesday eel fishing, Wednesday guiding, Thursday guiding and Friday guiding along with all the other bits that go with this like updating blogs, sending images to Anglers Mail along with the time consuming tackle organisation and email relying.

On Tuesday night l headed to a water that produced a couple of big eels for me the previous week to produce an Action Replay for Anglers Mail. The session went according to plan with numerous eels landed as well as a carp. If you want to see how l went about eeling in a slightly unorthodox way then make sure you buy your copy of Anglers Mail each week as it’s full of great tips and features.  

My Swim's Pants!

 Monday 30^th July

Over the past two weeks l have been out on the bank numerous times with my young angling super-star, Jake Curry. The first session was at Broadwater where he caught numerous carp into double figures, however Jake isn’t driven by size, what’s more appealing is learning new techniques that he can practice and perfect.

I’m getting the feeling that Jake has a love for not just predators but flowing water and when l suggested we head back down to a free stretch of the river Itchen he jumped at the chance, however it wasn’t the pike that we were going to target but carp, as last winter we had spotted one well into the twenty pound barrier, as well as seeing a youngster land three doubles.

The first thing we did was to walk the stretch looking into its crystal clear waters through polarising glasses and although no carp were spotted numerous roach to well over the pound were, along with numerous other species. Carp Corner was occupied and this angler, a regular had taken a double figured carp earlier in the day, he was about to move downstream for a spot of float fishing, so we jumped in once he moved.

Things didn’t look good as loads of floating weed meant casting every few minutes and the mosquitoes were well active. Darkness was falling and we agreed to fish till 10pm, however just before packing up, Jake found himself to a carp that did its best to win the battle, however after a tense few moments Jake slid the net under an immaculate ghostie common weighing 11lb 2oz. Unfortunately my camera was playing up so l had to take one on my mobile which as you can see is appalling, sorry Jake, yet we were both on a high as we left.

A few days later we headed back down to the stretch, this time with trotting gear as Jake wanted to try and tempt a few roach. Feeding a swim we first spotted the odd grayling intercept the bait, however it was gudgeon that kept him busy. After half an hour of feeding a shoal of roach turned up, intercepting every free maggot that swept downstream, yet apart from two small ones, they refused his hookbait. An hour of frustration followed before a few dark shadows appeared which were a combination of the odd salmon moving upstream and chub. A quick change of tactics to breadflake saw one of these big chub move upstream and devour Jakes offering, yet after a couple of seconds playing the fish, it won the battle and broke his hooklink. Moving downstream we sat for a couple of hours behind carp rods, yet they failed to produce and in-between one of us would try the stick catching numerous fish including Jakes first ever perch. I tried a swim catching a few small roach, gudgeon, grayling and the pesky minnow but for big fish it was pants and as l looked into the water, the image reflected this.

The following week we decided that it was to be a day of catching fish and headed to a small day ticket water where we would try the pellet waggler. This tiny lake holds a high thirty pound carp along with around twenty others, mostly doubles and after a couple of hours of watching nearly all the lakes residents intercepting our free offerings Jake finally hooked one. Obviously not happy, this carp fought for its life; however Jake won the battle and slipped the net under an immaculate old carp weighing 11lb 9oz. After this capture the carp seemed to disappear and although l tried all day to regain their confidence as well as looking in all the likely looking spots around the lake failed to spot one. Jake had changed tactics after this capture and was happy catching a mixture of species using 8mm S-Pellets under a delicate pole float which included quality roach, gudgeon, rudd, true crucians plus a few ornamentals as well as crayfish.