Early July double figure barbel and 6lb chub

Well it’s been an exciting week. Double figure barbel and a 6lb chub from the river Wye and a session on the H.Avon catching some large chub.

I’ve been looking forward to starting the campaign on the H.Avon for some time. The chub and barbel have been late in spawning on the river and at last they were ready to feed.

I drove through the B.Avon, Wylye and H.Avon vallies  it really is a wonderful drive. Beautiful steep hills and valleys around Limpley Stoke, then the rolling chalk white downs of the Wylye the river that sparkles clear just like the H.Avon .

Driving through Downton, Fordingbridge I soon arrived at my destination.

I wasn’t in a hurry to arrive as I wanted to have a good look around when the sun was high to see where the fish were. I was soon out of the car with a rod and bait dropper getting some hemp into some of the swims where I expected chub to be present.

It was a warm blustery day with some cloud.

Sure enough the chub were present in one of the swims, however there was an algae bloom on the water so spotting fish was much more difficult. So this left me with little option other than target these chub. With the grass flattened around the swim it looked like they received a fair degree of attention already.

Each time I put in some hemp with the dropper they would disappear then reappear after less than 30 sec’s to gorge themselves on the bait. I tried caster, boilie and got little indication on the rod top. Long hooklink and short ones. However fishing for them during the heat of the day was not good. I knew that I needed to leave it until later.

There was insufficient flow to use my preferred method of float fishing caster or maggots.

So after a couple of hours I moved on to another swim where I had caught a few 6lb chub last year on the float. Again visibility in the water was not good however this might just help with my presentation.

I used my normal Hardy Marksman 15ft float rod and my trusty Shimano loaded with 5lb Drennan float line. Hook link was 3lb with a size 18 hook.

The swim was one where you catapulted casters way upstream for them to entice chub out from under the willow branches.

The method is one that is not for the feint hearted, you need to understand where the chub want to go when hooked and then play them gingerly on such light tackle. It has taken me a good few years to get this under my belt and it’s one where it takes plenty of practice.

First thing is to spray the casters to get the chub feeding. As the water visibility was not good I had to assume they would be chasing around intercepting these offerings. This I normally do for about 20 minutes before casting in. So at 4pm with it not being the best part of the day for them to feed I was hopeful that I could winkle out one or two.

Sure enough first trot down the float shot under and chub on. It did what they normally do and tried it’s best to get into the willow branches but with a bit of pressure and walking back into the field did the trick and soon I was looking at a chub of just over 4lbs in the net.

 

 

It works every time!

So back to feeding for another 10 miutes or so then another trot down and another chub, this time a little smaller.

Catching these chub continued for the next 3 hours with me leaving the tackle and looking around a few more swims. Every where looked to be good, hardly any weed is growing at the moment, this must stem from the floods of the winter putting the weed behind with growth.

I ended the session early as I need to be home. At 7pm there were a few more anglers on the river and sure enough they too were waiting for the sun to set and the cub to come on the feed.

I was pleased though with 9 chub with the largest going 5lbs 4oz.

A couple of days later I was Guiding Paul on the river Wye. His Mum had given him a days guiding with me  voucher as a present. We had spoken on the phone and his goals and target was to catch a barbel. So that was why the river Wye was chosen.

Now Paul had just returned to fishing from an absence while he got his education employment and life shorted. This is like so many people I guide.

We met at 7am and started fishing straight away. It was pellet and feeder approach. For this venue which is what most people use on the river.

Soon he was catching a good few chub to about 3lbs in weight. He lost one barbel to a hook pull in the fast flowing river, this being fairly common. He soon though had his first barbel of 4lbs. He couldn’t get over how much they fought in the flowing river.

As he continued to catch chub, as they were in there in large numbers.

He caught one though that was much better at 4lbs 13oz not the best looking chub and a bit of an old warrior of a fish.

Time really flew by and bites kept coming. He hooked and landed 3 more barbel a couple of them being 14” or so. Great news that smaller barbel are coming through.

We walked another beat and looked around. Really it was to rest the swim. First cast back in another barbel came along. Again not a monster.

Then he hooked a fish that felt heavy but didn’t fight that much. It wasn’t  until I had the net ready did I see it’s size. It was a huge chub. On the unhooking mat I thought a big 5lber, however on the scales she went 6lbs 2oz, by far the largest chub I had seen from the Wye. It was in perfect condition and will weigh nearer 7lbs in the winter when it’s belly is full.

We carried on fishing until the evening drew in and unluckily Paul lost another large fish and probably a good barbel.

Still he had a great days fishing we reached the target of catching a few barbel and he has got a pb chub that will take a good while to better.

Got to thank Paul for being a very proficient angler. He was great company too.

So the next day I was guiding Ian and Lee. Now Lee was another who had not caught a barbel before and wanted to put that right so our goals and targets were set to match this.

Ian had fished the Severn before  and caught them up to 12lbs or so.

The same method was employed as the day before, the bait being pellet.

Both Lee and Ian started to catch a good few chub then Ian landed a couple of barbel not too large but at about 4lbs. At least they were feeding in the swim.

Lee then hooked into a really great fighting fish that took line from the reel on a good few occasions in the very fast moving water. It looked like a good size barbel as it came over the net. Sure enough he opened his account with a great looking barbel of 7lbs 8oz.

What a great start!

Having said that the bites began to dry up and even the chub bangs you normally get disappeared.

So we decided to move to another swim which does produce some great fish. As we arrived the clouds started to darken and rain wasn’t far away by the looks of things.

I cast the rods out to show them where they needed to cast in the future. Bingo, after about 10 minutes the rod arched over and the reel screamed as line poured off. Ian was quick off the mark and on the rod like a flash. It started to turn and run downstream. This is normally a sign of a good fish. The fight from the fish was very dogged as it kept very close to the bottom. Ian knew it was a good fish and played it expertly to the net. I needed to wade out to net the fish as there were plenty of rocks waiting to cut through the line.

As I lifted the fish out from the water she looked every bit of a double and sure enough on the scales she went 10lb 6oz.

Congratulations all around for Ian on capturing such a great fish. There are few doubles in the Wye and he just caught one of them.

Lee was cut off a couple of times by barbel that took the line around or over rocks. One even did this on the take and the line just went limp. This is inevitable at times, so it’s very important not to use a fixed lead or swim feeder.

Well both went on to catch a good few barbel and chub I think the score at the end was Lee 7 barbel and Ian 6 barbel. Not too sure how many chub but plenty enough to keep me busy landing and unhooking fish. Rain came and went but didn’t dampen our spirits. Lee’s last barbel came at about 8.30pm at about 6lbs and so we decided to call it a day.

Mission accomplished.

So a great weeks fishing on the rivers.