Another great day on the Wye

John and Phil had booked a day fishing on the Wye ages ago however time moves on and it was time to meet them both.

They are both members of a small syndicated stretch of the Bristol Avon I fish. They have both caught barbel before however not from the Wye. Our syndicated stretch has also been hammered by the otters and has very few barbel now.

We agreed to meet at 7.30am reday for the days fishing. I had booked a couple of places on two beats hedging my bets which would produce. I always like to arrive early and set up camp where we are going to fish so that we are off from the start. Having got there an hour earlier I just had sufficient time for a cast or two before they would arrive. I normally don’t fish when guiding as I’m usually busy doing all kinds of stuff and making tea and coffee etc.

So I cast out at about 6.45am and took in the early morning views of the Wye valley waking up. Unfortunately nobody had told the fish this. I normally get instant action but not today. I recast every 15 minutes to get the bait going in ready for the days fishing. Then at 7.20am  the rod hooped over and I was playing a barbel. It felt a good fish as it plodded around out in the steady flow. The little fish tend to dart around.

As the fight came towards the end I glimpsed a good size barbel coming up from the depths. Once in the net I thought it might just be a double and I’ve never had one from the Wye.  On the scales she went 9lbs 10oz a beautiful fish. A few quick snaps of the camera and everything was good as I slipped her back into the river.

Barbel 9lbs 10oz

This meant I was running close to the clock now and needed to move quickly to meet John and Phil. They arrived shortly after me so we were good to go.

The usual method of pellet and feeder was used. It was slow going to start with. Then a couple of chub came along.

Phil and John took turns on the rods each changing after landing a fish. John was on the rods when it hooped over with the free spool singing it looked like a barbel had been hooked. John played the fish expertly as it moved upstream then down. It was a powerful fish using it’s tail to paddle it’s way in the strong flow testing the tackle for any weakness. There was none and soon John had the fish in the net. It was not as large as I thought and at 7lbs 8oz still a nice fish.

John and his 7lbs 8oz barbel

So at least they were feeding. It was a dog of a day though, hot and sunny difficult to say the least.

Fish came steadily during the day chub and barbel. John and Phil were great company funny banter and jokes. The day goes very fast time wise when you are enjoying yourself and both of these guy’s were having fun.

Phil seemed to always seemed to take longer to hook a fish then John and boy didn’t we let him know it.

Phil playing a barbel

The afternoon came and went with Phil hooking and landed a beautiful barbel of 8lbs 11oz which is not a pb for him as he had caught them to 12lbs before on the Bristol Avon at Limpley Stoke.

Phil 8lbs 11oz barbel

Towards the end of the day John lost a good fish where the line got severed on a rock. Strangely the fish seemed to get behind a rock each time they were played. Having chest waders on enabled me to get them out from behind it on may occasions.

The late feeding session from the barbel didn’t materialise  which was a surprise.

So with the score 10 barbel for the day and plenty of chub both Phil and John had a great session considering the difficult low water conditions.