Christmas Day 2 for Shaun.

Dawn knows how to give Shaun a great time…….steady!!!!! I’m talking here about getting him a days guiding as a Christmas present. This is the second year she has bought him a voucher. Last year if I remember he caught a 8lbs 15oz barbel and a 5lbs 4oz chub on his guiding day.

So Dawn phoned me again in December asking for a Xmas voucher for Xmas.

I try and keep things simple and just rely on the angler to phone me to make arrangements on what they would like to be guided on . Sometimes it’s tench, grayling, chub or more often than not barbel fishing on the river Wye.

Shaun sure enough wanted to fish the Wye again for the barbel. This time he wanted to bring his Dad, Roger along to see how things work. No problem here with this, it’s just another cup of tea to brew.

There was a slight problem with meeting at the venue that was soon sorted out. We started fishing at 9am on a stretch that produces some good size barbel. Shaun had put on Face book that he would like to beat his pb’s of both chub and barbel. No pressure there then.

So we fished the first swim which normally produces a few barbel. However after 5 hours of fishing in near perfect conditions all we had to offer was two small barbel.

Shaun and Dad Roger with a 4lber

I had hinted that we needed to move however Shaun was happy where he was, however I was not! Now Shaun is a big rugby player I think 19 stones so I had to be polite.

So at 2.30 pm we move only 100 yds upstream and within a very short space of time we found the barbel. His first fish was 8lbs 6oz, followed by one of 8lbs 10z.

Then a flurry of chub and other barbel found some good fish.

Then at 5pm he had a stunning barbel of 10lbs 11oz which is by far the largest I’ve landed from the Wye.

Shaun with a 10lb 11oz barbel

This followed with the next cast producing a beautiful chub of 5lbs 8oz

So two pb’s in two casts doesn’t get much better.

Shaun and a 5lbs 8oz chub 

A couple of barbel and chub later with Roger getting in on the act we had caught some fish.

Roger with a nice barbel

The last barbel of the day came late and weighed 7lbs 1oz.

So a fantastic Christmas Day for Shaun again.

It was so important we moved and so it proved.