Barbel fishing on the Wye with Lloyd

I had first met Lloyd over the winter. He asked me to guide him with pike fish, however I found it difficult to find sufficient time with one thing or another. However I did spend a few hours just helping him out with a few tips. These few tips resulted in him landing some good pike from the Bristol Avon to 18lbs plus.

He then asked if I could guide him on the river Wye for barbel so a date was set and it duly arrived.

Lloyd doesn’t drive so I picked him up early in the morning and soon we were driving through the countryside towards the river Wye. It takes me about an hour for me to reach the beat we were due to fish.

Well a funny thing happened someone else was fishing the beat. It only turned out to be a friend whom I met last year bream fishing. I called out poacher, however he booked the place two weeks ago online. I then looked at my mail from the W&U and found I had the wrong beat! Very red faced I was soon taking Lloyd and me to the right beat. The swim I wanted was empty and very soon we had the West Country Barbel slick sense feeder mix and elips pellets out in the area where I knew the barbel were. Disaster I’m unsure what happened but we lost 2 feeder on two casts.

However telling Lloyd this was par for the course I was surprised as normally I don’t loose too many here.

The next cast produced a bite that had Lloyd playing a good fish. It really did pull back a little and he thought it incredible. He did a magnificent job and soon a good barbel lay in the net. I normally hold them in the net once they are unhooked while the scales camera etc are readied.

On the scales she went 9lbs 10oz and she was thin from spawning and would certainly be a double later in the year. I think he was happy.

9lbs 10oz barbel

In fact he said we could pack up and return home now. Soon he was catching a good few chub too. Then the canoes started to come down and with it plenty of rafts of renunculas. This was so much it pulled the rods over alarmingly and moved the feeders so that they became lodged in the boulders. The river is so low that the people in the canoes dislodge the weed from the river bed on the shallows and then it drifts down. I have never seen this on the Wye before.

To be honest it stressed me out so much that it ruined a great day. I was permanently looking upstream for rafts coming down. It was difficult to hold the feeders out for more than 10 mins. We did however manage to keep the bait out to catch another good barbel.

8lbs 4oz barbel

Still the weed and canoes came down which was like having a “steering wheel down my pants, it was driving me nuts”.

We took a break for a while and I showed him the fishery and we returned and caught a few more chub and another nice barbel.

Playing the 8lbs 3oz barbel

8lbs 3oz barbel

We also lost a couple of barbel on the boulders. Because it’s so low you need to land them far from the river bank.

Lloyd keeps a great account of the day and it was the very best angling experience he had ever had.

The weed situation and catching the line I lost about 10 feeders, a very expensive day for me.

Lloyd landed one more barbel which I think was about 6lbs in between reeling in so much weed.

The last action of the day saw Lloyd play a very large barbel and getting done on a boulder near his feet. I was not best pleased. The weed situation was still a problem and whilst the canoes had stopped the resultant loosened weed still came down. Very very frustrating day for me.

My lucky duckling had a great day out and here is a photo of me returning the 8lbs 3oz barbel

Returning a beautiful Wye barbel

Lucky duckling

However Lloyd had the best angling experience and with 4 barbel and I think 10 chub was well pleased.

Happy days!