Andrea was back in the UK for a short time and wanted to catch up with Mrs. P and me. Well to be a little more precise to do some fishing. He had been in Canada the previous few weeks catching some sturgeon up to 7ft long.

He was fishing with me for a couple of days. The first was as near as a disaster as you could get. Some chub on floating crust tick, rainbow trout tick, chub on pellet tick, however nothing very big however we were talking about the Bristol Avon here. We did see a couple of nice barbel that were feeding on our pellets then did a vanishing trick.

The highlight of the day consisted of seeing 4 small 8 inch barbel in the shallows playing hide and seek with us. These are the first I’ve seen of these little fella’s for a very long time on the BA. I believe they are from a stocking of a few years back. I was very very excited, not too sure whether Andrea was quite the same.

The next day we found a swim on the Wye and soon Andrea was fishing a special swim which someone had tipped me off on. It’s a bloody long walk to it from the car park. I wasn’t entirely sure where it was however after a bit of water craft I soon located the swim.

Now as you know West Country Baits are about all I use together with some mini mix in the slick sense ground bait in the feeder. 10lb fluorocarbon as a hook link and a size 12 curve shank to complete the rig.

the business end

The very last bit of important kit are the swim feeders I get from Paul Frisk, these are his FFF 4oz jobs and they are brilliant. The main line is Xline floro 12lb and is very good for the vigor’s that the Wye can throw at them.

First cast came with a small chub, then 4 barbel within the first 1 hour showed they were feeding. The largest of these was a beautiful barbel of 9lbs 8oz.

9lbs 8oz barbel

I must admit I had a joke on Andrea as we walked across the field as in the distance there was a big bull. I said to him if he charges then drop the gear and run and not worry about the tackle. He seemed from then on to walk behind me. The bull had huge dangling bits which were impressive. I think Andrea was worried about me spending so much time photographing these. Infatuation I think is the word.

Who is a big boy then

The barbel continued to feed and we both started to catch a few. Great sport.

We also had a barbel throne to contend with. Again Andrea told me afterwards that he was scared of heights and I made him play the barbel near the edge.

Mr Barbus barbus on the throne

He continued catching some nice barbel of over 8lbs.

Andrea 8lbs 5oz

We had a great deal of fun with the fishing not taking it too seriously, sometimes this is necessary. Even posing for the camera.

barbel of 4lbs

The river though started to turn a brown colour and rose rapidly which indicated that yesterdays rain in the west midlands was entering the river Wye via the river Lugg. Large branches started to drift down taking out the line and making fishing very difficult for sure.

He did catch another 8lber.which produced  a great fight in the swollen river.

8lbs 5oz

Time was moving on and by 6pm we had enough and decided to head home to watch the European cup final between France and Portugal.

Whilst walking back we spied these Velociraptors in the wheat field.

Velociraptors

As they said in the film Jurassic Park don’t into the long grass!!

Andrea happy

I think he had a great judging by this smile

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