Carl and his Wye barbel adventure

Carl is in the Tench Fishers and asked me sometime ago whether I could take him fishing on the Wye fishing for barbel. Now Carl won’t mind me saying here that he has been going through a tough time of it of late and he needed some distraction to take things off his mind.

We agreed to fish a short session one day and then have a go for the whole of the next day.

We met and made our way to a stretch I had only fished the once but had caught a few barbel. We baited with West Country Barbel Slick Sense feeder mix with 10mm pellets hair rigged on a size 12 Korda curve shank hook.

We didn’t have to wait long as after 15 minutes he was into his first river barbel and it went just over 6lbs.

6lber for Carl

Things continued to improve as a further 2 more came to the net of similar size. Plus some 2lb chub. He was well chuffed to say the least.

We left the fishery at 9pm and went of to Ross-on-Wye for a curry and a few beers.

The next morning we fished another stretch of the river. We met at 6am and the action was instant once we started fishing. Bite after bite and fish after fish. Barbel and chub. The action was none stop. The majority of the barbel were between 2-4lbs no larger ones showed up.

At one point I went for the tea making kit and on returning Carl had a double hookup. It was that hectic. We had set a target of a 7lb barbel and 4lb chub for the day.

Carl and his 3lbs 14oz chub

Close but just short of the 4lb mark.

The action did begin to slow as the sun rose higher in the sky. The pool we were fishing was much shallower then I had previously seen it. However by about 11am the sport slowed and we thought about returning to the other stretch.

Carl playing a barbel

So after a short discussion off we went to the other stretch.

We fished the same swim as the day before and believe it not I don’t think it had been fished this year. The same bait and methods were used and it didn’t take long before Carl was into a barbel of just over 7lbs. So target achieved.

He soon had one larger in the net at 7lbs 10oz barbel a great result for him.

Carl and his 7lbs 10oz barbel

He carried on with a few more chub and one more barbel which was just short of 6lbs

Carl needed to leave at 6pm so should we have stayed we would have many more for sure.

The score for the day was 13 barbel and 10 chub so a great day for Carl and I think he will return.

Happy days!