On the river Wye with Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley

Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley and I decided a trip to the river Wye  should give us a great chance of a barbel or two. So we decided that a Tuesday just prior to me going way on the Thursday would suit just fine.

I suggested that we meet at my place and travel together. The session was meant to be more of a social than serious fishing as on the Hampshire Avon we can be fishing some distance apart and seldom meet up for a chat. We do meet in the evening sometimes however fishing actually together and talking happens so infrequently.

So at 6.30am in the morning we met at my place. I was to provide all the tackle bait, so Andy just had to bring some drinks for the day. There was supposed to be rain towards the afternoon of the day but the morning provided some overcast weather with little wind.

We parked in the car park finding we were the only anglers on the stretch which is always a great start. I had said to Andy that the walk was quite long and be prepared. We unloaded the car and started the long walk through 3 fields. One having a lovely bull that was there last year. There were also a good few cows in there to keep him happy. He has got the biggest do da’s I have seen.

Finally we passed the bull with little interest from the beast although I did keep an eye on the old boy. We got the swim baited with some pellets and hemp by bait dropping out about 10 lots. The river looked in fine trim although some overnight rain had some debris coming down in the flow. There was little colour in the water which was a surprise.

It was Andy on the rods first and we didn’t have to wait too long before the first barbel of the day hooked itself. The fight was not spectacular as it was a smallish fish. However it certainly meant we didn’t blank. We had a few more barbel and chub over the next 4 hrs we’ll ……. to be exact.

Captain Andy on the bow of the ship.

The rain showers arrived and dissipated quickly enough for us not to get the wet weather gear on.

Nice chub for Andy

Good barbel

After 5 hrs feeding spell it went very quiet with very little to show for our efforts. We did see an otter come up from downstream and I even managed to video it as it swam upstream. It looked like a young one as it wasn’t large at all.

The fishing was poor and I don’t believe it was the fault of the otter as it swam close to the opposite bank.

The weather was still very kind to us as Mrs.P said it rained all day in and around Bath.

Thinking that the rain would come later we decided to move downstream nearer the car and fish another swim that we liked the look of on our way up. It was a little cramped but sufficient for one angler and a chair. I bait dropped out another 10 lots of hemp and the swim was defiantly deeper than the previous one by some way. To be fair it was probably about 6ft deep. I felt confident that we would catch a good few fish in this swim as it looked spot on. The main flow was on the far side with a crease down our side.

We didn’t need to wait long for the barbel to find our food and baited hook. Must have been all of 5 minutes.

The rod nodded a couple of times and continued to pull over. As the slack was on our side of the river there wasn’t much of a 3ft twitch. Never mind it looked as though the move had paid off as we were back in the grove again.

It wasn’t a big barbel but another to take us to …… for the day.

So next was my turn and again it took just a few minutes for the rod to register a bite. The rod was bent over we’ll as the fish powered downstream. I was thinking a bigger fish maybe but was disappointed to find a small barbel of about 6lbs or so.

Better one at 6lbs 15oz

The action was pretty much none stop and time was moving on towards the evening. Andy was on the rods when he had a great bite with the rod arching over and started playing the fish. It was away from the other rod so we didn’t reel the other in. So I stood by as nets man waiting for the fish to come close when there other rod belted off so we had a double hook up. Andy bullied his fish a little to land the thing. Mine felt quite a size and so it proved to be. As we lifted the net up the bank there was 14lbs 9oz of barbel in the net. It was just a pity it was two barbel and not the one.

We managed a duo shot with me holding the much larger barbel by 1oz. By now it looked like rain was coming so we ended the day on a high.

Couple of 7lbers

We had a real laugh at each other’s incompetence although these were few. The day was what we wanted a great social full of laughs and fun. It was a bloody long walk too.

It sometimes important to have these days as specimen fishing can and does get very serious. Although a few of us let other’s do the moaning of disgruntled anglers who think the river is theirs. We just get on with it and go with the flow in our own little way.