Paul and Graig (Dad and Son) on the river Wye catching barbel

I have know Paul for years, we have fished the same syndicate stretch of the Bristol Avon.

Now Paul and I used to catch plenty of barbel on the Bristol Avon for many of years. However after the introduction of Otters most have gone and you would not seriously fish for them on the stretch again.

However he phoned me last year and I told him the river Wye was the place to go.

So we agreed a date this year. His son Graig has a difficult time planning his work load much further than one month in advance. We decided on a date in early Nov. I’m not normally guiding this late on the river Wye due to the unpredictable weather. However the river was low and clear not ideal conditions.

They arrived at my place and parked up and I drove us over to the Wye.

Everything was wet when we arrived and we soon had most things stored in a dry place under the shelter. Graig was first in the hot seat and lost a good fish right under the rod tip. It’s interesting that people don’t understand that the bites are 3 ft twitches.

They alternated landing fish.

Paul was first to land a huge 10lb 7oz barbel which was like a barrel.

10lbs 7oz

They continued to fish and Graig landed a barbel of the same weight 10lbs 7oz. Wish I had took a photo of both sides to see if it was the same fish.

10lbs 7oz barbel

They continued to catch fish throughout the day. It was about one each hour and you could almost set your watch to them.

Paul had the fish of the day at 10lbs 14oz which was very fat.

10lbs 14oz

Then the last fish of the day was caught by Graig. This prompted a Dad and Son photo for the last fish of the day.

Craig and dad Paul

So each of them had a pb which for me is an excellent result. I think they left extremely happy.

On reflection that’s 6 doubles on the last two visits. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Happy days.