Tim and Jake barbel fishing on the river Wye 9th Sept

After our last trip on the Bristol Avon looking for barbel and not seeing a single one I suggested that Tim and Jake book a session on the river Wye. Jake had never caught a barbel before and he wanted to break his duck on the Bristol Avon. Alas it was not to be.

So we arranged to fish a beat that I guide on a regular basis. The Wye has been at an all time low this year and the fishing has been patchy to say the least however this beat had been difficult in July and August but has improved with the recent cooling down. As I had said in one of my previous blogs the river temperature reached a staggering 24.5c during the really hot spell. This hasn’t’ helped the salmon fishing but what it has done is provided a great year for fry and fish preproduction on the river. There have been few floods and therefore the fry survival rate must have increased. Last year saw a reverse in that the river was continually in flood and few fry must have survived. So watch out for some good sport on the Wye in about 5-10 years time from this great year, not that the sport is not good now and good year classes of both chub and barbel are coming through.

Plenty of fry in the river

So Tim, Jake and I arranged to meet at 7am. Now there is a problem in the Wye valley I cannot get any mobile signal. Which is good but sometimes can be a real pain the butt. Well I waited until 7.20 then went to the river having given them instruction of where to find me. So I started baiting up the swim and it would have been rude not to have started fishing. Well any thoughts of Tim and Jake were forgotten as I caught two 8lbers and a 7lb 14oz in the first 45 mins. Then I started to think after a couple more barbel that I ought to find out what is going on. So off I drive to civilisation where I could get a signal and to my surprise a text came through saying they had problems with a computer and needed to fix it. Would it be possible to come over later.

8lbs 4oz

So I phoned them to say no problem and just wetted the appitite by telling them what I had caught. So they thought they would be there at about 12.30pm.

I continued fishing in the pouring rain, no complaints as we need the rain to refill the rivers. Some more barbel were caught plus the odd chub.

It got to about 12.45  I could hear them coming along the bank. Just as they reached me the rod twitched the free spool sang out and I suggested that one of them had better take the rod. It was Jake who was first onto the rod. The fish tore off downstream at a pace which normally means a big fish. The rod Fox 2.25 t/c barbel rod bent in a very satisfactory curve that indicated a bigger fish. Jake did a great job in playing the fish towards the waiting net. As it tore off a couple of times Jake couldn’t understand the power these fish had at close range, each time the clutch sang on the reel. The fish began to tire and I could see it was a good weight. Soon it was in the net unhooked weighted and rested back in the river.

10lbs 4oz and Jakes very first barbel. What a fish a double from the Wye is a rare fish indeed. Well done Jake.

10 lbs 4oz what a very first barbel

Next it was Tims turn where he caught the largest chub of the day at 4lbs 4oz which to be fair was a bit of an anticlimax, but never the less a good chub.

Tim and a chub 4lbs 4oz

A few more chub came along. However Jake hooked another good barbel which took line from the clutch on the reel.

Play it Jake

This one came in at 7lbs 10oz and only his second barbel of his angling career, although he had caught some in Portugal before.

Jake does look pleased

Next up Tim was unlucky to lose a barbel to sharp rocks. However he didn’t need to wait too long as the rod top nodded a few times and then lurching over line pouring from the free spool. Lifting into the barbel showed it to be a good fish. To say he was nervous would be an understatement as he had just lost a good fish 20 minutes previous. However after a bit of coaching he soon had the fish close by ready for netting. Similar to the 10lber several lunges at the final few minutes had Tims heart in his mouth. However with time and a tiring fish it soon was pulled over the net. Again I could see it was a great barbel and certainly a 9lber.

On the scales it was 9lbs 11oz of pure fighting machine. Again the fish was rested while we set the camera up.

9lbs 11oz barbel for Tim only his 3rd ever barbel

Monster

Further chub and barbel came along however as darkness came a long Tim unfortunately lost another fish to the rocks but we could clearly see it was only about 6lbs.

So all in all it was a cracking afternoon for Tim and Jake and I’m sure they will both return to the beat in future to sample the fantastic barbel that frequent this stretch of river.

As I sit here writing this the rain is pouring down and perhaps for us down in the South West of the country the river might just rise a little.