A Few Days on the Famous River Wye

Well oxygenated water, perfect looking barbel run!

After a very enjoyable holiday with my father and brother in Scotland, we headed back down South to assemble some barbel tackle for a few days on the famous River Wye. After a day at home resting up from the very long journey back home from Scotland, we drove up to Hereford to get a spot of lunch and to buy some bait and tackle for hopefully some Wye barbel. On recommendation from friends, I visited Woody's Angling Centre on the tail end of Hereford to get a bit of advice. After collecting a few heavy duty feeders, ground bait, terminal tackle and pellets, Woody himself told me what to expect from the stretch and what kind of tactics to tackle the fish, also what I'd be up against.

The first section of the stretch at our accomodation

We arrived at the accommodation and made ourselves out home. I firstly chose to look around the river and I could tell instantly that I was going to be faced with a hard week - the conditions were low and clear, there were canoeists passing by regularly, people swimming and also dangerous banks. I decided at this point the best bet would be to to fish early morning and evenings into darkness. With polarising glasses and a cap I scanned the water and tried to find an area that would take my fancy. I picked out a nice looking swim which had some depth and catapulted a few pellets in to hopefully draw some fish in. After a tasty stir fry dinner, my brother and I left the groundbait aside on the first night and chose to fish paste-wrapped leads onto a pellet hookbait. We fished right until 10.30pm and just as we were starting to put a few bits together to pack up, my brother's rod pulled right round and was starting to get pulled off the rest. My brother picked up the rod excitedly and the culprit was a nice chub to start off the trip. After a quick unhooking we watched the chub swim back into the clear water.

The first swim, would love to try this in Winter for pike!

After a short early morning session in the morning with no success, later on in the day, my father and I went for a walk covering the entirety of the stretch included in our accommodation. The stretch was lovely consisting of spots with back eddies, the odd shallows and rapids, and some nice slack pools where I'm sure large predators would be lurking. After a day of getting our bearings around the area, visiting Hay on Wye and Kington near where we were staying, the mistake I made for the next evening-into-dark session was to go back to the same spot, when it was obvious that the fish were unlikely to be there again. The final result were a few small chub.

On the next day, I woke up and fished the peg right at the top of the stretch with a nice deep channel after a charming bridge, with back eddies running off into shallower water. I had read in the guest book that a few barbel had come out of this swim, so was hopeful. I spent several hours regularly casting the feeder trying to build the swim, but unfortunately didn't have a single bite.

A very scenic swim!

From this moment I felt I was really doing something wrong therefore I thought I'd talk to a few of my friends with some experience of fishing on the Wye. They said to me to target the shallow areas where it starts to drop off due to good oxygen levels and natural food coming down to them. I found a nice accessible swim which met this criteria, which was much safer than the two swims I had already fished. After stirring up a nice ground bait of 'hemp and hali crush' and throwing in extra hemp and crushed boilie, my brother and I arrived at the swim just after another wholesome dinner. I had already baited the spot in the afternoon, therefore was confident a few fish would come in after putting some food out. We started off fishing one rod on small pellets and the other on a slightly bigger bait, a boilie barrel. After a couple of takes on my brother's rod from minuscule chub, we switched his rod to a big bait also. After 9 o'clock past us by, my brother was starting to lose hope about the swim we were in as nothing seemed to be bullying the small fish out. My dad had now come down to see us, seeing how we were getting on, and sat with us as the light faded. It was just as I noticed that it was almost time to wind my rod in and recast that my brother and dad were shouting that my rod was going. Although it was only a few violent plucks, it was obvious a fish was on the end, so I picked up the rod. At first I was convinced I was into a chub, as I was pulling a decent dead weight, but just as I start to apply some pressure the fish absolutely surged downstream with the reel ticking away as it took line, "think this could be a barbel" I said excitedly as I tried to slow the fish and hold it away from the snags which I knew were on the right of me. The fish was staying awfully deep and after a fair bit of pressure to stop it from finding the snags, the classic 'shark' fin broke the surface and after a few powerful lunges I finally managed to steer the fish into the waiting net. After a few well earned minutes of revival, we all admired the barbel as we had all hoped one would make an appearance in the few days, and for my dad and brother who have never seen a barbel in the flesh before, they were also very excited. After a few quick snaps, we watched the barbel disappear into the depths in the lovely clear water with the torchlight.

Not a particularly large barbel, but a nice start!

Time was starting to get on now with no more enquiries on the rods since the barbel, but just as time was getting on for recasting my brother's rod, I turned around and saw my brother's rod getting pulled off the rest and all he could do was grab the butt. A fish was hooked. After what seemed to be a good fight, a pair of grey lips popped to the surface and my brother had a decent chub in the net! I looked at it in the net and told my brother that it certainly was a personal best. At 4lb 6oz my brother was absolutely made up and even though this fish was a bit of a veteran it still seemed otherwise in good condition. We fished on to just after 11, but had no more joy, therefore decided to pack up.

4lb 6oz Veteran

The next morning, we were still very tired after all the travelling we had done from Scotland and the fishing on the later nights, that we decided to sleep in and try to hit the fishing hard in the evening. After a nice day enjoying the pleasant views from the Black Darren near the village of Turnant, I headed straight to the swim we fished after the walk, and introduced some groundbait.

About to refill the feeder...

After having a tasty lasagne, we rushed back down to the spot and casted our rods out. It was a very quiet night, until just as the light was fading, my brother had another ripper of a take on his rod with the rod absolutely arching over. We could tell instantly he was into another chub, but it was strange the fight had literally no character until right by the bank it lunged a couple of times. As I netted it I could tell, it was a big summer chub, and at 5lbs on the nose my brother was absolutely over the moon to have caught what many people would see as a specimen chub. After a few quick shots we watched the big chub swim into the depths with the torch. It was very nice to see it swim off resiliently and ready to fight another day. That was the only result to come of the evening but certainly helped my brother go to sleep with a smile on his face.

A new personal best at 5lbs exactly

I woke up early the next morning and headed out on my own, as my brother was fast asleep. I chose to try a new swim which was on my mind on the stretch. After a fair bit of a walk, I arrived at the spot and filled up the feeder for the first time. I casted it out and noticed I actually had brought the other rod with me in my quiver and all I had to do was clip a feeder on and I chose to try a smaller bait, my choice being Sonubaits S Pellets. After I filled up the feeder and hair rigged a couple of these pellets, I flicked the rig upstream near a nice treeline. I quickly tidied up my swim for a few minutes whilst letting the rods fish for themselves. I then looked up and saw the rod I had just cast out knocking away and a fish was clearly hooked. I picked up the rod and made contact with what I thought was going to be a decent chub, but as soon as I saw the line moving around vigorously and being taken off the reel, I knew this was another barbel. Keeping my cool, I patiently played the barbel in the flow with the rod beautifully absorbing its lunges and with a bit of steady pressure against the fish staying deep, I managed to steer the barbel into slacker water, with the rest of the fight being under the rod tip. The fish gave all it could and all I could do was have the drag set and cupping the spool to stop it from finding a snag close in, and eventually it was in my waiting net. Over-joyed to have landed another barbel in these hard conditions, I revived it in the net and phoned my brother who had now woken up and asked him to come down and do a quick photo or two for me. After giving the fish good time to get its breath back my brother kindly came down and took a couple of nice shots. After doing so, I gently lifted the barbel back to the water in the net and let it get its breath back. It wasn't long until it was starting to kick and it swum strongly back into the depths. My brother joined me for the rest of the session in this swim, but sadly there was not a bite more to be had.

Lovely looking little barbel to end the trip

The evening and the final session of the trip saw us hit the same spot as I had the barbel in the morning, as I introduced some bait when we were about to leave and was hopeful that my brother would maybe in for a chance of a barbel. My brother had three vicious takes in this session, but again the chub had seemed to have gotten to the bait first or the barbel had not made an appearance. Nevertheless the chub that were had were over 4lbs and all like peas in a pod with stunning colouration and build.

The landscape is idyllic!

It was an enjoyable week on the Wye and even though the fishing was far from straight forward in low and clear conditions and battling canoeists during the day, I had certainly learnt a lot and my brother certainly enjoyed himself and was really getting into the spirit of the holiday which was fantastic to see and to have beaten his personal best chub twice was certainly a great result. Even though he didn't manage his barbel, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the few days on the bank and it was a joy for me to share this time with him. Thanks also goes to my dad who helped this trip happen for me by booking the house, organising nice walks and things to do during the day and being very patient with how the fishing had taken up time during the days.

Tight Lines,

Tom

Think it's fair to say Nicholas had a good few days too...