Wye action at last!

Stunning rapids and full of fish!

A very late decision on Saturday night was made to go out fishing on Sunday.....I purchased a ticket online to visit a Wye and Usk Foundation water known as Wyebank.


The section in question is only a small piece of river at just 350 yards but great for just one person to fish at a time. Just what I needed really as everyone I normally fish with was very busy it seemed.

The chub fishing was incredible!

I set my alarm for 3.15am and got into bed at 11.45pm only to find sleep neigh on impossible! The old insomnia was rearing it's very ugly head once more. By 2am I'd had enough rolling around trying to get comfortable, so I got up and made coffee and set about loading the car for a very early start!


By 2.55am I was up and away on the M4 heading towards Herefordshire. I had a few issues finding the car park as I'd forgotten to download the info from the email ticket and of course with the fishery being in the middle of 'nowhereland' there was no 3g to speak of!

Golden brown and beautiful

Eventually I arrived around 4am just as the sun was coming over the hill to the East. The river looked stunning in the early morning mist and I was just gagging to get my gear out and fish.

I had a little walk along the short beat section to get a feel for things first and after reading a few catch reports and the owners information, I decided to fish the last swim on the beat. This swim sat at the tail end of some very fast rapids and the shallow water was highly oxygenated.

Barbel at last!!!!

I set up my rod with a 3oz cage feeder on a CBS Gravel Leader, free running style with a lead clip. To this I tied on a 2 foot section of 10lb mono for hook link and a Trident size 8 hook and River Monster dumbell boilie. I cast out into the rapid flow just at the edge of the slack water and within seconds the tip started to rattle away!

There was clearly a lot of fish present in this area of the river albeit there were a lot of smaller fish that would make life a little difficult. It wasn't too long before the first chub of the day found the net and a good looking 4lb+ fish gave up its fight. After about 3 more chub things went a little quiet.

I introduced a couple of droppers full of pellets, hemp and casters and within minutes the tip was again bouncing around.....

Pocket rockets, all of them!

My next fish around 8am was a small barbel around 2lbs, which fought more like a double figure fish! It ran like crazy in the turbulent waters of the rapids! Great sport on a 1.75lb tc rod.

I started to locate where I was going to catch the majority of the fish from and also started to locate a few of the snags in the swim too! This place is ridden with boulders and sharp rocks. The amount of times I had to re-tie hooks on and replace damaged hook links was beyond belief!

The fishing slowed a little around 9.30am just as the canoes and kayaks started to come down. In all honesty though, the majority of the boaters were very polite and gave plenty of room for me.

This was quite a change as the bloody rowing club on my club stretch are so dam rude and deliberately come as close as possible to annoy the anglers. It's a real shame as the majority of river users are very fair.

I fished through the torrent of boats which finished around 4pm but in all honesty it wasn't really worth the effort as the fishing died off almost completely.

As darkness started to fall the fishing once again came to life and it wasn't too long before a nice 4lb 10oz barbel sat in my net. This was followed by about another 6 or 7 chub to 4lbs.

I decided to have a cast or two into the rapid flow at the end of the pool and immediately the rod slammed over! This felt better and after about 5 minutes of tussling a stunning barbel of 6lb 7oz was in the net.

I followed this up with even more chub, to bring the tally for the day up to 23 in total! I had about 15 minutes of fishing time left and eventually as dusk turned to night......Then as if by magic the rod slammed over to signal another angry barbel had taken the bait!

Bloody superb! I love Wye Barbel!

This fish felt a lot better and really did pull hard in the busy flow of the rapids. It took some real power to keep in touch with the fish and after a good 5 mins she was sat in the net. This time a proper one! At 8lb 2oz I was well pleased!

A word of warning to all of those heading off up the river! I noticed that many of the areas of this part of the river are potentially dangerous as many rivers often are but this particular area has some very sharp rocks and slippery banks.

BANG!!!! A cracker to end the day on 8lb 2oz of stunning Wye gold!

As I packed away I slipped a few times on the bank and numerous times I felt like I was going to fall over. I placed my rucksack on my back and grabbed the rod bag. As I stepped away to walk up the path my footing went and I found myself falling backwards onto the rocks. This was not only painful but incredibly scary too as it could have been into the river itself.

Please, please, please be careful out there everyone as on the way back to the car I slipped again on numerous sections and last week I fell on slippery bank and banged my head and neck. Be careful guys and girls.

Regards
Keith x

ROAD TRIP!!!

I must have looked a prat, but I didn't care! It was great fun!

Sunday soon came around and I was again loading the car up ready for a festival of river pleasure! My destination for this adventure was that of a new venue to me. The Bristol Avon.....The kids had bought me a ticket for Amalgamated Anglers for Fathers Day and I was itching to go and try out the new waters.

I started off as early as I could and decided I'd make a start on the Wye up in Monmouthshire for the first few hours of the day. First light arrived and I had a pair of rods bang on the money in a spot I know produces all year round.....I sat and sat and sat....absolutely nothing to show for my efforts other than more bloody frustration and after numerous rows with rowing club members, who refused to give me more than an arms length of water. I decided that enough was enough! Off to the Avon I trundled.

A stunning Avon Chub, which loved the River Monster Paste!

I picked a venue out of the hat really and my first choice turned out to be a truly wonderful little piece of English Treasure! A bit of a hike from the car but the quiet farmland with only a few cows for company did me the world of good. The peace and tranquility was only occasionally broken by the odd noisy bike or car on the road a little way away. Every swim screamed out fish to me albeit I wasn't able to fish them all as there were a lot that would require a very long net handle! Mine being a 2M wasn't long enough.

Saying that I did find a good few swims that I could get right down to the waters edge in and made an effort to static fish each one throughout the Sunday afternoon in blistering heat and bright sunshine. Much to my surprise the place was brimmed with lovely quality Chub and I took 11 of them to just over 4lbs and a brown trout of a pound and a half on the first afternoon. No sign of a barbel though.

Another one of the 37 chub I managed in 2 days fishing!

I packed up as the light faded away and set up camp for the night in the back of the car! Being an Audi A4 estate, it has tons of room to put all your kit and sprawl out in the back with a duvet as well. I had to sleep with the windows open as it was muggy as hell, this meant I got eaten alive by the dreaded mozzies! After a fairly sleepless, painful night I arose around 6am to find the sun already blasting through the windows and cooking my head like a egg. Not good for someone with my lack of hair!

The chub were rampant feeders!

After sorting the sleeping tackle out and having a tidy up. Teeth were brushed and underwear changed. I made a jaunt to the nearest local store for some breakfast and drinks etc. I decided I'd have a look at a few other venues and after a sortie lasting a few hours. I settled back near where I'd started but slightly down stream. This was due to not really finding the sort of water I wanted as the majority had high banks and very limited access. Eventually I found myself parking near Lacock Abbey and strolling around the grounds of the ancient building to the banks of the River.

Some cracking chub sport on the Bristol Avon!

What a beautiful stretch it was and I could again see many good quality Chub to be had in numerous swims. I decided the only way to attack this section was with little amounts of kit and a single rod roving approach. I donned said rubber Croc shoes, removed socks and found a corker of a swim by a bridge. Here I could enter the water and attack the chub from down stream and cast up to them with some free lined River Monster paste. This worked incredibly well and from the first cast on I was into fish after fish......

Totally stunning and unspoilt!

I kept rotating swims and gently baiting each with a few small handfuls of hemp and casters. I finished the afternoon off at 5.30pm having caught no less than 26 chub to just over 5lbs and an eel too.

Great sport and thoroughly good fun. Really took me back to my childhood days of fishing on the Dorset Stour. I left the Avon around 5.45pm and made my way home via the Wye for an evening session. I was still in hope of a barbel to finish the session off!

I fished on into darkness and had to admit defeat in the end. I couldn't so much as buy a bite! What on earth is going on with our club section at present I'm totally confused!

Yet more frustration for me with the River Wye????

I can only guess that it's just a little early on for the barbel and chub in there yet and that they haven't as yet finished with their spawning rituals???? Anyway, I'll give it another go in a week or so after this little bit of rain.

Thursday morning saw me wake very early and after tossing and turning and failing to get comfortable, I decided to go out for dawn and see if I could catch a few of the really pretty old dark Tench that reside in another of my local club lakes. I arrived around 4.15am just as the sun was lighting up the sky and picked a nice little spot between two sets of lily pads. I baited each spot with a liberal helping of Casters, Hemp and Corn before sending a small lead with a hair rigged piece of the yellow stuff in after it all.

The Tench were really munching away down there, but again I was getting very little action for my efforts.....

I had to wait about 25 minutes before the fish moved in and then it was like sitting watching a cauldron! The swim was alive with plumes of bubbles in hundreds of different sizes as the fish got down to a hearty seed filled brekkie!

A stunning Tench to start off the day! Great stuff, mission accomplished!

It took about half an hour before the first one slipped up and after a spirited scrap on light specimen kit, I had a lovely old tench for the camera. I followed this up with a couple more of similar size and then lost a much better fish to a hook pull unfortunately.

The fishing just switched off around 8am and the bubbles dissipated! It was like nothing lived in the place after that. I packed up and got in around 9.30am. Great early morning fun!

Hope your all having a good few weeks in the lovely sun. Enjoy it as the rain is coming I believe!


Regards
Keith
x

The big day!

The waiting game commenced!

Well, it finally arrived and what came with it was a veritable host of incredible frustration! Joel and I made our way up the river on the 15th to have a good look around and clear a few likely looking spots to fish come the big day. It's amazing how over grown it all gets in just 3 months of peace and quiet! Nature takes back the land!

Looking perfect!

The river looked almost perfect with a good bit of colour still in it and ay 1.3m still reasonably acceptable levels of water too. We sat around all day and most of the night awaiting enough light on the 16th to finally get a rod in the water. It was so frustrating as the river was just calling out to be fished. Our first bit of action came just before dawn on Joels right hand rod.

A steaming run ripped a good few yards of line off Joels reel and before we knew what was going on it had slipped the hook! Joel was devastated to have just lost his first ever Wye fish. A few minutes later and I was into a tail walking double figure salmon which high tailed it across the river at a rate of knots and that too slipped the hook! The day light came and with it came an endless peace that wasn't broken by so much as a nibble....I moved a handful of times to try and find a pod of fish but to no avail.

Do something!!!!!!

Eventually we decided at around 6pm to move to the opposite side of the river and a small swim which had done a fish earlier in the day. This produced one missed opportunity for me in the form of yet another hook pull before we decided to call time and accept a blank for the big day! Exhausted beyond belief, we trundled off back to the car with our tails between our legs and headed home.

After a busy day rolling the following day, I had the urge to go back up and give another particular spot a bash. I rang Joel and picked him up on the way through. We arrived around 7pm to find the river empty of anglers. Out went the bait dropper and a couple of rods baited with the trusty River Monster boilies. I started to get odd nibbles from the off and it felt like a different river to the night before.

It wasn't long before finally I got my hard earned chance and the right hand center pin cranked round and the rod buckled under the pressure of a good barbel....we were both elated to finally see a rod in action! A cracking scrap ensued and eventually a stunning fish was netted and duly weighed and photographed.....

At last a barbel! Hard earned and a long wait! My first of the 2014 river season at 10lb 3oz... Elated!

10lb 3ozs of her sat with her proud captor for a stunning snap in front of a setting sun! What a back drop to my first barbel of the 2014 river season. My 65th fish from the river and also my tenth double too. That was it for me for the night and despite a couple of violent knocks from i'm guessing chub?? That was it.....

Well done Joel!!! His first fish from the Wye at 4lb 14oz!

Joel managed to grab a 2lb chub, an eel and finally a very nice specimen chub of 4lb 14oz! A great looking fish by any standards and despite the fact he was desperate to catch a barbel, I think he was pretty chuffed with his nice Chevin.

Well that's that for now. I'm off down the Bristol Avon on Sunday with any luck for a 48 hr festival of madness and Barbel heaven! Lets hope!

I hope you all had a magical day out and I look forward to seeing all your captures online etc.

Tight lines
Keith
x

Scrubbing up!

Hi all. Well as you can see below, I couldn't wait longer than a few days to get back on the bank side and the call of the lake was to strong to ignore! I ventured down for another very quick overnighter this week between work, which has been very brisk this week with the oncoming start to the old season. I get the feeling that the 16th may well be a bit of a let down for many with the majority of swims going to be taken before the big day even begins.

One of my pins on my new Ray Walton rod! Can't wait to use it now!

My gear is all scrubbed up ready to rock and roll with new 10lb braid on my gleaming new center pin reels....all 4 of them! Also got myself a new Ray Walton Rolling Rod as well. This looks stunning and I can't wait to have a bash with it. Feels incredibly light and forgiving too. Should do the job for a bit of light touch ledgering etc.

The weather has been very strange this last week or two. Neither hot or cold? Feeling at times more like Autumn rather than early summer. Wet, blustery and warm at times. Lets hope the warmer more steady conditions start to come in soon or I feel we may see summer come and go very quickly again. We had some excitement up our valley this week with the Welsh Air Ambulance visiting the scene of a poor fellow who had had a heart attack. Unfortunately I'm lead to believe the guy passed away leaving a family and grand kids behind. My sincerest condolences to the family.....

All excitement in our little valley!

The helicopter team made a real impact on valley life though by landing right in front of our house about 100m away behind the local shop! I took the opportunity to go and have a closer look with my camera and after a nice chat with the pilot. He asked me if i could do some pictures for him for the WAA to use for publicity! Here's one I took for them.


This weeks overnighter was interesting in that I have started to fish a slightly different swim to before and I'm now targeting the fish in more open water than that of previous sessions. The previous swim was rather tight and unforgiving, but this one is open and abodes more room for mistakes if needed. I wasn't sure whether the fish would take a bait in the new spots but it appears they're not as shy as I was led to believe. A good liberal baiting of Red X in two spots was enough to get a bit of interest going and within an hour of casting out, I was seeing the first signs of activity in the form of bubbles and liners.
It wasn't too long before the right hand rod was away and I found myself attached to a torpedo of a fish that wanted to plow through just about every weed bed it could muster up the ability to find! It took some epic rod bending and odd angles to get it free from the weeds and pads but eventually I sunk the net under a long chunky mirror. Unfortunately the same one I'd had a few weeks back from the other end of the lake but incredibly up in weight by over a pound to 24lb 9oz!

A repeat capture, but no less pleased to see the 'smelly fish' again and up in weight to 24lb 9oz!

Thankfully she didn't smell quite as bad as the last time I caught her a few weeks back! I grabbed a few quick pics and wished her farewell. The night progressed and around 4am as it was becoming light. I had a take on the left hand rod which can only be described as beyond belief! I don't think I have ever seen a take so fast from a carp! It was so violent that I did something I've not done since my teens.....I jumped from my sleeping bag without any foot ware on and flew over to the rod in the rain! This was fun as the swim is covered in tiny sharp stones which impaled my feet!

The fight was as ever brutal and she ran me ragged for a good few minutes. Just as I was thinking about grabbing the net to engulf her, the hook pulled free! I was devastated! I checked the hook to see that the point had turned over and become totally useless.....What bad luck. I can only think I must have plinked it during rigging up with the pva or it got pushed around on the bottom and blunted that way??? Who knows???

Right, that really is it from me until the 16th now as I have lots of bait to roll for customers, tackle to send out and a lot of other personal jobs to do before the river season commences.

Good luck to all of you that are venturing out this coming weekend and I wish you all the best.

Regards
Keith

Beautiful dawns

A nice upper double broke the quiet run of the last few trips!

Well, I admit I wasn't going to do another blog entry before the big 16th day of June but I had to upload a few pics I took last week whilst out walking and I even got a quick overnighter in on my little water! I suddenly decided out of the blue on Wednesday night to grab a quick 12 hr session on the pool. I grabbed the gear at 7pm and dived out the door to see if I could snatch another nice fish out the pond.

The week so far has been a little hectic with lots on all round. Tuesday night was a fantastic evening spent in the company of my good mate Joel Biddles new band Blackwaters. They asked me if I could whiz over to the studios to watch them practice and do a photoshoot for some publicity stock.

Blackwaters Rock band.....top lads and they sounded amazing!!!!

I met the lads over at the studio at 7pm and we had a great laugh taking some outdoor album cover type pics then I spent 2 hours watching them practice perform some covers and a few of their own tracks as well.

 I have to say that they are one of the best small unsigned groups I've heard in a very long time. A hugely talented bunch of lads!

Anyway, apart from that little adventure there's been bait and tackle flying out, my first ever article in Carp World got published this month too. With part 2 out in July's issue. It's all about my time on the legendary Crayfish Pool.

I hope those of you that grab a copy find it an enjoyable read. Back to the little overnighter and I decided to try a new swim that I hadn't ever fished before.

My first ever article in Carp World, a 2 part featuring in June and July's issues

It's not quite as weedy as my usual swim and has a fair amount more depth to it too. In fact the best part of about 5-6 feet more water. I dropped a few handfuls of the trusty CBS Red X boilies into the swim, all 14 and 16mm and placed my 22mm hook bait onto the size 4 Saber hook. This was presented in my usual manner with a blow back rig ring and a small mesh PVA bag slid down the rig to stop it tangling in the weed.

I chose two likely looking spots and dropped into the water feeling the lead down. The lead settled on a firm bottom with a soft donk. Good enough for me I thought and I settled back with a brew and watched the light fade away.

Just stunning in every way!

The majority of the evening was quiet apart from the rain and odd noisy bird in the trees. It was around 12.10am before any activity started and I began to get a few liners on both rods! I sat up in bed and listened intently as a few odd fish splashed around in front of my swim.




Around 12.45am the left hand rod broke the silence and a few bleeps sounded from the Delk. This was followed by a few more and as I exited the bed the rod flew into action. The fight was nothing special by any standards but I was pleased to engulf the net around a pretty common of 18lb 9oz.

A beautiful start to the day!

I slipped her back after a couple of pics and recast the rod onto the spot. I was thinking I was looking at another result within a few seconds as my left rod started to show a lot of indications of fish present but this turned into nothing and all I was left with by the end of the night was another run from a 6lb fat bream.

Late on last week I had a walk around a local club water at dawn with my camera and captured some stunning images of sun light beaming through the trees and on another occasion I was lucky enough to capture a short video of a Kingfisher doing it's thing whilst sat on my rods!

I'll share of few of the images with you on here as I think they really capture what a lot of us love so much about being next to water when many others are wrapped up under the covers at home.

See you all soon
Keith
x

2 weeks to go!!!!

Mr Barbel...Oh how I've missed our little meetings!

Yep, just 13 sleeps before the big day! If your like me then your struggling to sleep and concentrate on anything other than the impending big day. I've been literally counting down the months, weeks and now the days. I can honestly say that in the last 20 years I've never been so excited about June 16th as I am this year. And it's all thanks to Mr Barbel!

As much as I adore all aspects of fishing and of course my heart has always been with big carp fishing above all....but with the abolishment of the old Close Season along went all the build up and anticipation that came with it. This is a shame in a way as there was always a great feeling on the day before and obviously the day itself. The specialness of the day went out the window and with the availability of coarse fishing any day of the year on still waters so did the excitement.

This year though all is different for me personally. I've stepped away from carp fishing a little in the last 2 years as time has not been available to me like it used to be. Not only that but my health has declined a lot in the last couple of years too and getting about with heavy equipment has become a lot of hard work. The change in angling to more general fishing for other species has made me target certain species throughout the year as opposed to sitting out through winter for an odd lucky bite off a carp in the cold conditions.

Special times with my baby.....well done on your first ever Pike Natasha!

This has also given me the opportunity to discover more family time and realize that my little girl seems to really enjoy being out on the bank side with me too. She's caught a few nice carp now and a few bream, roach and perch to boot. She even caught her first small pike last week! Much to her excitement!

The kind of fish I used to catch as a kid out the Dorset Stour

Pike, Perch, Chub Tench, Roach and of course Barbel have all appeared in my catches throughout the last 24 months and I have to say that I have never enjoyed angling so much! The barbel fishing has of course been wonderful since August last year when I started to venture back out on the rivers again after a long break from them. The reason for the long break was due to a few reasons and the most prominent being that of the lack of fish in many of the UK rivers. Whether it's due to predation, poaching, pollution, poor spawning etc....or a combination of all the above...I guess we'll never really know? All we can do is hope that nature finds a way to stabilize the waterways and that the species that remain find a way to coexist. The pollution issue will always be a threat as we strive as a country to provide heavy industry to survive. The issue of poaching could with the right funding within the EA and Police input etc be dealt with to an extent. Albeit I don't believe that this is a real cause for declines in fish stocks in rivers.

The River Wye....Life giver for me!

For me personally, the River Wye has been the life giver of river fishing and re-lit the spark I used to have for river fishing in general. I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas this year and come the 15th I'll be heading up the river with a mate for a big opening night! It'll be a lovely evening sat by the river watching the sun go down with a nice cold beer. As soon as it's light enough the rods will be out for a new season barbel. So, so exciting! Well, that's about it from me until the big day when I'll report back with hopefully some cracking first day results!

Regards and good luck for the 16th and whatever your fishing for!

Keith