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