JD's First!

Last night Joel and I grabbed a quick couple of hours on the River Wye in search of the usual suspects. I chose a swim I thought may produce on our club stretch. It's been fishing terribly throughout the summer in my opinion and it's only down to the low levels and painfully clear conditions.

 At last JD had a Wye Barbel under his belt of 6lb

With a tiny bit of water on top and some colour it is a completely different river to fish and you can find barbel in just about any swim on the stretch. This year has been very different though and as yet I've struggled to locate any particular holding areas as such. The fish just seem to dissipate or magically disappear into thin air???

Last night was no different and despite catching fish from the area in recent weeks, it appeared like the fish had again moved on to locate alternative areas to feel comfortable or were just not interested in feeding whatsoever. The other thing that has become clear in the recent fortnight is the feeding activity and subsequent methods for capturing these torpid fish. Usually the open ended feeder with pellets trapped with ground bait is a killer method, but recently it hasn't seemed to work at all. The fish favouring a boilie only approach presented with a shortish hooklink and a small pva bag of half baits.

Below par for the stretch but at least a fish of 6lb 12oz!

There was no exception to the rule last night and despite being there early, bites weren't forthcoming until JD had the first bit of activity around 8pm. The light was just flailing and his left hand rod bounced a few times. A quick strike saw the rod envelop a good healthy fighting curve. At last Joel had a Wye barbel attached. The guys been very unlucky on the Wye and to date he's struggled to get one on the bank. I just hoped this one would stay on long enough for him to at last conquer the venue!

After a couple of minutes I crawled down the steep bankside to net the fish for him and finally he'd actually managed it, a Wye barbel in the net! A huge sigh of relief was felt from both of us as it had been about 4 or 5 trips where the fishing had been poor or he'd just been plain unlucky!

As the fish was resting in the net, I readied the mat, camera and scales and just as we were thinking about removing the fish from the water, my rod sprung into life too. A slow bit on the upstream rod and a good first run left me in no doubt that I too was attached to a barbel at last.....A short but hard fight was performed and I netted her first time.

Always nice to get a brace pic when you get the chance! 6lb 12oz and 6lbs exactly.

We weighed each fish separately, did the obligatory pictures of each then for one final hoorah I took a brace photo for the album of us both holding our catch. The fish were a little bit below average par size for the stretch at 6lb for JD and 6lb 12oz for mine but in all honesty with the lack of bites for the rest of the evening we were bloody chuffed to have at least caught one each in such dastardly conditions.