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| Great fun and masses of barbel to catch! |
This last 2 weeks has been unquestionable one of the best of my river fishing career with yet more wonderful fishing chances and superb fish caught.
As I spoke about in my last blog update, Bob and I paid a visit to a section of the Wye where there are large numbers of fish present. The numbers tend to outweigh the size of the fish and the averages are between a pound and 6 pound in weight.
We met up at the river just after sunrise and headed down to our chosen spot at the end of the beat. It's a rather quick and shallow section of river, abundant with rocks, weed and turbulent water. This highly oxygenated water seems to make it highly prized by the many barbel and chub that live under the surface.
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| The stamp of fish was a little smaller than usual |
Bob decided to get straight onto larger baits and tactics in a bid to get amongst the bigger fish. I opted on the other hand to fish much smaller and lighter tactics after anything I could muster up to feed. I also decided to fish it in a totally different manner to my usual way of fishing, in that I had taken my seat box and platform as opposed to my usual lazy chair tactics.
I waded my setup out into the faster water and got it positioned so that I had good open access to the streamy water in front of me. I have to say at this point that it was only due to talking to my friend
Dave Harrell that I had got the idea of tackling it like this for a change.
We chatted on the phone a little while back and also at the BS conference a few weeks back about feeder and float tactics and how much of these tactics had been almost forgotten these days and replaced by much bigger fish tactics. I'd like at this opportunity to convey much congratulations to Dave as he is on his way to winning yet more highly prized river comps and I look forward as ever to seeing him quash the competition with his very own incredible style of approach! Good muck matey! If you have ten minutes free time then pop over to Dave's pages and have a read! Great bloke with some fantastic tips that you cannot fail to learn from!
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| http://www.daveharrellangling.com/ |
http://www.daveharrellangling.com/
Anyway back to my day with Bob and after setting up a 5oz feeder with an 8lb hooklength. I was away on my first cast with a nice 2lb barbel. The fish came straight out of the very fast water in front and despite the water being exceptionally low and clear, it was still just only possible to hold down the bottom with the 5ozs!
The first fish was followed up by another on the next cast of around the same stamp. The action continued pretty much all morning and by midday I had around 12 barbel banked and a nice chub of about 4lbs as well. Bob on the other hand had struggled on the bigger baits and was only 1 or 2 fish in by now.
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| At last a better stamp for Bob! |
After the quick move we dropped into a great little spot that's been fishing very well of recent and to be honest, I wasn't intending on fishing myself. All I wanted was for Bob to get himself a big old kipper to finish the day on. Bearing this in mind I fished just one rod as Bob wanted me to fish as well. I decided that which ever rod went first I'd let Bob take. Needless to say it was my rod twice in a row that produced the first of the evening and 2 nice but slightly below average stamp 6lbers found the net for Bob. He then insisted I take my own rod from then on.....
The next bites fortunately came to Bobs rods and he landed 3 more great fish to just over 8lbs. Right result for the day which put him up to 15 barbel. In the mean time we had moved Bobs upstream rod into the spot that I had taken the fish at the start as the upstream spot hadn't produced a twitch all evening.
Typically this then produced a 9lb fish for me and just as we were about to call it a day it yielded the biggest of the day at 10lb 8oz! Typical as I wanted Bob to catch it! Nevermind, I think Bob would agree with me when I say that we had a bloody great day all told and it was full of laughter, plenty of hot coffee and even more wonderful fish!
Well, we dropped in to two swims with Mat taking the down stream option and hopefully the better of the two spots as he really wanted to catch another big old double.
It took a little while before things started to pick up and Mat was first up with a nice one around 7lbs. This was quickly followed up with a better one of 9lb 9oz and a very happy Mathew! I on the other hand couldn't tempt a twitch! I was getting a touch despondent and despite banking a nice 4lb chub, I felt my chances of a barbel were almost out the window for the evening.
Mathew then had another nice one of 8lb 1oz and I was feeling like it was time to pack away. I had had 2 lost chances with what I think were small chub and it wasn't before almost packing up that I had my first proper chance with a nice specimen of 9lb 1oz. A very hard earned fish for a tougher evenings fishing.
Mat had already packed away now as he had got into a bit of a pickle with the last fish and some of his line was damaged and beyond repair. I was almost ready to leave and as we were about to retrieve the last of my two rods, it hooped over signaling 1 last chance fish on the end!
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| Well in Mathew boy! |
At 10lb 7oz though and my 6th double of the season....I didn't really care either way whether it had taken 10 seconds to get in or 10 minutes! I was elated!
I've got a ton of things coming up over the next four weeks, lots of guided days with some great clients and maybe just a few days of fishing on my own on a new water on the River Severn! Looking forward to that immensely! Tight lines to you all and I hope your all enjoying your summer holidays and the wonderful fishing that seems to be prevalent at the moment!
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| Double number 6 for the season! Get in! |
Tightest of lines
Keith
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