Getting tougher!

Nice weather for October!

This last few days has been all about toughing it out! The day time fishing on the river Wye has been nothing short of tough with a capital T! My first session was with a very old acquaintance, Chris Tupper aka (Badger) (long story).....we go back many years as we used to fish together in my earlier angling career at a venue called Theale, near to Reading. Chris and I had seen each other a few weeks ago at the social event that we attended and I promised him a chance at a Wye barbel and possible PB.

We finally got ourselves sorted for a day out together and met up around 8am outside Sue's tackle shop in Hereford. We got our tickets and headed down to the river. Things looked bang on to start with and we set up in a swim which has done many great fish for both myself, friends and clients in the past. Chris managed to nail himself through th thumb with a size 8 hook that he'd left in his carryall and I spent a good quarter of an hour removing it with a pair of forceps! Blood and pain followed but amazingly the hook came out and Chris lived to tell the tale!

Finally Chris started to get amongst the fish!

Well, the fishing might have been ace before in that swim but it didn't happen there on this day though. 3 hours in and we were biteless! Not a dam sniff! We moved slightly further upstream to another hot peg and suffered the same plight bar a lost fish to a hook pull. The bailiffs told us that the stretch hadn't fished well on the weekend for the Wye championships and that it was showing signs of shutting up shop.

We eventually made the decision to move down stream and set up an hour later in another of my 'hot' pegs. It was an hour before things started to improve but then all hell broke loose and it was a game trying to keep a rod in the water! First out was a small one of 6lb plus. Chris was over the moon to have caught his first Wye Barbel but I wanted him to bust his PB of 9lb 10oz!

The next fish came at 8lb odd and was swiftly followed by better chunks of 9lb 2oz and then 9lb 5oz! I couldn't believe we were getting closer to his PB by the minute but just dropping short. Things then went very quiet for about an hour and I feared that it was probably all we were going to achieve to catch from the swim. I shouldn't have been too concerned though as his next bite, a very slow ponderous, upstream pull, resulted in a very good bend in the rod and a deep ploddy fight, akin to that of a better fish.

YESSSS! New PB and first ever double for Chris.....10lb 9oz! Well done buddy

The battle was different to prior fish and she hung deep in the water until the final moments of the scrap. I knew it was a better fish and so did Chris. The scales don't lie and at 10lb 9oz Chris was made up to have beaten his PB and finally grabbed his first ever double! Two more fish of 7lb and 7lb 14oz finished off the day with a tally of 7! Incidentally the same amount of fish that Chris had managed all season from his waters! He was totally blown away by the experience.....Well done mate.

I was going to hopefully get out myself over the course of the weekend to see if I could up my figures past the 110 for the season but I had a painful set of Kidneys on Friday and then Saturday we had 2 puppies born, which kind of buggered up mu whole likelihood of getting out myself. I did however managed to get out to guide the lovely Emma Dyer. Emma is a a budding newby to the sport and her other half is paving the way to helping her bag as many different species as they can catch her. I stepped in to help with the barbel though.....

Bob quietly getting on with business as usual! 11lb 2oz! NICE!

The fishing was totally different to the previous session though and after 4 hours fishing we were completely biteless. My mate Bob was just down stream and had 4 to 11lb 4oz but our peg was deader than a dodo....It took some serious hard work to get Emma her first barbel but finally 5 hours in it happened. The take was nothing short of boring and in all honesty if I hadn't have been watching the rod tip intently, I don't think we would have even known a fish was attached??? The bite was just a slight tightening up of the line and then a gentle release before re-tightening again. Emma lent into what first appeared to be weed but then the weed started to move upstream!

The fight was a lot better than the initial bite and Emma had to work hard to defeat her quarry. Some 5 minutes later though, she had a stunning long bar of gold sat in the net ready for her to weigh and photograph. I think she was quite taken a back by the fish and the picture tells the whole story really. A huge smile and another very happy customer! 10lbs exactly! A very bug well done Emma!

Well done Emma! First ever Barbel and it was 10lbs!!!!

Quiet week for me this week now I think....A bit of an opportunity to recover and get my body back into shape. The long hours out, getting soaking wet, eating poorly, lack of sleep and endless driving have taken its toll on me. I will however be back at it next week with a nice session penciled in with Bob again! Can't wait!

Tight lines all
Keith x