Wonderful Wyebank

Mathew waiting for a nibble!

After a busy weekend with work and family, I had a day booked in on Wyebank with Mathew for this Monday. The venue as some of you will know from my last post a week or two back with Bob....is a very fast flowing and shallow beat that is well suited to low water, summer barbel fishing.

We arrived just after dawn and set about the arduous task of lugging all our kit to the final swim on the beat which just happens to be the best holding area for the barbel. I positioned my box out in the water as I had on my previous trip and sorted Mathew out with a similar set up. We decided that the best approach for us to attack the swim with was to both fish it in a line with my rod out slightly further into the flow than Mats. This was we could keep the fish in one area rather than all over the swim.

We set up 5oz feeders and long 4 foot hooklengths with a size 8 hook and a small river monster boilie on the hair rig. We both had a small barbel within minutes, both weighing around 3lbs....Things looked good for a busy day! All become apparently harder as the morning progressed though and with increasing numbers of kayaks and very bright, hot sunshine, the fishing got tougher. We had to scale down to size 14 hooks and 6mm pellets to stay in touch with the fish and finally started to get into a few in numbers, albeit just small fish up to a pound in weight.

One of 27 barbel taken in the session!

Mathew decided to have a go with a new center pin reel he'd purchased from a mate and was adamant he wanted to catch a barbel on it using a stick float and trotting techniques. Well, he did just that no less than 6 times in fact! Each fish weighing around 2-3lbs in weight. Great work in the bright day time sun!

I plugged away on the feeder tactics and lost a very chunky 6lb+ chub to a bit of poor angling on my behalf. I allowed the fish to get a little bit out of hand whilst I was trying to net it and she went under the legs of my platform and cut me off. I was pretty gutted as it looked a very decent, thick set fish.

I had to wait another hour or so before finally grabbing a better barbel which tipped the scales to around 5 and a half pounds. Not a record by any standards but it certainly fought well in the fast waters of the bottom pool.

In the end we called it a day around 7pm to head down stream and do some drop shotting for perch. Unfortunately we didn't see a single fish down stream and retired feeling very tired around 9pm. The finished figures for the day though were pretty impressive and Mat finished on 14 barbel, I had 13 barbel and 4 chub. Great result and great fun! I did manage to grab a bit of brill underwater footage of Mathew playing a couple of barbel on the feeder.

I've got an extremely busy week planned for next week. Hopefully a quick 48hr session back up on the River Severn on Sunday, then a guiding day on Wyebank Wednesday...then Friday I'm away at a private lake in Berkshire for a 48hr social session with some very old friends I've not seen for some time. Then I'm meeting up with Bob for a night on the ponds after a chunky carp or two. Going to be busy busy!!!!

Tight lines guys
x

Pixham pleasures!!!!

7lb 1oz from Monmouth

Another great week or so on the river bank has just passed and yet more great stories to tell! This last few days has been no exception to the rule and despite stupidly low river conditions and clear water, the rivers have excelled in providing me with some of the best river fishing sport I have had in my career!

I paid a visit to my club water with Mathew again earlier in the week and we fished the same swims we had fished the week prior. Mathew chose to fish the lower swim and I went upstream a little.

On arrival I balled in around a half dozen small balls of groundbait and put both rods very slightly down stream of it. The action began almost immediately after and both of us started to receive a huge quantity of trembles on the rods. It wasn't long before my left hand rod hooped over into action and a very strong fish powered off down stream. The fight was dogged and intense. The fish knew all the tricks in the book and went for a fallen tree under the water below my swim. A bit of upstream pulling saw her clear and eventually into the waiting net.

7lb 2oz...peas in a pod!

I got the camera and weighing gear ready and wet the sling and mat. I hoisted her clear of the water and I knew then that I was looking at another double for the season! On the scales she tipped 10lb 10oz! Well chuffed with the result.

Things went a little quiet then and it wasn't until it was just dusk before I took another 2 smaller fish of 7lb 1oz and 7lb 2oz. Mathews swim was totally dead and all he managed all evening was a fat old 4lb chub! Very strange evening all round really as the fish just couldn't be placed in one spot and the 3 I took all came from different parts of the swim!

My ticket finally came through from the Barbel Society this week for Pixham Ferry on the Severn. I've been wanting to give the River Severn a go for some time now but the BAA stretches that I once had a small dabble on when I first moved to Wales are just a little out of reach for a days fishing. The best part of the Pixham ticket is that you can fully night fish for up to 48hrs, which means I can make it a worth while visit.

10lb 10oz! Stunning in every way!

I got in touch with Lee Wilkes who is the Fishery Manager and he pointed me in the right direction with regards to parking an swims etc and I made the journey up on Tuesday afternoon. On arrival there was just one other chap present who was fishing until about 11pm. I opted to fish a few swims up from him on a section known as 'The Flats'.

Pixham on the Severn and lots of new challenges!

This is an area of low, exposed bank, made up of hard mud covered in low water grass. A great spot to put up my brolly and bed for the 2 nights. The swim offers great accessibility to a very large expense of open water area. I started off casting one long to a gravel section I found towards the far shelf and put the other in the middle gutter which has a depth of about 12 feet I reckon.

The action was almost non stop from Bream and by 8pm I was already about 6 fish up! Each one was a real chunk though and I don't honestly think I've ever caught so many large bream! My first barbel came around 11pm and a sprightly 7lb barbel finally graced my net! My first 'proper' barbel from the river at last!

Lovely jubley!

The fishing stayed hectic all night and 1 bream after another found the back of the net. The barbel seemed a little off the feed so I started to introduce a few balls of groundbait lower down the swim but just up from a large mid river snag that apparently holds the fish.

The fishing in the day was little slower than at night so I made the choice to sleep a bit in the day and target the fish in their feeding period. This proved successful and the next evening saw me land just 4 bream to a total of 8 barbel! Much better figures!

What a back drop!

The other thing I did to slow down the bream was to just ignore any bite that didn't take line from the reel and I opted to fish a large wide gape 6 hook, long hair rig and a 20mm hook bait! This certainly slowed the bream down. It may have hindered my chances with the barbel but it did allow me to keep a bait in the water for a longer period of time. I found out to my dismay that there is a large amount of logs and tree debris in that particular swim. It's obviously been washed up in the winter floods and has been deposited on the shelf of the inside marginal area. This makes playing fish very hazardous at the best of times. The only way to get them in seemed to be to strike, pull like crazy and get the rod as high as possible! Bully boy tactics that I hate to employ but they seemed to be needed in this case.

9lb 1oz of River Severn power!!!!

The best fish of the trip turned out to be very chunky 9lb 1oz fish. This particular fish was rather recognizable as it had a split tail fin. Lee had also caught it a few times at a similar weight over the prior weeks.

One of 19 bream to 7lb 14oz!!!

Right, lots to do....there's some great bait orders coming in again and there's quite a few days guiding booked in over the next week or two....busy, busy!

Tight lines all
K
x

Yet more Wye loveliness!

Hi all.

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.

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!

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.

At last a better stamp for Bob!

He wasn't overly bothered as he was more interested in the better sized fish. Anyway, things progressed well throughout the day and by 7pm I had taken 21 barbel to just under 7lbs and Bob had had 10 to about 6lbs. This was a record amount of barbel in a day for myself and Bob and we were now looking forward to packing in and moving ten minutes down river to a more big fish prolific section for the evening period.

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!

The following evening and after just a couple of hours poor sleep due to my never ending cold! Mathew and I decided to go out for a few hours after work. Mats not had the chance to do much barbelling since the start of the season and despite 3 trips out he was still only on 6 barbel for the season albeit one of them a new PB double of 10lb 1oz.

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!

Well in Mathew boy!

The fight was spectacular and no less than heart stopping at numerous points as the fish was hell bent on weeding me up and trying to snag me on a fallen tree! I had to slack line the fish on 3 occasions to get it to come free from the snag and it took much longer than I would have liked to get it in.

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!

Double number 6 for the season! Get in!

Tightest of lines
Keith
X

Toms PB Barbel!

Millies fiirst Chub!

Hello my friends.

Not felt much like July this last week or so if i'm totally honest as it's been bloody chilly at times! The winds been almost October'ish in its feel and the rain has done little to boost my mood. Despite the crap weather I have been out on the bank a bit this last two weeks.

First up I have to say a massive thanks to my best buddy Stuey and his lovely family for putting me up overnight in their gorgeous home in Christchurch last week. Stu and I had a great day on the Compound Weir pool but in hindsight we may have had more action going to Throop or somewhere else as the fishing was....well....crap!

We managed little more than a small 2lb chub, a few missed opportunities from bream and small barbel and Stuart landing a 15lb 5oz pike whilst retrieving a minnow that had taken his maggot hookbait!

Not intended species but very welcome!

It was a wonderful day though otherwise....we both caught the sun during the midday heat and Stu's mum, dad, wife and 2 kids popped down to join in the fun for a few hours. This was great for me as I got to do some great bonding with little Millie (Stuarts beautiful little girl aged 3). She was a delight to sit and talk to and the pair of us hit it off very well. Apparently she thinks i'm pretty cool for an old bloke with no hair!!! lol Even Millie out-fished both her Dad and I with a nice chub and her first ever fish! Well done Tinks!

After the events of Hampshire and the severe lack of Barbel action on the Avon, I felt a quick trip up the Wye was required to restore my confidence on Sunday afternoon. I arrived to find about 6 guys fishing on the club stretch....most looked as if they were most likely not members but since i'm not a bailiff, what can you do?

I opted to drop into a peg I used to find productive until last season and set about a few exploratory casts. I noted a few likely areas where I could find clear gravel and set about placing a bait in two spots. It was quite a while before my first bit of action and that resulted in a nice fish of just over 6lbs.

My 30th Barbel of the season at 10lb 2oz!

I then had to wait until it was almost dark before my next bites which came in quick succession and resulted in a fish I've had 4 other times before but usually at higher weights. This particular fish has a yellow blemish on its right hand cheek.

A nice one of 7lb 12oz though. Finally just before calling it a day I had another nice double of 10lb 2oz. Not a fish that I recognized either....Great to see another new double turn up!

I did a quick evening session on the much tougher River Taff on  Tuesday with Ryan. We managed to get into one of the hotter pegs near Cardiff City Center and despite pretty much perfect conditions and a bit of extra water and colour in the river.....we blanked.

Great start to the evening for Tom at 8lb 3oz!

Next up was a session on Wednesday evening with my son Thomas on the Wye. As some of you will know Thomas isn't a huge fishing fan. He's a bit of an indoors lad really and doesn't pleasure in getting covered in mud, dirt or fish slime! Saying that though, he does occasionally come out with me for a session and invariably catches something worth talking about! This week was to be no exception to the rule! He's barbel fished once before and managed two nice fish of 6lb odd and 8lb 12oz.

Well first cast resulted in a stunning torpedo of 8lb 3oz and Tom couldn't believe how quickly we were into fish....not only that but I think he'd forgotten just how bloody hard they fight too! What was funny though was that a group of baby ducks he'd been feeding for a while were hanging around the front of the swim while he was playing the fish and one of the brethren decided it was a sensible idea to attack the fish as we were about to net it! Nutter!

BOOOOOOOMMMMM! Get in Tom! New PB of 10lb 2oz! Well done son xxxx

Nice!

Next up was a 6lb 12oz fish which took him all over the place! We took a few pics before rebaiting the rods and recasting. The water was well up by over a foot and carrying some serious flotsam and weed down with it yet again. Toms next chance of a fish came just as it was getting dark and the bite was nothing short of incredible!

He bent into what was clearly a much bigger animal than he'd hooked before. The fight lasted a while as the fish pulled his line all over the river before succumbing to fatigue. On the scales she went 10lb 2oz and we both cheered at his delight in breaking his pb of 8lb 12oz and of course landing his first ever double! Well done son!

He had another 2 small fish of around 6lb and 6lb 5oz to end the evening. What a great result. I think he wants to come out again sooner rather than later as he now says he see's what it is that I like so much about fishing. Not only for the fish but the scenery, wildlife and of course the infinite tranquility that it brings with it.

Well done Lucy Rowley on catching a new PB as well!

I've got Natasha away for a fortnight at present, so i'm really looking forward to having her home in the next week or so as we have the Dave Mason guided day to book up and I also have a great day in store for Monday with my good mate Bob!

Brilliant stuff Dan!

Finally there is a few quick words to say about a lovely lady who has just banked a new PB mirror carp on just her second outing with her other half Mathew, who is a field tester for my bait company. Lucy Rowley did a night with Mat and the pair both caught stunning fish. Mat managed a cracking 21lber and Lucy weighed in a brilliant fish of 17lb 4oz! Well done guys!

Also a big well done to Dan Jones who went on to do his weekend session on the Severn at Bewdley and managed a nice little barbel using the tactics I showed hi the week prior! Well done Dan!
I hope your all well and kicking and catching lots of fish.

Tight lines
Keith
x

And still they come!

10lb and a very happy captor

Hi all!


Well, didn't think i'd have much more to write about this week if i'm honest but that's where I was left totally wrong yet again!

After the success of last week and then Monday nights fishing....and the fact that I had hardly had a wink of sleep in 3 nights through chronic insomnia.

I wasn't ready to hit the bank again until my planned guiding trip with Dan Jones on Wednesday evening! Albeit a quick offer of a trip up with Ryan on Tuesday night signaled another session at my club stretch of the Wye.

I've got to say now that I was very dubious to go as I had had so little sleep in the previous nights, that I thought it was either going to make me ill or just wasn't worth going as I thought I would probably fall asleep on the bank! I still went though!!! How can you not go fishing I thought???

I got around to Ryans and fortunately he was happy to drive, this left me with less to worry about being so tired. We got to the river as the boats were just pulling off and settled into the same swim I had fished the night prior. I was skeptical as to whether it would fish yet again but as there seemed to be plenty of fish present there what harm could it do?

Double no 4 for the season at 10lb 7oz......so pleased!

Ryan went up stream and I went down with one rod each. He started on Garlic Spam and I went straight on the River Monster. It wasn't long before the RM struck and a nice little 6lber graced my net. Then as quick as I put her back I had another of about 5lbs. Probably the two smallest i've had to date from my club stretch!

Ryan started to get some action too

My next cast resulted in another arm wrenching take and same result of a superb 7lb 7oz barbel. Ryan was reeling at the 3-0 so far and decided a change over to a pellet was in order to restore dignity! I then had another of just over 8lbs to rub salt in the wounds!!!

Of course, I gave him the usual ribbing you give mates when they're 4-0 down! The banter flew like fighting cockerels and things then slowed up a little for a short time. Ryan was then next up with a fish of about 4lbs....'Well, at least he hadn't blanked!' I told him! Then I landed a fifth! And to really add insult to injury it was my third double of the season at 10lb 7oz! A right old brute of a warrior as well. The usual line creaking and screaming run from the reel and then endless attempts to snag me up!

Dan Jones with his first ever Barbel!

After returning the big fish I thought that was more than likely it for the night and started to get packed away for the journey home. As I turned to fold up my chair, off went my rod yet again....this time it just screamed away with my line and me hanging on for grim death! Another big barbel fight ensued and as I was playing the fish Ryan spotted a few trembles on his rod tip...After deciding it wasn't my rod tip hitting his line, he struck into a fish himself.

Two fish on at once in a small swim was a giggle, I can tell you! But we managed to get both in safely and weigh, photograph and return both fish without a problem. Ryans fish going 8lb 13oz and mine being bang on 10lbs! Double no 4 for the season!

After the Tuesday night success I had to make plans for a guiding session with Dan Jones. I've known Dan through facebook for about 8 years but we had as such never met up on the bank. Dan has had a couple of trips up the Wye with other anglers and as such failed to put a barbel on the bank as yet. I was determined to help him change that and we met up late afternoon on Wednesday for the journey up to Herefordshire.

Nice PB Dan!!! 8lb 2oz barbel

We jumped into a swim I knew held a few good fish but it was a bit tight for the both of us. I managed to park both seats in tight and got about setting up two rods for Dan to use. The river had risen a good foot over night and there was some of the worst weed growth coming down that I have to date seen on the Wye! Some of it the size of small cars!

Presentation was near on impossible and the only way we could keep our leads in the water was to keep the tips as low as possible to the waters edge in front, similar to still water quivertip fishing techniques. This worked to an extent and we were able to keep the baits in the water long enough for Dan to get his first ever barbel on the bank! 6lbs on the nail! I think he was rather pleased as he did his video blog holding such a stunning prize up for the camera!

Well done Dan no3!

He then had another opportunity with a much better one of 8lb 2oz some 5 minutes later. This fish fought a lot harder and tested Dan out to the maximum! Finally after bagging his third of the evening at 7lb 6oz we had to call it a night due to the excessive weed. It really was intolerable! Next week I'm heading down south to see Stuey for a long day out on the Compound Great Weir at the Royalty Fishery, Hants Avon. Hopefully to grab a nice Avon fish or two!

Hope your all well and having a great season so far.

Keith X

More Wye wonders!

And we're off!

Hi guys,

Bit of a change in the weather conditions this week for some of us. Down here in Bridgend it's pretty wet and miserable with a sticky warm feel to it. Not great for sleeping! I had another quick evening trip up to Monmouth last night and to say the river is on its bones is an understatement!

It's quite frighteningly low throughout and the swim I have fished twice now is 3 feet down below it's lowest point I've ever seen it at! Not good...

When I left home at around 5pm the rain was pouring at home but by the time I reached the river it was clear skies and quite nice fishing conditions. The swims were all free and there wasn't a sole to be seen on the whole stretch. I decided i'd jump straight back into the same peg i'd fished middle of last week as I felt it had the best chance of another fish or two.

By 8.30pm I was starting to regret my decision as i'd just had a few trembles and that was it??? Couldn't believe the speed some of the motor boats that the Rowing club were using again either...

One fella went past so quick that the wash from the boat was almost 3 feet high! Totally irresponsible and dam right ignorant. No wonder the fishing is hard in day light hours with prats like that tearing about!

I had my first take around 8.50pm and the rod did it's usual fly over at a rate of knots before tearing line from the spool! I was pleased to finally bag one at 8lb 1oz on the usual low river tactics of a straight lead and small pva bag and River Monster boilie!

The next fish came quite rapidly after and a nice spritely 7lb 7oz torpedo found the spreader block. Almost straight away after I was in yet again with a stunning 9lb 3oz chunk which was determined to tear around the entire river basin before weeding me up! A little on and off pressure saw her free'd up and eventually into the waiting net.

I had to wait about quarter of an hour for the next fish and boy was it worth it! One hell of a scrap with what I thought for a while may have been a carp until I saw it! Another nice double of 10lb 12oz! What a result....I was really feeling the love for the river Wye again and with two doubles including a new PB in the bag for the new season, I was feeling pretty darn good about life!

I was just about to net the double when the other rod ripped off! I couldn't believe it, two on at once! I netted the big fish and rested it in front in the water before grabbing the other rod. This fish felt good as well and after a few minutes of battling against the weed beds, she was mine. All 9lb 1ozs of her....two in the net for 20lbs! Epic fishing!

Thinking that was probably my lot for the evening, I started to pack my kit away....A few minutes later I heard a clicking noise and upon looking up I noticed my left hand rod bent double and yet another good barbel hooked.

Yet again she went for the weed beds in front and down to my left hand side but some constant pressure saw me good for another nice 9lb 13oz lunker! 2 chub swiftly followed the barbel and then finally to end the evening another brute of 8lb 2oz to make it 7 barbel for the night.

Tight lines all

Keith
x

Wye PB!

A great start to the short session! 9lb 7oz

Good day my friends!

This last week has been uber hectic in the office, so to speak! The bait rolling gear has been doing over time and orders flying out left, right and center! Finding a spare five minutes to wet a line has been tough to come by and had I not really pushed myself i'd have nothing new to tell you about this week.....But I did and I have!

Wednesday afternoon came around and despite the heavy work load and many other commitments I had lined up, the wife insisted I grab a few hours on the river bank. I wasn't really feeling it to be honest but I knew that once I was there i'd enjoy it as I always do.

It's funny how sometimes you can crave to be out there fishing and other times you could just take it or leave it. This was one of those evenings where I could have just left it and had an early night. I'm glad to say I didn't though and I think you'll agree by the end of my story, that it was a bloody good job I didn't leave it!

8lb 12oz and things were hotting up!

I grabbed a Macdonalds coffee and a cheap burger from the M4 services on route as it was just before tea time and headed off up towards Monmouth in the rush hour traffic. Not my greatest decision to date.....The traffic was okay until I reached the turn off for Usk at which it ground to a miraculous hault. 60MPH to nothing in a matter of yards. Oh deepest joy....I sat there for about half an hour before things started to move a little and I was starting to think I'd made a piss poor decision going out at that time of the day.

Eventually things started to move along slowly and finally I reached my destination about an hour later than it should have been. My first choice swim was taken and so was my second as well....I couldn't believe it. The river was literally on it's bare bones and running clear and very weedy in places too. I really didn't have many other options but to try a spot i'd only pike fished during the colder months.

Another nice 8lber!

This particular swim has a deeper hole present at 2 rod lengths out extending to around 4 lengths into the river. This then shallows up from around 10 feet to 5 feet in the middle area of the river bed. I decided I'd target the close in area to start with and work my way further out should bites not be forth coming. The sun beamed down and the canoeists for a change were reasonably bearable. The idiots in speed boats still acted like fools racing around but the canoes themselves were ok.

I made my first casts into the close in areas, covering the deeper spot out in front and down stream slightly to my left. I put on the usual River Monster boilie and just a very small PVA bag of spicy sausage pellets, about the size of a 50 pence piece. I had a few odd trembles on both rods but nothing that got me too excited. It was just after 8pm that the boats finally stopped for the night and I was then able to explore the swim slightly further out into the flow of the river.

The smallest of the evening at 7lb 6oz

This was met with an almost instant result and the right hand rod buckled down in to an alarming curve as a very angry Wye Barbel took the hook bait.I wasn't really ready for the take as I was sending a text message at the time....I nearly dropped my phone in the river as I jumped up to grab the butt of the rod which was flying up towards the sky! A great scrap ensued and a few minutes later after struggling to pull her back through the thick weeds, I had a stunning 9lb 7oz specimen laying in my net! Biggest of the year so far. The fish was in fine condition and despite the lack of flow and oxygen, she went off like a record after having her pictures taken.

It took about half an hour before my next chance and the left hand rod was next to leave the butt rests! Another stunner of 8lb 12oz which was shortly followed up by yet another 2 fish of 8lb 4oz and 7lb 6oz. Things then went decidedly quiet around 10pm and a bite was much harder to come by. I wasn't complaining though as i'd had a new season best and 4 lovely fish all over 7lbs in just 3 hours fishing!

I decided to give it another half hour but to no avail. I sat watching dormant rod tips before making the decision to call it a night at 10.20pm. I started to pack away all the non essential items and finally the last bits of gear before reeling in. I was just about to lift the rods off the rests to reel in for the night when the left hand rod flew into action! Flew was a bit of an understatement though to be honest as the butt made its way out of the rod cup holder and the reel hit the top front rest on its way skyward towards the river!

Finally something to really talk about! 12lb 7oz Wye PB! Bloody awesome!

I managed to just about grab the rod by the last 6 inches of cork handle and set the hook in. The fish then went on a heck of a run down stream before turning and doing the same thing back up river! Up and down it went about 5 or 6 times....Finally I started to gain a bit of line and then as the light from my head torch caught a glimpse of the fish as it broke the surface about 20 yards out....I realized i had something a little bit more exciting on the end of my line!

One fat girl!

She rolled into the net and I looked down at my prize, jesus it was chunky! The width alone was bigger than any barbel i'd caught in my angling career! It just had to be a double and I suspected it may well be close to a personal best fish, which currently stood at 11lb 4oz from the swim opposite where I was fishing that night!

I readied the scales, mate, sling and camera and lifted her clear of the river in the net! Jeez, it was chunky! I took a couple of photos and got so carried away looking at her that I neigh on nearly forgot to weigh her! I quickly slipped her into the weigh sling and had to rub my eyes as the needle flew around to just shy of thirteen pounds! 12lb 7oz to be precise! A new PB by a small mile! What a fish!

I knew there were a few slightly bigger ones in my club stretch but that fish is going to take some serious beating!

Tight lines all
Keith!

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