Too Windy
The glorious 16th was approaching and Geoff Maynard had kindly invited a group of us to his Llanthomas fishery for the opening week. Some had arrived early to prepare swims, pre-bait and get some Salmon and/or Trout fishing in although the social aspects were as always a big part of this as with any other IAC (Internet Angling Club) fish-in. A barbecue was planned for the evening of Saturday the 15th but the inclement weather put paid to this as well as hindering those attempting to fly fish (you know who you are :))
I myself travelled down with my caravan and set up at the back of the Swan Inn in Letton (pub now closed unfortunately), some 10 miles down the road from Llanthomas, which would be my base for the week and very handy to fish the now syndicate water at Letton Court as well has Geoff's excellent fishery at Llanthomas. I'd not long set up the caravan, in between rain showers, when texts arrived informing me the barbecue was cancelled and a table booked at the excellent Radnor Arms a short walk from Llanthomas for 8pm that evening. Prior to this meal I drove up to the fishery for a chin wag and to prepare (spade required) my swim for the opening day. Pretty soon it was meal time at the pub and it really was excellent, as was the 'Butty Bach' but at £3-60 a pint a bit more than I was used to paying back home in Yorkshire !
A dire first day of the season, it rained and drizzled most of the day and very
few fish were moving or feeding. I concentrated on trotting but lost a lot of
tackle due in no small part to some faulty line on the centrepin which was
breaking well below its stated BS so instead of the hooklength parting the
main line did instead, last time I buy cheap but reputable line on ebay :(
I eventually retired to the hut and replaced it with better line.
I finished up with 2 Trout and a very pregnant minnow so at least I got a
couple of species race points in the bag.
I had a Barbel rod out most of the time but more in hope than expectation and had enough by 8pm and left the bivvy boys
to it, hoping things would improve the following day
I was up late Monday morning and must have needed the sleep but it was a fishing holiday and not a marathon, so a leisurely breakfast was consumed and then I drove back to Llanthomas, resolving to do a bit of roving with the float rod and thigh waders. Thigh deep is a as far as I want to go in the Wye; I'm a nervous wader following a near miss with a clay hole in the middle of a pebbled section on the Swale many years ago. I started off at the top of the fishery, after crossing to the island that dominates this section, and was soon trotting a fastish run, deeper on the far bank, for the odd lively trout. It wasn't long before the occasional canoiest put in an appearance unfortunately the canoiests above Hay seem particularly inept and despite trying to avoid me the first rammed me broadside (luckily I saw them coming and braced myself in the fast water) and the second missed me but then almost turned over again travelling broadside but this time on the shallows behind me. I do wonder if they get any training and whether accident insurance is part of the package. Certainly those I encounter further downstream at Letton, where navigation of craft is legal (unlike upstream of Hay), seem of higher calibre when it comes to manouvering such craft. Ignoring the rain and drizzle I gradually worked my way downstream fishing most of the likely looking runs I could safely manage at my chosen wading depth until I met up with Geoff who was desperately trying to annoy the Salmon we had seen leaping into taking his fly. Just after parting company with Geoff I came across a group of canoiests who had decided 'The Beach' looked like a grand spot for a hot chocolate stop, I politely informed them landing was not allowed and this was private land that Geoff paid a lot of money to fish from, their response was innocent ignorance and they'd "finished anyway" so promptly departed to run down some other poor unfortunate angler. I finished up with around nine brown trout to just over the pound mark and lost one approaching two pounds at the net but that's fishing. I then retired to the now vacant Pulpit for a couple of hours and managed a couple of Chub going 3lb 6oz and 4lb 8oz respectively. I didn't fish into dark as I had forgotten my headlamp and I was also feeling somewhat peckish so drove back to the caravan in Letton for my evening microwave meal.
Tuesday I decided to fish at Letton (leaving Neil to plunder the Pulpit) and my first serious try for a Barbel. Another leisurely start saw the rods out just after midday in one of my favourite Letton swims and with the the birds singing, the bank to myself and an excellent phone signal all was right in my world (other than the low flow and strange peaty colour in the water) and set for a lazy day behind the rods. And so it proved, hardly a tremor for hours and very muggy but just before 3-30pm the upstream rod pulled over as I was checking emails for the umpteenth time but no line was taken from the baitrunner. It was apparent the fish was already snagged as soon as I picked the rod up but I could feel it kicking so gave some slack and changed the angle. Then after tightening up again the feeder jettisoned, as the link did its job, and eventually the Barbel was mine. It was a long thin Barbel with obvious post spawning damage to the tail and weighed 8lb 11oz but could easily have gone 10lb in good condition, I made sure it was well recovered before release. A couple of hours later a 3lb 6oz Chub and that was the last of the action other than the resident Salmon occasionally crashing out. I packed up early as a cold beer was calling. Neil meanwhile at Llanthomas snaffled a 3lb 14oz Chub from The Pulpit before retiring to Geoffs for a steak meal courtesy of Maggie.
Today was looking like the best day of the week weather-wise and I decided to
fish down at Letton again as Neil wanted a proper go at The Pulpit.
My casting wasn't the best yesterday and I lost a good few feeders on the
many snags. I'm aiming for a 6ft square area well across the river and
outside that is flirting with snag ridden danger.
However before I set off for the river today a shower/shave and caravan housework were
required.
Meanwhile updates from Neil were coming in :-
"10:30 hrs
I've just cast both rods out in the pulpit and it looks like a brolly day here ...,,, to prevent sun stroke. It's glorious, fingers crossed for a bite or two or twenty :)"
"12:15 hrs Just had a barbel of 7-02 on Elips pellets :)"
Eventually just before 1:30pm I was all set up, sandals on, t-shirt off, shades on, jeans rolled up, and just needed a Barbel to make things perfect but things were slow again then further updates from 'The Pulpit' :-
"15:17 hrs A chub if 4-01 to the same rod and method. Possibly the most pristine chub ice caught. Took ages for it to recover but it swam strongly away after a long rest."
"16:27 hrs Another chub of 3-02, this time on the downstream rod or rather the less upstream rod. Paste wrapped Meteor boilie."
Eventually I tired of the inactivity, despite the excellent weather, so fired some pellets out, went for a wander, did some tree pruning and continued waiting for a bite. I mused that most of the fish had gone to the top of beat one to frolic in the fast water just leaving a big Salmon or Pike to surprise the life out of me every time it crashed out. Then soon after 7pm a feisty 9lb Barbel to the downstream rod which was in good condition and didn't appear to have spawned or if it had it was well recovered. I stuck it out till nearly 9pm having had a good look at the Salmon that kept crashing out, it was nearly 3ft long !!
Meanwhile Neil at Llanthomas had a much better day adding Barbel of 10lb 7oz and as he was about to pack up one of 9lb 15oz.
A big change in the weather from yesterday, I was woken by the rain clattering on the caravan roof and had to turn the interior light on as it was so dark. Today's plan was to fish the Pulpit at Llanthomas, hoping I hadn't missed the boat following Neil's spectacular successes of yesterday. By 12:30 hrs I was all set up in the Pulpit, having topped up with diesel on the drive over, and a 3lb'ish Chub 1st cast which I didn't bother weighing. I was glad of the steps which Andy had cut into the bank during his pre-season preparation as it avoided risking life and limb leaning over the undercut high banking of this swim with the long net handle to land any fish. Twenty minutes later another Chub, this time around 4lb, to the same rod. Meanwhile the canoiests were out in force and a group decided to pull out on the opposite bank pebble beach below me and demonstrate their prowess at skimming stones across the bottom bend. The drizzly weather continued but I was hopeful of a few more fish as they seemed to be feeding despite the canoes. Around 2-30pm I had a small Barbel of 4lb 8oz on the upstream rod as Llanthomas turned into schools out for canoiests, there were loads of them making a fair old racket, I could hear them well before they splashed and paddled into view. At least they were accompanied by a few supervisiors who appeared to have a modicum of paddling skills and once I had whistled at them they even acknowledged I was there. Meanwhile Geoff was still annoying the Salmon but only succeeded in tempting a Chub on his 'Flying C'. Things then went very quiet on the fishy front (not surprising given the volume on the canoe front) so I reeled in the Barbel rods, catapulted out some pellets and went trotting further downstream for a couple of hours, capturing a few Trout to just over 1lb and the odd small Chub. It was a bit after 7pm when I returned to the Barbel rods and recast, within 10 minutes a 7lb 4oz Barbel was in the net, the old bait and wait trick worked again :) Another long period of inaction with just Chub tremors disturbing the rods as day turned to dusk. As I my mind wandered I noticed a wind knot in the braid mainline of my upstream rod so reeled in a little to make it accessible and laid the rod on the ground to unpick the knot. As a precaution I had slackened off the baitrunner and when I heard it 'ticking' I thought I must have caught the line with my foot but no it was a Barbel. It was a fish of about 8lb which as usual I unhooked in the water and let it recover in the net for a while before bringing up the bank for weighing and photographing. As I was doing this the other rod was off; I picked this up and a heavy fish was heading out into mid river so I ended up clambering back down the bank, rod in one hand and net containing Barbel in the other. Eventually both Barbel were in the net but the more recent one was deep hooked (I've not come across this with a Barbel before) however the hook was visible so after securing the net and clambering back up the bank for my long nosed pliers I soon had the thankfully barbless hook out. I let the smaller of the 2 fish go and weighed and photographed the larger at 9lb 14oz, very pleasing ! After all this activity I had a bit of a sweat on but after cooling down it was time to pack up and return to the caravan for a late evening meal and celebratory beer.
Another late start but what the hell as I said earlier it's a holiday not a marathon :). The first job, once breakfast and fishy preparations were out of the way, was to return to Llanthomas for the landing net I'd left behind when rather tiredly packing the car the previous night. I then decided to explore a different area of the Letton stretch to where I normally fish, a bit of a gamble especially given the bright conditions and low river but nothing ventured nothing gained as they say. The swim I chose does have some Barbel form but not perhaps in these conditions. Once again I had the beat to myself (beat 1 rather than my usual beat 3 this time). I spent a long time walking the whole of beats 1 and 2 and spent some time talking to a Salmon angler on beat 2 and watching whilst a Salmon followed and nipped at his lure on 3 occasions, nothing landed but an education nevertheless. As a consequence of this diversion it was mid afternoon before I got set up in 'The Stump' swim although the stump itself appeared to have gone missing over the winter. It was a gorgeous day, if a tad breezy and I was soon dozing off in my chair as I watched the shoals of fry in the margins. As the afternoon progressed the breeze escalated to a full blown gale and despite the almost unbroken sunshine it was decidely chilly. Later on another Salmon angler appeared and I watched and later chatted to him for a while, casting a Salmon fly looked like hard work in the windy conditions. By 8pm I was freezing and had enough so finished off my week with a blank :(
A tricky week especially for the Barbel, everything seemed to be a month or two behind schedule, even the fry in the margins were much smaller than is usual for the time of year. In the end I was glad to have caught a few and things will hopefully improve greatly in the coming months. I'll be back, probably in September.