5lb Chub
River Wye Trip Report September 2007
Woke early and got myself sorted for fishing then had to wait for reception to open so I could pay for the week. Drove down to Letton and bought my ticket for the week £30. Drove down to beat 3 and set up in my banker swim. River very low and not much flow it's going to be hard. Fished 11am till 8pm. Very little action during the day other than Perch periodically attacking the minnows and bleak. Caught a bleak on worm and tried for a Perch but no joy. No bites on pellet till 7-30pm when the Chub came out to play. Started packing up then a 5lb Chub hooked itself.
It was bloody cold last night, very glad of the quilt. Went down beat 1 today and spent an hour walking the length. Saw my first anglers of the week a couple of guys on the opposite bank (Red Lion). I've never seen the river as low; eventually settled on my old favourite swim which had had the downstream willow trimmed back and was now a viable trotting swim. Spent a good few hours trotting maggot and caster then later a rubber maggot. Bite a chuck from bleak, dace and chub the float never travelled more than 10ft at a rod length out. Then the bites slowed but the species changed to trout and the odd grayling. Good fun on a 16 hook to 2lb especially the bigger trout which were over the 1lb mark and charging all over the river and of course extra points in the species race. When I changed to a rubber grub the action from trout got even better, they must be pretty stupid. Tried for barbel/chub the last couple of hours but no joy. Packed up as it got dark at 7-30pm, let's hope it rains warm rain tonight !!
Much warmer this morning and a late start due to sleeping in then doing the washing up. Finally arrived back on beat 3 at 11'ish and cast in at 1145. 10 mins later my first barbel of the trip, just a baby of 4.5lbs. Things then went quiet for a couple of hours, just the usual midge attack, then at 1345 a hard fighting barbel of 8lb 14oz. All quiet again for an hour or so then I lost one when the snap link failed (never had that happen before). At about 4pm I got another at 7lb 10oz then next cast the biggest of the day at 9lb 12oz. I later lost another having just recast one rod and was recasting the second when the first rod jumped off the rest; I grabbed the rod but the hooklength parted after a couple of minutes, the barbel must have snagged it. All the fish so far had come to my usual rod but finally at 1845 I christened my new feeder rod with a 6lb 14oz Barbel. Packed up at 1930hrs as it was getting dark. All in all not a bad day with 5 Barbel landed, just a bit sick about the lost fish.
Usual tardy start back down beat 3 and cast in at 1140, river still low and had hardly moved from Monday's marking stick despite the rain yesterday and last night. 5 mins later a nice 8lb 8oz barbel unusually to the left hand rod. An hour later lost one on the right hand rod due to being too slow as I was diverted opening a tin of garlic spam. 30 mins later an 8lb 12oz Barbel with some old (pike ?) damage to it's tail didn't slow it down any ! Another 40 minutes then an express train of a Barbel at 7lb 8oz. Around 3 in the afternoon the river started to rise, slowly at first but by 3-30pm it was coming up quite quickly. Then the Barbel switched on lost one which powered off in all directions and parted the 12lb hook link then next cast a beauty at 10lb 8oz. The river continued to rise and in less than 2 hours was up 3 feet and still rising it rapidly became unfishable due to debris (I was fishing 4/5ths of the way across) and I was running out of space so packed up early at 5pm.
Quite an eventful day !
Got to river at 1030am it had dropped a bit and was now only 2ft up and dropping
slowly. There were 2 guys fishing opposite they hadn't had anything so far.
First cast and a 7lb 8oz barbel on the right hand rod quickly followed by an 8lb 4oz Barbel on the left hand rod. Nothing for an hour then lost one to a hook pull. I then made the mistake of adding old casters to the groundbait and caught nothing for the next few hours.
After correcting this I then proceeded to fish badly missing wrap rounds and losing fish when the hook length failed (twice). That was it for the day I was disappointed with my performance today after such a promising start. Packed up as it got dark at 7-30pm.
Home tomorrow.