Barbel on the Wye

My PB Barbel!

The rivers have been open a while now, and the initial mad rush to fish them has worn off enough to make it worth the gamble of making the trip to the River Wye and hoping there's enough space to get on. This year my plan was to try beat my PB barbel, which shouldn't be that hard as that's it pictured to the right! With that said, I tried a few times on the Wye, Severn and Thames last year with a couple of friends, and none of us managed to land a single one! I had an idea where I'd been going wrong though, so I got myself organised making sure I had the correct gear ready (instead of just taking thinned out carp gear with anything I "might" need thrown in the bag, like last year!) and set off to the Wye on a Friday afternoon with my friends Ben and Lavis.

Upon arrival at our chosen stretch and walking the ~900m of bank available, it became clear that the three of us weren't going to fit on, as there was only 1 peg left that looked like it had the remotest of chances of containing a fish, so we opted to hop back in the car and drive to a different stretch about 20-30 minutes away. This proved to be a good move as it appeared to be completely void of any anglers, though somebody had obviously been fishing one of the pegs earlier in the day, as they'd decided to leave all their empty crisp packets, drink bottles and what appeared to be a box of still wriggling wax worms spread all over the bank, how utterly delightful! We chose some pegs that we'd fished last year, the bigger of which I decided to share with Ben.

The view from my peg at sunset

Ben wanted to fish the upstream side, next to an overhanging tree, which suited me as I wanted the downstream side anyway. To my left was some deep slack water with a submerged tree, which I figured would be a good place for a crack at a river carp (another fish I want to tick off my list) while out in front of me was a faster channel between the weed beds that I hoped would contain a barbel or 2. I set my rods up (2.25lb fox stalker carp rods, a bit over gunned when the rivers not in flood but I can't really justify the expense of dedicated barbel gear). The left rod I set up with a 30g pellet feeder and a shortish braided hook link to a size 6 hook with a piece of hair rigged Peperami, to fish for carp in the slack water, and the right rod I set up also with a 30g feeder (on a quick link so I could change it if it didn't hold bottom) but with a much longer hook link of around 3 feet, made from 8lb mono, as I felt this was one of the areas where I'd been going wrong in the past, using hook links that were too short when the water was pretty low and clear. For hook bait I was going to try some spicy sausage flavoured pellets that I'd bought from my local tackle shop, Lobby's Tackle in Stonehouse that looked to be about 14mm. I chose to load the feeders with a mix of hemp, halibut pellets, betaine pellets, micro spicy sausage pellets and just enough meaty groundbait mix to hold it all together in the feeder for casting. It was while I was mixing this all up in my groundbait bowl that Ben got his first bite on his quiver tip, and from the bend in his rod I guessed it wasn't going to be a bream or a little chub...

Ben's first river carp

I stopped what I was doing to give him a hand landing it if he successfully managed to keep it from diving into the branches of the overhanging tree as it was obviously a decent sized fish. I had a feeling I knew what it was going to be, and my suspicions were confirmed as the golden back of a common carp broke the surface whilst he was desperately trying to wrestle it away from the snaggy tree. Wrestle it away he did though, and after a few minutes and an incident with a small snag in the margins, I managed to slip the net under it for him. My memory fails me a Little but I think it weighed in around 14lb and was pretty much fin and scale perfect, a cracking fish so well done my friend! This boded well for my carp catching efforts I thought, so after taking a few snaps I quickly got my pellet mix ready and my rods out into the water...

And how wrong I was! I was getting plenty of little knocks on both rods as the numerous small fish in the river plundered the contents of my feeders, but after a couple of minutes of casting out all went quiet and that's how it stayed for most of the afternoon other than a small chub. I made sure to recast regularly though, trying not to leave it any more than 10 minutes between casts so that I could keep a steady trickle of pellets going into my swim, another area where I felt I'd been going wrong in past by not getting enough bait in the water. Ben wasn't fairing any better either, and I was starting to lose confidence, but was still hopeful that I'd get a take later on during the magic hour around dusk. I slouched down in my chair to "rest my eyes" for 5 minutes when I thought I saw a big knock on my right rod. I sat back up, and as I did so the rod banged violently a couple of times shortly followed by the buzzing sound of my spool spinning into life! I quickly clicked off the bait runner and lifted the rod into the fish quietly hoping that something would pull back, and it sure as hell did! The hook was set, and the fish set off at a rate of knots downstream across the river, where I managed to turn it, but now it was heading towards the sunken tree, still ripping line from the spool. I had no choice but to put the brakes on and hope it turned before the line gave out. Thankfully my rod, being designed for surface and margin fishing for carp, has a soft through action, so although quite heavy for barbel fishing managed to soak up all the lunges with ease and the fish was soon coerced away from the tree and into the safety of the open water, and a minute or so later into the net, and I had myself a new PB barbel of 8lb 4oz, almost 8lb 4oz bigger than my previous best!

At last, a proper barbel! My new PB at 8lb 4oz

Needless to say I was feeling pretty chuffed, either my Chris Yates inspired beard was having the desired effect of making me more "barbely", or the changes I'd made were paying off (I suspect a combination of the 2)! Seems as in all the fishing shows about barbel you usually see a group of them feeding rather than just the one, I was eager to get my rod back out and try catch another. I'd just cast back out when Lavis appeared behind us. He hadn't had any luck all afternoon and was moving swims for the evening, so we told him of our carp and barbel success, which he thought was a wind up!

About an hour and a half went by with no further excitement. The sun had vanished below the horizon, time was running out and I was just thinking to myself that if I was going to get another I'd have had it by now when my barbel rod screamed off again! It felt like another good fish, and behaved much like the first, tearing off down stream. It didn't cause any dramas though and the beast was soon tamed and in the net, another barbel, probably a little longer than the first but noticeably thinner, and weighed in at 7lb 12oz, not bad for a stretch of river I was told they averaged about 6lb!

7lb 12oz barbel

Quite content that I'd finally got the hang of this barbel fishing lark, I started to pack my kit away ready for the journey home. I balled my remaining groundbait over my carp rod in a last ditch effort to try buy a run while I packed the rest of my kit down. I soon realised that packing up was going to take a bit longer than I first though due to the cosy and sloping nature of the peg, so I figured I may as well chuck the barbel rod back out for 10 minutes. It was too dark to see, and I had no groundbait to load the feeder with, so I "pub chucked it" in the general direction I had been fishing, with what I guessed to be the right amount of force to get the same distance I'd been casting with a loaded feeder. As I put the rod on the rest, Lavis turned up with his gear, ready to head back to the car. He told us he'd had a few nice chub, and I told him he'd just missed my second barbel, when the rod screamed off again! A similar battle to first 2 ensued, only this time it was too dark to see what direction it was heading in, other than downstream. There wasn't any drama though, and with the help of Ben it was soon in the net, a PB equalling barbel of 8lb 4oz!

8lb 4oz barbel, joint PB

This one was missing one of his whiskers, but other than that was in perfect condition, as were all the others that I'd caught. Ben took a couple of snaps for me and I rested him up in the net making sure he was well recovered before letting him go, as I had done with all of the fish. I decided that was a rather fitting end to a good days fishing, so packed my gear down and called it a day. I'm really starting to get into this river fishing, you never quite know what you're going to get, and when you do get something you know it was there because that was where it chose to live, not because someone chose to put it there like with a lake, which somehow seems to make it more rewarding. Hopefully it wont be so long before my next report, tight lines all!

Spinning for brownies

It's trout season again and as the Easter weather was actually nice for once I thought I'd spend a couple of hours in the evening wandering the banks of my local river Frome.

The river Frome in the Stroud valleys.

My spinner of choice, barbs crushed down.

I take as little kit as possible, just a small 1000 sized reel, an ultra light spinning rod, a pair of scissors that double as forceps, a net and roll up mat, and a small box of spinners. My spinners of choice are the plain Mepps Aglia range, in a size 00 to a size 1, as the local trout rarely go over a pound. The river pretty much contains nothing but trout and the odd micro species (bullhead, minnows etc...) this far upstream, so there's no need to worry about pike or anything like that so I use a 6lb braided line tied direct to the spinner. I'd prefer to have a swivel and quick link in the mix, but I find them too bulky for the smaller spinners to work properly, and also the trout can see them in the clear water and will often shy away from the lure once they get close.

A small wild brownie near the rivers edge.

The trout are pretty easy to locate, in the shallower runs you merely need to take a stealthy approach and look in the water to find them. They can blend in quite well with the bottom in places, but the movement as they swim against the current is what usually gives them away. In the deeper sections it's still possible to see them if the lighting is just right, but the usual sign you'll get that there's a trout about will be the sound of a splash as it takes an insect from the surface of the water. Obvious features like undercut banks, protruding roots, fallen trees etc. are good places to try too as they're quite often the home of a trout or 2.

My first brownie of the season

I had my first take on about my 3rd or 4th cast, but the hooks didn't take and the fish was off again just as fast. The same happened for the next 4 takes! I do get quite a lot of fish drop off as many are quite small and I think aren't heavy enough to provide enough resistance to set the hooks, despite using a brand new spinner with sharp hook points. Still, 5 in a row seemed like a pretty harsh run of luck, but it didn't take long before I finally got one in the net. It wasn't very big, maybe 6-8oz but on the light gear still put up a good scrap in the flow.

After catching that first fish my luck seemed to turn and I didn't have any more drop off or missed takes, until towards the end of the session when a monster of a fish smashed the lure hard enough to hoop the rod tip right round just for an instant before it was off back to its hiding place. I managed 10 fish in total in around 2-3 hours, all in the 6-10 oz range. Previous experience tells me that the fish are quite territorial and tend to stay in the same area, so I'll be back for another crack at the legendary "one that got away" another day. All of the fish I catch are returned, and I urge everyone else to do the same. If you want a trout for the table then buy one from a shop or fish a stocked trout fishery, our wild fish already have enough problems and don't need us adding to them.

River Frome Winter Chub Challenge... Part 2

With the temperatures set to hit double figures and almost no chance of any rain, I thought it'd be rude not to get out on the bank, so I decided to go have another crack at the mythical Frome chub. I had a little look at the river yesterday and it was running much clearer than last time, and with less pace, so this time I opted to go with float gear and try a bit of long trotting with a big bunch of maggots.

I arrived about an hour before mid day to a somewhat foggy river, and quickly hobbled together a stick float rig with a size 12 hook set at around 3 to 3.5 feet depth with a shirt button shotting pattern and began my wander down the river bank for a likely looking spot. I hadn't gone far when I noticed an overhanging tree on the near bank about 20 yards down stream, with the tips of its lower branches just about touching the surface almost half way across the river. There's not a massive amount of cover on this stretch of the river, so I figured a spot like this must be home to a fish or 2. I loaded the hook with about 5 or 6 maggots, and set the float on its journey down stream about 4 feet from the bank. With the river still being fairly pacey, it didn't take long to reach the "danger zone" under the tree, but alas the float stayed in plain sight the whole time. I increased the depth a few inches as the first run through didn't show any signs of catching the bottom, and had another cast.

This time it looked like I had the depth spot on as the float occasionally twitched on its voyage down the river as my ball of maggots bounced its way down the river bed. I was just about to slow the float a little as it approached the tree, when it vanished from sight. A quick flick of the rod to set the hook and the tip hooped over as the fish darted across the river before leaping into the air. I'd hooked a trout, not as big as the one on the previous visit, but it still looked a half decent fish. After a few more acrobatics the fish decided to go deep and managed to find a snag to hide in and everything locked up. I tried pulling from various angles and letting it have some slack, but I couldn't budge it and I had no option other than to pull for a break. It would seem however that I was in favour with the fishing gods, and as I pulled expecting the line to break, the snag gave way instead, and the fish was still on! It took what seemed like an age to reel it in in the strong current but eventually I had it beat and in the net. A nice wild brownie I'd guess at being just over the 1 pound mark, a quick photo and it was back in the river none the worse for its little outing.

I carried on downstream, having a few casts in all the likely looking spots but didn't have any more joy. As the day wore on a mist began to rise from the fields, creating a silky white carpet that seemed to cling to the ground. I'd managed to cover the whole stretch of river with an hour or so spare before sunset, so decided to change over to a ledger set up like I used on the previous trip, and try a few of the deeper pools on my way back up stream. The first pool I tried was the same one that I'd caught the trout from on my first trip. In an effort to try and avoid any more trout, but still remain chub friendly, I used a slightly bigger hook and loaded it with as many maggots as I could. I gave the pool about 15 to 20 minutes, feeding a few maggots every couple of minutes but it didn't look like anyone was home, so decided to move on upstream.

By the time I got to the next pool the sun was getting low in the sky, lighting up the far bank with a fiery glow. I opted to fish in the shadows of the nearside bank about 10 yards down stream, not far from some debris that would offer some shelter to any fishy residents. After a minute or two the rod tip began to twitch ever so slightly possibly indicating some interest from a fish. It continued to twitch for about another minute and I began to wonder if I'd managed to hook a mini species like a bullhead, but on reeling in discovered all I'd managed to do was hook a leaf! I put some fresh maggots on the hook and cast it back to the same spot in a last ditch effort to find the illusive chub. Again the tip started to twitch, but this time it was followed by some more violent tugs. I lifted into the fish hoping for a mighty pull from a big chub, but it wasn't to be and a short while later another brownie was in the net, around 6-8 oz, a pretty typical size for most of the river. I slipped him back and decided to call it a day as the sun set across the fields behind me.

River Frome Winter Chub Challenge... Part 1

River Frome in the Stroud valley

Today I kicked off my new quest, the river Frome winter chub challenge (RFWCC). It might not sound much of a challenge, catching a chub from a river, people do that all the time... But I'm trying to catch one from my local river Frome, and I'm not even sure there are any in there! The last time I saw a chub in this river with my own eyes was back in the mid 90's, so somewhere around 20 years ago. I've heard rumours from various people that they are still in there, but most of these stories involve the infamous "one that got away" and none of them came with any photographic evidence, which in the age of smart phones and digital cameras leaves me feeling somewhat sceptical about these claims. So I've set myself the challenge to try and catch one of these mythical beasts, which are rumoured to go to over 4lb, not bad for a little river you could almost jump across.

I wasn't expecting to catch anything on today's session, writing the day off as more of a recon day before I'd even got there, as it'd been about 6 months since I last visited this stretch at the start of the trout season, and after the recent rain I didn't even know if it'd be fishable. I arrived just before mid day, with a minimal amount of kit in a small backpack so I could stay mobile. The river was pushing through pretty hard, and it had a little colour to it but it looked like it would be fishable in a few slacker areas.
I set up my trusty feeder rod with a simple fixed paternoster rig on a 6lb mainline, with a 4.9lb hooklink of about 2ft. For weight I had a pot of old AA and SSG shot to add as needed, and a size 14 wide gape korum hook at the business end. For bait I'd brought a ball of cheese paste, and a few worms from out my garden. I found a nice little spot with a small area of slacker water on the far bank that looked like it might be the refuge of a fish or 2, and made my first cast with a pinch of cheese paste on the hook.

My trusty old Abu feeder rod waiting for a tug from Chevin

It didn't take long (about 2 seconds) before I realised the water was pushing through a lot harder than I first thought as my rig was washed down stream. After adding a few more shot (7 more AA's to be precise!) I finally managed to just about hold bottom. Sadly my problems didn't end there. The water was flowing through with such force it was washing my cheese paste off the hook within seconds. I decided to give up on the spot and head down stream where there were a few bends in the river which I knew created a back eddy that I'd be able to fish in.
On my way downstream I noticed another fishy little spot by a floating raft of dying reeds on the far bank. I swapped to a worm hookbait as I knew the cheese paste didn't have a chance in the flow and cast just upstream of the reeds. The rod tip was bouncing all over the place as my bait trundled slowly down the river bed, the extra water in the river had me outgunned, and I had no idea if I'd even be able to detect a bite if I got one. That is until I got one! The tip tapped gently, then straightened out as the line slackened before hooping round as something tried to make off with my worm. It wasn't to be, however, as my strike was only met with the resistance of the flow of water. Upon inspecting my now half a worm for tooth marks, it was obvious that the culprit was more than likely a trout that had torn the poor little fella clean in half. As the trout are out of season, I decided to leave him be and carry on down stream to the bend.

2 of a family of swans on the river

Upon reaching the bend there were a family of swans swimming up the river, the young now the same size as the adults but still sporting their fluffy brown-grey feathers. I sat down and had a spot of lunch while I watched them slowly make their way up the river, making sure they were long gone before I cast out as the last thing I wanted was a family of swans diving on my bait. I rigged up another worm, and flicked it into the back eddy to my left and set the rod on the rest. It wasn't long before the tip bounced round violently 2 or 3 times in quick succession as something had become enraged after making the mistake of eating my worm. I wound down and struck into it, and almost instantly it was peeling line off the spool as it dived down stream and made its way across the river. It felt far too big to be one of the little wild brownies that inhabit the river. Had I managed to snag myself one of the legendary chub on my first outing? I managed to turn the fish before it got into the far side vegetation, and now it made its way up stream, still stripping line from the spool. I was just thinking to myself that it had to be a chub to take line the way it was, when it leapt a good 2 feet clean out of the water to my right, confirming that it was, in fact, a good sized brown trout. Slightly miffed by the discovery I almost let it get into some overhanging debris during a lapse of concentration, which wakened me up to the fact that it was a good sized brownie, and despite being out of season I wanted to get it in the net as I hadn't had any brownies much over a pound out of the river probably since I last saw a chub in there! A few bum clenching moments later as it made one last bid for freedom by leaping over some overhanging dead cow parsley I managed to scoop it into the net. It was indeed a nice fish for the river, and I wondered if it'd even beat my long standing PB of 2lb 8oz that I'd caught when I was still in school. I quickly weighed it in at 2lb 3oz and took a photo before holding it in the flow for a few minutes making sure it returned to its watery home fit and strong.

2lb 3oz Brownie. Not the chub I was after but nice to see good sized fish making a re-appearance in the Frome

I decided to move on down to the next bend after all the commotion the trout had caused. The flow wasn't as strong there so I decided to give the paste another go to try and avoid any more brownies. I hooked a small bit of a twig to mold the paste around and it seemed to do the trick of keeping it on the hook. The spot looked good for a fish, but sadly nothing was there, or if there was it wasn't hungry, and after about 15 to 20 minutes as the light started to fade I decided to call it a day.

Brownies on the Frome

As its only a couple of weeks until the end of the trout season, I thought I'd make the effort to get out for an hour or 2 after work and try catch a couple before the season ends.

Low water levels on the river Frome 

I headed down to the local river Frome, a small stream that meanders its way through the Stroud valleys before joining the river Severn. Due to the more sever weather of recent times and a lack of sensible river management, the water levels can get very low (to only a few inches) from where the various old mill gates along its length are opened up to help prevent flooding during severe wet weather, and are inevitably forgotten about and left open so the river level drops right down during prolonged dry spells. This has pretty much pushed out all of the coarse fish species, which means the trout now have free reign over the river.

Fallen trees litter the banks of the Frome

Despite running adjacent to a footpath, the stretch I decided to fish is a pretty quiet stretch, with only the occasional passing dog walker disturbing the peace. Its also a fairly neglected stretch, which is often overgrown with a few fallen trees crossing the path or in the river. The fish don't get very big in this stretch, but its not far from home and I like it for the peace and quiet it offers.

Most people would probably associate trout fishing with fly fishing, but it doesn't have to be that way! Despite the fact that the overgrown and intimate nature of the river makes fly fishing almost impossible, I like to use an old simple method that's been around for centuries, a free lined worm. Just you're standard light float rod, some 4lb line on a small fixed spool reel or a centrepin, tied to a size 12 hook with the barb crushed (I return all the fish I catch so don't like to use barbed hooks, but find a worm will stay on a crushed barbed hook better than a shop bought barbless one). That's it, that's all you need along with a small landing net and of course a tub of big juicy worms! Simply cast your worm into a suitable spot, and let the current take it down stream, while carefully mending the line on the surface. You'll know when you get a take as the line will tighten and zip across the surface, or if you're fishing deeper water, simply just feel for bites by letting the line run over one of your fingers.

It didn't take long before I had my first take, after maybe 3 or 4 casts the curves in the line on the surface straightened out as the trout made off with my worm. It was only a small fish of a few ounces, but there's something about wild brownies that makes them all feel special, including the small ones. I popped the hook out and put him straight back, holding him in the current for a few seconds to make sure he was recovered and ready to go. I quietly made my way down stream looking for another likely spot when I heard the tell tale splash of a trout snatching something from the surface. I peeked through the undergrowth to see the remains of the rings in the water a few yards down stream, and carefully dropped my worm in an area where the current should carry it straight to my target. Ten to fifteen seconds later the line zipped off and I had another fish on, leaping clean out of the water in a bid for freedom, but the hook held and I soon had him on the bank. Another small trout, this time hooked fairly deep, but as I was using barbless hooks it came out straight away with the aid of some forceps without causing any damage to the fish, and I returned him to the water.

The light was starting to fade under the cover of the trees, so I decided I'd try and find one more fish and call it a day. It didn't take long before I spotted a fish a few feet from the bank, illuminated by a ray of sunshine that had managed to penetrate through the tree cover. I cast my worm a few yards up stream so it had a bit of time to sink down to the depth of the fish, and this time watched the fish instead of my line. As the worm drifted down in the current, I saw the fish just casually swim over and gobble it up, so I struck straight away to avoid deep hooking. A short battle ensued before the fish was in the net, another small brownie of maybe 5 or 6oz neatly hooked in the scissors. The hook popped out easy and again I held the fish in the current to regain some strength before releasing it. They might not have been very big but 3 fish in a little over an hour of fishing wasn't a bad result, and on light tackle even the little ones put up a fight in the fast currents of the river. That's probably the last trout I'll see now until the new season starts in March next year, when hopefully they'll have grown to be a bit bigger!

A small wild brownie from the river Frome

(no) Barbel on the Wye...

Well sadly there's nothing much to report from my session on the Wye. Despite getting up at a time I didn't even know existed in the morning, and fishing through all day until it got dark, its safe to say I'm a barbel blanker! I tried pretty much everything from meat, maggot, boilies, pellets, pepperami for baits. I tried the slack water, the fast water, the deep water, the shallow water, overhanging trees, underwater snags but it just wasn't to be. I had a few knocks during the first hour or so and a screamer of a run late evening (which bumped off the hook when I picked the rod up, doh!) but the rest of the day was pretty quiet.

The water was almost gin clear despite the thunderstorms from the day before, and the level was pretty low too. This might not have helped the fishing any, but it did enable me to watch a small group of perch hunting fry in the margins for most of the day. The bigger of the pack seemed to follow a strict routine of slowly emerging from the depths of a deep hole under a fallen willow tree, and pausing by a single strand of oxygen weed in the shallows that provided a bit of cover while he observed his prey. Then, when the time was right he'd burst into action and chase the fry into the bank and then disappear back into the dark depths beneath the willow, if only I'd had some underwater filming gear...
I also saw my first River Wye salmon, as a specimen which I'd guess at being around the 8lb mark decided to have a funny 5 minutes and leap wildly out of the water 4 or 5 times. Hopefully another visit won't be too far away, though next time I may target something considerably toothier than a barbel as it's getting that time of year again...