Post by nige_LS7 on Jul 16, 2015 20:46:39 GMT
Not many pictures of your Yorkshire catches on here this week, so here's some thumbnails of ours from the Wye in Hereford last weekend.
As you may have noticed, Claire and I like heading off in the van in search of camping near real ale and real rivers, and when a river angler looks at the annual list of beer festivals across the nation, the BEER ON THE WYE festival at Hereford really stands out - unlike most beer festivals, they have camping, they welcome people with dogs, and unlike most beer festivals they are bang on a fantastic, famous barbel river with reasonable day tickets.
As the name suggests, you could fish on day ticket water a few yards from the huge beer tent (150 real ales and 50 ciders to choose from. Don't worry I didn't quite try them all. Just the top 100 ....). So we were bang in the centre of town, equidistant from the two nearby excellent tackle shops: Sue's and the more famous Woody's. The trouble with the festival being in the town centre though, with the best barbel swims in the clear, low water being a couple of miles away, is that for the first two days it meant that our fishing was during the middle of the day - Claire doesn't do mornings, so it meant warm sunny afternoons and early evening only. And we tended to be one or two pegs away from the recommended bankers, which were much sought after and we couldn't quite get on them on the right times. Beer o' clock at the festival was of course more or less the same as barbel o'clock, so we only caught small to medium chub (plus dace and salmon parr!) during the first two days. Claire was float fishing so she was picking up more of these smaller fish.
[After 2 days, this was starting to feel like the previous weekend in Shrewsbury, where we had been at a friend's wedding. Warm days, river low and slow, even the expert local barbellers struggling, and barbel o'clock clashing with wedding party & then with hangover o'clock. I had ended the three sessions on three different stretches of the Severn that weekend with a grand total of only one little chublet. Claire enjoyed her trotting there too, and got loads of dace, chublets and a nice perch ]
Anyway, luckily, this "Beer on the Wye" festival would end at 5pm Sunday, so we decided just to have 1-2 pints that afternoon and wait for "barbel o'clock" later on, when we headed a couple of miles downstream to famous pegs at "The Black Hole" and then "Barbel Alley".
We blanked at "The Black Hole", which as the name suggests is the deepest hole in town but where we did see a few big game fish taking flies. So then we headed past the railway bridge to "Barbel Alley" to set up for a couple of hours around dusk. The temperature had dropped nicely and the recommended banker peg was available at last! After the deep, slow Black Hole, this fast streamy, gravelly stretch with a bed-rock gulley two thirds across was indeed like entering another universe....
First cast there I had a chub of 1-7 on pellet-shaped halibut boilie, then Claire had a chub of 2-7 on meat (pictured above) . You can tell by the fact that I weighed a fish of a pound and a half what kind of weekend I'd had up to that point!! Biggest fish I'd had for nearly 3 weeks in fact! But things were about to get more interesting, and with my second cast I was into a hard fighting Wye barbel, 4-7. Claire, fishing a tighter swim just upstream of me, lost a barbel in the weeds and her peg went quiet after that. Shame - would have been her first ever barbel, and I do blame myself for letting her take over a rod at that point with the faultier of my two faulty reels, which I knew how to manage with, but she hadn't really used before.
I simultaneously hooked a very powerful fish - it felt large - and lost it in the weeds after a full 15 minutes of rod-bending resistance, so we'd both been into barbel simultaneously, a few yards apart, and both lost 'em. Disappointing, but more exciting. In retrospect I was too gentle with that fish, and looking at the swim the next morning in the light I realised I was letting them go too far in one or two directions that were weedier than I realised.
Then I was into another smaller one - which threw the hook near the net after 8-10 minutes on. Hook came back like a bent pin - over the weekend I'd been through all my the Drennan Super Specialist hook lengths I'd made up to 9lb fluoro (I felt, whether rightly or wrongly, that my green braid hooklengths were inappropriate over this gravel and light-coloured rock) and I was now onto a packets of thinner Drennan 'carp hooks' on 6lb hook line.
Both swims had now gone quiet, but I held out for one final fish, pushing the allowed day ticket time to the limit (an hour after sunset), like you do. Was rewarded with a lovely 4-13 Wye barbel, last cast of the evening (that'll be whichever picture above the sky looks darkest, then).
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I returned early next morning to the same peg - way too early for Claire - the temperature had dropped further, the sky was cloudy, occasional drizzle, and the fish seemed happy about this - saw one or two rolling after my feed went in and I even saw two barbel emerge simultaneously and slap each other, seeming almost to be fighting over my catapult of pellets hitting their spot. I landed a 3-12 barbel first cast, then a 4-6 , then the swim went quiet after a third one got away near the net.
Had a break for some brekky and went back for a final three quarters of an hour, which ended with me bringing in my best fish of the weekend - which I decided to rest in the net before weighing, but somehow as I adjusted its position it flipped and kicked away much sooner than I expected. That one was probably over 6 pounds (with my PB 7-7 still being my first ever barbel, last month on the Nidd). The day-time photo in my next post is that one, my best and final fish, with its snout to the camera - sorry about all these poor quality photos by the way.
So over those last 2 sessions I'd finally had 5 hours fishing in the right place at the right time, hooking 8 barbel and landing 5, and even the three that I lost gave me at least half an hour's good sport between them. No big fish (except of course "the one that got away"), but not bothered, they were all beautiful wild Wye barbel and fought valiantly. I'm confident that if I had the same fish on in the same peg next time I'd land at least 7 of them, so that's something - the confidence curve .is going up steeply with the learning curve. All were caught on hair-rigged halibut boilie, very short hair and the boilie trimmed to resemble the pellets in the feeder (with a small amount of hemp in the feeder too). I didn't feel like a single bite was missed, so the short hairs I was using were working and the fish nearly all seemed well hooked.
I did also try meat (off and on for the best part of 2 days) but the barbel didn't seem to be having it at all, and to be fair every local bit of advice was pellets all the way, with meat for chub. All Claire's better chub on the float were on meat, which smaller fish seemed to leave alone.
The Hereford Day ticket at £7 allows one rod only and no night fishing (their year book holders get 2 rods and night fishing), but highly recommended - I wouldn't have wanted two rods during the spell when I was catching. Tackle shop owners & bailiff (who we met twice) all very helpful & informative, but it was another fella walking up the bank on the Saturday who put us on the exact peg that really produced for us the next day when we could finally get on it. And as I came off that peg Monday 11.30 a.m, two anglers from N.Yorks or M'boro (judging from their accents and car sticker) arrived to target that same peg, saying they'd had success on it some years ago but hadn't been back since. Seems like that peg was barbel Mecca!
Over the 3 days, I walked about 70% of the Hereford & District AA's 10 miles around the town (they also have plenty more in the countryside downstream), and I learned a lot if anyone ever wants any tips on Hereford. For the same event next year I reckon we'd just do the beer festival on the Friday, then camp closer to the best stretches of river after that. With some more water on and cloudier conditions, I reckon there'd be plenty of pegs producing barbel all day.
If we can go next year - big if - we'll be the ones at the beer festival doing the rain dance.
Oh and we stopped at the Severn again on the way home - the Bewdley town free stretch this time. Same story - river too low and clear, too early in the day, and of course we blanked without a hint of a bite. But a nice spot, great fish and chips there by the town bridge, steam trains hooting away nearby, if you like that sort of thing.
PS - if planning a trip to Hereford, this article here was very helpful, though most of what it says applies when there's a bit more water and colour.
As you may have noticed, Claire and I like heading off in the van in search of camping near real ale and real rivers, and when a river angler looks at the annual list of beer festivals across the nation, the BEER ON THE WYE festival at Hereford really stands out - unlike most beer festivals, they have camping, they welcome people with dogs, and unlike most beer festivals they are bang on a fantastic, famous barbel river with reasonable day tickets.
As the name suggests, you could fish on day ticket water a few yards from the huge beer tent (150 real ales and 50 ciders to choose from. Don't worry I didn't quite try them all. Just the top 100 ....). So we were bang in the centre of town, equidistant from the two nearby excellent tackle shops: Sue's and the more famous Woody's. The trouble with the festival being in the town centre though, with the best barbel swims in the clear, low water being a couple of miles away, is that for the first two days it meant that our fishing was during the middle of the day - Claire doesn't do mornings, so it meant warm sunny afternoons and early evening only. And we tended to be one or two pegs away from the recommended bankers, which were much sought after and we couldn't quite get on them on the right times. Beer o' clock at the festival was of course more or less the same as barbel o'clock, so we only caught small to medium chub (plus dace and salmon parr!) during the first two days. Claire was float fishing so she was picking up more of these smaller fish.
[After 2 days, this was starting to feel like the previous weekend in Shrewsbury, where we had been at a friend's wedding. Warm days, river low and slow, even the expert local barbellers struggling, and barbel o'clock clashing with wedding party & then with hangover o'clock. I had ended the three sessions on three different stretches of the Severn that weekend with a grand total of only one little chublet. Claire enjoyed her trotting there too, and got loads of dace, chublets and a nice perch ]
Anyway, luckily, this "Beer on the Wye" festival would end at 5pm Sunday, so we decided just to have 1-2 pints that afternoon and wait for "barbel o'clock" later on, when we headed a couple of miles downstream to famous pegs at "The Black Hole" and then "Barbel Alley".
We blanked at "The Black Hole", which as the name suggests is the deepest hole in town but where we did see a few big game fish taking flies. So then we headed past the railway bridge to "Barbel Alley" to set up for a couple of hours around dusk. The temperature had dropped nicely and the recommended banker peg was available at last! After the deep, slow Black Hole, this fast streamy, gravelly stretch with a bed-rock gulley two thirds across was indeed like entering another universe....
First cast there I had a chub of 1-7 on pellet-shaped halibut boilie, then Claire had a chub of 2-7 on meat (pictured above) . You can tell by the fact that I weighed a fish of a pound and a half what kind of weekend I'd had up to that point!! Biggest fish I'd had for nearly 3 weeks in fact! But things were about to get more interesting, and with my second cast I was into a hard fighting Wye barbel, 4-7. Claire, fishing a tighter swim just upstream of me, lost a barbel in the weeds and her peg went quiet after that. Shame - would have been her first ever barbel, and I do blame myself for letting her take over a rod at that point with the faultier of my two faulty reels, which I knew how to manage with, but she hadn't really used before.
I simultaneously hooked a very powerful fish - it felt large - and lost it in the weeds after a full 15 minutes of rod-bending resistance, so we'd both been into barbel simultaneously, a few yards apart, and both lost 'em. Disappointing, but more exciting. In retrospect I was too gentle with that fish, and looking at the swim the next morning in the light I realised I was letting them go too far in one or two directions that were weedier than I realised.
Then I was into another smaller one - which threw the hook near the net after 8-10 minutes on. Hook came back like a bent pin - over the weekend I'd been through all my the Drennan Super Specialist hook lengths I'd made up to 9lb fluoro (I felt, whether rightly or wrongly, that my green braid hooklengths were inappropriate over this gravel and light-coloured rock) and I was now onto a packets of thinner Drennan 'carp hooks' on 6lb hook line.
Both swims had now gone quiet, but I held out for one final fish, pushing the allowed day ticket time to the limit (an hour after sunset), like you do. Was rewarded with a lovely 4-13 Wye barbel, last cast of the evening (that'll be whichever picture above the sky looks darkest, then).
************************************
I returned early next morning to the same peg - way too early for Claire - the temperature had dropped further, the sky was cloudy, occasional drizzle, and the fish seemed happy about this - saw one or two rolling after my feed went in and I even saw two barbel emerge simultaneously and slap each other, seeming almost to be fighting over my catapult of pellets hitting their spot. I landed a 3-12 barbel first cast, then a 4-6 , then the swim went quiet after a third one got away near the net.
Had a break for some brekky and went back for a final three quarters of an hour, which ended with me bringing in my best fish of the weekend - which I decided to rest in the net before weighing, but somehow as I adjusted its position it flipped and kicked away much sooner than I expected. That one was probably over 6 pounds (with my PB 7-7 still being my first ever barbel, last month on the Nidd). The day-time photo in my next post is that one, my best and final fish, with its snout to the camera - sorry about all these poor quality photos by the way.
So over those last 2 sessions I'd finally had 5 hours fishing in the right place at the right time, hooking 8 barbel and landing 5, and even the three that I lost gave me at least half an hour's good sport between them. No big fish (except of course "the one that got away"), but not bothered, they were all beautiful wild Wye barbel and fought valiantly. I'm confident that if I had the same fish on in the same peg next time I'd land at least 7 of them, so that's something - the confidence curve .is going up steeply with the learning curve. All were caught on hair-rigged halibut boilie, very short hair and the boilie trimmed to resemble the pellets in the feeder (with a small amount of hemp in the feeder too). I didn't feel like a single bite was missed, so the short hairs I was using were working and the fish nearly all seemed well hooked.
I did also try meat (off and on for the best part of 2 days) but the barbel didn't seem to be having it at all, and to be fair every local bit of advice was pellets all the way, with meat for chub. All Claire's better chub on the float were on meat, which smaller fish seemed to leave alone.
The Hereford Day ticket at £7 allows one rod only and no night fishing (their year book holders get 2 rods and night fishing), but highly recommended - I wouldn't have wanted two rods during the spell when I was catching. Tackle shop owners & bailiff (who we met twice) all very helpful & informative, but it was another fella walking up the bank on the Saturday who put us on the exact peg that really produced for us the next day when we could finally get on it. And as I came off that peg Monday 11.30 a.m, two anglers from N.Yorks or M'boro (judging from their accents and car sticker) arrived to target that same peg, saying they'd had success on it some years ago but hadn't been back since. Seems like that peg was barbel Mecca!
Over the 3 days, I walked about 70% of the Hereford & District AA's 10 miles around the town (they also have plenty more in the countryside downstream), and I learned a lot if anyone ever wants any tips on Hereford. For the same event next year I reckon we'd just do the beer festival on the Friday, then camp closer to the best stretches of river after that. With some more water on and cloudier conditions, I reckon there'd be plenty of pegs producing barbel all day.
If we can go next year - big if - we'll be the ones at the beer festival doing the rain dance.
Oh and we stopped at the Severn again on the way home - the Bewdley town free stretch this time. Same story - river too low and clear, too early in the day, and of course we blanked without a hint of a bite. But a nice spot, great fish and chips there by the town bridge, steam trains hooting away nearby, if you like that sort of thing.
PS - if planning a trip to Hereford, this article here was very helpful, though most of what it says applies when there's a bit more water and colour.
