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Tough time on the River Wye - 12/11/15

A tough time on the Wye

Sandy and I have just spent a few days away on the River Wye just above Hereford, one of our favourite bolt holes. We arrived late on Saturday afternoon to see the river in fine fettle with just a nice hint of colour and a good flow. However, Jenny, our youngest daughter had come along to see us and we headed off to the firework display at the racecourse, not fishing that night.

 The next morning I walked down to the river to see it was 8' up and like soup. Even worse was the fact that it was the first good flush on the year in the middle of a windy spell and the leaves were filling the river. I tried fishing for a couple of hours on Sunday as Sandy and Jenny went out together before she had to head off and Lee, our eldest son arrived from Edinburgh. However it was futile as I only had half ounce leads, I was totally lost, even fishing behind the trees didn’t work due to the height and flow. Once a leaf hit the line, it picked my leads and deposited them in the bankside vegetation resulting too often in lost terminal tackle.

After a quick trip to Woody's, the great Hereford tackle shop on the Monday, I equipped with more appropriate tackle and Lee and I had a couple of hours at dusk on the Monday night. I had a couple of pristine chub, Lee managed a barbel of just under 6lbs, nothing of note but success under the conditions.

We had visitors all day on Tuesday and went out on the Wednesday morning. So I passed the time reading “River Piking” – Dilip Sarkar’s excellent new book. So it inspired me to try pike fishing behind a tree in a slack in the evening. I had no success except for gudgeon (one of my favourite fish from schoolboy days), minnows, bleak and chublet on a feeder rod.

I tried again the following night and although the baitfish were there, there wasn't a pike in sight as the light fell - and then a mother otter and her two pups joined me in the swim. They couldn't see me but I guess that's one of the reasons why I had no luck, but I really enjoyed watching them. After all, they were there long before anglers and barbel.