Every year in we spend a week in a cottage at Brobury House, home of our friends Pru and Keith Cartwright on the banks of the Wye. Last year we went in July but had the most frustrating holiday caused by the number of "fun" canoeists who couldn't steer and had no respect for any other river users, so this year we decided to go in October. This proved to be an excellent move as we didn't see one all week.
We arrived late on Saturday and spent Sunday morning having a lie in, getting groceries etc before Lee (our eldest son)and I strolled down to the river at about 7 for a couple of hours fishing. Lee hasn't spent much time fishing and so touch legering in the dark proved difficult. I managed to get into my favourite swim which nobody had fished all year, the ground having no sign of footmarks, and as the level was up a little due to water being released from a reservoir, I managed 4 barbel, 12, 8, 8 and 6. After the fourth I thought "That's enough" and went back to have a family evening.
The next day was spent in Hereford where Lee had to do some work in the local branch of his bank. Sandy did some clothes shopping and I watched the clock. That evening, Lee was fast asleep so I slipped down for another couple of hours to the same swim. No sign of a barbel this time, I had ten chub to 4 -14, not huge by the normal standard, but a pleasant evening.
The following day we decided to spin for a while. I had a pike, Lee had a few perch to the pound mark, and then we started trotting. I really srtuggled catching for any notable fish catching the odd dace among a succession of bleak, whereas Lee had roach, perch, chub, dace and bleak too.
The next morning, we went to Hay (a busman's holiday) and am always amazed how many book shops there are where nothing changes from year to year, just more dust. There seems to be about 6 or 7 bookshops which work hard and the rest just go through the motions. Again we had a couple of hours fishing in the evening, Lee catching chub and I had a couple of smaller barbel and chub. As we had a challenge on who could catch the most species, we spent the following afternoon higher up the Wye at Builth Wells, primarily fishing for grayling which we rate as one of our favourite fish.I love trotting when wading, never having grown out of paddling, so marched into the middle of the river, Lee is more cautious of water so fished off the bank and totally outfished me catching 37 chub to just over 4lb, a solitary grayling of 2-1, plus minnows, fat dace and a salmon parr. I too caught dace and minnows but had a few grayling to 2lb exactly but only a couple of chub, my best being 2oz bigger than Lee's best. This was a great afternoon's fishing which we thoroughly enjoyed and it is without doubt one of our fishing highlights of the year..
One the last afternoon we decided to go for one last spinning session. I had yet to catch a perch and managed two small fish, Lee had three and just as we were about to pack away, Lee had his spinner stop dead in the water. Initially thinking it was a snag, he put strong pressure on the line moving the obstacle towards him slowly which then decided to swim away. It was a beatiful double figure pike, the perfect way to end the week.
If you need the ideal location for a quiet family break where you can fish a bit and see beautiful countryside, this is the place for you. The fishing is wild and the banks unkept and steep so if you like the nice swim for your basket, this sin't the place for you. It really responds to the mobile quiet approach in traditional Mr Crabtree style.