Wednesday 22 September 2021

Wonderful Wye - Day 1


First time I've seen the River Wye in nearly 2 years - and the first time I've seen my parents since the pandemic began. A short visit but I had to wet a line. I'd brought the lure gear, with a plan to bag a perch - but the water was painfully low and clear - a Wye perch would be a hard target and I didn't fancy a blank - but I thought of a couple of species that might want to play in these conditions...


Rolling luncheon meat was the method, and I wandered about in search of fast water with lots of oxygen. I could see chub and wondered if I should have brought the fly gear - but persistence paid off - eventually bagging a beautiful Wye chub. With a fish on the bank I could relax. Continuing my wander I landed nine more chub - and almost out of time - the last swim - I found Wye gold! Brilliant!!


Caught in inches of fast flowing water.


I knew the barbel were there somewhere.


River Wye gold!

18 comments:

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    1. Cheers. A great result in those conditions!

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  2. Brilliant!

    As a rolled-luncheon-meat-virgin do you just free-line it please? I can think of a couple of spots up here in the midlands with enough flow to carry it off. :)

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    1. Freeline if you can, but most swims you’ll need a split shot about 4 inches above the hook to keep it bouncing along the bottom. Slight bow in the line so it travels straight and not in an arc. Best thing to do is start in a shallow swim so you can see what the bait is doing and get a feel for it when you can’t see it.

      Good luck, let me know how you get on.

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    2. Cheers Brian - enough to get me started! :)

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    3. Feels alien at first but soon becomes second nature, and the big advantage is you don’t have to watch what you’re doing so you can watch the birds or whatever.

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  3. Great stuff !! nice to see your folks after all this time too

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    1. Cheers. And yeah, it’s been far too long.

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  4. Nice one mate! Hope the folks are well! Need to get up there this winter me ol’ pirate!

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    1. Cheers. Folks are great - thanks. Yeah, I’m in - still need a Wye double myself. It desperately needs a bit of rain first.

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  5. Nice one! Got the tactics spot on I think - seems to be tough going fishing static. Down tomorrow myself for a recce before the piking season and maybe a go on the lures for perch

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    1. It’s very low and clear, need some rain before the pike season really. I did spot 3 pike, one of which will be close to the magic 20 by Christmas - I’ll see if I can find her again then! Good luck with the perch - let me know how you get on.

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    2. Low indeed! Looks like some rain next which will do it good. Good to hear you spotted a good pike - as you say hopefully see it in the winter! No luck on the perch front today, but plenty of chub which were good fun on lures. Was more of a long walk to suss out the piking spots!

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    3. Yeah, rain is on its way - hopefully not too much though. Tough conditions for perch but those chub always seem up for it in the low water. Hope you found a few few nice pike spots - see any pike?

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    4. Yeah few spots looking good for the winter! There seems to be a healthy population of small fish up and down the river this year so hopefully bodes well for the pike. I did spot one which I spooked in the margins, couldn't say what size though. There was a lad deadbaiting already though and he'd had a double!

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    5. Yeah, I was amazed at the size of the shoals of bleak towards the bridge - plenty of food for the pike and perch. I saw someone deadbaiting from across the river - don’t know if he did any good - water is still a bit warm for pike. But can’t wait to get a bait out there having missed last season!!

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    6. Hopefully a good sign for the winter.. I think so too, should be fine soon though with some extra water. I can imagine! I'll be back based in London this winter so will be limited to the odd weekend trip and Xmas, but will be getting back as much as I can.

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    7. I was starting to worry the number of pike in those sections was on the decline but seeing that amount of baitfish there is more that enough to support a good head of pike. I think it’s more difficult to track the bait, and therefore the pike, with only the odd weekend here and there. But like you I’ll be back as often as time allows over winter.

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