Summer Fishing 2024

Quick look back at the summer - written monthly as I went along. And a quick tally: 80 barbel, 238 chub, 19 eels, a carp & a cracking pike - a total of 190 hours fished over the short summer season. It was tough going on The Wye - not what I was expecting at all - but great to be back stomping this riverbank again...

June: Very slow start on The Wye, the fish were behind this season due to the wet, cold start to the year. There were still shad in the river (loads of them, good to see) and the barbel were still spawing. There was very little to report. Only four barbel landed and no pike spotted since the season opened. Onward and upward - hopefully...

July: The River Wye still hadn't come to life - I could see barbel but I struggled to catch them! Only 13 barbel landed all month, plus a few chub - for a lot of effort. And the perch fishing was even worse - not one landed yet! A couple of 2lb+ eels seemed to be the highlight of the month - let's hope there's more to report in August...

August: The highlight of the month was three afternoons on the Small River - great to be back - and 27 barbel, 2 chub & a small carp landed - I have missed it! Still stuggling on The Wye, lots of short sessions added fourteen barbel to 9lb 1oz - plus plenty of chub. The summer is turning into autumn - perhaps my season will turn around now?

September: Started with an afternoon fishing a private stretch of The Wye with James - both landing 6 barbel. Part of a total 22 barbel to 9lb 4oz over the month. The highlight of the month, and really the only noteworthy fish of the summer, was a 19lb 4oz pike - caught while fishing for perch! More of those please!!

Now it's time for wooly hats, wellies and hopefully pike. Lets see what the Winter Wye has planned... Hopefully not perpetual flood...

Wye Week 15

Last week of the summer season - and here comes the rain and floods - perhaps those barbel are finally going to start feeding now...

Sat 21st:	1 barbel / 3 chub / 0 perch	6¼ hours
Sun 22nd:	2 barbel / 1 chub	5½ hours
Thur 26th:	3 barbel	1 hour

Might be a tricky start to the pike season!

Fifty Red

Saturday saw the loss of a monster perch - biggest one I've seen - a few (a lot of) casts later I was looking at a double-figure pike consolation prize - but that pinged off the hook as well. Not my day!

I was all set for a rematch yesterday, but the river was rising & red, plus it was set to piss down all day - only a madman would go lure fishing in that! So I went barbel fishing instead!!


8lb 1oz, Wye barbel #49


6lb 2oz, Wye barbel #50 of the season - phew - 150 to go... :-)

Wye Week 14

Not a great week for barbel - but who cares - any week that includes a big pike (even if not targeted) is a fantastic week in my book!!

Sat 14th:	5 chub	6¾ hours
Sun 15th:	0 perch / 1 pike / 1 chub	3¾ hours
Mon 16th:	2 barbel / 1 chub	2 hours
Tue 17th:	1 chub - EEK!	1½ hours
Wed 18th:	1 barbel / 4 chub	1½ hours
Thur 19th:	3 chub	1½ hours

Wouldn't have thought I'd be struggling to reach 50 Wye barbel before pike-time. At the start of the season I thought 200 was on the cards...

Perchish?

There was something a bit odd about my first perch of the season; strange shape, wouldn't fit in the landing net and weighed 19lb 4oz. You won't believe me after the last blog post but I was genuinely targeting perch (little lure below) - but a new lure-caught PB and probably the longest pike I've ever caught - I'll take it! No perch.

Wye Week 13

Autumn has sunk it's teeth in; it's getting a lot colder out there and the water temperature is dropping fast - my thoughts are already turning to pike. Although, perhaps there is time for a few more barbel...

Sat 7th:	2 barbel / 15 chub / 1 eel	9 hours
Sun 8th:	8 chub	1¾ hours
Mon 9th:	1 barbel / 3 chub	1½ hours
Wed 11th:	6 barbel / 8 chub / 4 eels	7 hours
Fri 13th:	4 chub	1¾ hours

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Nature Table

These are the pharyngeal teeth of a chub, locared just inside their throat, ideal for chomping up all the crap they eat - and the reason you never put your finger too far into their mouth to retrieve your hook!

Wye Away

James is spending a couple of days on The Wye, a different stretch than the ones I've been fishing so I thought I'd join him (although I only had 7 hours, not two days). And a bit of extra water in the river - could today be the day we found a Wye double?

I'll leave his day 1 to his blog - but I got off to a good start with an 8lb 3oz barbel pretty quickly - luncheon meat doing the trick. Next up was a season best at 9lb 4oz, before a lull in the action. A feeding spell later added four more barbel to 8lb 15oz - plus 8 chub and 4 eels.

Cracking few hours fishing, over far too quickly, but I really hope they stay on the feed now. James is back today, fishing as I type this I'm sure - hopefully get a call later when he has a double in the net - on the off chance you're reading this on the riverbank - good luck mate!


9lb 4oz, best of the season so far.


8lb 15oz, nearly another nine.


8lb 3oz, six barbel, three over eight pounds - I'll take that!

Feb Five

Was pretty sure this chub was over the magic number - I even weighed her twice - but a few ounces under at 4lb 13oz. Biggest of the season so far - and I'd love to see her again in February or March. One of fifteen chub, two barbel and an eel. Cracking stuff!

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Been quite a while since I've mentioned James' 40 River Double Challenge, yeah he's still on a mission, click here to see what 107 hours on The Nene might get you - if you're lucky...

Wye Week 12

It's definately turning into autumn, the nights are closing in...


And the barbel *seem* to be starting to play...

Sat 31st:	4 barbel / 6 chub	5 hours
Sun 1st Sept:	2 barbel / 15 chub	6½ hours
Tue 3rd:	1 barbel / 2 chub	1 hour
Wed 4th:	1 barbel / 8 chub	1¾ hours
Fri 6th:	5 chub	2 hours

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Nature Table

A couple of butterfly photos before summer completely slips away...

Eat, Sleep, Fish, Repeat

Eat: Best of the season so far, 9lb 1oz...


Sleep: One of 4 barbel landed...


Fish: Plus 6 chub...


Repeat...