Whilst we sit in our warm homes with the wind whistling outside,Rob Swindells takes us back to the start of this season and those long summer days by the river Wye After a few wet weeks at the beginning of June the new river season seemed like it may have been a wet start with many stretches up and coloured. The Wye was to be our opening gambit for the first and second day knowing full well that many fish had in fact already spawned weeks before. Driving down the farm lane at dawn on the first morning, it was great to see that the river was in fact at pretty much normal summer level with just the slightest tinge of colour but nothing to worry about to hinder us spotting fish. Perfect! It saves masses of time on the river Wye if you already have knowledge of where the fish shoal up, they just simply are not in every decent looking swim. At times especially early on in summer be known at best as sporadic with many areas not producing fish and others churning them out left right and centre. The first hour as always when coming back to a fresh start was spent spotting chub and barbel, the likely looking areas with high oxygen content and a good flow were checked first, and bingo, they were there in at least three out of five known areas. With careful consideration to bank side noise fish could be seen darting about in the shallows and others lurking under the streamer weed, only revealing themselves as the long strands of green waft in the current. You hear of anglers treading with steady foot fall on the smaller rivers and not sky lining themselves on the river bank, but not so much on the big rivers like the Wye,Trent and Severn. It can be of equal importance on the bigger waters, not all, but on some of the less visited beats it pays off. A careless van door slamming on this particular trip sent a mixed mid water shoal of chub and barbel into far side cover, so it just shows. Season start always brings with it huge anticipation for the barbel angler, its make or break and is a let down at the best of times, but I must admit this time on seeing the river up close and personal there was a huge buzz amongst us. The close season is three months without the fish seeing any sort of pellet, boiled bait or unnatural food source. Coupled with the rigours of courtship they simply are not interested. Spawning takes place at different times each spring with this years being roughly in mid to late May which has given time for things to settle down and for the fish to have a hunger! Anywhere on the river in the summer period that suggest fish are still spawning is always avoided as to secure successful and undisturbed egg laying, this of course is paramount to us all. Catapulting a few squabs and pellets out up stream of the shoals gave us the desired reaction we wanted, so many times we’ve seen fish at this time of year just not bothered by anglers baits, this time they wanted it and seemed ravenous. A barbel that wants to eat generally moves with complete intent and makes a straight line from the shoal to the food source, if youre lucky enough to watch their behaviour on your local river you will know exactly what I mean by this. No flitting back and forth and circling in the general area just straight to it. As said previously we knew the fish had spawned on a lot of the river and this behaviour seemed to back it up. Hungry chub were out in force too and didn’t seem their early summer shy selves, out in amongst the beautiful streamer weed our free offerings seemed to be causing quite a stir too! Competition and pre-occupation with food is the ultimate achievement when targeting shoals of fish, to see them jostling about with tails up in the air and great plumes of silt sent drifting off down stream is a wonderful sight. Apart from the scent and taste coming from our free offerings the silt plumes and activity definitely seemed to bring more fish up from further down stream. The scenario couldn’t be any better. Game plans are great to have and a very important part of your fishing if you are to succeed. If nothings happening, then make it happen. Wye swims can suddenly switch off and as soon as they do moving on to the next swim is best. A rested swim is as good as a fresh swim, and good for the angler to have a change too. Again swim rotation fits into the small to mid river tactics bracket but is great for consistency too, I think it almost falls into a remit of fish care too as it takes the pressure of any fish in the swim rather than a constant all day bombardment. So the plan, two rods on the Lone Angler scoop feeders for the big wide far bank swims, sit it out for a few hours, take a few fish then move on. Next up its the Stonze and method approach for near side swims and mid water swims. Feeders work a treat on the Wye its what they were made for. Repeated and accurate casting to your chosen spot is of course as we all know the key to this tactic so lets not go further with that one! The second down stream rod is just as important at putting out bait for us, but can also be used as a sleeper rod as such. Sometimes left for much longer periods a single hook bait can come across as a stray loose offering and may be taken confidently. If we have competition from a shoal the feeder splashing in and out wont put them off and in certain times Im sure its acted as the dinner bell. Heads down and tails up they wont care, theyre on the munch and loving it . Slightly different is the Stonze with method/ground bait wrap, were resting the big feeder swim now and are moving to a smaller area, still far bank but the river is a little narrower here. The rig consists of a Stonze set up with a large bore running ring down to a swivel cover bead and a short hook link. Nothing more complicated than that, get the mixture right and mould it around the Stonze to the size of a cricket ball, tuck the short hook link and bait into the mix and away you go. Remember there is nothing complicated in barbel fishing, rigs don’t need to be any more complex than that. The method for me is great in the tighter swims where I don’t want to catch the hook link on vegetation with the cast, also for any river where you are not particularly targeting larger shoals of fish, just the odd one. The presentation is much more subtle for fish that are not perhaps switched on or fully confident in the swim. The Wye, what a stunning river and great place early summer to flex the barbel rods and get you back into the swing of things, we love the place and simply cant get enough ! Tight lines Rob Swindells
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:02:19 +0000