Funny old life! For days we could barely buy a bite, and then the tipping point temperature-wise is reached, and this fish came along after fifteen minutes on a mild, windless February afternoon. We didn’t fish on after that. Job done.
But what job is that exactly? I suppose it is entirely understandable that living so close to the Wye I should want to catch a barbel every month of the winter. November, December, January and February, all ticked now so that only leaves March for a full house. I‘ll be honest and admit there is possibly an element of ego here, and a dash of excitement in catching barbel when I never have done before.
Most definitely, I have been enthralled by what I have encountered. I’d like to say “learned” but that would be going too far. I guess I have been confirmed in what I would have expected. Regular baiting of a swim helps enormously and is fundamental to success – though I am not at all sure I have been getting quantities of bait nearly right. Frost-free nights and warmer days are a definite must-have. A frost and day temperatures of not much above freezing generally see no hint of action. I can’t prove this, but I don’t seem to remember success in a day of wind. Virtually every fish has come when the air has been calm.
The largely absent chub have been a mystery. At the outset, I expected a steady stream of chub to keep me engaged during the hard times, but that just has not happened. Indeed, barbel have outnumbered chub by approximately three to one. I also, for whatever reason, expected the barbel to weigh more heavy as spring approached. In fact, most of the fish have been more streamlined than summer fish. I also expected cold water would impair the fighting qualities of any fish I might catch. Rubbish. These cold water barbel take half as long again to land.
For me, living 15 minutes away, this winter fishing has been a comfort as much as anything else. I have settled into a rhythm that I find sustaining and soothing. I have taken great pleasure from watching the sunsets – the swim faces directly west. I have come to know the robins almost by name, as it were. Above all, the peace engendered by the slowly darkening river bank is more restorative than anything else I know of. In short, I would have been lost without this swim of mine and the haven it has become. I can truly say the fish have been almost incidental.
