The very first barbel I ever caught on the Wye was the record chub! Well, at least I thought it was when I hit it. Many years ago me and my old mucker Willie Whatnot, better known to you as Graham Whatmore, used to fish the Wye at Ross just below Wilton Bridge. I say used to because now sadly the stretch is game only and hardly ever gets fished at all…what a criminal waste. Anybody who likes float fishing would have had an orgasm seeing the two pegs we used to fish. Both were beautiful glides down to fallen trees where all sorts of river debris had accumulated. There was a raft of chick weed and other stuff under which was clear water. This meant you could trot down and hold against the raft letting your bait rise and fall beneath it. Two rods out there was 5ft of water. Our main quarry was the superb chub which averaged about 3lb. Four pound fish were common and the best we had was not far short of 6lb. So this one day I settled down as normal and began to trot away contentedly. I used a stepped up match rod with 5lb main and 3 or 4lb hooklength. Float was either a big stick shotted ‘shirt button’ with a string of no. 4’s or 6’s, or a chubber with the bulk of the shot lower down depending on conditions. Bait was usually maggot, caster or bread flake on a 16, 14 or 12. I’d had a couple of decent chub on double caster when I struck and the bend in my rod told me this was no ordinary ‘chub’. I shouted to Graham that I was into a ‘special’, and he came running over.
I’d heard rumours about barbel in the Wye but had never seen one so it never crossed my mind that it was a barbel I’d hooked, I was convinced I was playing the British record chub. Imagine our surprise when into the landing net slid a barbel of around 5lbs. In the years that followed we began to catch more and more barbel on the Wye until these days you are more likely to catch them than chub. In those days, whether I was on the Severn, the Trent, the Wye or the Avon, I never deliberately set out to catch barbel on the float, they kind of just happened along. On many occasions I would catch barbel on the float while the feeder boys struggled. There were of course other days when the situation was reversed, but it did make me realise that sometimes barbel will ignore a stationary bait but take a moving one. One of my favourite venues is Stan Lewis’s water on the middle Severn at Bewdley. In Summer I look for the streamier water but as the year wears on the deeper, steadier glides come into their own. I’ve caught there in the depths of winter with a frost on the ground. As far as tackle is concerned you have to compromise. Its quite difficult to float fish with 8lb line so I usually settle for 5lb with a 4lb hooklength. I fish 2 or 3 casters on the hook and feed a dozen or so every swim. Its quite unusual to find the barbel straight away, so I content myself catching dace, roach and chub if I can. This is no hardship as this is some of the finest roach water in the country, many 2lb specimens coming out each year, though most are caught at dusk on bread flake. Sometimes it’s an hour or two, but eventually the barbel will muscle in on the smaller fish and start to gobble the casters. Then the fun starts! Luckily, this stretch of the Severn is not too snaggy, so the compromise on line strength is not that important…unless of course you hit a double, then it’s a matter of ‘Our Father which art in Heaven’!
On the gentler Warwickshire Avon it’s possible to fish the waggler for barbel. I usually undershot slightly making it possible if the wind is right to hold back stop and start fashion like a stick. The Avon is an amazing river, constantly throwing up surprises. One day I was enjoying the usual mixed bag when I hit a submarine. It turned out to be a 9lb carp! This was on the waggler with two casters. Another time I was fishing on a stick when I had a 7lb pike, fairly lip-hooked. One of my most memorable days barbel fishing was on the Ship pub waters on the Severn at Highley. We were in the middle of a drought and the river was at its lowest in living memory. I found myself 3ft of water mid river and set up a waggler. Starting on maggots, I almost immediately started to catch small barbel up to about 3lb. So I switched to a bigger hook and fished meat threaded through and tipped with a maggot to stop it pulling out on the cast. Well, I ended the day exhausted. I must have had well over a ton of barbel, and while they weren’t specimen proportions, the best going around 7lbs, it was one of those red letter days you never forget. No article on float fishing for barbel would be complete without mentioning the wonderful little River Teme. It meanders through Shropshire and Worcestershire, twisting and turning through some of the most delightful countryside you will ever see. Beware the steep banks, however, if you’re down and it rains, you’ll just have to live there if you don’t have a ‘pull rope’. It was here I had my best ever barbel of over 11lb, as I mentioned previously in the forum. The difference here, however, is you must be prepared to hit and hold. The river is full of sunken trees and hidden snags so a 1.5lb test curve rod is a minimum. Once your barbel of a lifetime is in one of these its ‘goodnight Vienna’! If ever you’re on the Teme try trundling a pellet or a piece of flavoured meat under a waggler. You might get a wonderful surprise. Oh yes, one last thing. Wherever you are on the Teme there is the wonderful smell of hops in the air. So if you wonder why you yearn for a pint or five at the end of the day, you’ll know why! To sum up, I’m convinced that on occasions the much maligned and neglected float can outscore the lead or the feeder. Just think about it, under natural conditions some, if not most, of a fish’s diet will consist of moving morsels, so it stands to reason that there are times when the float will score. Go on, give it a go, at worst you’ll end up with an aching arm. At best you might get the thrill of your life. |
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