The River Angler

So Sir Edmund Hilary thought climbing Everest was tough, did he?!  He had Sherpa Tensing to ably assist with lugging all of that gear.  Well he should have tried fishing the Wye at Aramstone, then he would have known difficulty, Human endurance and pain.  We arrived at our destination and descended down (and I mean down) into the Wye valley.  After the tricky decent and a walk along the river, it was apparent that we had ventured onto the wrong stretch.  So, back up the mountain to the car and eventually we found the right parking spot.  This time fully loaded with tackle and resembling a mountain ass (er, no comments please)  I again began the steep, slippery descent.  On finally arriving at ground zero, I was met by a rather angry and coloured looking  river.  So the walking began in earnest.  I traipsed from one end of the stretch to the other.  Then the heavy rain started again.  Things were looking really good!

Me arriving at Aramstone

After a long walk to the top end of the fishery I found several good looking swims, one of which looked particularly enticing.  With the river being up and coloured, this swim stood out amongst the others.  It had a overhanging bush to my right and after about 10 yards downstream, another bush to the left.  In between was an area of quieter water, with a crease running along the entire swim created by both the bush and the faster water slightly further out.  After chucking a lead around I discovered the bottom was gravel and clear, with the exception of the odd spot of weed but I felt that wouldn’t cause too much of a problem.

Due to the high colouration I wanted to get a good sent trail in the swim and try and pull the fish in and keep them there.  So large open cage feeders (cagefeeders.com) were the order of the day packed with mixed pellet and plugged both ends with the Hinders Barbel Bomb groundbait.  Initially I decided to use a couple of the large elips pellets but often in these coloured conditions I’ll use a longer hair and glue on 4 or even 6 large elips.  I was using a 3 oz feeder and casting it just onto the edge of the faster flow.  For the first hour or two I was casting fairly randomly along the crease, just to spread some bait throughout the swim.  Later I concentrated the cast into one spot and kept plenty of feed going in.

Aramstone

This certainly worked as the first bite came very quickly followed by several more.  The action continued right up until I stopped about 7pmish.  There would always be a short lull in between bites and often when the barbel went quiet, the chub would move in.  I ended the day on 13 barbel and 6 or 7 chub.  The barbel were mainly in the 6-7lb bracket and the chub fairly small.   They were all typical 3 foot twitches, which I love.

As part of the day I felt I needed to put the ‘beast‘ through it’s paces, especially after failing to catch a barbel with it towards the end of last season.  So this seemed like the ideal opportunity to give it a whirl.  It didn’t take long to hear that ear aching clicking that it gives off when giving line.  After a good fight, a feisty Wye barbel succumbed to the pressure and weighed in at 6lb 12oz and was about the smallest fish of the day.

The ‘Beast’ does battle

It seemed silly to not make the most of this opportunity, so I stepped aside and invited Kevin and Geoff into the swim to also secure a barbel on the ‘beast’.  Geoff was soon in and he managed an even smaller fish of 5lb 6oz but sadly, as time was running out fast (we had promised Danny some food from somewhere), Kevin only managed a chub.  Still a 50% success rate.

6lb 12oz

Now all that was left to do was lug all of the gear about 1/2 mile along the bank and then climb Everest once again…… defibrillator anyone!