Spombs Away! Barbel and Chub at Courtfield, River Wye

This week saw the River Wye at normal summer level for the first time in a couple of months and so I settled in to the wooded stretch of the Courtfield beat at Lower Lydbrook. This part of the river has been unfishable since June 16th due to the floodwater conditions of recent weeks and I've been itching to get back in to one of my favourite swims to try for the barbel and chub. So, with the low water but high hopes I set about tackling up. For a change I opted to fish a small banded pellet over a big bed of small particles, no particular reason for this, other than wanting to fish a little differently to my usual large pellet and boilie approach. Would it pay off? Time would tell. First job was to get the bed of bait down so a mini Spomb was used to introduce a kilo of pellet, two big tins of hemp and two tins of sweetcorn, casting upstream of where I intended to place my hookbait, to allow for the current, the bait was soon in position and half an hour later I was ready to cast the fishing rod. I didn't have to wait long before the rod arched over and the first fish of the day was hooked, a barbel of about 5lb was soon in the net. A small chub followed, then a bigger one and then another barbel, this one was about 6lb. I kept the bait going in, the Spomb regularly topping up the swim. More fish obliged all day and I packed up at dark having landed barbel to over 8lb and chub to over 4lb. Success for my slight change of approach. More information about the River Wye at Lower Lydbrook can be found at www.lowerwyefishing.co.uk

This 6lb barbel won the award for hardest fighting fish of the day!