Beat the Heat

A very low River Wye

A trip to the Wye this week found the river very low and rather slow moving. Our recent hot, dry weather has done very few favours for species that require well oxygenated water to thrive and so I didn't fancy my chances of catching any barbel. With this in mind I set about tackling the river with a waggler rod, the first time in over five years I have set up a float rod on the Wye. The plan was to target some of the other species found here and to avoid a day of staring at what I believed would be the motionless quivertip of my barbel rod. I'm pleased to report that the plan worked a treat and I put together a great bag of small chub, biggest was about 1lb, dace, bleak and one large eel. Very enjoyable. I spent the evening trying for the barbel and wasn't at all surprised when a couple of hours later I found myself packing up having not had a bite. It just goes to show that reading the conditions and changing your tactics to suit can turn a bad day in to a good one.
    Similarly, the carp in our local lakes have been hard to tempt recently, choosing to cruise in the upper layers and sunbathe rather than get down on the deck and feed. But although the carp have lacked the enthusiasm to take a bottom bait during this hot spell, in contrast they've relished the chance to take a floater. So whilst others have waited and waited for their alarms to burst in to life, I've nicked some cracking fish off the top (including my personal best grass carp, that I reported last week) during a few very short, but successful evening sessions. So, next time you're out, read the conditions, try something a little different if needed and you too can beat the heat and keep on catching!



Grass carp like this 9lb fish love floating baits