September Barbel Trip on the River Wye

My barbel fishing had taken a back seat of late and once I was contacted by my good friend James Marlow about the the possibilities of a September barbel trip, It was at the forefront of my mind and I was itching to get up there!

We planned to fish the afternoon through until dusk and were aiming to target an area downstream of Ross-on-Wye.

We arrived at the beat and noted only one other angler was present, which was perfect, lots of water to fish.

We looked to target a couple of swims mid-beat and work our way down stream as the day went on, ending on a peg just below some rapids.

The setup was fairly conventional for the Wye, Korum Combi Feeders in the large size, 60g and 90g, 2ft 10ft fluorocarbon hooklengths tied up with Drennan Barbel Specialist hooks.

The Korum Combi feeder did the trick!

The perfect hoobait for the Wye? I think so!

The successful mix

A few catapults full of the Source dumbells were fed into a few swims on the river and we set about mixing the groundbait ready for the first cast. The mix consisted of 2kg of Hinders Blitz Mix, 350g tin of cooked hemp, a few handfuls of crushed Source boilies and a liberal helping of 4mm and 6mm halibut pellets.

(This mix did us proud on the day, we fished all rods on feeders after the straight lead approach failed to get us any bites)





The midday sun was very welcome but very hot, we anticipated a slow start but my right hand rod nodded into life within 20mins, in the shape of the perfectly formed miniature barbel, showing the fine health of the river and the new generation of barbel is looking good!

One for the future!!

 Bites came steadily through the day and we were amazed at times the feeder had hardly settled before we had a bite, which always makes it ultra exciting. As the day went on we moved down to the swim below the rapids, both had instants takes on our first casts, then nothing else. We decided the head back up to another swim as dark was approaching and it was on our way back to the car. This change of swim worked again and James finished the day with the last barbel.

On the day we had 7 barbel and 1 chub (a PB for James at 4lb 4oz), only lost 2 feeders but I did manage to snap my rod, Doh!

Hopefully we can get back up the Wye again soon!!