This week I recieved a lovely email, pictures and catch report from our very own Richard Howland, Sittingbourne shop manager, who's just returned from a fantastic weeks fishing on the river Wye, so I thought I'd share it all with you...
The Wonderful Wye... Richard Howland
I’ve recently just returned back from a week’s Barbel fishing at Ingestone Fishery near Ross-On-Wye, on the river, with my two friends Brendan Shilleto and Graham Rush and of course my trusty fishing companion Musket.
We stayed at a lovely cottage and with two miles of private river included in the package, we were keen to sample some of the fishing, with the river well known for producing all manner of different species, including some nice Barbel, which would be our main target.
With the recent settled, summery weather the river was very low and with high day time temperatures fishing conditions were hardly ideal, so we hatched a plan to do most of our fishing in the early mornings and late evenings.
On most mornings we started fishing around 5.30am, returning back to the cottage at lunch time for a bite to eat and then retuning to the river around 4.30pm, fishing until dark. As the week went on this schedule took its toll, but if we wanted to stand the best chance of catching a few fish we knew it had to be done.
For most of the week the fishing was hard, with the majority of the Barbel shoaled up in small areas along the two mile stretch. One area which contained the largest head of fish was a swim known as Cobleys point.
Casting tight to the over hanging trees and bushes and doing our best to avoid the rocks, which in some parts almost breached the surface, we managed to catch a few of the hard fighting Barbel and despite fishing in some rather difficult conditions we actually enjoyed our best week ever!
We had 153 takes which resulted in 108 Barbel banked, with fish to 9lb 6oz. As well as an impressive tally of Barbel we also managed to get amongst a few of the nice Chub which also inhabit the river.
The final scores for the week were as follows…
Richard 42 Barbel, Lost 14, 10 Chub (and lost a Grayling at the net Trotting)
Brendan 27 Barbel Lost 18
Graham 39 Barbel Lost 13
It was truly a fantastic weeks fishing and I’d like to say a big thankyou to everyone who made it happen.