canoes, campfires and chevins

This weekend I returned to Herefordshie, the county I grew up in, to join my brother and some of his friends for a paddling weekend on the Wye. We set up camp on the friday night on the riverbank and at about 6pm I began setting up my rods. It was not going to be a particularly easy swim to fish, but the location was dictated by a decent camping area and the location of a pre - existing fire pit. The alarms were positioned at the top of a high bank, and the route to the waterside would be trecherous to say the least. A chub must have quickly moved to investigate the splash of the ledger, because less than a minute after the first cast went in the big lump of meat loaf was taken. the hook found a hold, I safely got to the waters edge and lifted out a manky chub of about 3LB's

The rest of the evening passed with intermittent single bleeps form the alarms, typical of the quick "raps" you get from chub. I didnt fish too hard, content to wait for a decent run while the campfire turned the whole chicken i had spadgecocked to golden brown.

After many beers had been consumed and the chicken consumed I retired to the tent. Sleep was interupted by the single/double bleeps which had been going on all evening, but eventually at about 1:30 the left hand alarm sprang into life, I sprang into action and banked a bigger chub of more like 4 1/2 lbs. I didnt try and recast the rod in the darkness, but left the right hand rod, with the bait sitting in less than a foot of water in midstream. at 2:45 that rod also also woke up - and I landed another chub of about the same size. I left the rods out of the water until morning, but the next day there was no interest in the baits at all. That changed on sunday morning when Phill arrived, while I was making tea and sorting breakfast there were three takes in short succession, phill handled the rods but didnt mange to land any of them, one didnt hook up, another shed the hook after a fast run into the undergrowth at our feet and a third slipped the hook just after we had managed to have a good look at him. Just as it was when i was a kid, the wye is certainly packed full of chub!