My first trip to the Wye. As mentioned in the previous posting, an advance recce had shown only a few fishable spots. I fished the third pitch downstream from where you park. It was a good looking spot with trees overhanging and entering the water about 10 yards downstream.

It screamed out to be trotted so I started with a good old-fashioned quill. Plumbing the depth showed there to be about 8 feet a rod-length's out. I used a maggot dropper to feed the swim and sent the float down with great anticipation. My reward was small dace and minnows! I also tried a piece of crust, holding it back so it went under the semi-submerged tree branches, but again nothing.

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At this point a couple of chaps from Docklow turned up. They had fished the spot the previous week, one catching a 4½lb chub and the other a barbel. They said that things were dead until after 17.00, so I didn’t feel too bad about my poor start.

I switched to a feeder, first using a closed type filled with maggots. However, I was plagued by small fish, landing a few dace, between about 3 and 5 inches. I swapped to a straight Arsley bomb ledger with luncheon meat and finally at 12.45 landed a small chub of about ½lb. I then fitted a small open-ended feeder filled with pieces of luncheon meat and blocked each end with bread flake, with luncheon meat on the hook. This produced another small chub of about ¾lb at 16.20. The fish were beautifully coloured and in first-class condition.

I plugged on with the open-ended feeder swapping occasionally to bread flake, sweet corn and halibut pellet, but all subsequent fish were taken on luncheon meat.

Sure enough after 17.00 things hotted up, relatively speaking. At 17.00 on the dot I landed a 14oz chub. Fifteen minutes later a nice chub of just under 2¾lb came to the net, and was photographed by one of the chaps.

They left at 18.30 but I decided to stick it out until 19.30. I was getting quick stabbing bites that I was sure were chub but I couldn’t hook them. At 19.25 I had my ‘last cast’ and a less than positive bite resulted in a more powerful fish on the line. It pulled hard towards the submerged trees and I had some difficulty stopping it because of the cramped nature of the swim. A couple of times I thought it had beaten me but I kept it clear of the trees, only for it to dash under the margin debris. I freed it by walking along the overgrown bank and putting pressure on the fish from directly above. This worked and I netted a beautiful 3½lb chub. I posed for my camera and packed up immensely satisfied.

A difficult but rewarding day, with two added bonuses. The first were the kingfishers, which were much in evidence, one landing on the branch of the tree just downstream of where I was fishing. And the second, a large fish, that was probably a salmon, leapt out of the water almost opposite me on two occasions.