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John Bailey looks back on a barbel year on the River Wye
I do not think I have ever had a
guest columnist before, so I am delighted to bring you the
behind-the-scenes star of Mortimer and Whitehouse, all round amazing
angler and friend John Bailey who volunteered this report as our ‘rookie’
guide on the River Wye.
“My guiding life was jogging along
quite nicely thank you. I’ve been in the game for exactly thirty years and
my regular clients and my work with Mortimer and Whitehouse were
keeping me alive with a bit to spare. So why did I debate Simon Cooper’s
suggestion that I introduce some of Fishing Breaks’ aficionados to the
delights of barbel hunting on the Wye? Why indeed?
To be honest, whatever you lot might
think, I’ve always enjoyed working with Cooper. For very many years, we’ve
enjoyed projects together and I’ve had fun each and every time. I’m not
going to blow much more smoke, you’ll be relieved to hear, but I’ve always
found him entertaining, insightful and above all in this game, honest. So
that’s all a good start, I reasoned.
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John Bailey in action on
the River Wye
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Above all, my own angling career has
roughly been split 55% coarse to 45% game with periods when one has taken
precedence over the other, like the years I worked on the Hardy Creative
Team and nearly forgot what a float looked like. This angling diversity has
enriched my life in fishing so colossally that I have always felt a need to
get this message across. It also explains my delight in my role at Mortimer
and Whitehouse, Gone Fishing, a program that explores every fish
species, every fishing method and every fishery type imaginable. This
all-encompassing philosophy is also at the heart of How We Fish, the
book Paul and I have just published, a book that I hope might draw
angling’s differing factions closer and help unite the sport in these
perilous times…how is that for a Christmas present plug!
There’s something else, an element
important to me. When I was learning my trade in the late Fifties but
especially the Sixties, coarse angling was vibrant, innovative, thrilling
and magical fun. Pioneering anglers wrote about new methods, new baits, new
tackle and whole new approaches that were all about involvement and a
deeper understanding of how fish feed and how the waters they live in work
as the seasons progress. As I progressed, I felt like a fishing detective
immersed in the aquatic world, trying to solve mysteries every session I
undertook. It was in the Seventies that coarse angling exploded with
invention and became the most compelling of all angling’s disciplines … or
so I felt. Today, all that energy has gone. Coarse angling in the main has
become stereotyped, tedious, over engineered and largely confined to
commercial fisheries where stunted carp arrive on the back of lorries.
Anglers now rely on barrows to laboriously transport their mountainous
amounts of gear a few yards to a swim that has been carefully prepared to
be devoid of bushes, reeds or any twig of nature. This is fishing in a
supermarket world and I loathe it.
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.... and barbel makes
three
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So, when Cooper called, I was already
on a mission to reel back the years and coarse fish in traditional ways,
ways that rely on knowledge of the fish above all else. No bivvies. No
barrows. No bolt rigs. Just the fisher and the fish and the minimal amount
of gear to connect them. That’s what I was about but I was anxious. Would
Fishing Breaks‘ predominantly game focused anglers embrace a coarse
challenge and give something new a chance? Would they want to wade, feel
for bites, bounce baits down the current, float fish, and potentially walk
miles, trying different swims and different methods in each of them?
The answer, delightfully, has been
YES! From the middle of June to the beginning of November a stream of trout
and salmon anglers have come my Wye way and professed to having enjoyed
themselves. I think that they have been reassured that we ( generally) keep
on the move, that when the river levels allow, we get in there and that all
my barbel kit ( spare shot and hooks) fits into a bum bag pouch. Rod, net,
bait bucket and off we merrily go. Of course, the river and the fish are
the real stars of the show. Who cannot be impressed by the Wye, even if
accustomed to the Scottish or Icelandic rivers? And whilst chub are great,
barbel are simply scintillating. They look gorgeous, can be cunning and can
fight just as well as salmon pound for pound. ( and often much better.)
They can even be caught on fly if that’s the route you want to stick
with…and barbel on a five weight make bonefish look limp!
Guiding is a marriage. I do my very,
very best to provide a good , interesting day even when the actual fishing
is hard. I like clients ( or friends as I hope they soon become) to
realise that, to listen and to take on board my recommendations. It’s good
when they engage and understand that we are doing something skilful and
exciting in sumptuous surroundings. Without exception , Cooper and his team
have sent me people simply brilliant to be with. Feedback has been good and
I’ve had wholly satisfying days when I have felt that my style of
coarse fishing has been understood and enjoyed.
Roll on 2024! In the meanwhile, I am
in the process of exploring the upper Wye and tributaries for the legendary
grayling these enchanting stretches hold. Of course, fly fishing is productive
and superb sport but so is trotting with float and bait. Grayling fishing
is enjoying a real renaissance in popularity and spinning a centre pin is
part of the drama. So, if I find the fish, watch out for upcoming Grayling
Trotting Masterclasses(!!) throughout the wonderland that is the Welsh
Marches. Until then, my thanks to Simon, all at Fishing Breaks and those
excellent souls who have ventured with me on the coarse side!”
Thank you, John. And to follow up on
those plugs How to Fish by Paul Whitehouse & John Bailey is
available on Amazon
and vouchers for guided days with John Bailey on the River Wye for groups
of one to four from Fishing Breaks.
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