The Wye with Bone, Glen, Woody and Trugg

Don't know how to write this without sounding over the top but fishing does not get any better than this. I'm not talking just about the actual fishing either. It was the whole thing; the river, the atmosphere and most of all the great company.
Met the lads at the Peacock for the usual tea, tying and chat. Jan, the river keeper joined us and I think he was a little worried when I put my first hook in the vice. Apparently Waddington's are frowned upon  on the Wye. Jan said that the rain had done the river a power of good and I was gagging.
 Bone was wondering when we were going to get going, but there is no need to rush on this river and the evening is always the most productive.
We eventually made our way upstream of Bakewell and Trugg and Woody laid into the fish big time. Glen, unselfishly as usual, did not fish at first and was guiding my mate Bone who had never caught a river fish on the fly before.
It was not long before Bone got his first wild rainbow and he was made up.
Got to thank Trugg at this point for some great advice. This was the first time we have met; what a top bloke   He knows I am learning but he put me right on a few things I was doing wrong. I put this into practice a while later as we spent a happy hour on one pool hammering out little rainbows and brownies.
So down to the town.
After some food, (me and Bone sneaked off for a pint) we began the serious stuff. The tourists are very helpful and I'm sure Woody would not have had any success at all if he had not listened to their advice as to where the big fish were! Having said that, although it is anoying, you can't be too hard on them. I think it is nice that folk want to see you catch; and lets face it we need a good relationship with the general public these days.
Me and Bone wandered off because I wanted to show him 'Shuffle Bend'. We didn't make it that far as we had some great sport with little grayling hitting our sedges on every cast. I did try the 'Shuffle Bend' and had a nice grayling about a pound. Bone was loving it so I left him to it and me and Woody went up to the town stretch and aren't we glad we did!
Woody couldn't fail! I landed three for him, including a superb brownie pushing 4lb.
I was getting a bit twitchy as I had not had a take but I needed to get twitchy as I watched Woody twitch his sedge. I needed to twitch my sedge as well....Could I twitch my sedge like Woody twitched his? Would I be up to it?

So I copied him and twitched my sedge . It's great that you can twitch your sedge in the middle of town and not get arrested.. I am now a fully paid up member of the sedge twitching fraternity! Sorry about the fuzzy image but Woody deliberately smeared the lens because he was obviously jealous.

 Jan unhooking a fine rainbow. I am trying to show Jan how to hypnotise a trout.  but it still bit him!

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Here is my PB wild rainbow and Jan's trainer.

We were then invited by the great Richard Ward for a cup of tea. Woody and me kindly declined the offer as we thought the sport too good to miss. I thought it was a good call as I had a rather large grayling over 2 pounds and Woody landed another beauty  while Richard was serenading Glen and Trugg in his back garden. RW also sings opera. The lads said they couldn't believe what a wonderful experience it was.

Glen and Trugg (now singing), refreshed,  joined us and got stuck in. Glen had a beauty which gave him a right run around. I think we lost count of the lunkers we all caught and at one point three of us were in big style. But the best bit was when my fishing buddy, Bone landed a proper rainbow. Trugg said to me that not many people do well on their first visit to the Wye, but Bone had a great day catching all of the three important different species.

 

It's not often you get free advice from a top angler like RW but that's what Bone got and RW even landed it for him! Not  bad for a river virgin!

Anyway. I've had one of my best day's fishing ever and I also know that everyone else enjoyed it too. Bone never shut up on the way home. 

Woody did especially well: He had my avator watercolour, caught loads of big fish and nicked my new spool of stroft. Going to have to watch him more closely and I don't mean watching him twitching. Having said that he did hold my rod when I went for a pee.

Photo courtesy of Jan with Glen's Camera.

The Wye five plus RW

Three personal bests for me! Biggest grayling, biggest brown, biggest river rainbow.All caught with my home tied flies based on Glen's LTD sedge.'nuff said!'

Thanks Glen, Woody, Bone, Trugg, Jan and RW.

Superb and definitely LTD

Check out this video

http://whiskyfish.blogspot.com/2010/07/glen-pointons-living-dreamworks-poacher.html