Only one fish reported so far from yesterday.  A 10lb fish on fly from Cadora backs by Andrew Holloway.   He also lost another one.
No confirmation of the fish reported from Wyesham -perhaps they are being coy for some reason. Someone knows!!



Cadora Backs fish going back.  Not easy when your alone..

WORMING.

Mentioned previously in reference to the 1988 season having done a lot of worming during that season but of course that was not the only time.  It was once a legitimate method which was very effective at certain times and places and caught fish when other methods perhaps couldn’t.

I used it a fair bit on the river Teme around the Newnham Bridge area as was it effective in the many deep gutters you tend to get on that part of the Teme. Not many places where you had a fly run to fish so worm fishing or the upstream No 5 mepps was the usual method.

A coarse fishing background was always useful to understand how to manipulate the worm through a lie without getting hung up.  My heart used to sink somewhat when someone during my time on the Wye someone asked me to teach them how to fish it as I knew for much of the time we would be snagged on the bottom and lose a mass of tackle and worms.

During my first days on the upper Wye the old gillie Alf Bevan showed me how he did it.  It consisted basically of running the worm through the lie , getting a take and then doing nothing as the fish took the worm, usually swam upstream and eventually jumped in panic as it realized it was hooked deep in the belly.  I suppose as the fish was going to be kept it didn’t matter too much but seemed a bit unsporting to me I must admit.

I admit I have no hang ups about worm fishing, The moment of the take can be just as exciting as a fish taking a fly and often more prolonged up to a point.  You can maneuver the bait into places where the fish never sees a fly such as the deep gutters, often undercut where fish could tuck away in complete safety.   We really only fished the worm in coloured water in the difficult lies I just mentioned but it was pretty effective at anytime.  A good size four hook loaded with up to three worms and just enough lead on a dropper with a lighter breaking strain line in case the lead got snagged was the way to  go..   My employer who only fished the fly would often ask me on the morning he was going home to go and fish the pool usually reserved for the fly to get him a fish to take home.   If there was one in there it was often a simple job.

Fish can take in different ways.  I remember fishing once on cup final day with the river up and coloured and pushing through hard. .  I needed an ounce of lead to bump the worm through the tail of the pool.  I had a take, a couple of bumps and the fish dropped the worms.  Same thing  happened the next cast and the one after that.  I presumed it was feeling too much drag.  It it takes it again I thought I will strike straight away. It did and I struck into the fish which was eventually landed.  I was surprised to see how far down its throat it was.   Another time I had a few plucks which  seemed like a trout or an eel perhaps. Just tiny pulls on the line which went on for some time and I could imagine the worms being slowly chewed off. I eventually raised the rod and was surprised to be attached to a salmon, in this case only just hooked in the top lip.  Trout and especially eels could be a real problem at time as you would expect.  As for today’s barbel they would have loved it I am sure and been another nuisance.

It’s a method that can be used static as some people, especially those less mobile did, and fished it stationary in a salmon pool hoping a fish would eventually find the bait which quite often they would..   I never personally float fished the worm as one did the shrimp but I understand some people did.

It was as I say a very effective method back then which is denied us now and perhaps one can see the reason for that under today’s declining stocks and as suggested catch and release would not really be an option. I was once broken by a fish in a  deep undercut gutter and a week or so later I found it dead a couple of hundred yards downstream and recovered my hook which was  not too deep down either.

Have to admit I miss it, done properly is was just as, if not more skilfull than the fly and caught fish when the fly certainly couldn’t.    As an afterthought today’s barbel tackle would have handled salmon reasonably well.  There is no ban on worm bait for them or for other coarse fish.  Doesn’t make much sense when you think about does it?