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canoes on the wye

I think that might be an overwhelming YES. I've certainly never experienced so many on any other river. Others may know different.
 
Yes canoes,, and on some stretches rowing boats backed up with small motor launch with a "guy " in it with a loud hailer.
Strange but the row boats are virtually completely unaware of the anglers on the bank
 
Neil,
On a good day, weather wise I mean, you can get hundreds, yes hundreds in a day on some streches. For that reason I prefer fishing early and late. The commercial canoes appartantly finish at 5 o'clock, you get the odd private craft during the evening and they tend to be of a more serious type of paddler with more consideration towards anglers. During the day I've had stag parties, hen parties and all in between thru' my swim. There has been deliberate capsizing, cans of beer floating by amongst the bodies!!!, deliberate attempts at snagging my lines and indignation when I've catapulted pellets and mash at them.....:D
To be fair the vast majority are considerate towards anglers, I only wish they could paddle without clonking the side of the canoe..!!!!

Catch it right and get on the fish and the fishing can be great though, good luck.

Bill W:)
 
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I thought the 'eights' were the worst, they don't make much noise and can do about 20 knots,..nightmare when your fishing the far bank!!
As you would expect ,weekends were the prime time, and some weekday evenings.
 
the biggest amount of canoes i have seen in a batch was 57, i counted the buggers..
at kerne bridge they launch batches at a time then the fleet of transit mini buses complete with canoe trailers head off towards symonds yat to pick them all up bring them back to kerne bridge whilst the next lot of canoeists are waiting eagerly to get launched again, and so the process goes on and on, in between that lot you have private crafts and the like..
as said though the majority if they see you in time will stay clear.. doesn't seem to affect the fishing though, i've had the rod arc over when the battle of trafalgar has been going on in front of me with bodies and all sorts in the water, it can be a bit distracting when hordes of young women are going by scantily clad but like a good angler i always keep an eye on the rod tip (only one mind you) it would be rude not to wave back...;)
 
I love the Wye but hate the canoes, some of which contain mindless idiots i.e. I once landed a barbel, with canoe no more than a couple of feet away from my landing net; they'd 'paddled over for a look' Grrrrrr!!!!!!

As said fish early and late, and avoid the school holidays at all costs!

Unlikely to happen, but its getting to the stage where certain days of the week should be canoe free!

Neil

PS: There's a bit of an upsurge on the Severn too in recent years.
 
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i used to paddle a kayak and got taught all about it at a boys club when i was an early teenager, 1st we had to buid or help build a kayak before we was allowed to go onto the water in one, great tactics as it tok a long time to build one and it made you respect it, the 1st thing we were taught before going on water was to slow down near anglers and respect their presence on the water as well as our own, secondly was to give the wildlife either space or just gently float past them if they had young chicks with them,
when myself and rayo was on the bibs we had very little problems with them and even had some paddle some groundbait ect over to where we wanted dropped which was really useful to us, on the thames the rowing teams were a mixed bunch, some respected us using the river, a few could be a bleeding nuisance on purpose, now realy upsetting a 20stone fisherman on the bank late evening isnt reccomended even if 6 or 8 strong in the boat, 1/ you never know what oddments anglers have in their bags on a lone late evening, also boats have to come back under bridges! imagine a guy raving because hes had to pack it in early through these inconsiderate people, imagine one waiting on bridge for the return! i leave the scenario there in your minds.:eek:
 
Think yourself lucky you weren't on the river during the raft race. In it's heyday it was 85 10 man crews setting off at one minute intervals and going hell for leather from Hay to Chepstow. I know, I did it 11 times.

Fortunately however it is held over the late May bank holiday weekend so never bothered the anglers but probably disturbed no end of spawning barbel on the shallows. The other thing they did was allot to establish the right of navigation which the canoe company's have taken advantage of.
 
Try St Patricks Stream or the Lower Loddon on a summers day in the holidays or at weekends - these are "rivers" that you can almost jump over in places and there are canoes going through every few minutes. Canoeists only seem to be able to count to one as when I shout I have two lines out they say they can see it, avoid the first and catch the second! Or when you shout "if you come to this bank you can go under the line" they shout "okay" and paddle to the far bank and catch your line. Grr :(
 
David Chant said:
Try St Patricks Stream or the Lower Loddon on a summers day in the holidays or at weekends - these are "rivers" that you can almost jump over in places and there are canoes going through every few minutes. Canoeists only seem to be able to count to one as when I shout I have two lines out they say they can see it, avoid the first and catch the second! Or when you shout "if you come to this bank you can go under the line" they shout "okay" and paddle to the far bank and catch your line. Grr :(
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If you fish with the tips low they normally go straight over your lines, this also applies to the large power craft which are all over the lower Severn.
 
I quite enjoy the canoes on the Wye. Both the barbel and myself are well used to them now. I usually fish 100 - 500 yards upstream of my mate and get them to carry all sorts of messages such as:

Tell the old bloke downstream that his mate has caught 6 ten pound barbel

Tell the the old bloke downstream his mate has caught a 5 pound gudgeon

Tell the old bloke downstream his mate has lost the car keys!!

And you never get any abuse back because they only go downstream!!

I also offer the kiss of life to any nice female canoeists and when wading even shake their hands as they go past! I sometimes warn them of dangerous rapids just round the next bend but that only 2 people drowned there yesterday - you ought to see their faces!!

A couple of times when wading in the middle of the river and attached to a barbel, a fleet of canoes have backed up like a log jam. When I have eventually netted it, I have received a round of applause and taken a bow! One girl said "OOH, that's a big one" which could have prompted a number of replies but I finally said, "Yes and the're like pirannah so don't fall in or they'll eat you all up!" She didn't look very happy as she paddled off.

So I just treat the canoes as another source of amusement in an enjoyable day!
 
I must concur with Ian (sort of) the canoeists on the Wye are generally not a problem and the fish are certainly not bothered by them.
They usually react to instructions like "please pass on the far bank" or "pass close to me" when requested;)
However I have also had the odd minor problem, but in the main we anglers just have to learn to get on with them on this wonderful river:(
 
Everywhere that is navigable seems the same, if it's not pleasure cruisers it's Gin Palaces, or hoardes of shouty shouty Canoeists. In fact it is the single most thing that irks me, I can spot the odd Otter and even the occasional Cormorant, but the sight of these detached from nature and common courtesy types annoy me.

A few years back I was fishing a weir on the WA and this kyaker was shooting the weir with a group, he seemed to be teaching them and was encouraging them to go for it. This was happening right in front of us and he seemed oblivious to us being there.

So I politely asked him to respect others that use the river and I got a volley of foul mouthed abuse. Not content with that he and his group set off down stream right into a angler who was actually playing a barbel, straight through, and the fish was lost. The angler was besides himself with anger and attempted to swim after them :eek: But soon gave up.
 
Adrian Williams said:
If you fish with the tips low they normally go straight over your lines, this also applies to the large power craft which are all over the lower Severn.
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Adrian

I would be very interested to learn how you fish with your rods low without using a big lead. As an experiment I tried using a 4 ounce lead on St Pats with the rods low and I couldn't hold bottom unless casting upstream, which is not where I usually want to fish. With the rod high I use three quarters to one ounce leads and it holds bottom. I am always willing to learn and would love to know how you set up for fast flowing water.
 
david, try using a conventional lead conventionally but adding 2 x 1oz bullets
1st about 3ft from the conventional lead and the 2nd bullet abot 3 ft up the line from the other bullet, you can use a large float stop on each one and a powergum stopknot pulled tight to get the float stop from moving unless under pressure, this may help you hold bottom mate:)
 
David Chant said:
Adrian

I would be very interested to learn how you fish with your rods low without using a big lead. As an experiment I tried using a 4 ounce lead on St Pats with the rods low and I couldn't hold bottom unless casting upstream, which is not where I usually want to fish. With the rod high I use three quarters to one ounce leads and it holds bottom. I am always willing to learn and would love to know how you set up for fast flowing water.
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I don't know the St Pats but it's interesting to note that you are aware that if you fish upstream you can get away with using less lead.

The next best thing to fishing upstream is to cast in front or downstream and allow a large bow to form in the line downstream of where your lead has settled, the way the water acts on the line replicates fishing upstream. Experience will tell you how big a bow to use for given conditions.

When fishing like this it is natural to assume that bite detection will be compromised, in reality the opposite is the case, the bites are either the normal rip round or a sudden drop back, in either case an upstream strike will set the hook.

When fishing like this a soft tip rod is best, I use a glass quiver of around 4 oz.
Another advantage of this style of fishing is the line is laying flat along the river bed and the fish on pressured stretches are unlikely to be spooked as they approach the bait. It also keeps the line out of the way of any floating weed which may be coming downstream, however, if you do get a little weed building up it is indicated by a slow pull on the tip, often a quick tap on the rod or a gentle shake will clear it and leave the bait in place.

I hope this helps
 
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