“I’D BAGGED 1,602 BLEAK, SO I KNEW HAD A CHANCE”
Small-fish maestro Hadrian Whittle does what he knows best for second Wye win
RIVER ace Hadrian Whittle won the Wye Championships with a 50lb-plus net of bleak recently, and has now added Dave Roberts’ big-money midweeker to continue his red-hot run of form on the waterway.
Fishing on the final day before lockdown when a three-day festival was meant to be taking place, Hadrian weighed in 49-12-0 made up of 1,602 fish to take the win a few pounds clear of joint runners-up Chris Holmes and Jason Bean on 44-6-0 apiece.
Hadrian began by fishing for roach and dace from peg 45 on the Belmont section, but after half-an-hour he couldn’t get past the bleak. So he broke out the whips and caught shallow on maggot 1.5m-2.5m out.
“Unfortunately, my peg was one of those that was either going to be bleak or barbel!” Hadrian said. “I felt bleaking it was the safer option. It definitely was, because only one barbel was caught in the match!
“There are some big bleak weights caught on the Wye, although few pegs can do 40lb of them, but if they are there in sufficient numbers, you’re never out of the game.”
No roach – but lots of bleak!
“Starting off on the deck, I only caught a few bleak with no roach or other fish about at all. That was enough to tell me to get on the bleak and see what numbers of fish I had in front of me, although I felt sure the answer to that would be a lot, as I couldn’t get my roach rig down to the bottom!
“After half-an-hour I picked my 2.5m whip up and began feeding maggots.
“There’s little you can do to try and catch quicker with bleak – you either get a bite immediately or not at all if there’s not a fish there. I used a 4x14 Slim bleak float and a size 16 hook with single maggot threaded up the shank, beginning at 15ins deep and throwing in a few maggots every 10 seconds or so. The real battle with this type of fishing is being mentally sharp and not flagging, as just 10 minutes of being off the pace can cost you. The bleak I was catching were around 30 to the pound and I did try sideways striking too, trying to give me another go at getting a bite if I missed the first one.”
Little changes make a difference
“What I did find was that if you fed too heavily, the bleak dropped down in the water, which made minimal feeding best. Even so, when you’re casting and feeding every few seconds, you can easily get through eight pints.
“Keeping track of the depth the bleak were at was also key. Just moving the float up or down the line a couple of inches made all the difference between getting a fish each cast or having a blank few minutes.
“For example, when the weather went cloudy, the fish dropped down in the water whereas when it was sunny, they were right up in the top layers.”
Moving in short
“The longer the match went on, the more bleak came into the peg and they moved closer in too, so I was able to change to just 1.5m out and have a really good spell.
“To keep tabs on how many fish I’ve caught I count to 100, then drop a maggot into an empty bait tub. That gives me an idea of the pace I’m on and how many I’m likely to end up with. I don’t set a target, though, because the size of fish can vary.
“Finishing with 1,602 bleak, I worked out that they seemed to be of a similar size to the ones I’d caught to win the Wye Champs, so 50lb was my prediction. That sort of weight always gives you a chance on the river, although I did expect to be beaten by the really good pegs on the tennis courts section. That said, those swims were hammered the day before by anglers, so they didn’t quite fish to their full potential.”