Filming on the Wye for the Discovery Channel
It's a wonder that John Wilson catches any fish at all. By the time the
anglers, film crew and inquisitive hangers-on (yours truly) had stumbled
down the unkempt Wye riverbank, selected a suitably aesthetic spot (usually
the worst place to actually fish) and completed the requisite light and sound
checks, surely the only creatures remaining within a mile radius were the
handful of lazy minnows basking in the shallows, too lethargic from the hot
July sun to be bothered by all the commotion surrounding them.
True to form, however, the three days of filming on the upper and middle reaches
of the Wye provided enough material for an episode of the new Discovery Channel
series, 'Dream Fishing', to be screened 17th November 2007.
The first half of the shoot concentrated on the chub fishing in the upper river
a few miles south of Builth Wells. Plenty were caught and tantalisingly, some
good barbel spotted but sadly, not tempted by the halibut pellets and luncheon
meat enticingly rolled beneath their whiskery snouts.
The last day and a half saw the set relocate an hour and half's drive downriver
to just below Hereford. Once past the morass of gluttonous chub, the preferred
quarry were successfully drawn upstream into the swim, giving John and his fellow
angler, Martin Bowler of the Angling Times, 5 cracking barbel to 9lbs. 'A rap'
was called and John and the entourage were off to far less exotic climes than
the English/Welsh borders, somewhere called Thailand apparently.
Look out for John Wilson's & Martin Bowler's three days on Discovery Real
Time on the 17th November 2007, channel 250. Also, Martin's excellent
articles in this and next week's Angling Times (p14).
