Oliver Burch's Game Fishing Monthly Report - October 2025

Fine weather ended as Storm Amy advanced on us in two steps: two bouts of heavy rain over 36 hours followed by two days of winds gusting up to 55 and 60 mph. Amy was certainly more damaging in Ireland and Scotland, but those who chose to fish our rivers had a rough time of it in the wind and rain. The Usk, upper Wye and all tributaries, with the noteworthy exception of the Monnow which somehow missed most of the rain, were rising quickly by the 4th October. Anglers did their best, despite powerful currents, muddy water and debris. Steven Ford from Hockley with two friends fished at Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s ley, catching 3 barbel, 48 chub and a trout. Rob West and his son from New Milton were at How Caple Court and caught 30 chub, along with 3 barbel, all of which were over 9 pounds and one at 11 pounds 2 ounces. Huw Evans from Swansea was trying to intercept a salmon at Lower Symonds Yat, but remarked that the access here is quite difficult for an 80 year-old. He certainly has my respect for trying. Keith Marsh and a friend from Caerphilly were fishing in mountain rain for trout at Llwyn On: “Two anglers, 4 trout between them, very wet but happy.”  

On the 4th, while Storm Amy raged overhead, DW from Bristol with a friend caught 4 barbel with 20 chub to 6 pounds from Sugwas Court. AS from Malton with a friend was at the Home Fishery where they caught 2 chub and 5 barbel, including fish of 11 pounds 8 ounces and 9 pounds 12 ounces. There were many wash-offs now during the spate, but some specimen barbel turned up also. Paul White from Eppingham recorded a single chub and a barbel of 10 pounds 2 ounces at Lower Symonds Yat. Martyn Elliot from Poole had a 10 pounder in a catch of 4 from Wyastone Leys, while from the same beat Tony Hobbs of Monmouth had one of 12 pounds, also in a catch of 4. Andrew Ferris from Keyningham caught 2 chub and a barbel of 9.5 from How Caple Court. Gary Taylor from Ross was forced to watch an otter for an hour as it plunged around in his swim at Upper Hill Court. He remarked that he preferred to watch otters on television documentaries. Lisa Underhill-Price with a friend from Hailsham fished fished at Lower Canonbridge in a heavy current with colour and caught 4 barbel to 9 pounds 12 ounces: “Had a great day, as always.” Nicholas Bradley from Stratford-Upon-Avon recorded 10 barbel and 3 chub at Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8, while DH from Horsham with a friend recorded 9 barbel and 8 chub at Middle Hill Court. DO from Cranbrook with a friend was at the Home Fishery and had a barbel of 12 pounds in a catch of 4, along with 2 chub. AH from Hagbourne with two friends caught 11 barbel, 12 chub and a dace from How Caple Court, while DH from Horsham with a friend scored 9 barbel and 8 chub at Middle Hill Court. They were on Upper Hill Court the following day and caught 4 barbel and 16 chub. One of the barbel was attacked by a large pike as it was being played in. Gareth Lewis from Abergavenny had a barbel and 12 chub at Lower Redbank 1. Neil Olley of Bishops Stortford also recorded a barbel and 12 chub, in his case from Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8. The barbel weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces.  

Despite catching 3 trout, Giles Hulm from Dinas Powys had an unnecessarily unpleasant experience when fishing the SGLL water at Llyn Dywarchen. A local member subjected him to a torrent of abuse and swearing in the designated car park. All this was because he needed two parking places for his large van. Not that the car park was actually full, according to Mr Hulm. “Marital problems, I dare say,” my wife usually mutters under her breath on coming upon such specimens. There were more complaints about forbidden angling methods from some of the Welsh lakes. JM from Abersychan enjoyed catching 5 rainbows at Bargoed Park, but mentioned that some anglers were spinning. For whatever reason, fly and worm are the approved methods here. DC from Merthyr Tydfil was one of a long line of reporters telling us about the illegal use of more than one rod at Llwyn On. If both rods are in the water at the same time that is surely in breach of the rules and the bailiffs should be reacting if they see it or if a direct witness tells them about it. An angler from Ledbury reported as follows about salmon fishing at Goodrich Court on 5th October: “River at 1.2 metres and carrying a lot of colour. Not really fishable but I put a spinner through the Maddox and the Vanstone on the off chance. No pulls.”  Please check the by-laws before fishing; and note that it’s good that there were no pulls, because there is no spinning for salmon on the Wye after the final day of August. You can leave your spinning gear at home when fishing the Wye late season.

Salmon reports had gone quiet for a while as the flood dropped off. Mark Harris from Swansea fished the Rectory beat of the upper Wye on the 7th, but saw nothing. Then we heard that the Spreadeagle beat below had taken 3 salmon, one of them being a coloured cock fish of 8 pounds. Wyesham just above the tide reported a salmon of 18.5 pounds on the 8th. Then on the 10th regular salmon angler Steve Boswell reported two cock fish of 36 inches from the Ross Angling Association waters (immediately above Goodrich Court). In this year of scarcity, that is quite a brace! They were both taken on the Bann Special, which has long been a favourite pattern of mine. It has a local following (although some would opt for the Usk Grub) so bravo for the Bann! It’s a shrimp style fly of course, mainly constructed from golden pheasant. There are two versions of it, one bright with jungle cock cheeks and a low water version without.

BG from Harlow with a friend had 3 barbel and 9 chub from Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley: “Love this fishery. Well-kept access to swims and very consistent along its length.” MF from Wiltshire caught a barbel of 9 pounds 13 ounces from Caradoc: “…caught my personal best barbel so came away happy.” MA from Worcester with a friend fished the Creel and caught 20 chub, 10 barbel to 7 pounds 3 ounces and a pike of 12 pounds. DC from Bristol with his 14 year-old son fished at Fownhope 5 for 1 barbel and 19 chub. Linda Underhill-Price with a friend from Hailsham was at Middle Hill Court: “…nothing till the light was starting to fade, then a brace of 5 pounds chub – glorious, golden perfect fish. Then 2 barbel, one 8 pounds and one 9 pounds…lovely day as usual.”  Chris Fogg and a friend from Alton accounted for 32 chub, a barbel and a grayling from Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8. RMC from Birmingham caught 20 barbel to 6 pounds 8 ounces and 3 chub to 3.5 pounds at Upper Breinton. Vadim Bejenar from Gloucester reported 9 trout from the Usk Reservoir.

M from Builth Wells fished the Rectory for salmon: “What a great beat, easy access and well kept banks. Beautiful scenery, just lacking a salmon that was in the mood to take.” A visitor from Stratford on Avon caught 7 grayling with nymphs at Lyepole and remarked about the Lugg: “…the stamp of fish has improved over the last few years.” I think I would agree at least that the Lugg grayling population is standing up to pressure reasonably well, although this is not the case everywhere in the Wye system. The Lugg has produced 19 inch fish on occasion, although admittedly not recently.

As the rivers settled down, we found ourselves in another period of quiet weather, warm and rather misty. The odd fish continued to turn up during the final week of the salmon season. Wyesham reported a 14 pounder on the 11th, taken on a Red Francis. The same pattern accounted for a 12 pounds fish for Adam Joseph on the middle river at Sheepwash, where Tony Davis also caught one of 15 pounds on a Red and Orange tube. Tomasz Gorcyza reported a 13 pounds cock fish taken on a Cascade at Goodrich Court. A lot of anglers were out trying. Having a free morning I turned out on a whim to make a few casts down a pool of the Usk at Kemys Commander – without result, but it was all very pleasant watching the line roll out beneath a background of golden beech leaves. Then home to lunch and to watch the hostage/prisoner exchanges going on in the Middle East and then listen to the celebratory and self-congratulating speeches in the Knesset. Let’s try to be optimistic about that one, I thought to myself. I could certainly remember worse days for the Middle East. By the following day Hamas, reliably true to form, were executing alleged collaborators with the IDF in the streets of Gaza and the old mafia families were already marking out their territories again. Will Hamas really voluntarily disarm and did anybody really think the road ahead would be easy? Experience in that part of the world promotes cynicism. 

Cloudy days and nights continued, with a sort of sea fog and occasional drizzle and surprisingly little variation in temperature between midday to midnight. CPS from Weston-Super-Mare fished at Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8, complaining that the weather was overcast and cold all day. The fish came in the last 2 hours: 3 barbel and 7 chub. GT from Ross on Wye caught 5 barbel to 9 pounds 11 ounces at Wyastone Leys. I was intrigued by a report from an angler from Dwyran who was at Glanrafon on the Seiont (SGGL Fishing Society) and thought he might have seen a sewin attack a water rat from below. It seems to me possible that he saw exactly that. Years ago, in the days when sewin were routinely kept for the table, a friend told me about dressing a 6 pounder in the kitchen which turned out to contain a little water vole in its stomach. Which might explain something about the effectiveness of the Surface Lure at times.  On the 15th, Wyesham above the tide reported salmon of 12 and 18 pounds and, despite the river being now quite low again, saw fresh fish moving in the beat. Everything I had seen in recent weeks had clearly been in the river for a long time.  Despite the water now being very low, Robert Davies from Chepstow took an 8 pounds salmon on the Dog Hole at Goodrich Court using a small Cascade Tube. Other fish were spotted on the beat. At the bottom of the Wye Paul Henry had a fish of 7 pounds on an Usk Grub from the Wyeseal beat of Bigsweir Fishery.  Owner Paris Paraskevas very handsomely offered a free day to anybody who wanted to take on fishing his Usk beat at Chainbridge on either the 16th or 17th. I imagine that Chainbridge would be quite a good bet for a backend Usk salmon, but…the final day came and went without further result.

A few late season salmon reports trickled in. Nick Thomas fished the GPAIAC waters around Builth Wells and on the 7th October caught a small hen fish in the Larder Pool of the Irfon. On the 13th he caught a big cock fish measured at 1.035 metres in the Church Pool on the main Wye. Both salmon were taken on a heavy black, red and yellow tube. From the River Towy, Golden Grove and Abercothi fisheries sent in their final reports for the season, which turned out to be 42 fish each. Upper Bigsweir reported a cock fish of 8 pounds from Little Run taken on 9th June. Steve Dawes had another cock fish of 10 pounds from Cockpit Crib on 10th June. Dedicated salmon anglers now signed off for 2025 with a slightly rueful air: Dennis Cotter of Mountain Ash wished “…a Happy New Year to all.” A Hereford angler saw several fish at Goodrich Court, but didn’t catch: “First day fishing on the last day of the season. That’s as good as it gets this season.”  No doubt there will be one or two more late reports to come in – there always are - but the current Wye total for 2025 stands at 59 salmon.

The grayling anglers had also been working hard. Tim Pryke from Woodbridge caught 14 grayling on heavy nymphs at Lyepole and queried rumours about a “new footbridge.” That is a mystery to me also; there is only the one 19th century bridge carrying the road over the Lugg at Lyepole as far as I know (but I wish some attention could be paid to the stiles on either side of it, at least by removing the barbed wire blocking approach). Eyton downstream could use a new footbridge, but Herefordshire Council seem content to let that situation lie and the right of way across the river remains blocked. I was concerned to read a report from Andy Goram of Harleston Norfolk, who has been a regular and successful autumn visitor to our grayling fisheries for years. “I guess the river is just not on at the moment,” he wrote after struggling at Builth. On the 15th from 9 o’clock to 5 o’clock he fished the lower part of Doldowlod (I guess from the sawmill parking down) for just one grayling and an out of season trout: “Oh dear, that’s not a good result for this beat.”  I fear that Andy is right and he reported that Dolgau proved equally difficult the next day. He mentioned he had not seen a fish rise in 3 days. I suppose that allowances should be made for the fact that this was a week of particularly high pressures and low water levels. A final day on the Colonel’s Water of the Irfon was similarly unsuccessful: “Thanks WUF for having me this week, it has been a challenge.”   

The coarse fishing results were more cheering although low water levels made it all quite hard work. AH from Witney had 7 chub at the Creel plus a perch of 3 pounds 4 ounces: “Delighted with that.” (More about perch of different sizes later in this letter). AO from Newcastle on Tyne took 2 barbel and 15 chub at Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8. Russell Prince with a friend from High Wych fished at Fownhope 5 and caught 4 barbel to 10 pounds: “Happy Days.” Paul Brown from Bradford on Avon was booked on Upper Hill Court, but couldn’t reach the upper section due to parked vehicles on a shooting day. The Hill Court pheasant shoots are a pretty big business and by autumn the estate is alive with birds, but it would be a courtesy to warn those anglers looking to book dates on the river. Paul managed 2 barbel and 6 chub from the lower section. Stephen Durber from Alcester fished at the Creel and caught 15 chub on bread with a feeder: “Always a pleasure on the Wye.” Colin Mcsherry from Keynsham took 2 barbel and 12 chub at Middle Hill Court: “…river very clear. I could see every leaf on the bottom in nearly 3 feet of water.” Stephen Cane with a friend from Crowthorne fished at the Creel for 17 chub to 4 pounds 5 ounces and 5 barbel to 8 pounds 2 ounces. Adam Hill from Tring (that’s a classic angling address) had 12 chub at Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley. CB from Bradford on Avon caught 8 chub at Middle Hill Court, which he thought was expensive, while conceding that the beat is well maintained and that he had good help and advice from keeper Stefan.

We had some low pressure followed by rain on the 19th and 20th October; the Wye came up without colouring too much. By the 24th and following more showers the main Wye and Irfon were flooding, although the Lugg, Arrow and Monnow were all still fishable. Fishing on the main Wye was now difficult, some blanked but others were rewarded for their efforts. Adam Hill from Enfield reported 14 chub from Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley: “Another day of the chub…”  SC from Crewe with a friend had a mixed bag at Lower Canon Bridge: 1 barbel, 8 chub, 1 pike, 6 dace and 2 perch. Gareth Lewis from Abergavenny had 8 chub from Lower Redbank 1. Tony Double from Chelmsford reported from Middle Ballingham and Fownhope 8: “Fished the middle until debris made conditions worse – switched to the near side and picked up one barbel of 9 lbs 8 oz.”  Nigel Lillie with a companion from Welling were not very happy with fishing Courtfield in the flood: “Swims are in a poor and in our opinion dangerous condition and need to be reworked.” GR from Newbridge did better on the upper river at Craig Llyn, catching 10 grayling.

Between the showers the winds were up and the leaves falling fast, while air temperatures fell into single figures. While Storm Melissa was ravaging the Caribbean, days of rain in the UK kept our rivers full. Many anglers from all over the UK had days on the Wye booked, but had to content themselves with just the odd chub or barbel. Results were mixed however: Rob Leather from Chelmsford with a friend reported a remarkable catch of 40 barbel and 6 chub from the Creel. Harry Turner from Aylesbury had 7 barbel and 8 chub at Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8: the two best barbel were 9.7 pounds and 9.8 pounds. MJ from Weston Super Mare had a very fine barbel of 11.5 pounds from the Home Fishery. Dan Connah from Norwich was one who did appreciate the amenities of Middle Hill Court, whatever the ticket price: “Cracking day’s fishing…big thanks to Stephan…lovely kept beat, steps and ropes such a nice touch in wet weather. Tried a lot of swims until dropped in on the last one for four barbel and one chub in the last couple of hours.” Up on the Usk Reservoir, which opens late, KP from Hereford recorded 2 rainbow and 6 brown trout. We came to the end of the month with the rivers full and more rain predicted. Game fishers still have the winter grayling fishing to look forward to. 

Despite the rain and as if to emphasize the ongoing nationwide shortage of water in our reservoirs, the Bristol Water Company regretfully cancelled all boat bookings for Chew Valley after 20th October. This is because the level has dropped to the extent that the boats can no longer be brought up safely to the piers. Predator fishing for the famous Chew pike is off again.

The latest Welsh river to be show-cased by Seth Johnson-Marshall of Afonydd Cymru is our own favourite Usk, or “God’s Own River” as local trout fishers prefer to call it. The Usk can be difficult to fish at times, but it can produce wonderful fish and it cannot be denied that it is always beautiful. Here is the link: Afon Wysg - Afonydd Cymru

Also from Afonydd Cymru, we note that Natural Resources Wales has published the environmental performance report for the two Welsh water companies during 2024. Once again and for the third year running, the larger of the two, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, has only achieved a two star rating. See here for details: A Third Year Of 2-Star Status For Welsh Water - Afonydd Cymru

Autumn days and falling leaves are supposed to be associated with perch. Once in a while in our catch returns I read something, not always polite, about perch. These are usually a by-catch and often an unwanted one at that. Most Wye coarse anglers are looking to catch barbel or at least chub, but not small perch. Similarly anglers on our Beacons reservoirs who are looking to catch stocked rainbow trout can be quite annoyed when their day after the prince of fishes turns out to be one of diminutive perch instead. I suppose small perch can be annoying, but they won’t be put off – they just keep coming. They hang around in gangs like street urchins and can often be recognised by the striped bodies lying on the bottom of clear lakes and chalk streams. We used to call them “sergeant fish” because of those prominent stripes. Most of our Forest lakes have them and some of the streams, while they can clearly be made out in the clear water pools of Big Well at Redbrook. Perch really like small streams. I remember the little River Glyme in Blenheim Palace Park used to be full of them.

Perch were definitely a main target of our school boy fishing on the Surrey Wey and its tributaries, which are numerous and nearly all of them known locally as simply “The Bourne.” The small stream fishing of those days, often obtained with the farmer’s permission, but admittedly sometimes not, was a sort of lowland help yourself version of the WUF Wild Streams scheme. These Bourne brooks were really very small streams, winding and with a slow gradient, but redeemed by occasional mill races and deep pools on the corners which usually contained something: often a chub or a perch, but occasionally a trout which would give us quite a thrill. We worked downstream using short bamboo rods, porcupine quill floats and for bait a worm or minnow to be trotted into the holes.

I remember one very successful day on the Hoe Stream, which enters the Wey near Old Woking after meandering through water meadows. This is on the Pyrford Court estate, where The Omen movie was later made. There is a marvellous little hatch pool at the top of the stretch, just right for catching minnows over a clean gravel bed, and here I commenced operations. In those days you could buy a plastic minnow trap in the tackle shops, but I had made my own using an old white wine bottle of clear glass with the label removed and the kick-up at the bottom drifted in with a tap on a brass rod. Into this you put a few worms, or strands of red wool, or even a bit of bread – all of these worked – before putting in the cork and lowering it bubbling down to the bed of the stream on a string. 10 minutes was usually enough, after which you pulled the contraption up and usually found it full of bright lively minnows. Taking out the cork, you could empty the minnows into a can. Once equipped with bait, I fished my way down about a mile of the stream, trotted the float into every place there was enough depth and found perch and chub almost everywhere. None of them were very large, but I had caught and returned more than 20 of each species before the end of the day.

I had a perch in an aquarium once and fed it on bits of chopped liver presented on a knitting needle. It used to get excited as soon as I walked into the room. Aggressive as it was, there was no possibility of keeping anything else in the same tank. I experimented with worms, maggots and various grubs, all of which were wolfed down with enthusiasm. Only slugs were taken in and spat out in disgust, which surprised me slightly as slugs are often touted in angling books as a likely bait for chub at least.  

A different kind of fishing could be had on the main river Wey. I remember one bright day during the school holidays when the chub fishing was very slow. This was above Walsham Lock and Weir where the river and navigation channels combine to make a wide stretch of water on a bend fringed with reeds and water lilies. The ruins of Newark Abbey lie a half mile upstream and beyond the willows the little Ockham Mill Stream could be seen across the fields. Every half hour or so a water vole would go chugging across the river making a V wake as it went. This was quite normal to see in those days. It was a drowsy afternoon. Somewhere on the bank downstream a transistor radio was playing the current number one, which was “It’s All Over Now” by the Rolling Stones, so I suppose it must have been 1964. Tired of waiting for a chub, I stripped off the leger tackle and tied on a Mepps spoon to try for something else. I was glad I did, because almost at once I had a strike well out in the stream. This turned out to be a super perch of 2 pounds. What is more, I caught a brace more of the same size before the shoal moved on. By this time I had learned the hard way that apart from those nasty-looking spikes on the dorsal fin, they have rough scales and two more spikes on the rear edge of the gill covers which can be equally painful during the unhooking process. They also have very soft mouths, which is always a point to bear in mind while playing them.

We discovered some other ways of catching good perch. One was to search around old locks and pilings with a worm on a paternoster rig and feel for the knocks. A useful place for this in those days was the junction of the Wey Navigation with the disused Basingstoke Canal near New Haw. A line of old barges had been abandoned and sunk in the Basingstoke arm which was steadily filling up with duckweed. We used to climb onto the parts of the barges above the surface before dropping in our leads and bobbing them up and down. (Health and safety didn’t really seem to apply to children in those days, which allowed us all kinds of fun). Of course the Basingstoke Canal has been restored now, although it lacks a good water supply.

Another and very reliable method involved the Wey Navigation at Pyrford. This is an artificial channel created during the 17th century which has a towing path on one side and in most places thick banks of rushes growing into the water on the far side. Narrow boats and cruisers can still navigate from the Thames to Guildford, Godalming and now the route is restored down to the Sussex 0Arun. However, on an autumn day then you could pretty well rely on there not being much boat activity, although I once came across a gang of convicts from one of the London prisons set to repairing an embankment and man-hauling a work barge.

This month we had an incomplete report, although I am pretty sure it is basically accurate, of a superb 5.5 pounds brown trout taken during the season in the Abergwesyn Pass at the very top of the Irfon. This is wild country. There are some very deep dubs up in the Wolf’s Leap gorge there, and I have vivid memories of hooking – and losing – a big trout on a nymph which I dropped into one of these holes a few years back. This upper part of the Irfon draining the Cambrian Mountains has suffered historically from acid flushes in times of heavy rainfall, and the effect of excess acidity was usually to kill off the smaller fish and parr, while a few big trout would survive. A typical fishing report from the upper river back in the day might be “nothing caught but a big one seen,” or perhaps more successfully “one solitary large fish caught.” In the past the Wye and Usk Foundation have put a lot of work into countering acidity on the Irfon by liming the sources and modifying the drainage systems in the conifer plantations lining the overlooking hills. The Foundation would make a point of encouraging anglers to fish the 2.5 miles immediately above Llanwrtyd Wells which is on their Wild Streams scheme in order to check the results of the liming work and some 10 inch trout and even grayling would always be the looked for indicator of success.

Finally, let us take cheerful note that on 15th October Gavin Evans from Porth caught a couple of trout at Llwyn On reservoir and reported as follows: “Another great day! Just nice to get away from things, throw a line in the water and chill out!” He makes it all sound very simple, I thought. But maybe Mr Evans is right, about fishing and about life.

PS: I couldn’t help smiling to myself at the news of the French crown jewellery robbery from the Louvre. The story has all the rakish charm of a 1960’s heist movie. Was Inspector Clouseau assigned to the case yet and is Commissioner Dreyfus developing a nervous twitch? Apparently some people have been arrested and have confessed during interrogation they may be “partly responsible.” I can’t imagine how that conversation went. “Admit it, you are a jewellery robber.” “OK, a bit.” Has anybody checked to see if Michael Caine and his pensioner friends have alibis?

Tight lines for the coming winter!   

Oliver Burch

http://wyevalleyflyfishing.com