Feedback & Reports

4 Trout

No fish caught.. river full of silk weed and bottom very silted. Needs a good spell of rain

Loads of small chub all falling for freelined meat from faster water plus 2 barbel of 3lb and 6lb. Finding the fish was key so stayed mobile. All fish released quickly and all swam away strongly.
Loads of kingfishers to watch as well.

2 Barbel, 24 Chub

4 Trout

9 Chub

Water level very low

A very disappointing and, at times, thoroughly frustrating day at Caradoc. A trip which had been booked 6 months ago.. The filament weed is now absolutely pervasive, stretching along virtually the entire length of the beat and making fishing incredibly difficult. Every single cast with a lead or feeder came back with the terminal tackle and hooklength festooned with streamer weed and coated in horrible, slimy filament weed. Cast, wait, retrieve, strip off weed, rebait and repeat. It was relentless, unpleasant and, after a few hours, bloody hard work.

The river itself is desperately low. For much of the beat it is barely knee deep, something amply demonstrated by the swimmers wandering out from the beach and across areas where we would normally expect to be fishing decent water. There is very little depth anywhere and precious few places offering the sort of flow and cover you would normally associate with Caradoc.

And then there was the heat. Temperatures in the Hereford area reached the mid-30s today and sitting on an exposed riverbank for hour after hour in that sort of heat made an already difficult day considerably harder. With very low water, blazing sunshine, oppressive heat and seemingly endless weed, conditions could hardly have been less conducive to productive barbel fishing.

There were at least a few fish to show for the effort. One angler picked up an early chub with a long-range chuck into the faster water, while another eventually managed a barbel and a chub later in the day from the same general stretch, despite having to battle the weed throughout.

A few barbel were seen flashing early on in one particular area, which was enough encouragement to stick at it. What followed was a six-hour-plus exercise in patience and bloody-minded persistence, repeatedly clearing weed from the tackle before finally coaxing a bite and putting the second barbel of the day in the net. Hard-earned would be an understatement.

Elsewhere, there were loads and loads of chublets, mostly up to around 10oz, happy enough to take corn. They at least provided a bit of entertainment, broke the monotony and, importantly, gave some respite from the seemingly endless battle with the weed.

We’ve had some cracking visits to Caradoc in the past, which perhaps makes this one all the more disappointing. At present, this is Caradoc at its absolute worst. The desperately low water and extreme heat would have made it difficult enough, but combined with the sheer volume of filament weed, properly fishing the beat became an exhausting exercise.

The weed isn’t merely an inconvenience at the moment. It is utterly debilitating, and today Caradoc felt more like an endurance test than a day’s fishing.

2 Barbel, 2 Chub, 30 Other

Hard going with the heat but was a good day

2 Trout

Wyastone Lees is unfishable. Well we arrived early. The river downstream from the car park is basically a slime weed multiplication facility. About 20” deep,even wading out, it’s slime city. Nothing by 1130 so walked off.

6 Trout