Feedback & Reports

Some bank work has been done with good access down the bank to the Vanstone with some new steps cut on one of them. Access to Maddox overgrown but reasonable. Due to high grass the direct route from the car park to Windmill is not practical so you have to follow the river making it a long walk to the upper pools - especially in waders on a hot day.
The level water level was fine but the water was very coloured - red/brown with visibility about a foot or a little better out of the stream. Starting very early I tried a Flying C for a while in Maddox through to the Vanstone but gave up after 3 hours.

River getting a bit below optimum (5" at Fownhope and the irrigation pumps running flat out) but holding some turbidity. Just fished the evening and no salmon seen but one offer late on to fly in the run into the Vanstone. Sadly it just took a foot of line and was gone.

10 lbs Salmon from the Vanstone on fly! There are still some ambitions left at 82 and this was one of them, to catch a salmon where Pashley fished. His picture came straight to me out of Tales of a Wye Fisherman which I read many years ago. Great to follow my two fish at Wyesham on Monday.

1 Salmon

A wonderful afternoon on some fabulous fly water. An excellent height for this beat and felt fishy in many places. Alas no contact with Salmon nor any sightings but I am sure they were there. One lovely Chub got the heart racing. Met another angler, thanks for pork pie and that wine is wasted on me, turn out he lives 5 minutes away from me :-). A great day!
Thanks WUF, if you could now just find me a taker. Be back soon.

Lovely fly water at 8" on Fownhope Gauge but we didn't see a fish or feel a pull all day!

No fish seen or caught by 2 rods, although a pike of about 4 lbs caught from the Vanstone pool. Lamprey seen close to the surface in the afternoon.
For left bank access the road from Ross was closed close to the entrance to the farm track, but fortunately we approached from the Kerne Bridge direction.

1 Pike

A truly memorable day. Arrived 10.30am after a 180 mile drive from Surrey to be confronted by bright sun & scorching temps. Nothing to report until 7.15pm when I caught & released my first ever Shad on a salmon fly, to be followed 20 minutes later by an immaculate 18lb bright silver cock fish (my first Wye salmon) to a Francis pattern. Ed Brown, our third rod then fished through the same run to land a 7lb grilse. Many thanks to the WUF for giving us access to such fine fishing and pleased to see your bailiff putting in an appearance too.

2 Salmon, 1 Other

Mis-timed an evening assault on the river. Height up to 2 foot at Fownhope and quite coloured, although still a couple of feet of visibility so not impossible. Fished Corner Tree and Vanstone carefully with no result. No salmon seen but had wonderful views of an otter and her young cub. Tremendous fly activity at dusk, caddis and spinners (Yellow Mays?), which brought a few trout and chub to the surface despite the extra water and colour.

Nothing caught.

Very early start to beat the canoes - fished hard till lunch sadly for nothing. 1 fish seen in Maddox and 5 in Vanstone right at the end of the beat. Canoes became unbearable around 12.30, but up to that point very enjoyable.

1 Chub