Feedback & Reports

Bank holiday Saturday - Wye full of canoeists, making fishing difficult. Water still low, but improving. No pulls.

No salmon, lots of canoes.

River running slightly high with some colour, but looking good... saw a fish move in Slaughter crib pool.
Hit into a shoal of Shad and IR took two fish on a size 10 Willie Gunn so changed to a bigger fly, LB took 3 shad before doing the same on an Allie's Shrimp in Botchers Rock pool. Hooked and lost a salmon in Biblin's Run, on a long tailed Willie Gunn size 8. River seemed to colour up even more in the afternoon. An enjoyable day on the river albeit with no fish...

5 Other

Low water and sunny, nothing caught but could see how it would fish well in the right conditions.

Late report and sadly not much to report. Fished from 6am until 10am when canoe traffic meant an early finish. Nice water but no sign of salmon. JC managed one trout.

1 Trout

Italian guest, Corrado Benassi, caught a salmon estimated at 20lbs (94cm) on Lower Symonds Yat beat on a 'Willie Gunn' tube fly, double hook. Returned safely. Many fish rising on this stretch of the river, during the morning.

1 Salmon

So, water was v low (0.97m Monmouth gauge) which meant quite a lot not possible to fish a fly through, but can see the huge potential of this beat for sure. The water running down from Slaughter to the foot bridge is just wonderful and can imagine a lot of fish get hooked here. Below the bridge down to Martins it was all too slow for a fly, so fished hard with a spinner, scrambling the banks and wading the edges, didn't connect with one, but did see a fish roll in the Smokehouse pool.

I don't want this to be just another negative post about the canoe civil war that haunts this part of the Wye, but I put up with as much as I could on the top half until finally a large pack of men came through, one with a sound system so loud I could actually feel the bass through the water. So I wound in the line at that point. Around 50 % of them have obviously been briefed and passed me behind where my line was, but the other half carry on straight through the middle of the pool. The grumpy man in me feels it is perhaps a bit unfair to pay £50 to fish a beat where the main part of the day is virtually impossible, but the more easy going utilitarian in me says there is still a lot of water and I was outnumbered around 100:1 by canoeists, so I should give way to them. I doubt I will fish there again at this time of year, but would consider coming back from June when it's available mid week. In the mean time... i think we should all do a rain dance!

Highlight was filming two MASSIVE wild boar cruising down the treeline of Lady Wood in the half light on the way out!

Lost a pike on a salmon fly at the margins

Before even casting a fly, I knew that the two days booked where going to be a complete waste of time.
If there were salmon present, it was hopeless with so many visitors swimming, plus dogs and children in all sections of what could have been a fabulous piece of water. Canoeists were also present the whole day and it was laughable that it was offered for a day of fishing.
Not impressed and I won't return.

WUF Note: The top half of this beat does get busy during peak tourist season, and in this unfortunate circumstance meant it wasn't fishable. We have amended our notes to help inform anglers of this to prevent a situation like this reoccurring in the future.

Had a lovely couple of hours fishing before breakfast. Moved a nice salmon about 15lb just above slaughter crib. No other salmon seen for the couple of hours I fished. Popped back out early evening for another hour or so. Salmon showed twice in slaughter pool as I arrived. Covered it with a spinner hooked & landed a small pike Couple of casts later hooked & landed a twaite shad of around 2lb. Couldn't find the salmon. Will be back again on this stunning beat & hopefully fish for the whole day.

1 Pike, 1 Other