Feedback & Reports

Fished the wooded section in a great swim near the big rock from 2pm until dusk. The river was low but had the first fish on the first cast. Barbel from 4 to 9 lb, chub 2-3 lb. A bit snaggy, lost quite a bit of gear but a totally amazing day for Joe's first trip to the Wye. Day 1 of 3. TBC......

8 Barbel, 7 Chub

Various methods but all fish caught on pellet. 4 x 3-4lb chub. River low, very weedy.

4 Chub

Fished in the wood, banks are tricky but ok with care. Caught from the first cast, 10 chub in the first 10 casts before things became a little slower. Rebaiting the swim with the dropper fetched more fish and a couple of barbel all fish caught on corn or 10mm boilie which by chance looked just the same as the cherries falling in the water off the trees. All chub between 3lb and 4lb 8oz, biggest barbel was 8lb 1oz and the other about 4 1/2lb, losing 2 more when the line was cut on rocks. A very nice days fishing indeed, also spotted my first otter on the Wye.

2 Barbel, 32 Chub

Hard to fish, very rocky, croys poor condition. Lucky stone swim had two barbel anglers on the far side so a long walk for nothing. Tried fly and spinner nothing.

Hard to fish - very rocky, croys poor condition. Lucky stone swim had two barbel anglers on the far side so a long walk for nothing. Tried fly and spinner nothing.

7 chub in swim next to hut. Long walk to lucky stone swim was a waste of time as people fishing on the far side.

7 Chub

Tough going today not a knock till 6pm then chub started feeding. All between 3-5lb the barbel was 8-9lb.

1 Barbel, 6 Chub

First time on this beat and the river was low and sluggish, the weather warm and sunny. Walked a good part of the beat before settling in at a spot in the woods. During the late morning an early afternoon I caught the 6 fish on meat including an eel and a chub hooked in the anal fin (best fight from a chub ever). I had intended to move to a nearby swim for the late afternoon and evening but this got taken by anglers on the opposite bank. Before leaving I had a couple of casts in the last downstream field but with no success. Overall a nice stretch of river that would be a lot better with some rain.

1 Barbel, 4 Chub, 1 Other

Two Barbel and 5 chub in very hot conditions.
As per usual, below the forest towards the the very end of the stretch fishing to pockets in the rather large weed beds.

2 Barbel, 5 Chub

Arrived at the river at first light. Wasn't an obvious entrance into the wooded area from the car park side so I walked around the woods. Before entering there I walked the length of the beat and only found 2 spots where you can access the river. I would happily clear myself a swim but the river didn't look ideal for barbel anyway.
I entered the woods but left my gear outside and that was a wise move. The woods are very tricky to walk through even without your gear, and again very few places you can access the river, very steep banks which you have no chance of going down or up. As I made my way up river through the woods I could see what can only be described as the perfect low river level barbel swim, but getting down to it was far from perfect. I'm a fit young man and I struggled getting down to the river without my tackle. It was my only hope of a good day so I decided to go back and get my gear and do what I could to get down there.
It was very tricky getting to it with my gear, hit the deck a number of times, literally shed blood to get to it. I was sweating from the heat too so I was relived to get to my swim as I was pretty frustrated by this point and just wanted to sit down and relax, this wasn't to be the case though, started fishing at 7am and by 9am I had 10 barbel. The bait was never in the water more than 2 minutes, spent the whole 2 hours playing fish. After 9am the chub joined the party and they were taking it in turns with the barbel. Into the afternoon the barbel almost completely switched off but the chub clearly wanted to take advantage of that and went nuts. As I'd feel the feeder hit the riverbed on the cast they'd take the hookbait on the drop. Had 3 hours of it.
The barbel moved back in and the chub finally cleared off. Steadily caught barbel after that until I packed up with lots of light to spare to ensure I could make it out of the woods before dark. The woods didn't frustrate me as much after having the best days fishing of my life. There is one bit though we're if you don't grab the rope you're going to tumble straight down into rocks from a very steep drop. You'd be lucky if you didn't bang your head and be the end of you. I just grabbed the rope in time, a real heart in your mouth moment. I not sure what I felt most happy about, an amazing day or managing to get back to the car with just cuts and bruises. The woods did provide good cover for the sun though.
The barbel were all 6-9lb and the chub 3-5lb. 2 of the barbel had other anglers hooks in their mouth, so nice to know I did them a favour by catching them and removing these. What a day in so many ways.

24 Barbel, 32 Chub