Feedback & Reports

Started 10 AM first chub after 3 hours, both barbel came at dusk. This beat has produced numerous barbel through out the day previously, however the recent cold nights may have impacted on the feeding habits. River level just exposing the rapids up stream, good flow but lots of debris and weed catching the line. Excellent day all the same.

2 Barbel, 6 Chub

Fished all day by the hut in first field but could not get a bite on pellet or meat using feeder... Trotted a float in the afternoon for a couple small Chublets and a 7/8 inches rainbow. Saw 1 Barbel come out to another angler in top field... with no Barbel or decent chub that's my second blank on the Wye this year.. frustrating.... very alarming to see the residents from the house by the hut all afternoon disposing of all their huge cut down tree branches into the river... the rapids down stream where catching all the branches and that lot will play havoc with fishing down stream when they are carried along in higher water..

2 Other

2nd time on this beat and the river was even lower than in Sept, CH fished the woods for 2 chub, BT fished the croy in the 1st field and had lots of roach, I fished middle of the 1st field and lost 2 barbel. Still a very enjoyable day though.

2 Chub, 20 Other

Having arrived at the beat to find near perfect conditions expectations that this would be "The" day were high. With 12 Barbel landed one would think that was indeed the case,
however, with 11 of them and the Chub falling to one rod it was a tough day for the other two!! That said still a joy to be on the river, and well done Big Nige. Best fish
8lb. 12oz.

12 Barbel, 1 Chub

After fishing the top field the previous day I thought I'd actually walk the whole stretch before starting to fish on the final day. I hiked over the hill but I could only find one swim that looked like it had some depth and so I decided to fish the same swims as the day before. I had a small Barbel from the hole down from the dead tree followed by a decent trout. Moving up to the top swim I had three more Barbel in quick succession and then the Dace moved in, finally for the last couple of hours I moved back down to the previous swim and managed to net a decent Chub.
All in all I had a lovely couple of days on what was a new stretch of the Wye for me. As I mentioned it's always worth giving Woody a call for river info before coming up and if like me in London all your local tackle shops seem to be geared solely for carp anglers, his shop is a veritable Aladin's cave of river tackle.
Can't wait til my next trip up!

4 Barbel

As always I phoned up Woody from Woody's Angling shop in Hereford before I came up just to check on river conditions and what methods he'd recommend (he runs the Hereford Angling Association which owns quite a bit of fishing on the Wye so he always knows what's working). He told me that the river was running clear and low and suggested maggot and block end feeder would be my best bet. Unfortunately I'd just been down to my local tackle shop in South London and bought a load of ground bait, pellet and a few more cage feeders - so this was filed for future use and I went back down and got several pints of maggots as I was planning to start fishing before Woody opened.
As it turned out I got a late start and went by the shop in Hereford anyway - I took my smartphone with me and got a close up image of this section of the river on Google Maps (satellite) then got him to show me the best swims to fish.
So I started in the top field above the rapids - just down from the first groyne of stones there's a big dead tree and about 40 yds down stream from this is a pool. I fished there for the morning and had a couple of Barbel, then in the afternoon I went up to the top and fished the furthermost swim with the steep bank. I had another Barbel here and luckily I'd also bought myself a decent landing net with a very long handle whilst getting fishing information that morning, otherwise I'm not quite sure if I'd have got it out. I had a few dace after this but that was the end of the Barbel for the day.

3 Barbel, 4 Other

Another hard day on the river after a frosty start to the day again. No barbel caught and settled for trying to catch a chub. Ended the day with 3 with one lost, 2 on meat and 1 on bread. Aa pair of otters put on a fine display along the far bank and in the middle of the river.

3 Chub

Great experience for my first trip on the Wye. 11 barbel up to 8lb all on pellet and feeder at the top end. Frequent salmon showing and spectacular close up views of Kingfishers. Thanks WUF.

11 Barbel

After a cold start to the day and a chilly north easterly we were thinking "Chub day". However they failed to oblige! The Wye "Double" remains elusive but three fine Barbel
of 8lb. 12oz., 9lb. 2oz. and 9lb. 12oz. fell to meat from the lower end of the woods. Just as the swim was coming to life the last hour or so was somewhat spoiled as an Otter
surfaced practically in the middle of the swim, that's life!! A tough day with only a half dozen bites all day but still a joy to be on the river.

3 Barbel, 1 Chub

The frost on the grass was a bad omen and so it proved, despite my best efforts in the wood and downstream I failed to get a single bite! Should have put a loaf of bread in the bag but never mind, never easy after the first proper frost. Lots of anglers on the opposite bank in the top field, I counted 7 cars parked on the river bank.