Feedback & Reports

Lovely stretch of water, looks like it should be full of grayling and trout. River in great nick. Fished hard all day, walked the entire stretch and fed 6 pints of maggots without a bite. Then from 3pm i hooked all the fish and lost quite a few more, it was like someone flicked a switch. Kites and buzzards everywhere, Dippers and a pair of otters working upstream. The only down side were the 23 (intotal) cormorants working over 3 areas in the bottom 200yds of the stretch alone at 7.45am. One even popped up with a 1lb8oz grayling in its mouth which it wouldnt drop despite we catipulting pebbles at it!! There were more upstream aswell. Im used to these numbers on the wye but Im not sure a small river like this can deal with this amount of birds. Every fish i had was over a pound, 5 of the trout and and the grayling all showed signs of cormorant damage. A massive concern... the poor small grayling, trout and salmon? have no chance without these ruthless predators. Aside from this it was a fantastic day.

10 Trout, 1 Grayling

River fast flowing and very muddy. We tried but with no success

Fished the lower section from the racecourse up to below the weir. Saw a couple of fish rising in the morning, but nothing in the afternoon. Tried all sorts - black spider wet, Greenwell dry and nymphs but nothing taking. Loads of Himalayan balsam on this stretch, would need several days work to clear it.

Water low and gin clear. Nothing on the fly (Sawyer's Killer Bugs), two hook-ups when trotting red maggot out to about 40 yards, but both managed to bump themselves off. A very brief hatch accompanied a bit of afternoon sun but was over as soon as it started. Still a lovely day on a lovely stretch.

Water too high.
Fishing was not possible ... we moved back to Belgium !

Unfortunately this stretch was really suffering from the low rainfall this summer. Thousands of fry and minnows but the only sizable fish I saw were in the few heavily wooded areas.
With another few feet of water in it I'm am sure this would be a peach. I fished from the opposite end moving upstream towards the Severn Arms. Some walking involved and some scrapping with undergrowth but it's all part of the experience!

Recced the top end of the beat. Access from left bank, above the bridge very tricky - didn't try the RH bank. Lovely Kingfisher. Then went downstream of the bridge and met a friendly fellow angler fishing the White Swan beat (non-fishing but access for W&U) = also a member of W & U. Saw a large flock of GOOSANDERS which made themselves scarce pretty quickly - other angler said they're about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Had a good value lunch at the Severn Arms and some advice from the owner George. Fished below the footbridge for a couple of hours - water a tinge coloured but a reasonable flow/height and very fishable - fish seemed very wary but had two small brownies and a salmon parr on nymphs. Saw a caravan park so perhaps this part of the beat gets some attention. George said that a lower beat should be online soon.

2 Trout, 1 Other