Feedback & Reports

Not the best day to fish the Wye after very heavy rain the previous day. By packing up time, it had risen 5 feet with trees, dead sheep and masses of weed floating down. Fortunately we both had chub on the first cast and my companion landed a small barbel otherwise it would have been a blank.

4 Barbel to 8lb all on pellets, and one small pike of 7lb.

Having had some great sport at Backney the previous day, my companion Gavin and I arrived at Holme Lacy with high expectation. The weather conditions looked ideal, overcast and 12c with the river carrying just a little colour. After walking the section we settled into swims on the downstream end of the stretch. Gavin was very soon into a 6 lb plus barbel whilst I was finding all the snags in front of me with every cast so moved into cable crib. Once again I found the snags with increasing regularity which wasn't helped by weed dislodging the feeder and pulling the hook into various nooks and crannys. As the morning wore on the debris coming downstream decreased and presenting a bait became easier although 4 oz was needed to hold bottom in many areas. I managed two barbel, a chub and lost a barbel and Gav too had another barbel. At lunch time I had a rove around with a deadbait in various swims looking for pike but to no avail. We then met Colin the Ghillie who was very helpful and interesting to talk to, and on his advice decided to move to swims at the top end of the section for the afternoon. I caught a succession of barbel and chub from my new swim, as did Gav from his. The way these barbel fight has to be experienced to be believed! Amazing battle every time and what stunning specimens to boot.
We finished the day with 10 barbel between us from 4 1/4 lb to 6 3/4 lb and 7 small chub. All caught on a variety of baits.
A great days sport in stunning surroundings. Can't wait to go back.

An enjoyable, if relatively quiet, day with a few chub and five barbel to 6.4 between us, all on pellet. The river was rising after the previous day's heavy rain with weed and debris making the fishing a little trying so we were pleased to see a few fish.

A concern was the high proportion of fish with damaged mouths, due I think, to using barbed hooks as I found one broken off trace with a barbed hook attached, still in the fish. The line seemed to be only 5 or 6lb b.s.. My appeal to anglers would be to use only barbless hooks and at least 10lb trace to save these magnificent fish from undue stress and mouth damage.

The online booking service is superb as is the information provided by WUF. Many thanks.

3 Barbel from 4 to 6 lbs, 2 Chub around the 2 lb mark.

A difficult day. We tried various parts of the beat from the bottom to the far end with no success until the afternoon when we managed three barbel to about 8lb from around the middle part of the beat, and 3 chub.

My first time on this beat and the weather could best be described as 'dreich'. Despite this, having read the recent catch reports, I was hopeful of a good day. But, it wasn't quite to be - I fished the beat near the hut and ended up with just the one barbel of approximately 4lb. Maybe a more mobile approach would have paid off. I started the day off with a visit to Woodys in Hereford - a proper tackle shop, lots of friendly advice - definitely worth a detour if you're visiting the Wye.

6 Barbel caught. Levels dropping slightly and fishing i.e. holding bottom etc quite easy. All fish caught from half way down the beat on pellet. Water was very cold.

Just one barbel caught on pellet and one nice pike taken on deadbait, river level dropping down well during the day, fantastic scenery, wildlife, and the colour change Another nice day on Wye, thanks Colin & WUF staff for your excellent service, roll on next weekend!

With the river over 4ft above normal summer level swim choice was critical today. After trying 3 different areas I finally got it right and 7 barbel to 7 1/2 lb were tricked into taking my paste wraped pellet hook baits. All fish taken after 2 pm water temp now very cold might be worth going all out for the chub next trip. Thanks to Colin for advise and W&U as allways.