Feedback & Reports

It was a very windy day with conditions not ideal. Both my brother and I were trying for barbel fishing halibut pellets on open ended feeder rigs. My brother caught 4 barbel to about 6lbs in weight and I caught 1 barbel and 1 small chub. Very enjayable day in lovely surroundings.

Only 2 anglers in party although there were 5 anglers on the opposite bank. Warm overcast day river was running low.
Walked the whole stretch and settled for 2 pegs at very bottom of stretch in fast water. No action so moved early afternoon and my friend fished edge of pool and caught several chub, I fished in front of 'salmon hut' and caught 3 barbel on boilie pellet best about 7.5 lb. Packed up at about 7pm.

3 Barbel, 3 Chub

A superb day in beautiful secluded surroundings. The river was relatively low. All the fish came from the faster water near to the parking area. We caught steadily throughout the day. All fish fell to pellet and groundbait feeder. First time on the Wye. Definitely coming back!

5 Barbel, 2 Chub

No fish caught again. Please note very disappointed to see 6 people turn up to fish on a stretch for 4 - luckily we got there early and had been able to secure our swims.
River was very low, fished with swim feeders, using every bait that we had with us.

WUF note - Please contact the Foundation office on the day of fishing to report any possible poaching incidents so they can be addressed immediately.

4 anglers fished mainly leger/feeder tactics, very hard going with the fish in one specific spot lower down the beat. River at normal summer level and rose a few inches whilst we fished.

13 Barbel, 4 Chub

Fourth visit to this beat and with nothing to report, other than 2 x Shad, 1 x Chub and 1 x Pike on fly (Cascade/Willie Gunn). Perhaps this an opportunity to give a description of the beat as I found it for fishing with DH 14 ft fly rod and with water at around about summer levels.
From the top; long and flat with room for a back-cast but deeper water on near bank prevents wading, line of weed just 15 yds out creates a good channel below you: I used an intermediate tip here as the flow is slow but had no takes from Salmon but lots of Pike! Water shallows and quickens from croy on opposite bank. Hard to fish this area due to steep banks but there is a concrete path a little further downstream which affords easy access to a good length, 50 yds or so, of productive water. Strewn with big rocks the channel is at your feet and with a roll cast or shooting head you can cover this area with ease. This is where I had many takes but only one landed, you could do better! From the Pump Hut there is a deep section which I could not fish that well but just below this is the croy which is shown in the pass-book; I found the fish hang out just off of this so cast from above before plodding to the end and seeing them shoot off! Afterwards this pool, full of Shad in June, is easy to cover with loads of room all around, I changed to a very fast sink-tip here; deeper water again your side so a down and across or even straight across and drift around cast (if there is such a thing), works a treat. Canoes passing will kill this section though as there is no way around. From here down it's classic fly water, plenty of room and as the water shallows at the tail you can switch back to the intermediate tip or skip this and go to the end of the pebbles and fish the "secret", ( well I missed it the first time), deep hollow. Caused by winter floods and over 8ft deep and 35 yds long, (but just after a long riffle of only 4-18 inches), this pool can be easily covered from upstream. [Don't tell the Barbel hunters or they will be trundling meat through it all season]. After this I had to go around a huge mass of fallen timber to access the lower section which has a gravel bar, please avoid the redds here, running right down the middle of the river at under knee high; and with the main channel towards the right bank and a cracking dry-fly water full of WBT to the left, the choice is yours. I hope this has been of some use. Tight lines.

1 Chub, 1 Pike, 2 Other

Another early start and one fish hooked at 6am on a Willie Gun pattern tungsten tube-fly tied by Tony Frew on a sink-tipped floating 'shooting head'. Weigh-netted at just 8 lbs but I was more than happy with my first fly caught Wye Salmon and can only imagine the struggle to land my previous, lure caught, best on such fragile gear! Again the day came to an abrupt halt, this time at 8.10 am, with the arrival of the canoe armada. It would appear that the 'fishable' season is now reduced to just a month or two in spring and autumn; that's just 28 days for those who have to work. And they wonder why the catches are down? Maybe it's because no-one is fishing.......

1 Salmon

Another bank holiday? A pre-dawn start then. Hooked a 8-10 lb fish at 5.20am on a Willie Gunn pattern tubefly but with the running line looped around the rod butt I was doomed; even scampering down the bank-side path, studs clattering upon the concrete, did nothing to save the situation. Lesson learnt..... Run faster!
The wind picked up just 20 minutes before the first canoes arrived at 9.40. However, by then I had managed to see my first ever Shad, x3, [once I'd worked out just where they were in the run I was able to avoid catching any more], and a good sized chub, 4lb + and a small pike but no more sign of salmon.
Good news for the Coarse Anglers though: some kind soul has marked the best Barbel pegs, with half-round fence posts so you can find them in the herbage, towards the top of the beat.

1 Chub, 1 Pike, 3 Other

10am to 1.30pm was a constant stream of canoes, what did I expect? However, this beat has a good length of fly water and if conditions were favourable I'm sure there would be a fish or two to be found. But not today.
One WBT of 1lb and a small pike tested my new outfit and I got to chat with one or two very nice people. I will be trying again if we get a bit more water!

1 Trout, 1 Pike

After landing a 14lbs fish on the Golden Mile, fished White House and took a 19lbs salmon here also.

1 Salmon