Feedback & Reports

RE’s quest for barbel continued……
A beautiful day dawned, blue cloudless sky, light breeze.
Arrived at 8.15am, walked the beat till 9.00am. Beautiful stretch of river but disappointed with the lack of access points along the bank, three in total. Decided to fish the Croy (CH) at the top of the beat and 200m downstream (RE).
Superb start to the day - CH – 3lb Chubb, RE – 4lb 8oz Barbel (Breaking his duck) followed closely by CH’s ‘Biggest Catch of the day’ – 5lb 12oz Barbel all caught on pellet within the first hour.
Disappointingly no further catches to report, but neither of us could complain, just felt privileged to be in this wonderful part of the country enjoying the sunshine and spectacular scenery and not forgetting the company of some magical wildlife, including swans, buzzards, Canada geese, cormorants, mallards, kingfishers, long tail tits and dragonflies to name but a few.
Leaving at 19.00 with a full moon lighting the way, a perfect ending to the day.
As Andy Williams concluded, ’Moon River and Me’.

Nice looking section & the walk was not too bad. Had 5 barbel on meat & corn between 2 rods. All taken at the top end of the section. First field has cattle in at the moment. Had problems parking in lay by, because 2 cars were already there, they were walking.

Had a great day roving. 12 barbel to 9lbs caught on halibut pellet back next year for sure.

We walked the stretch and were a little disappointed that the access to the river on the upstream part of the beat was so poor. We counted a maximum number of swims on the stretch at about 6 (including the croy at the very top).
One rod (Paul) fished above the stream that enters at the top of the first field, and i made a fishing spot on a bit of flatish bank halfway up the first field. Fishing was poor during daylight hours and we had no fish to show for our efforts. Paul moved 150 yards below me and once the light started to fade the fish really started to feed for both of us. Between about 5pm and 7-15pm we both caught some lovely conditioned barbel - smallest 6-0 biggest 8-12 total fish caught to 2 rods was 11 barbel, all caught on pellet. We left having enjoyed our day and both felt that the stretch looked like it might produce a big fish

Its funny how you read other feedback to prep yourself for a first-time trip to a beat and we had built a mental picture of having to abseil from the car to the water to find 3 fishable spots seperated by about a mile walk.
We found the river at or close to Summer level in a stunning area of woodland and meadow. There's very little of the first field (about 400yds) that isn't fishable with a little effort although as we are on a long outside bend it isn't surprising that the bank is high and, in parts, steep. Sometimes a chair was practical, for some areas sitting on your unhooking mat makes more sense. If the water is up more than 3 feet then the flatter sitting areas will be fewer and roving will make more sense.
We only fished this field and tried about 7 or 8 spots, catching from 4 of them. Pellets and feeders accounted for 7 barbel and 6 chub.
J took a walk up to the top of the fishery where its quite shallow at these levels but shouldn't be ignored when there's a bit of water on.
For the float-fishers the bottom field is trotting heaven and a couple of nice chub responded even though we weren't properly prepared for that option (having read the feedback).
Lovely stretch, great fishing, thanks WUF.
PS Watch out for a farmer carrying a large claw-hammer. He was not happy about rubbish on the bank and the lethal effect on his cows. We felt obliged to remove a couple of bagfulls of beer cans and assorted picnic wrappers and a broken garden chair. I suspect canoeists stopping for lunch but anglers might be blamed.

Arrived with my friend at 7am and fished till 6pm. We tried halibut pellets,spice pellets,luncheon meat. We didn't catch any barbel. I caught just 1 chub. The hill is steep, but not very long and we didn't have any problem with that.
There is not much space for fishing. I would say just first 200 meters and even that is not good. I will never go back to this part of the river. I think you should not charge £15 but maybe £5 per day. My plan was, if we don't catch any barbel in few hours, we will move further, but where?!!Not happy with this.
At 5pm came two I think Polish speaking men. At 6pm came another two. I asked them if they going to fish over night. They said Yes. I think they were poachers. Because if there is no night fishing, why would they fished over night? Also they had cans of beers with them.

This is the first time we have fished this beat and although we caught 12 barbel from 5lb to 8lb and 8 big chub, I would not recommend this beat if you like to rove about as the only pegs worth fishing are at the bottom end of the beat apart from one at the very top end of the beat ( a very long walk for one peg ). All fish were caught on 1 or 2 8mm halibut pellets

Fished from 9.30am and by 11.30am had 4 barbel. Fish were of a very good average size 7.5lb to 9.75lb. After that despite trying several different swims the fish just did not want to know. Canoe trafic was sparodic and the majority of canoeists were aware that someone was fishing and did their best to keep clear. However at about 4.00pm a large group of drunken 30 somethings proceeded to stage a mock water battle right in front of me resulting in two canoes capsizing to everyone's great amusement (except mine of course). When I remonstrated with them I was told where to go in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately this sort of behaviour from a small minority is becoming the scourge of fishing this fantastic river in the summer months.

The river was a good height and colour with level slowly falling throughout the day. We fished from 9am to 4pm burnt off the bank by the unrelenting sun in our faces (don't complain). Total catch 6 barbel and one chub taken by one rod all on feeder fished pellet.

12 barbel between 5lbs and 8lbs, 2 chub 3 1/2lbs and 5lbs and 2 eels all on pellet with groundbait feeder and large 16mm pellet on a hair rig. Nice beat, river high but not too bad, reasonable colour compared to recent weeks, 90gram feeder held bottom two rod lenghts out.
Has the potential for some great days, swims not as awkward as we were expecting. Walk back up hill not as bad as some say. Congratulations to M, first ever trip to a river and catches 5 barbel and both of the chub.