Feedback & Reports

The river was high, coloured and running quickly with quite a lot of debris coming downstream. Despite the conditions it was a lovely spot to fish and I caught 1 Barbel in the morning of about 6lb. My trusty fishing partner, J livened the day with a brief comedy turn, galloping down the bank chasing his kettle and falling in the river. His timing was perfect as a rowdy stag party of canoeists enjoyed the whole spectacle and offered a range of colourful observations as he clawed his way back up the bank.

Got to river about 2ish. Sat out a wicked thunder storm in the car, got on the bank about 2.30pm, set up and fished the feeder with hair rigged corn and corn and chilli hemp in the feeder. A shoal of dace destroyed the 3 grains every time!! Set up the float and rod fished a single grain on a size 16 for a good hour taking 20 nice dace and 4 chub to 2lbs. From 4pm to 7pm switched to 2 10mm elipse pellet and ground halibut in the feeder and took 9 very fit Barbel to 6lbs. Bank holiday weekend saw constant canoe traffic until 5.30pm which was when the barbel came on. did notice 2 Cormorants arrive as I left and land in the big ash tree on the RH bank !

Lovely session at Foy Bridge. Pellet feeder in a number of different swims brought 4 Barbel and a number of chub.

Five chub taken, best six pounds over six hours fishing. One rather small with remainder averaging three pounds. River too full and fast to fish successfully for barbel although this was the intended species when booking made. Bait varied including boilies / bread / luncheon meat. All fish taken on the meat. River level slightly above summer level, only slightly peat coloured but very fast flowing. Fishing challenging but the terrific condition of the chub a reward in itself.

Riverside at 2pm not sure what and where to set up, river is rising quickly, nowhere looked fish-able on LH bank, only piece of slack on the right bank was already being fished,(seeing this guy pull in a barbel of about 6lbs)swayed me to have ago. I asked him if he was using pellet he said he was and as I was going to fish down stream of him be it 100yds away I felt it would be unfair to use feeder and pellet, so opted for sweetcorn and straight lead and hand fed the swim directly under the large willow 4 small chub and 3 barbel to 6 lbs fished no more than 15ft out bites stopped by 4.30 pm as river rapidly rose by approx 3ft.

1 barbel and 1 chub.

Started at approx 3pm, barbel being our target. Chose a sociable swim on the right hand bank, fishing within talking distance of each other. We did not have long to wait for the fist rod wrenching bite - 2 minutes to be exact!! Bright sunshine and a little southerly breeze made no difference to the barbel today. The fishing was full on for the first 3 hrs: 12 barbel to 8.5lbs and 5 chub to 4lbs and 5 fished bumped off on the take. Baits which caught were blitz pellets banded, 12mm halibut hair rigged, sweetcorn, chilli meat,(which accounted for a 2.5lbs eel)and 2 of the chub came to bread flake.
We also met the owner of the beat and his Labrador, had a very enjoyable chin-wag to boot. Fantastic place, thanks for a splendid day. We will be back.

First time to visit this stretch. Bright and sunny throughout the day, with the river down and clear. Fished from early morning to early evening and for the majority of the day, both heron and kingfisher were clearly seen to be more successful than us humans at catching fish. Great to see though!
Peaceful and quiet for most of the time, the tranquillity was broken only by several canoes (most of whom were courteous) and more notably six boys, one of whom, having surveyed the scene from the bridge, waded into the river to retrieve bolt-cutters and some (very heavy) metal boxes from the river bed directly below the bridge. All items were taken back to their vehicles before leaving. Thought-provoking to say the least!
No indication of fish until approx 5pm. A roving approach meant we’d covered all fishable swims but persistence eventually paid off and C H managed one barbel weighing 5lb 2oz, caught on pellet (and also subsequently lost two more in quick succession). A lively, if frustrating end to hard day’s toiling in the sun.
Wonderful picturesque surroundings, very enjoyable wildlife, but another gentle reminder from the river as to who’s the boss.

4 barbel 3 chub

Another lovely beat, albeit fairly short in distance. We found 2 swims on the left hand bank where the faster water merged into back eddys which looked ideal. A 2lb chub followed by a 1lb plus eel was caught by J A early on using meat as bait, but as it turned out that was it for the day. A L managed a 6lb 12oz Barbel, and two 3lb plus chub afer lunch on single elipse and halibut pellet, but an enjoyable day nonetheless.