Feedback & Reports

After two somewhat difficult days on Lower Hill Court, Sunday saw our party of four rods arrive at Wyastone Leys. Having fished the stretch before, I was looking forward to getting in to the top swims by boys rock where I knew from previous visits the water was relatively deep. Despite this, the clear and low conditions conspired against us again. Two rods attempted some trotting, though this only saw minute dace and chublets, all minnow sized, attacking the bait. With a long drive ahead, these two rods packed up around lunchtime and headed home.
The other two rods stuck to their guns (and feeders/ groundbait etc) in the boys rock swim. One rod managed an eel fairly early on, the other managed one barbel (probably 5lb, not weighed) around 2pm. Clear bites? We probably had three or four between us. In the early part of the day we received lots of very tiny pulls and plucks... though given the fact that these only came to meat baits we tended to put it down to eels, or maybe chub. Anyway, after the excitement of our one barbel the swim went completely dead. We stuck it out into the late afternoon, but having been deceived into thinking there would be some kind of barbel "witching hour" the previous two days and finding out that there was no such thing, we decided to call it a day around 6pm - again, a fair drive home looming helped that decision along.
So all in all, a somewhat disappointing return in terms of catching. However, as always - this beautiful part of the world can make even the toughest day's fishing a wonderful thing, so much so that the majority of the conversation in the car on the way home centered around when we'd come next. Obviously that will depend on conditions improving, lets hope we get some rain soon.
Thanks very much to all at WUF for wonderful service with booking, access, directions etc. We'll be back!!

1 Barbel, 1 Other

Nice stretch but not many accessible swims/heavy canoe traffic/anglers on opposite bank and river down to 18inches in places made for a tough day. 1 chub fell to trotted sweetcorn but otherwise fruitless.

1 Chub

No fish despite fishing for close to 10 hours each rod.

Mag, feeder, 4' fluorocarbon, small hook, river low, hot, cloudy spells. Barbel up to 8lbs.

3 Barbel

River low, bright, sunny, cloudy spells and brisk wind pm. Feeder, mag. both had barbel up to 8lbs bracket. Some silvers.

3 Barbel

After struggling on a club water for two chub the day before, we were not expecting to fill our boots at Wyastone. GP started the day at the Rocks and managed a Barbel after two hours. I fished below the wires and went through my repertoire of baits (types and sizes), hook length materials and hook sizes. All to no avail. We found hooks, bait and leads /feeders covered in slimy green blanket weed every cast. We later moved to swims nearer the steps but the scorers were not troubled further. I finished the day bite less, no sign even of a chub.
Stunning scenery but we could have enjoyed that free of charge as the dog walkers do.

1 Barbel

Three very inexperienced anglers from Northern Ireland. We had never fished for barbel or chub before and this was our first day of three on the foundation stretches of the Wye. First of all we were all taken by the beauty of the river and the surrounding countryside along with the abundance of wild life. Regardless of catches we found the Wye a great place to fish.
On arriving we found that water appeared to us to be very low. There were a number of really nice looking swims but most of them appeared to be left high and dry above the water with little access to either land or return fish safely. We found this to be a feature throughout our trip. The fishing was, as we expected, very difficult although I did manage to catch two barbel of six pounds and five and a half pounds from just below boys rock. This was a really nice and picturesque swim. Attempted to trot with maggots but this only brought bleak and minnows. An enjoyable day which allowed me to tick off a totally new species.

2 Barbel

Same as yesterday, level dropped another 25mm, one barbel from Boys Rock and one lost from new 'wires' swim. Hope we get some rain soon! Original 'Wires' swim has fallen tree over it which needs clearing.

1 Barbel

Difficult conditions still, river very low. Fished various swims and methods, only one barbel from Boys Rock on halibut pellet.

1 Barbel

First time on this attractive beat. River very low and clear so not the best conditions, but we managed five barbel to 7 lbs and a chub from various pegs along the top end of the fishery.

5 Barbel, 1 Chub